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Bose QC15 vs. Sennheiser PXC 450 vs. Audio-Technica ATH-ANC7b
Disclosure: I have tried all these on an airplane. I am not an audiophile. Noise Cancelation is the most important attribute to me.
The Carrying Case: All three are quite durable and stiff.
1.) Bosethe smallest, a low profile, room for an Ipod, accessories too.
2.) SennheiserSquare shape, low profile, however not a lot of room for anything else in case.
3.) Audio TechnicaNice big case if you want to carry extra stuff (Nintendo DS, ipod, etc).
Build Quality:
1.) Sennheiseryou can tell this is built VERY well. Strong plastics, good components, thick cord. Top notch. You feel like you are getting something really high quality.
2.) Audio TechnicaNice solid construction, appears durable.
3.) BoseIf this had a Sanyo logo on the side, I would not have flinched. How can something $300 be so incredibly cheaply made.
Size:
1.) Boseas far as over the ears go, these are pretty small.
2.) Audio-Technicamid-sized.
3.) SennheiserThese are big. No question, but they store flat.
Comfort:
1.) SennheiserVery comfortable, will fit almost any size ears. Keep on for hours.
2.) BoseAlso comfortable. I did not experience "highs" discomfort.
3.) Audio-TechnicaPerfectly satisfactory. Larger opening than previous AT model.
Sound:
1.) SennheiserI actually wore these at home too, simply to hear parts of songs I had never heard before. Astounding. My 10yr old music collection sounded totally NEW.
2.) Audio-TechnicaWell balanced, good sound.
3.) BoseGreat sound, but very heavy on the bass. I listen to a lot of rap and pop, so it was mildly annoying. I ultimately had to turn my treble settings up on my ipod to balance the sound.
Features:
1.) Sennheisernice cord, push to talk button (temporarily mutes NC and sound which is great for interruptions on airplanes).
2.) Bose/Audio Technicajust the basics. Bose simply an on/off switch.
Price:
1.) Audio Technica$150 to $225 depending on how you shop.
2.) Sennheiser$200 to $275
3.) BoseHard to find below $300+.
Noise Cancelation:
1.) BoseNo question here, far surpassed the other two. Best Noise Cancelation.
2.) Audio-TechnicaGood Noise Cancelation.
3.) SennheiserNot sure what happened here. Incredible sound, satisfactory noise cancelation.
Summary:
I ultimately kept the Bose because I was only using these for flying and the Sennheiser's (as much as I loved them) let me down in the Noise Cancelation department. The Sennheiser's had by far the most superior sound, but the Bose Noise Cancelation was night and day. The Bose are made very poorly for a $300+ product, it was disappointing.
Final assessment:
Audio-Technicabest balance of value for money
SennheiserBest sound and comfort
BoseBest Noise Cancelation
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I decided to cheap out earlier and bought a pair of Sony NR headsets for $30 and change. They seemed pretty good but on flights, the NR wasn't good enough way too much background noise. Finally I decided to man up and get the real deal. And boy, what a change (for the better)!
With the Bose headsets, NR means NR, they ain't kidding about when they say NR, absolutely no background noise on the flight. My quick thoughts on this so far:
You haven't heard true HD sound if you haven't heard it on this headset. And the sound is not like bass or treble heavy, it's just crisp and you can hear every water drop and every single instrument being played. And NR works great both ways on this headset the surrounding noise is almost cancelled out completely for you when you're using the headsets, and the sound of the sound from the headset doesn't carry out of the headsets either. I can listen to music or movies at a fairly high volume and the person sitting next to me won't hear a thing.
The leather trim around the headsets makes them extremely comfortable to wear. I wear them on 15-hour flights and don't feel any strain by the end of the flight. My ears or head don't hurt because of the headsets and the plastic strap. They truly are made for comfort.
It comes with airplane adapter so you can turn it from a single 3.5mm audio cable into one that fits in the airplane sockets. The cable is also detachable completely from the headset, which I actually find very useful when I want to doze off and not be bothered by surrounding noise. You don't realize how effective the headsets are till you take them off and realize how much of background noise they were eliminating!
The only one downside of this headset is that it runs on a AAA battery. So I always need to make sure I have fully charged batteries with me at all times. I carry rechargeable batteries (Sanyo Eneloop are the BEST) with a charger. So if I do run out of battery, I can always charge it on the flight itself. ON a full charge of the Eneloop AAA, I am yet to run out of battery on a 15-hour flight.
Yes, these headsets aren't cheap but they are worth every penny. Bose puts so much research and effort into developing their products, I have absolutely no reason to complain!
