very good NC headphones for the budget conscious

Contra
- Housing made of plastic
- Very slight noise in active NC

For comparison, I've used these headphones with the Denon AH-D 1001 and with the BoseQuietComfort 15.

Sound Quality:
The sound quality is comparable to the Bose QC 15 headphones: Balanced with a large spectrum. Treble and midrange are very detailed. Bass also good, but not in the foreground. But if you have just to dampen any noise, I would always pick up the Denon, because again has a better sound quality. (See reviews Denon AH-D 1001)

Noise Cancellation:
Denon - No. You have to make a loud noise when listening to something else :)
Panasonic - very good damping, even without active NC. With active NC hear a slight noise, but immediately went out when softly playing music. The NC will again get a majority of the noise. (S-Bahn, underground, street noise, annoying street musicians ...)
Bose - Without NC comes through more than the Panasonic. With NC dampen better than the Panasonic. It virtually noise. Perfect.

Price:
Denon: 80
Panasonic: 110
Bose: 300

Feel:
All three headphones are made of plastic, which will sooner or later scratch. Bose and Denon are dull gray and see scratched pretty battered. The Panasonic are in high-gloss piano black finish, which attracts fingerprints magically :)

Comfort:
All three headphones enclose the entire ear and provide for prolonged use for warm ears. The Bose and Panasonic press on a little stronger and press sometime in the head. Mostly, however, I have to pause rather because of the warm ears.

Conclusion:
These headphones have a very good value for money, are high but only a little worse than the Bose. This small increase is not me 200 value ... I'd buy it again at any time.

UPDATE 08/2014:
After more than two years, almost daily use in the S-Bahn me the strap is broken - just like that when placed (plastic handle). Cable I have a total of 3 times destroyed. Since you can but take any cable with thin 3,5er jack. The sound was great until the last day and the damping ok. The battery has always held about 2 months, unless you forget the NC disable ... then go faster.
Property me now from the musician need passively damped headphones for drummer gained Beyerdynamic DT-770M. (Sound is OK, damping is better)