I've got a cheap set of Sony noise-canceling headphones that got me from LA to Istanbul at a much lower noise level than my other headphones had. If you're looking for noise canceling, there are LOTS of models that are great..

I hadn't caught that you meant exactly what you wrote -- noise isolating. If your main goal really noise isolating, noise canceling anything will be much less effective than cheap silicone hearing protection. I think there's a decision to be made as to whether you want to protect your hearing or simply lessen noise while listening to audio.