Buy Bose QuietComfort 15 Acoustic Noise Cancelling Headphones - Limited Edition Now
I bought the Bose QuietComfort 15 Noise Cancelling Headphones about a month ago and am thoroughly impressed thus far.
Sound Quality: As odd as this may sound, I feel like I haven't ever listened to any of my songs! This headset completely revamps every song. You will hear things in some of your favorite songs you haven't heard before. As it says in the title, this is an acoustic headset so don't expect loud and powerful base. If you like a lot of base then this isn't the headset for you.
Noise Cancelling: I find that I can still hear people talking while I am on a plane but most of the background noise goes away. I would describe the sound as if you are underwater or plugging your ears, to give you an idea of the sound. When you play some light music in the background, all the people talking tend to dissappear. I take up anywhere from 50 to 100 flights in a year and now that I own a Bose headset, I couldn't imagine not having it with me.
Comfort: The headset is extremely comfortable with leather around the ear and the leather on the top of the headset. This makes it very comfortable for long periods of time. I used to use ear buds and found that my ears started to hurt after 30 minutes. The only thing I will mention is that your ears do get a bit hot a sweaty after a while so it is good to give them a breath of fresh air every hour or so.
Carrying Case: In this box comes with a carrying case to help protect your Bose headset. This was a huge selling feature for me because with all the travelling I do, I was worried about ruining my headset. This allows me to put the case in my bag and not have to worry that I am crushing it. Great addition Bose!
Cord: Although this headset isn't wireless, it has a detachable cord which I find very useful. If you don't want to listen to anything, don't attach the cord and you can relax with noise cancelling feature. If you do want to listen to music or watch a movie, attach the cord. Easy.
Batteries: The headset runs on (1) AAA battery which fits right into a nice location on the headset. I keep an extra AAA battery in my carrying case just in case it dies while I am travelling. I haven't had to replace the battery yet and I have used it for quite a few flights. I am very impressed with how long it lasts!
Airplane connector: Bose also included an airplane connector which some airlines still use. I haven't come across a time I have had to use this but it certainly is nice to have if I need it.
Downfalls: There isn't much I would change about the Bose QC 15 but the most important one would be that I can't listen to music if my battery is dead. Again this hasn't happened to me but if my battery were to die, I can't listen to music. You have to have the noise cancelling feature on to listen to anything. Other than that, there is nothing I would change.
Price: This headset is quite pricey so it isn't meant for the average person. There are other headsets that I would recommend. But if you are the type of person who travels a lot of find yourself in locations where the noise bothers you (ie train, bus, etc), this is the headset for you.
Well done Bose, you have turned my into a believer and I couldn't imagine travelling without my Quiet Comfort 15!
Read Best Reviews of Bose QuietComfort 15 Acoustic Noise Cancelling Headphones - Limited Edition Here
A few years ago flying on a cross country trip I was fortunate enough to be bumped to first class. I sat next to a rich dude who subtly bragged about his material possessions and owned property during take off and landing. One of the items he bragged about was his new Bose headphones, and he insisted I listen to them. Sure enough, they were outstanding, but I didn't travel often enough to justify the price tag.
Well fast forward a few years and I now have a job that requires me to fly a few times a month. So I took the plunge and used my hotel loyalty points to get me a free set of these Bose headphones.
They impressed me out of the box as much as the very first time I listened to them (or the equivalent I had tried a few years back). The noise just melts away into the background so that it is hardly noticeable at all. I took my first flight with them today and tried them in a very busy crowded airport terminal. My music sounded wonderful, and the cacophony of random people and machine noise all but vanished. And that was quite a challenging test, the noise levels were pretty high in a fairly confined round terminal hub. The music source was simply my phone, a Samsung Infuse, not a dedicated music player.
Next I wore them on a plane for a short 80 minute jet flight. It's like being in a different world. The music from my android phone sounded awesome, the noise practically vanished. Somehow without the constant racket of the plane the time seemed to just go by quicker too.
The headphones were extremely comfortable, and the excessively hot day didn't add any problems either.
To me Bose are a company I have a lot of respect for. They always seem to innovate and amaze. As an audiologist I am well versed in acoustics and the physics of sound, and to create this level of noise reduction so seamlessly is very impressive, especially if their claims of battery life are close to accurate.
The headphones fit in a very attractive slim case. There is even a little space in there for a couple of spare batteries if you wanted. This model ships with a standard headphone cord and also an iPod/iPad/iPhone version which has a microphone on the wire. I question how useful that would be simply because when you wear these headphones it is hard to tell how loud your own voice is to some extent, so I'd be worried about shouting to the person on the other end of the phone, and also if it is noisy enough to wear them, I wonder how well the person being called would hear anyway. In any case, I replaced my iPhone with an Android based phone recently so I've not tested that feature.
