John Lewis has the Monster Inspiration headphones with passive noise cancelling at the same price currently as the Inspiration active noise cancelling.
However they say the headphones are not compatible with an iPod (ok with iPad, computer and iPhone) for some 'technical reason'. Can't find any mention of this in any reviews and seems odd. Are they right?

Also what's the difference between the 2 headphones? I tend to think of active noise cancelling as useful for travel, but not quite as good sound-wise and these are big so would be almost exclusively for home use. I live in a flat and can never play my music loud without bothering others.
I read somewhere that the active noise cancelling model has some way to turn the noise cancelling off?

JL have them online only and have a zero returns policy ie if I open them and try them, can't return them, so am just asking if anyone on here has them and has any info.

I may be wrong but as I read it the John Lewis site states
"Refund policy

We want you to be happy with your purchase. If you're not, just return the product to us or to one of our shops.........

Products we're unable to cancel, refund or exchange
We can't offer refunds or exchanges, unless faulty or not as described, on the following items:

products which have been personalised for you, such as stationery or gifts
made to order products such as furniture, made to measure items and fabric cut by length
perishable goods such as flowers and food
computer software that has been opened
Where a product has been specially ordered for you, unless faulty, we're unable to refund or offer an exchange. We're unable to accept cancellations for these orders, unless within 48 hours of the order being placed. We'll make this clear when you place your order.

This does not affect your statutory rights."

I don't think that headphones fall into any of the above categories.

Actually if you place the cursor over the symbol beside 'iPod -No' it says:
"Optimised for use with your iPad and iPhone. They have a control on the wire that allows you adjust the voulme, skip tracks and pause your music'
and that's what the NO refers to meaning that the item doesn't have that type of control - not that they won't work with an iPad or iPhone
http://www.johnlewis.com/monster-ins...olour=Titanium

Thanks mac. Having been in a 3 month long consumer rights dispute with JL before over distance selling rights (Consumer direct backed me and I won, but it was stressful) my choice is try and buy in-store - not many retailers carry these phones - or be totally sure before ordering anything electronic from them online. They say the headphones are in packaging so opening them means that they can't be resold as new/and/or it's a health and hygiene issue as they've been on my ears!
There is a loophole in the distance selling regulations that needs to be tightened in the consumer's favour IMHO although I know people do abuse their rights.
Contrasts badly with Amazon who take back cameras etc that people try and are unhappy with.