On-ear noise cancelling headphones are somewhat odd for me mainly because the cans are small (supra-aural) and thus already (somehow) defeats the purpose of noise cancelling. Unless they’re in the same level as the Sennheiser Amperior/HD-25 II, it’s more likely that it will not cancel out enough ambient noise passively plus it will leak your sound out. And even with the active noise cancelling technology, it will not work that good unless the headphones are properly positioned (which is a hit and miss with this type).
That being said, here are the top supraaural on-ear noise cancelling headphones in the market.
Sennheiser MM 450-X – This headphone is more than just a noise-cancelling headphone. But regardless of that, Sennheiser MM 450x is one of the top headphones in this category. It doesn’t isolate as good as the Bose Quiet Comfort nor does its big brother MM 550, but its definitely the next best choice.
Its also a Bluetooth headphone, a headset and has a bunch of other features like the Talk Through, etc. It comes with a bunch of other accessories as well that compliments that product really well. Sennheiser MM450-X on Amazon.
Denon AH-NC732 – Pretty much just like the Sennheiser MM 450 but with lesser features. It does isolate ‘some’ noises and is also a good sounding headphone. I initially thought of this as an around-the-ear headphones but its actually a (larger than average) on-ear headphone.
It runs over 40 hours of battery life with a single AAA battery. This headphone also collapses well into a small molded carrying case for traveling. Denon AH-NC732 on Amazon.