Highly Recommended - Hearing is believing!

If you are someone who travels frequently, travels on long flights, or both, you understand how tiring and stressful that can be.

Up until now, I wasn't incredibly concerned with travel comfort since most of my flights are 3 1/2 hours or less. I recently went on an international trip to the UK. The idea of spending over 10 hours listening to a plane engine just isn't my thing. To make things more tolerable, I bought the Bose QuietComfort2 noise canceling headphones.

There are several ways to get the headphones. Online - directly from Bose or through Brookstone or other resellers - or at a Bose store if there is one in your area.

The Bose store is worth the trip, if one is nearby. They will have a display that plays different types of music through the headphones and then demonstrates the noise canceling technology as well. The thing most people will notice immediately is the quality of the music in the headphones. The second thing, of course, is how the noise canceling reduces ambient noise. The headphones, and I believe most direct purchased Bose products, have a 30 day money back guarantee. Since I had nothing to lose if they didn't work out, I took a pair home and tried them out.

Packaging / In The Box:
The box is a low key and plain white box that doesn't look all that impressive on the outside. Once you open it up you'll find a registration card, quick start guide, user manual written in several languages, and the carrying case with all the goodies inside.

Carrying Case:
Actually, the headphones and all accessories are in a semi-rigid ballistic nylon carrying case. There is a little label on the outside that says "Bose / Acoustic Noise Canceling Headphones." Inside the case you'll find the headphones, a detachable connection cord for connecting with an audio source, an adapter plug to connect with a 1/4" plug such as those found on home stereos, an adapter plug for connecting to commercial airline audio jacks, an extension cord for the audio cord, a shoulder strap for the carrying case, and courtesy cards you can give to people if they are interested in the headphones. Another nice touch is the way that the courtesy card holder and accessory pocket (a little mesh pouch with a zipper) both attach to the inside of the case with Velcro backing. You can position both of these wherever you want inside of the case or remove them altogether. This is convenient if you want to perhaps make room for an iPod / iPod Mini or other mp3 player inside the case. Overall, it is a well thought out list of accessories, but considering the price, it should be!

On a side note, it is nice to see that the audio cord is removable. If you have a pet that, heaven forbid, chews on cords, then you would not want to through away these bad boys because of that, or for any other type of incidental damage for that matter. It is also a convenience to remove the cord when you want a quiet environment but no music. You won't have a cord dangling - just unplug the audio cord and turn on the noise canceling.

Sound Quality:
Since these headphones have the Bose name, one would expect the sound quality to be at least better than average. I am happy to report that they are nothing short of spectacular. For me, they will mostly be used with an iPod Mini. The Mini, and most mp3 players for that matter, are not the most powerful audio source around. There is a difference between using an mp3 player versus a 600W home theatre to drive these headphones, and there is a "HI/LOW" switch on the audio plug that can be adjusted based on the audio source. When I connect to the Mini, the sound is set to the "HI" setting, and the sound is very (very) good. Obviously these sound much better than the ear buds that came with the iPod, and better than any other headphone I own. In fact, the sound is crystal clear in the high, mid, and low range, and I actually heard subtle musical details that other speakers don't normally reproduce as well unless they are big and expensive floor speakers.

The user manual points out that when connected to a stereo that headphones should be set to the "LOW" audio setting. To test that out, I connected to my stereo receiver, which is a 600W, 6 channel surround sound unit with a 1/4" audio plug on the front. With the 1/4" adapter I connected to the stereo, put in a DVD and was amazed at what I heard. I watched the Vietnam battle scene in Forrest Gump, and subtle details, especially quiet dialogue and noises people make, were still audible despite the other noises happening at the same time. I normally won't hear that kind of detail unless I turn my speakers up a bit or otherwise adjust the treble or bass. I also put in Lord Of The Rings and experienced the same thing - subtle details, incredibly crisp dialogue, deep but not dominating bass, and a very balanced sound that rivals a good home theatre setup.

Noise Canceling / Bose Versus Others:
Now, the big question - how about the noise canceling First off, it is worth mentioning that noise canceling headphones work on two principles - passive and active canceling. Passive sound reduction happens when you just put the headphones over your ears. The ear cups on the Bose will reduce noise by virtue of the fact that your ears are inside of the earcups - isolating your ears from outside sounds. Active noise cancellation figures out what you might not want to hear and cancels those sounds out electronically. I purchased (and returned) two other noise canceling headsets before buying the Bose. The first one was from Sharper Image, and it had a noticeable white noise "hiss" when noise canceling was enabled. This was somewhat distracting, and the audio was average. The second one was from MacAlly, and is meant to go with iPods, etc. That one had a slightly better dynamic range than the Sharper Image headphones, but the noise canceling does not perform as well. McAlly noise cancelling seemed to work in a very narrow range of frequencies and also has a distinct hiss. With the MacAlly I could still clearly hear frequencies that were not cancelled, and this was fairly distracting. One basic test that I did was to cancel out fan noise from my PC. It isn't all that loud (or hard to do), but only the Bose cancelled it out well enough to satisfy. The Bose do have some white noise, but it is practically impossible to hear. I can't hear it at all when music is on - even at the lowest volume possible on my iPod. This also means that the music doesn't have to "compete" with white noise like in other headphones. Another advantage of Bose is the earcups truly surround the ear instead of sitting on top on them. This makes them easy to wear for a long time without becoming uncomfortable. After a while one might forget they are on. Other headphones that sit on the ear and can eventually get uncomfortable because they are indeed sitting ON your ear, not around it. Nobody wants to take noise canceling headphones off during a flight because their ears hurt, right? I did try a pair of noise canceling units carried by Brookstone too, but they had a noticeable white noise hiss.

If you are in a car, on a bus, on a plane, etc. then you will experience the most dramatic sound reduction. I found myself taking them on and off just to experience how well they were working. Fan noise, road noise, engine noise, etc., all either disappear completely, or are significantly reduced. All without that annoying hiss!

These can be used as regular headphones if you desire, but you do have to turn the noise canceling on to hear any audio source. By comparison, some (not all) noise canceling headphones will still operate without power. I wouldn't say that this is a major weakness since they last 35-40 hours on a single AAA battery. If you're going to travel, a 2 or 4 pack of batteries as plenty of backup. However, if you are using these in a noisy environment, as they were intended, then you will just benefit from the noise canceling and have high quality audio too. Alternatively, you could consider Bose Tri-Port headphones and get the same high quality sound without the noise canceling and the need for batteries. :)

Side Notes:
These headphones were featured on the show "The Screen Savers" on G4/TechTV. They were described as the "best of the best," albeit with a price tag to match. However, I have to agree that, if price is no object, these outperform pretty much all other noise canceling headphones I (and the folks on the show) have tried.

These are available through Bose, either through a retail outlet or their website. You also have the option to purchase these online through a number of resellers (Brookstone and Sharper Image for example) who can special order them for delivery to a store near you. You might want to consider buying these through a reseller who offers a replacement plan. They are not flimsy headphones by any means. In fact they are built quite well and feel very sturdy. However, should an accident happen while traveling, etc. it would be nice to have a replacement plan to avoid buying new headphones. Bose does NOT offer anything outside of their 1 year guarantee for materials and craftmanship. Just one more thing to keep in mind for those who might tend to use these in rugged conditions.

Bottom Line:
These are excellent headphones that I would recommend for anyone who wants quality music reproduction and top notch noise canceling. The travel case is well thought out, compact, and keeps everything in one place. The Bose QuietComfort2 are certainly on the expensive side, especially compared to other brands. However, if you can live with the price, you will not regret the experience every time you put them on. Your ears will definitely thank you.