ET

Here is another review from seatguru.com Apparently, they like the Bose QC3 the best.

http://preview.tinyurl.com/2s7a7o

Intex

Sennheisser's are foldable, and can fit inside your shirt pocket, comfortable, and work well. They are powered by AA batteries.

There is a reason for the old saying: "No Highs, No lows...it must be a Bose"

gradyghost

Hello Mr. Robespierre:

I was wondering whether you have ever owned a Bose product, and if so, which one or ones, been to the Bose factory to observe the manufacturing process, or met the founder, Amar Bose, of whom you speak with considerable authority? Your answers might help the rest of us evaluate your comments on this thread. If, as I suspect, your answers are in the negative, should you choose to respond at all, we can safely gloss over your remarks on this topic. Gradyghost

fnarf999

You're not allowed to have a consumer preference unless you've met the CEO?

That's a new one.

greg

I also use a pair of Etymotic. It does not use an active noise reduction, but its multiple flaps effectively keep the noise out. The Etymotic 6p is rated at -34db noise reduction - surpassing performances of many active model at a fraction of size.

Robespierre

"I was wondering whether you have ever owned a Bose product, and if so, which one or ones..." Yes, I have a Bose sound system in my SLK230. It is vastly inferior to the consumer-grade Blaupunkt in our Volvo. I once had Bose speakers in my home system until I discovered the precision and transparency of MagnaPlanars, which I have owned ever since.

"...been to the Bose factory to observe the manufacturing process..." I can't imagine what you think observing a manufacturing process has to do with what my ears tell me.

"...or met the founder, Amar Bose, of whom you speak with considerable authority?" Just how does discovering that their marketing claims are exaggerations require familiarity with their eponymous founder?

sshephard

fnarf999: Caution! I think Robbes is a troll.

And I thought this was a European travel forum. . . . Too often it seems that things digress to subjects like "my headphones are better than your ear buds" and my "travel book is better than your travel book" or "my gps is better than your gps." How about "my dad's better than your dad?"

In case anyone wants to talk about travel, how about some advice on what to do with 5 nights between Dubrovnik and Zagreb (with a rental car). I'm working on next summer.

Oh, and if you want to continue to debate headphones/ear buds, let's not forget that audiologists say that headphones cause much less long-term hearing loss than ear buds As for me, I'm going to step away from this "discussion."

rkkwan

Here's my take on the subject.

- I bought a Wave Radio for my ex-gf some years ago. It has horrible sound - totally exaggerated mid-bass and nothing else. I've also read reviews of many other Bose items from various publications and almost all of them are poor.

- <b>Exceptions</b> are the Quiet Comfort 2 and 3, which have gotten fairly decent reviews from even high-end magazines. I have not tried them, so 1st hand experience.

- But I doubt they're better than the Sennheisers at half the cost.

- Personally, I've used a couple of Sony NC &quot;in-ear&quot; type headphones; but now the Shure E4c noise-isolating ones.

- Advantages of the Shure or Etymotic (or other) noise-isolating ones are:

-- light weight
-- no batteries required
-- generally great sound quality
-- isolates <b>all frequencies</b>, which is extremely important for air travel, in my opinion. Because NC models only cut down the low frequencies and not screaming babies.

- Disadvantages of these in-ear type noise-isolating phones are:

-- they take a while to get used to. Even though the Shures come with many types of sleeves for you to try on, it still takes quite a few hours to get used to them in your ear canal. I wear mine daily on the bus, and they are so comfortable now that I can wear them 24/7. But if you're only going to use them 3 times a year for those trans-Atlantic trips, you may find yourself pulling them out after an hour, defeating the purpose.

-- They block all sound too well. To have any conversation with your seatmate or the FA, you need to take them off.

-- <b>BUT</b> you can't take them off quickly, as the sleeve will be left inside your year.

[Shure makes a battery-powered inline modulator that can take care of the last two problems, but that means extra cost ($60) and weight.]

Therese

I've got a pair of noise reduction headphones from Sharper Image (no idea who actually manufactured them) that I received as a corporate gift about a year ago. Very comfortable padded earphones (I find ear buds uncomfortable), and they're fairly compact, folding into a small carrying bag. I love them.

gradyghost

I will follow sshepard's sage suggestion. He seems to get it.

