Bose Quiet Comfort 2

Everything is good about the Bose Quiet Comfort headphones. They are comfortable, excellent sound, amazing noise cancelling and batteries last a good while. Plus you can get spares easily direct from Bose to keep them in good condition.

plastic side slotting pieces can't be replaced and I find can break after a few years, but easily taped back together.

The best headphones I have ever worn.

Very comfortable. Very good clean well balanced sound, never tiring. Beautifully packaged in quality sturdy carry case with all the accessories you could need. However, they're expensive and it would be nice if the noise cancellation cut out higher pitch sound as well as low pitch. These are now my favorite way to listen to music.

I've owned many pairs of headphones and the Bose Quiet Comfort 2 headphones are by far the best I've have ever owned! They don't cancel out all noises, which I don't think any of the noise cancelling headphones can, but they do wonders with reducing the amount of noise around you so you can enjoy your music even more so than normal. They have great sound quality, they really do. The highs are crisp, quite literally, and the lows aren't bellowing out of the speakers to deafen you, they are just right. :-) These headphones really help out with giving you perfect, clear sounds that helps you bring your music to life.The price isn't for the faint of heart. I'm just lucky enough that my company will pay for them as part of my compensation package. If you have 350 to blow on these headphones, do it. They make travelling fun, and they make music sound better than ever, just like Bose normally does.

I think better sounding and better quality headphones can be bought for the same amount of money the Bose Quiet Comfort 2 cost.

Overall, these are very good head phones. I have worn them while mowing our farm fields and they do a very good job of quieting down the tractor and letting me listen to my music. I also use them at the office when I need to concentrate on a design that I am working on.

I would not recommend the purchase of these Bose headphones because:

They have bad sound quality for the price. Even worse when the noise cancelling is turned on.

They feel cheap and are unreliable.

The noise cancelling is, to be honest, rubbish.

They are ridiculously expensive compared to the performance.

I can offer some advice to you who are reading this review and offer some better and less expensive alternative; If you want to listen to music in busy, loud environments (tube, airplane, bus etc.) then I would recommend earphones that go into the ear canal such as the -Shure E2c (£40)- or the -Koss Plugs(£12)- These are much better at isolating background noise, are cheaper and the Shure have much better sound quality than the Bose. If you are just on a plane or tube or bus and are looking to cut out background noise then buy some ear plugs, they work better than anything you can get, and they are cheap and comfortable. If you want better sound quality at the sacrifice of reduction of background noise then get some closed around ear headphones which have great sound quality for money and good sound insulation (not as good as in ear canal phones), but you may feel like a bit of a prat on the bus with a pair of giant cans on your head (never stopped me!) Unfortunately, bigger headphones suck out more battery life out of your device...

Good Luck!

I've had the Bose Quiet Comfort 2 headphones for a while now. I originally had a pair of Quiet Comfort 1's - the original of the noise cancelling headphones. I was impresssed with those, but I really did not like the external battery case, which got in the way. I was really looking forward to the "2" series, as the battery was now integral to the headphones. A really nice design.

They are very comfortable, but they do get a bit sticky if you wear them a long time. They are good headphones, but considering they cost over 250 quid, they should be.

I was a bit disappointed with the noise cancelling technology, as I didn't realise that they only cancel out constant background noise thats at a specific frequency range - such as an aircraft engine. Don't expect it to be dead quiet when you wear them! Although the design itself (without the electronic system) is pretty sound proof anyway, so its not a real big deal.

That said, the sound quality is simply fantastic. The best headphones I have ever used. They have an integral amplifier too - a nice hidden switch on the input plug. There's only 2 settings, but it helps when you are using a quiet sound source.

But it's not a perfect world. There are some real down points.

One annoying thing is having to constantly replace the battery. I use rechargables, and one battery lasts about 4 hours. 8 if you use non-rechargables. Sounds like a long time, since you wouldn't use them for that long. Unless you are on a 20 hour flight to Australia, that is. But that's not the issue. I've lost count of the number of times I've started to use the headphones, then the warning light starts to flash - and the sound will suddenly stop - after you have just settled in on the couch for a long night in. Then you lose 5 or 10 minutes trying to find a spare (and fully charged) AAA battery. On the bright side, it takes the standard AAA's so it's not like some headphones which either have the battery built in (in which case you have to charge the whole unit), or its a proprietry type of battery. The Bose's take standard batteries, so at a pinch you can raid the TV remote control for a spare if you really don't want to get up!!

The joint that connects the headphone cups to the headband is designed to swivel. This is so it folds flat, to fit into the special carry case. The joint is plastic, similar to the plastic used in laptop design. That's fine, but the joint is put under a lot of stress with normal use. After about a year of light use, the left joint fell apart, breaking at some key points.

Now, I was worried about this possibility when I first got them, when I saw the thin plastic used by Bose. So as a result I was extra careful, always putting them away and being careful putting them on and off. It made no difference.

They were out of warranty, so I repaired them using a sheet of metal cut and bent to shape to replace the broken plastic, plus some strong black tape, and some strong glue. The repair has so far held. As a precaution, I also straightened the right hand side in a similar way to the left's repair. That has also held. They work fine, but they don't look as nice as they used to. The black tape blends in so that they look ok from a distance, but it's heart breaking for this to happen to my favourite 300 quid headphones. And I wouldn't wear them on an aeroplane anymore - which ironically is what they were designed for.

Now, about 2 months ago I wrote to Bose to complain about the bad design and cheap plastic they used. I included photos of the joint before and after repair. I have not received any reply at all.

So, in summary - Great headphones for sound quality and looks. But expect no support from Bose. And if you aren't too fussy about how they look, I would recommend re-inforcing the plastic joints with black tape if you want them to last.