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Explanation: Headphones generally fall into 2 broad types; closed- and open-back. The former tend to be more cumbersome, and the sound quality is different, but they do help to exclude external sounds for greater listening comfort. Open-back types, on the other hand, are usually lighter and less bulky, some people prefer the 'sound' they produce — but they are pretty useless for listening in an even mildly noisy environment.
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 1 hr (2008-03-13 14:15:37 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
I feel pretty sure that these would /not/ be 'noise-cancelling' headphones, which is a very special type for which I feel sure there would be a more specific term in FR.
Hmmm, I'm not so sure. Noise cancellation is an active process requiring lots of signal processing, and very different from sound isolation, which is purely passive.
It is the headphones in this case, Chris, a very well known brand of headphones who are renowned for their noise-cancelling technology, which added weight to my initial thoughts.
Closed, certainly, but why should "casque" necessarily mean headphones? Forget the noise cancellation - if it were that, the description would be more explicit. Could this be some sort of sound-excluding helmet? Hence the "isolation".
I think it's 'noise-cancelling' headphones, is this correct?
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Answers
9 mins confidence:
closed-air headphones
Explanation: Pour "casque fermé" ou "casque d'écoute fermé"
"DEF – Headphones cushioned in such a way that they do not allow sounds from the outside to be heard."
Source: TERMIUM Plus®, the Government of Canada's terminology and linguistic data bank
Explanation: there are many types: closed dynamic, noise reduction, noise guard, closed headphones. So maybe it's better to call them simply closed headphones.
Nadia Ayoub Egypt Local time: 09:47 Native speaker of: Arabic
Explanation: Headphones generally fall into 2 broad types; closed- and open-back. The former tend to be more cumbersome, and the sound quality is different, but they do help to exclude external sounds for greater listening comfort. Open-back types, on the other hand, are usually lighter and less bulky, some people prefer the 'sound' they produce — but they are pretty useless for listening in an even mildly noisy environment.
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 1 hr (2008-03-13 14:15:37 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
I feel pretty sure that these would /not/ be 'noise-cancelling' headphones, which is a very special type for which I feel sure there would be a more specific term in FR.
Tony M France Local time: 09:47 Specializes in field Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 1427
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 48 days (2008-04-30 15:03:23 GMT) Post-grading --------------------------------------------------
...ok...Victoria Burns. You are welcome, don't metion it...and I respect your polite answer. RB
RealBlunt Portugal Local time: 08:47 Specializes in field Native speaker of: Portuguese PRO pts in category: 2
Notes to answerer
Asker: Thanks for the contribution, but 'closed helmet' really has nothing to do with this context and means nothing to me as a native English speaker.
The translation workplace 
