kanderson1965

Another vote for QC15s, confirmed Bose apologist.
So where is the backlash?

PETER01

From Trusted Reviews.com


"The same says it all. The Bose QuietComfort 15 are extremely comfortable and boast the best noise cancellation in the business. We've tried the rest and have had to conclude the Bose are the best. As a headphone for busy tube trains or airplanes, they're unparalleled. You do pay a lot for the clever tech inside, though, and if you don't care too much about cancellation you can get better sound at the same price."

However I like these ones which double up as an eye mask.

Lux

Well, when you've tried a true pair of custom moulded ear plugs then you'll realise that the Bose headphones don't really make that much of a difference... but for completeness I like to wear my Bose QC-2s (old school) and the earplugs!

hingeless

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 6_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/536.26 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0 Mobile/10A405 Safari/8536.25)

I feel left out, I have QC3s. How do these compare to 15s?

windowontheAside

I also bought Bose after flying AA. I've often wondered how many thousands of sets have been sold directly as a result of their partnership with AA.

Cap'n Benj

They're not brilliant, they do the job though, certainly to a level that more than overcomes the incovenience of carrying a set of headphones of your own.

Im not a sound whore by any means though and can quite easily sleep with Metallica playing 50 meters away!

Final 3 Greens

I use QC15s.

The BA ones are symptomatic of BA, offer something that sounds good and then deliver it half heartedly.

windowontheAside

Much as I love my Bose, I am amazed by the people who report using them to deal with children crying or people talking too loudly.

Blueboys999

I'm another Bose fan following an AA flight many years ago but I've switched to a good pair of in-ear 'phones simply because I find the Bose case takes up too much room in my bag when I'm trying to travel without checked luggage.

I can carry my current pair in my pocket.

BicesterTerrier

I can't comment on the nc quality of the 15's over the 3's, however the size of the 15's are larger and for those of us blessed with small ears, they fit over. The 3's sit on the ear.

The 3's also feel a little more solid/denser. Maybe they are metal, the 15's are plastic.

The daft thing that I also like is the "power on" led is green on the 15's as opposed to red on the 3's. The green is more me!

dark_horse

If the in-flight headphones were that good, few would make it back to base for a second flight...

I'd like to put in a vote for my Sony MDR-NC22s. In-ear, take up virtually no space in the bag, excellent noise cancellation, have been battered around the world and are a replaceable £50. I don't doubt that Bose offer better sound quality, but definitely worse value.

Final 3 Greens

Even as an avid Bose user, I wouldn't make a case for them having great sound quality. But the noise cancellation is world beating.

As windonwontheaside says, they are only effective against repetitive noise, so people talking etc still comes through.

ColdWalker

I bought some Etymotics and had custom earpieces made for them. I have to say, having been a rabid QC15 fan, I'm now a total convert. Not cheap, but less than the QCs I guess. But much more compact in your hand luggage and the noise reduction is much greater than the QCs.

Sorry to be the predictable in-ear disciple!

dddc

I'd like to try these, because the one downside, for me, of the bose is falling asleep with them on being one who likes to sleep on my side.

But, like mentioned above, there is the wax issue which I am a suffer of. I'm also worried about long term effects of having a speaker that close to your eardrum. Maybe there's nothing different, but given how often I see, nay, hear people with white in-ear headphones listening so loudly to them, I wish I had the cash to invest in a hearing aid company!! There's future potentional there!!

ColdWalker

I too suffer from the wax issue. When the moulds were taken the audiologist dealt with the wax first and then took the moulds. I had never had the wax cleared before and didn't realise how much it was affecting my hearing. From now on its an annual check up, which I will get done at Boots along with my eyes at the same time. The earphones should not be affected by any build up in between check ups I am assured.

I'm not qualified to speak to the issue of having something so close to your ear drum. However I take some comfort, potentially unwisely, that they were fitted by an expert audiologist. I assume they would not fit a product which had a high potential to damage your hearing. I am sure the standard warnings about not playing them at deafening levels still apply.

The process from booking an appointment at your audiologist (often Boots in the UK) and receiving the earbuds back is upto 4 weeks, although it was only about 2 weeks for me. The company that actually makes them is ACS as mentioned in the link above. If you buy Etymotics (not all models probably) you get a discount voucher for the earbuds.

I warn you, the process of having the moulds of your ears taken is like having a large wet fish inserted into your ears! Not necessarily unpleasant, but you'd have to be pretty kinky to enjoy it.