CES 2015: Philips new Lightning-compatible noise-cancelling headphones don’t need no stinkin’ battery

Home / News / CES 2015: Philips new Lightning-compatible noise-cancelling headphones don’t need no stinkin’ battery

Philips’ new Fidelio NC1L headphones are something of a mould-breaker: they’re the first active noise-cancelling headphones on this planet that don’t require battery power. Instead, they draw power out of your iPhone or iPad.

Yep, like last year’s Fidelio ML2 cans, the NC1L ear goggles have a Lightning port and an on-board 24-bit DAC that converts digital audio signals from your Apple device into delicious analogue sound.

Philips new noise-cancelling headphones don’t need no stinkin

Philips says the NC1L uses audiophile-quality components all the way, and is keen to highlight the headphones’ main operating modes: the aforementioned battery-free active noise cancellation, which cuts out bothersome exterior sounds and lets you concentrate on whatever you’re listening to; the open-ear design, which lets you hear everything that’s going on around you (handy if you need to listen out for the doorbell, perhaps); and natural voice, which utilises the noise cancellation tech to improve audio quality when using the headphones to make phone calls.

The Philips Fidelio NC1L will go on sale in the spring, priced at around €299 (£235).

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Tech journalism's answer to The Littlest Hobo, I've written for a host of titles and lived in three different countries in my 15 years-plus as a freelancer. But I've always come back home to Stuff eventually, where I specialise in writing about cameras, streaming services and being tragically addicted to Destiny.