That is enormously different than my experience and I felt the need to respond because this is not healthy advice for your hearing. I have good closed back head

That is enormously different than my experience and I felt the need to respond because this is not healthy advice for your hearing. I have good closed back headphones and IEMs that isolate very well. My experience is that the airplane noise forces me to turn up the volume to unsafe levels and the audio quality is destroyed as well. Active Noise Canceling is a bit of absolute magic on the plane. The jet noise is almost eliminated and you can listen at safe levels with high fidelity. Plus, sustained loud noise can exacerbate jet lag. Having a quiet environment reduces post-flight fatigue. You're really doing yourself a disservice if you fly regularly without ANC.