Pros: Comfortable, great sound, Bose Quality and fit.
Cons: Battery pack is a bit cumbersome, expensive!
The Bottom Line: You will never understand how noisy your day to day environment is until you put a pair of these on! They have changed my perception of acceptable noise.
siberian's Full Review: Bose QuietComfort 2 Consumer Headphones
My new job requires me to travel quite frequently. My existing 'bud' style earphones were not doing the job on the long flights so I upgraded to a pair of kenwood 'studio' style headphones ( where your ear is encompassed by the pod ). These had great sound although I still had to increase the volume to insane levels on the airplane. They also gave me severe headaches after an hour or two of usage.
Then I came across the Bose QuietComfort Headphones in a magazine. I'd read about the technology in Scientific American and I was curious. I read a few epinions and then took the plunge, albeit a bit nervously given the negative opinion people tend to have on these.
My verdict? Money WELL spent. These are incredible.
Lets talk about the unit itself first. It comes with a padded leather case( with shoulder strap ), a drawstring bag,2 AAA batteries, a miniplug extension cord and two adapters, one for the airplane style audio plug and one of the larger plugs that you see on older / higher end equipment. The headphones themselves are very deceptively light, well padded and even the cross bar that goes across your head is padded! No hairs pulled here, its a smooth fit. The 'Pods' fit OVER your ears and do not even touch them, forming a somewhat airtight seal. In fact, if you press the pods down while wearing them you can feel the pressure change. Attached to the headphones is a little battery pack that takes 2 AAA batteries and has 3 settings, Off, Low, High.
Now lets talk about actually using them. When you put them on and do not have them powered up you hear a cavernous echo, similar to if you cup your hands over your ears. Then you switch it on. Nothing happens for a second or two and then the circuits kick in. You suddenly hear 'silence'. I can still hear people talking, I can hear myself type, I can hear the phone ring but I can not hear my computers buzzing, I can not hear the air conditioning. Sure, if I really focus I can probably pick it out, but these 'white noise' sources are not intruding on my conscious sound inputs. Its almost like dunking your head underwater but much more clear.
Now, you switch on your audio source. You hear nothing but the source! With my source on a low to mid range volume I can not hear my phone, I can not hear my keyboard as I type and strangely enough, I am enjoying the music so much I just do not care! If you up your source value to highest value you will really be in another world. However, since the Bose reduces the source power ( What used to be a '10' now feels more like a '7' with the Bose ) in order to filter the external noises the give you the 'High' setting which just about doubles the volume. Perfect for long flights or noisy areas!
So, with that said, I took my Bose Headset to the Dentist to really test it out. My Dentist, always in the mood for a 'Patient Comfort' experiment was intrigued and agreed to let me wear the bulkier headset. It was phenomenal! I could hear the drill but by pushing up to 'High' the drill rapidly faded away. Even on low the sounds of a dentists office went away. No suction, no water, no sounds from the other patients. I closed my eyes, switched to 'High' and turned up the volume on my CD player. At times, just to test, I turned the volume all the way down and just kept the circuits engaged. Even with no audio source the circuits did an amazing job and 'mellowing' out the environment and getting rid of all that fatiguing white noise.
As a final note, my girlfriend, who was really annoyed that I dropped $300 on 'headphones' tried them out and now owns a pair. She puts them on, engages the circuit and immediately her face relaxes ( even with no audio source ). In her words "I didn't realize how noisy the world is!"
I could not have said it better myself. If you need a good pair of headphones and have trouble with your existing sets look no further. Comfortable for extended wear ( I wore mine for 6 hours the other day ), great sound, long battery life and that subtle improvement in your quality of life that takes the edge of.
Fantastic! Go Bose!
UPDATE :
Over a 1.5 years later the Bose Headphones still act and sound like new! I have really beat on these things. I wrap the cord around them, stuff them in a backpack, have popped the buds out of the head piece for small storage requirements, dropped my backpack right on them etc. They have probably clocked over 40,000 miles of air travel, been dropped in every major airport on either seaboard and generally been 'Not Treated Nicely'. I tend to act like everything I own is Military Spec Hardware ( most of what I own breaks, FYI ) and these have passed the test! Seriously incredible, Go Bose!
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