I got a set of Bose from my wife--best present ever. I have noisy cubicle neighbors on either side of me. I put them on and listen to internet radio. Also, I've returned them twice. Once because the arm that holds the ear piece in place was cracking and once because there was an annoying noise in the left earphone. They took them back, no questions asked, and sent a new pair in a week.

BTW, the ear-bud and jackhammer-type protector trick didn't work for me. I tried this while mowing the lawn one day. The ear protectors clamp tightly over your ears, and the ear-buds wouldn't stay in my ears. They kept falling out.

I bought the Bose QC3 yesterday.

Did my research, and it is the best. After I got over the sticker shock, I was good to go.
They have a special: free $50 2nd battery.
Total price in Newport was $378.

No regrets. It is awesome!
I got two business trips coming (coast to coast) and cannot wait to try them out...

Just got these yesterday.
They "claim" it is a 20-30 hour battery. Lets hope for 15-20.
The second free battery right now should insure full coverage on a flight to China or India!

That's good to know, thanks.

You Bose freaks amaze me. You buy Bose because they're better at advertising not because they're a better product. With all due respect, I look around the plane and think there go the lemmings....

At any rate try Shure, Grado or, my favorite, Sennheiser. You will save a LOT of money and have a better product.

But I love the ad where the guy can't figure out how to connect a speaker wire so he buys a Bose...

I've thoroughly compared my QC2's to the best Shure, and Sennheiser have to offer. But not Grado; what's there best product? ...does it have noise cancellation on par?

Shoot, how come I didn't get a spare battery? I got ripped! ;)

You'll love 'em. Seriously those things are the schizzle. I bought them (Block at Orange in my case) and had to go on a cross-country trip the following week. As luck would have it there was a screaming unruly kid about two rows back. One flick of the switch and I was in heaven - every penny of that $300+ was worth it. Didn't hear a damn thing for the next 5 hours.

I like the QC2's more than the the 3's. I guess I will get them.

I have a pair of noise canceling muffs that I wear over iPod ear pieces but I don't care to wear industrial sound muffs around!

Here's one discussion of what's available:
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f4/sennheiser-pxc-450-vs-sennheiser-pxc-350-vs-bose-qc-2-vs-bose-qc3-295553/

There are literally dozens of better choices than Bose. But Bose markets to the public incessantly- and judging by the responses here it does so pretty well.

The only way to AB headphones is to listen to the same source at the same volume- if you do that Bose will consistently come up short. And if you don't hear or see anything else you'll think they're pretty good.

Very happy with my Sennheisers. Small over the ear phones with excellent noise-cancellation. Paid less than $150 as I recall. Worth a look.

Never been a fan of Bose. Great marketing. Not well respected in audiophile communities either. FWIW.

Stupid us. We buy Bose and Porsche products. Stupid us.

All the Bose fans on this thread said was: We spent our money and are happy with the product. Thats it. We are entitled to our opinion and shared it.

Walk into your house and I am sure you have better stereo equipment too!
I am sure you think my Harmon Kardon, Boston Acoustic set up can be easily improved.

If you have a different experience; say it. No reason to bag on people who buy other products. Childish if you ask me..

I bought them because I had a first class flight once and was given a pair to use with a portable DVD player. It was great. I have the money, and I bought it. If I want maybe I'll buy another one just to do my own personal trial.....

I

I dunno 'bout that. My first encounter with Bose (no affiliation BTW) was in flight instructing. I tried many aviation headsets including the venerable green David Clarks (which I still have, my first, Litespeed, a couple of other assorted ones and the Bose Aviation X. Those suckers impressed the hell out of me from Day #1. I bought a pair first chance I could and never looked back. Some 3,000 hours of flying later I still think they're the best out there all around for flying. That's what led me to appreciate their products.

When I was looking for a pair of "regular" noise-canceling headphones (worn by people in the cabin instead of the cockpit) I did try a Panasonic model a co-worker has and then went down & tried the QC2 & QC3. Ended up with the QC3. No regrets at all. I also bought a pair of their regular headphones (non-noise canceling) for general "zoning out" getting work done at the computer. And I have the wave radio thing at work. And my M.B. happened to come with the Bose sound system. I'm happy with every single one of these products. They're all pretty solid (although the finishes on the wave radio are a bit cheaper than I expected, though not terrible).

Are they the absolute best? Probably not. Whether in a discussion about home or car audio or whatever, someone always chimes up about how such-and-such brand has better frequency response or thicker bass or whatever. Fine and dandy. I believe that past a certain point, audio is mostly personal preference - sort of like "what's the best car". Different people (past a certain quality/price range level) will have different tastes. No right or wrong. I happen to like the Bose stuff because I like the "true to original recording" fidelity. Some others don't and dismiss it as, "no highs, no lows, just Bose". One man's trash is another man's treasure I guess.

Anyway just my $0.02. Try a few different models and see what you like (informed decisions are always best, plus it's fun). But definitely try the QC3s.

Hope you saw that I was being sarcastic... I own the QC3 and will keep my Porasche in lieu of trading it in for a WRX STi. ...SmileWavy

Your opinions are all stinky just like your butts. Doodoo heads! :p

Another vote for the QC2 - although they are the only ones I've ever used. My wife bought these for me when I was travelling like crazy. At the time, they were much better than the first generation because everything was integrated in the headset rather than carrying around the noise cancelling black box thing on the cord. 3 years later, I still wear them and are still as great as the day I got them. Just keep an extra battery in the case if you go on a long flight but the battery does last a long time.

Seems like its all about Bose not matter how you shake a stick at it. Only a couple votes otherwise which I will also investigate but its hard to beat bose's way of having the the earphones for you to try...

I've used a lot of headsets and have always found Bose the best. I don't even own a pair, but I wish I did. I have a $500 noise cancelling set from another brand because I thought how big could the difference be? I like mine (Telex) and think they are fine, but the Bose blow me away everytime I've tried them. You'll pay for them, but I think they are one of the few brands that are worth it.