noise-cancelling (nc) earphones?

If you get the chance - try them.
Yeah, they aint cheap - for sure. But the repro. quality and reliability make them worth every penny.
If you just want cheap and top pocket cans - then there are plenty out there for £20 or so, that are OK.
I prefer top dog - and these do it for me, thank you very much.
Some of the Bose small cans are really good - too, but the repro. isn't for me.

Wow, they are pricey, almost 300 quid!!

They are indeed very small, I guess you get what you pay for.

As for using your own earphones for long-haul flights- make sure to bring along a two-prong adapter or else the audio will only work on one side only.

I invested in a decent pair of earphones only to find out that all the planes had two prong connections only!

Those sockets by the plane arms are garbage. They're mostly mono - and so incredibly flat sounding.

battybilly - I always assumed that it was the supplied headphones that the airline provided that were crap. As a result of the terrible sound and outside airplane noise, Ive always struggled to enjoy the on board movies.

I guess the noise cancellation would improve the 'experience' but as you say, the sound will still be terrible.

Where have the other posts that were here, disappeared to?

Oh - I've taken good cans on board, with the appropriate adaptor. Just awful.
Then again, the system isn't designed to produce hi-fi sound - but instead just to pass the time.

I've got a set of noise cancelling head phones from audio-technica. They still are not cheap, but i'm very happy with them. I'm also not an audio-phile though, so while these are better than some crap noise cancelling headphones, i'm sure there are better ones for a price out there also.

I generally buy my headphones from microphones manufactures. It's the same principle but in reverse. Seinheiser or Shure (as suggested above) or in the case of my cans, Audio-Technica.