I'd recommend the QC2 to people, with light sound playing in the headphones they do not cancel out all sound but a lot of it (for me), without sound playing it does deaden the sound but not elimite it totally. Cancels enough noise out without music for ME to sleep. It is worth it to me (I would buy them again or buy them for gift for others). As I mentioned earlier, I use them at home and office as well as travel. I have tried the E2C's but did not like them in the ear. It was just not comfortable to me. Everyone is different, E2C's are a nice product, some people prefer in the ear headphones and others do not.