Of the circumaural noise-cancelling headphones, I'm sure there's little doubt that the QC2s are the best. Some people prefer comfort and quality, with cost considerations secondary. If that wasn't the case, we'd all be driving Chevy Cavaliers . . .

For the amount I use them and the stress reduction they've provided, the $300 for the QC2s was an insignificant price to pay. That actually works out to approximately $1.20 per segment flown over the last 18 months.

There's no doubt that the canalphones offered by Shure and Etymotic offer superior fidelity, but I find them inconvenient to insert/remove and less comfortable overall than the Bose.