Goldring NS1000

During this post I will be comparing the Goldrings against the NC7's.

I picked up mine from www.superfi.co.uk, through www.play.com, for £60 delivered. This was a bargain, I searched hard for a couple of days and £60 was the cheapest I could find for a spanking new set. Normally selling around £120 mark at many outlets.
First thing I noticed was the headband design, an unusual shape, not in a bad way, but not in a good way either. Keeps the set on my ears very nicely, I would dare say thanks to this headband you could pull of a gentle jog with these. Oval shaped cups, major difference to the simple circle ones used previously but, preferred straight away, could tell the noise leaking would be at a far lower rate without even turning them on! The feel of the plastic seems to be far nicer, but remember, these are brand new. Sponge padding to the headband, not very dense but very comfortable still. They stretch over my head with dreads out or under a hat, and there is tension when putting them on even, in a hurry. Detachable high quality left side only cable, very handy for swapping to and from your phones to speakers, computer etc... The design will turn a few heads, and I haven't seen another soul in them. Blackbox offer a set with the exact same design and a very similar spec in grey and blue, I prefer this to the safer option of grey, black and silver Goldring went for. The noise cancellation switch, is small and fiddly, especially with gloves on, I feel far less.... slick (for want of better wording) when turning these on as I have to play for a couple of seconds as opposed to a smooth swift swipe from my index finger. My favourite visual feature is how the cover for the battery, I had to look in the manual to find it! The outer of the right cup swivels out exposing the battery! 
If the difference in sound could be visualised as a brick wall, the Goldrings are a very neat well made wall. The NC7's are equally well made, but form older bricks of a slight lower quality (...LOL). The NC7s do cancel noise very well, but the sound coming from them is no way as clear and crisp as the GR's. The GR's are louder, I have the volume constantly 2 notches lower with them. Although I feel bass is more apparent with the NC7's but, is pronounced and clearer with the GR's. You feel as though your in more of a silent environment listening to music with the GR's, the NC7's simply keep out unwanted sound. I cant go into great detail on the difference in the noise cancelling tech between the two as I don't understand it any more that the Goldrings clearly have better cancelling properties.
Really and truly there is no comparison between these two, I feel a little harsh on the NC7's for putting them up against the NS1000s, they are in 2 different leagues. It would not be foolish to pick the NC7's over the NS1000s considering the almost £100 price difference, as the NC7s are a good pair of noise cancelling headphones. If you are passionate about your music, if you NEED to hear every wobble and hit, the go for the NS1000's. TBH I don't imagine I would have purchased them at the full price without trying the NS1000s first, you can get the VERY similar, but apparently slightly lower sound quality Blackbox M10's for £100 without looking very hard. If the NS1000's weren't on offer for such a good price I doubt I would have ever owned a pair.

Sony MDR NC7. A good set.

My NC7's are the latest and first well known branded noise cancelling headphones I've owned. I've had them for just over a year now. I have just purchased my self a set of Goldring NS1000's for £60 delivered from play.com and felt an fitting end to my relationship with my NC7's was to write a personal review of them.
 The head band is easily the worst part of these phones, simple plastic with a hinge at the top to allow for folding. Not completely cheap feeling plastic, but you would hope for more from Sony, even in lower end products. The cups are angled nicely to fit your ears, and the set had no problem fitting my massive head, with dreadlocks! It may feel like your stretching the headphones too much when putting them on, but after a week of being too delicate with them you'll see they have very good build quality. The sound from these is surprising when you consider the price. up to 87% noise reduction, using these walking, and during train journeys I had no problems with the quality of the sound. The switch on the side turns the noise cancelling on and off, to this day I still play with it in different environments just to see how much of a difference it makes. Not once have I been upset, even whilst standing outside a building with a sounding burglar alarm I could hear each hit of the dancehall and drum n' bass I regularly listen to. Of course I could hear the alarm also but not enough to make me want to just turn the music off. The cups themselves are a nice size and cover all of my large ears, but can be a little awkward if you have an ear expander/plug. This is the first and last set of phones iv seen with a flat pad, rather than the concave shape you would assume, at first I wasn't keen on them, simply because it was something I felt was un necessarily different, but they work well at keeping sound in and outside noise out. The foam us very comfy and very versatile, I used mine pretty much every day for at least 14 months (no exaggeration) and the padding is still has the same shape and feel as the day I got them. The battery life is quite good, Id need to change the AAA battery once every week and a half to keep the sounds crisp, that's with Duracell's. The headphones do get quite a few necks twisting, I had the black/grey set, but not enough attention to make you feel uncomfortable. They also come in white if you like to make a statement.
I've had 4 sets of noise cancelling headphones over the last 2 - 3 years. These by far were my favourite, and I am confident these would factually be the best also, aaaaannnnnd they lasted me the longest at over a full year. I paid £35 for mine, refurbished. At the time this was a bargain as they where going for around £80 new. You can now find this for around the £30 mark new online easily.
I have seen the interest in headphones increase over the last 6 months dramatically, even amongst the lesser music fans out there. I believe this is due to the marketing of 'Beats by Dre'. Now noise cancelling headphones seem to be taking off, I would suggest the NC7's for both quality and price, I would dare say easily the best set for under £50 out there.