Quiet Comfort 2 - In the Office

NB I am not an audiophile, so this review is not about the sound quality. I bought the headphones because I work in a busy, noisy office and I wanted to block out the office noise. Also, although I don't consider $300 cheap, it's not impossibly expensive. This was my one birthday present.

My situation: Since a lot of this review is dependent upon my work situation, I thought I would describe it. I work in a 20' x 20' open space in an office, with 7 co-workers within about 10' of me. If anyone is on the phone, we can hear what they say even if they speak softly. No privacy whatsoever. Lots of background noise (computers, boxes moving, etc.)

What I bought: About a month ago, I bought the Quiet Comfort 2 headphones directly from Bose for $299. It comes with a free CD player which I haven't received yet (it's on backorder.)

The headphones themselves:
Again, I'm not an audiophile so I don't have a lot of experience comparing with other headphones.

They come in a nice, compact carrying case, with several different jacks (the thicker stereo jack, the smaller headphone jack, and a two-prong jack that I'm not sure what it's for.) The headphones are really comfortable. I wear them for multiple hours at a time, and I have yet to feel any discomfort (other than a little sweat around the ears).

The headphones seem well-constructed. The earcups "fold" so that the headphones store nicely in my messenger bag. They seem pretty sturdy (but admittedly it's only been a month.) They are powered by a single AAA battery - and it's lasted at least a month with about 20 hours of play a week. Really cool, actually.

How well do they work?
This, obviously, is the big question. First, there are two modes of operation:
* You can just turn on the "noise cancellation" switch without having them plugged into anything.
* You can plug them into a music source (note: you have to have the headphones on to hear the music - which means that the noise-cancelling feature automatically comes on.)

So - the bad news is that the noise cancellation alone doesn't completely block out the office noise. I have a theory about this actually: The ear adjusts to the ambient noise level. The noise cancellation lowers the ambient noise level (sometimes dramatically) but it's still audible. So your ear adjusts and you can still hear the noise.

From my experimentation with the noise cancellation only (ie, not listening to a CD):
* it almost completely blocks out the noise from my refrigerator.
* it nearly blocks out the noise from my central heating fan (but not completely. You can hear it softly and, after awhile, it sounds just as loud as before. )
* it does fairly little against the high-pitched whine of a loud server
* it quiets the subway only a little.
* it quiets car-alarms only a little
* it quiets the office only a little. In my office, you can still hear everyone's voice.

The good news: If you plug the headphones into a CD player and listen to almost anything, it blocks out office noise. This goes along with my theory: since the earphones lower the ambient noise, a softly playing CD basically overwhelms the outside noise so you can't hear it.

My experimentation from using the headphones while listening to a CD on a soft volume:
* completely blocks out the refrigerator, central heating, air conditioning fans (at a volume level 2 of 10 on my CD)
* almost completely blocks out office noise at a level of 3 of 10,
* completelyblocks out office noise at a level of 4. (I mean this literally. See below for details.)
* Almost completely blocks out subway noise at a volume level of 4 of 10. You only hear the music and sometimes the rattling of the NYC subway cars. You can't hear the other passengers.

Details on the headphones in the office and subway:
So I bought these things to get a little privacy in the office - and it really works! You just need to listen to a CD fairly softly. Although it's cheesy, I listen to a bunch of "nature noise" cds (babbling brooks, rainforests, frogs, etc.) They have just enough ambient noise to completely drown out everything out - and have no lyrics to distract me. (Mind you, the CDs aren't playing loud - they're playing softly but you still can't hear things.)

The following story is a good example: the guy 3' on my left is talking to the guy 3' on my right. Talking literally through me. I'm listening to Norah Jones "Come away with me" (a pretty quiet song played at volume 4 of 10) - I can't hear anything they're saying. I can't hear my typing.

I've also worn them on the New York City subway, listening to music at about a volume of 4. Two people were sitting right in front of me and I couldn't hear a word they were saying (although I could hear the worst rattles of the subway car.)

Summary:
So they don't magically block all noise. But they can be used very effectively to block out office noise, subway noise, street noise, etc. You just need to listen to something. So I'm completely satisfied with them.