QuietComfort® 20i Acoustic Noise Cancelling® headphones vs B&O earphones
 

The QuietComfort® 20i Acoustic Noise Cancelling® headphones just on the market, and I am wondering if anyone had tried them yet?
I want to get a pair of high quality headphones ( ear plug type) for my wife's birthday and I was thinking about the Bang & Olufsen A8 Earphones or the new Bose 20i noise canceling in ear noise reduction units.
I have used Bose headphones for years and many miles, and I very happy with my present Bose 15's. My wife's Sennheiser's are falling apart and she likes my Bose 15 for blocking out cabin chatter.
I have over the years tried many different head sets and always came back to Bose. The 20i costs the same as my Quiet comfort 15's at $299.
So….
any one tried the 20i??

According to Bose, they won't be available till August 1st - I'll be buying them the day they hit stores.

Tried them in ear at DFW D on June 16th. Quite impressed. Liked them better than the over/on ear qc's. Will def get a pair when available. Rep said some stores got them in for people to try out. So if there's a Bose store near you, ring them and ask to see if they have them to try out.

Thanks for the update. I bought the B&O A8 for my wife and she was not impressed, so I am returning them to B&0. The sound was just ok just not $200 worth. The apple earbuds produce a similar sound experience. The product was well made but was not worth the money. I will swing by Boze and check out the 20i.
Thanks

If you want really good sound blocking and fantastic sound you really can't go wrong with custom ear monitors, Ultimate ears is my personal favorite. They cost $400 for their low end which have far better sound then the bose and have the advantage of being both very small and blocking more noise. They are amazingly comfortable as well.

Scott

Where can I order them?

I believe this is where you can get them.
http://ultimateears.logitech.com/

Custom ear phones
 

Quite a selection and wide range of prices.
Oh custom earphones! Look very tempting.

My wife does have a tendency to lose things on airplanes, so I shudder to think about "misplacing $1500. custom ear buds!

Looking at B&W C5 now and a very inexpensive SHURE SE 215. Apple stores have the logitech ue 900, which is the bottom line of the custom ultimate earphone.

Guess I need to take her to listen to them, I may get off cheap with a pair of Apple earbuds....not likely...

I had the 1300 pair of the UE's from a number of years ago, after leaving them on an airplane for the 2nd time, Mrs Flyboy suggested that I try something cheaper. After talking with the folks at Ultimate Ears they convinced me that for general music, TV, etc listening that I would be very hard pressed to tell the difference between the 400 pair and the 700 pair, unless I wanted to go up to 1200 I might as well save the money.

I got the bottom of the line 400 pair, and honestly could not tell the difference between my old UE 10s and these. Glad to save the money!

The really high end models are designed for real studio work with very precise monitor sounds. The key is they all have perfect custom ear molds, so you get the same sound blocking in all models. Just be sure to go to someone for the molds that they recommend. It's crucial to get the molds made correctly.

I will look for a dealer that can fit a molded ear phone. The UE 400s I see are not custom, but come with 4 sets of ear plugs. I will look into the UE 400. Thanks

Sorry I used the wrong product name, the ones I have are the UE-4 Pros. They are custom, and you need to get good ear molds made for the lab to make them for you.

Scott

Got my Quietcomfort 20i's this evening - amazing. Best noise cancellation I've ever seen. Rechargable over MicroUSB and plays when not powered on. Simply brilliant.

The only possible concerns I have with it revolve around the control module that houses the rechargeable battery. Is it large/heavy enough to be annoying, and I assume the battery is not user-replaceable?

Personally i really like most of shure's in-ear series...while they're not as sound isolating as other over-the-ear headphones, they are good enough to block out most cabin noise. i have a pair of 535s and i love them..im not sure about the 215s but my set came with ~12 sets of earbuds so you're pretty much bound to find one that you like/fits best. while they are a bit unusual and it was hard to get a good seal at first, you'll eventually get used to them and they're comfortable enough for longhaul flights. To me i feel that they reproduce sound better/more accurately than bose headphones..

and i forgot to mention a minor detail..if you want to use IFE as the source for some reason i've been getting a lot of static on United 737 and 757s...