MademoiselleFifi

&lt;&lt;a civilization's advancement can be directly linked to it's support of the non essentials(theatre, art,music,etc) I am an artist and need epicurean minded people to make a living&gt;&gt;

artlvr, one of my favorite quotations is from Count Istvan Szechenyi: &quot;Things are only going well in a country if the tailor, the soap-maker, and the patissier are firmly convinced that the happiness of the nation depends on their skill.&quot;

grandmere

My kids gave me Plane Quiets for Mo's Day; I had read about them on here. My only occasion to use them to date was on a family trip to St Thomas this summer, and with two young grandchildren seated with us there wasn't an opportunity to be quiet

I am going to France in Oct. and hope to give them a good try out. They were given good reviews for a relatively inexpensive noise reduction headphone. Think they were around $70.

susnobie

I have the Bose Quiet Comfort 2 headphones. I may look like I am parking an airplane but I will leave that to the professionals

I cannot use the QC 3 as I wear hearing aids. I plug in my MP3 player and turn the hearing aids way down and do not hear any engine noise. I is much quieter than without the headphones and my hearing aids turned off.

Christina

I've tried several models and don't mind someone saying Bose is junk, or whatever -- I am interested in opinions and alternatives. I don't know if that is true, but I might try Sennheiser in the future.

However, I also absolutely do not agree that pads that lay on the ears are more comfortable than those that surround them. Exactly the opposite for me. I don't see only small earbuds can really work as well as the ones that surround the ear as they do keep out some of the noise, in addition to the technology. At least it seems that way to me, owning both models and having tried some others.

I have the big Bose ones that surround the ear (model II) and they really are my favorite for comfort and effectiveness. They are expensive, if I could find something as good cheaper and smaller, I'd sure buy it. I also have a cheaper pair of Aiwa that only lay on the ear and do fold up smaller that I take on shorter trips. They don't work as well and are not nearly as comfortable.

Last trip I also tried some that lay on the ear that were supplied by the airline (United) as I luckily got upgraded to business class. They didn't work as well as the Bose I had with me, so I switched to the BOse since I had taken them anyway.

hlocke1

Also going to recommend the Shure e2c. Just make sure you get the right size bud in your ear (the pack comes with several different types and sizes) and you'll be good to go! They come with a nice carrying case, too, and don't hog up a ton of room in your carry-on. Hope that helps!

Robespierre

If you can tolerate resilient earplugs, the vast majority of reviews on Amazon seem to agree that the Etymotic ER-4P at $167.03 delivered are the gold standard (albeit not as bassy as $500 Shures - which may not be a bad thing).

fnarf999

Christine, the earbud style works because it actually uses the same design as earplugs -- it fits tightly in the ear canal, which blocks out far more noise than even the best noise cancelling headphones can counteract. These earplugs just have very high quality sound generation in them as well.

They're not like the buds that come with your iPod or whatever, that nestle in the ear but don't form a tight seal.

Worrying about things like flat frequency response and distortion and so on when you're in an environment like an airplane doesn't make a lot of sense, IMHO. Even the best noise reduction or cancellation is imperfect. The thing that makes the Shures and Etymotics so great is that they reduce the noise so much more, which is the primary benefit -- noise is very fatiguing. As for sound quality, I'll put my Shures up against the Boses or the Sennheisers. The Eymotics blow them all away, but cost more (less than Bose, though).

chepar

Anybody compared the difference between the Sennheiser PXC 300 vs. the PXC 250?

It appears to me that they are very similar - I can get the PXC 250 for about $40 less than the PXC 300. Is there enough of a difference between the 2 models to justify the extra cost?

wyostiv

I use the foam earplugs that come in a pack of a dozen for about a buck. Doesn't cancel out everything, but does well enough if you aren't super sensitive.

4ForTheRoad

ET,
Thanks for providing the links. Given how opinionated some posters are, it is nice to have a couple of professional reviews to look at. It looks like when it comes to noise reduction, the Bose are the best. Since that is what I want them for, I guess I will give them a try. I just wish I could try out the two models to find out which I would like better, comfort, fit, etc.