The bottom line is these are expensive headphones. Truth be told if you go to Best Buy and listen to some other headphones at half the price, you'd probably get better or similar sound quality. What you won't get though is the incredible noise reduction system that Bose has been working on for many years. That combination of a great sound AND the noise reduction is what makes this product work. If your life involves plenty of air travel, or other similar travel that includes background noise, then these will really improve that journey for you. Music sounds great, audio books are far easier to hear, even Angry Birds is more enjoyable without all that background noise. In fact when you put these on in almost any environment, it makes you realize how much ambient noise there is in so many places.
I think the only real issue is if your budget and lifestyle justifies the price tag.
***
Update: Since writing this I have also tried watching a DVD on my laptop in my hotel room. Again these headphones eat through noise like the air conditioning, ventilation in the bathroom, noises from other guests, the whir of the DVD drive, the refrigerator etc. The sound quality off my laptop was just exceptional too, rich bass, clear treble, good mid tones. I can already see myself using these for more than just plane rides.
Want Bose QuietComfort 15 Acoustic Noise Cancelling Headphones - Limited Edition Discount?
This is definitely the craziest noise canceling I have ever heard....or didn't hear...wait. I'm confused now.
I first tried these on in Best Buy. As soon as I placed them over my hears, all the store noise was gone. Didn't hear anything! Then I pressed play on the display and a nice crisp sound was coming through. Still having my hand on the display I felt the whole display shaking like an earthquake. I thought to myself 'what is going on'. Then the person speaking to me in the headphones asked me to take them off my head for a minute and surprize surprize! That whole time I felt the shaking a speaker that was right in front of my face was BLARING this really awfully loud noise and I didn't even know it! Insane!
I work in a very noisy environment with a printer that sits right next to my cubicle that drives me absolutely insane. The air conditioner vent is also right above my cube which is also a nuisance. So I bit the bullet and bought these headphones.
It blocks the printer noise and air conditioner noise out. It even blocks out the sound of me typing on my keyboard. It doesn't, however, block out people talking as much, but if you have music playing you definitely wont hear them.
These headphones are VERY comfortable!
I am a music producer/DJ and headphone fanatic so I own a lot of different headphones and these things I cant even tell I have on after wearing them for even an hour +.
Some people complain about they make your ears hot and sweaty. I'm not a very sweaty person, and I own headphones that are a lot worse so I didn't notice that problem with these headphones as bad. A brief 5 second lift off every 30 minutes to an hour was good enough for me.
The sound itself is very clean and crisp. I also tried on the Beatz by Dre at best buy and I though the BOSE were 10x more comfortable, better constructed, sound cleaner, and the noise cancelation isn't even a comparison. They might not have as much bass as the Beatz, but I don't like too much bass pumping directly into my ear drum.
As I mentioned, I am a music producer and a DJ, so if anything, for personal listening I prefer to use less volume on my ears and save the ear punishment for when I am mixing. These headphones with the noise canceling allow me to keep the volume at a VERY low level and still hear the music as it was intended.
All that being said, as much as I love these headphones I think I may have to return them. They are great for casual listening but aren't very useful in a studio recording / tracking situation. The sound is too colored (not flat). So the only use I can see these for is personal enjoyment in the office, which I can't justify the 300 price tag for.
Also, I light to travel lightly. These headphones come with a very nice case, but I cannot see carrying this around with me everywhere I go. Feels almost like an old oversized portable Sony Discman case.
The mandatory need for battery power provided or the headphones do not operate at all also isn't my style.
I should also mention that these headphones DO bleed. Meaning, if someone was sitting near you and you had the volume turned up I'd say halfway, they will probably hear what you are listening to. Full volume and everyone will be jamming to your tunes. You usually won't have to turn them up high though with the noise canceling, but headphone bleed is a BIG no no for me. I don't like hearing other people's headphones so I wouldn't expect anyone to have to listen to mine.
I'd say if I didn't already own a bazillion other headphones and the BOSE QuietComfort 15's offered a useful role in my recording studio other than blocking out the computer sound then I consider keeping them and if they didn't absolutely require battery power I would more than likely keep them. But 300 just for personal use to block out office noises that are fairly blocked out with the use of ear buds I cannot justify.
Maybe if I run into an exuberant amount of cash flow in the future I may repurchase. Hopefully by then they will have a model that operates even without battery power. =)
