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Although they are lightweight and comfortable and they do reduce the ambient noise, they definitely do not cancel it. I previously owned Shure in-ear noise cancelling headphones and found them to be quite uncomfortable to wear. Based on some of the reviews where people stated it was almost disorienting to have such silence while wearing these headphones I expected much more noise cancelling function. I was anxious to try this set of Bose QC3 on ear headphones since I noticed so many other people traveling using them and Bose has such a good reputation. I have to admit that I was disappointed in the sound cancelling function of the QC3s. I could clearly hear the dialog on the tv 6 feet from me while noise cancelling was turned on. I have yet to try them on a plane but based on my initial test run at home I think they are nice headphones, but not worth the money if you are buying them to travel and want peace and quiet while on a plane.
For this price range you could get a pair of shure se530s, sennheiser ie8s, westone 3s, or ultimate ear triplefi 10 pro, all of which have better sound quality.These headphones are decent at best and if you take the time to do a little more research on other brands you'll find a whole other world of better headphones. It cut out some noise, but because the noise cancelling works by introducing additional noise it actually lowers the overall sound quality of the headphone.
Durability: For the price I'd expect more durability because for a cheaper price you could get a pair of sennheiser or beyerdynamic headphones which are built like tanks.Comfort: They felt pretty comfortable at first but after a while my ears started hurting so I had to take them off for a break.Sound quality: They sounded muddy compared to my denon d2000s and the bass was a little overpowering for me even though I am sort of a bass-head. Sound quality wise these are probably in the $50-$75 range.
Although I don't own the headphones I did borrow my friends pair for about a week to compare to my other phones at home. Isolation: I didn't really find the noise cancellation to help too much.
Much better headphones can be had for cheaper. My friend thought these were the best he'd ever heard until he tried my denons, now he has a pair of denons and gave the bose to his brother =P.
If you're really concerned about isolation I would look into some hi end in ear monitors. If you thought Bose was the pinnacle of audio quality you clearly haven't heard any real hi end audio.
And, they do drown out most sounds, although not entirely. Additionally, the way that the cushions fit on my ears makes them hurt.
I only listen to them at a relatively low volume. After using these headphones, even for short durations, my ears ring.
I've also noticed pressure on my ear drum when using the headphones. At first, I thought it was a freak occurance or a coincidence, but it seems to happen everytime that I use them.
Even hours after using them my ears will ring as I try to sleep. The sound is good, although I have little to compare them to aside from cheap earbud headphones.
Given the cost and the issues I've had with ringing ears and discomfort, I can't recommend them.
I am a petite person, so it seems that I need smaller headphones, hence why I chose the Bose QC3 instead of the over ear Bose set. But, I also experienced the sucking sensation others have mentioned in the QC3. I brought these along on a 4+ hour plane ride in addition to a pair of Brookstone regular noise canceling headphones. Most likely, this is due to the fact that I wear glasses, but I can't do without the glasses, otherwise, I can't see a thing. It seemed to have softer ear pads. The QC3 fit better than the Brookstone headphones. I didn't notice a big difference between the two.
In that sense, the Brookstone pair was much better. I am not an audiophile, I just needed some noise canceling headphones for the plane since I take the same flight twice a week. This was in my right ear and it felt like I had to keep popping my ear. But, after about 2 hours, the right side of my head was hurting from the headphones. The Brookstone headphones did the same thing.In terms of noise canceling functionality, both sets of headphones seem to cancel the same amount. In addition, the Brookstone headphones felt better on my ears. But, the other issue with these was that the headband was too large for my head and the headphones keep falling backwards on my head.I'm giving up on the larger headsets and will try out a pair of the Sennheiser PXC 250s next.
I bought these QC3 headphones hoping that they would cancel out bedroom noise so I could sleep. While they were comfortable and the music sounded great, they did nothing to cancel out the background TV or snoring noise. So one week after trying them, I returned them.
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