Hi Guys, once again I turn to the collective knowledge of the bit-tech forums. I work in an open-plan office with nine other colleges. There are two meeting rooms seperated with a glass wall and glass door. rambling/rant Four of these colleges make up our quality department, so they often discuss complaints with other college's in our office. Two other are our purchasing deparment, who are always on the phone with (apparantly deaf) suppliers. Since the two meeting rooms are equipped with big infocus screens, these rooms are often used for conferense/skype-calls with clients. Sales people seem to believe that you need to yell if your client is far away. I work in Continous Improvement so I'm often analyzing boring data in our in-house software or Excel. Needless to say, I appreciate some quiet. After trying several other unsuccesfull solutions, I've decided to invest in some Noise-Cancelling headphones. I've already decided to go for the Boss QuietComfort series (unless somebody can convince me otherwise) but can't decide if I should go for: 15 around-ear or 20i in-ear. 15 PRO: - it shows I'm not to be disturbed - most likely more comfortable for using several hours - most likely some better sound/bass 20i PRO: - more portable, other uses are also possible (also fit for iPhone) - newer, and according to reviews: better then the 15's What are your opinions? I know these don't sound as good as other sets in the same pricerange, but I find that 'normal' since they are noise-cancelling. I just hope/expect them to be better then the stock apple in-ear headphones I use atm. thanks
I wear Sennheisser i300 all day at work (and my colleague also wears in ears) and I have to say that there is an issue that you will push your earwax into your ear and end up with buildups, which are quite gross and uncomfortable. I have a friend who works in a media production house that has the Quiet Comforts and swears by them, and all his work apparently agree that they're a damn site better than what they're using. If you've got the choice for work I'd go over ear because of that.
I deal with a similar issue at work, the TL: DR; Go for the QC15s. I started with Goldring NS1000 ~ £60. Which bang for buck they are very good, noise canceling is excellent, and a pro over the Bose is they work with out the noise canceling on. What the QC15 do however, is excel at comfort. I can wear the QC15 all day at work and just not notice I've got them on, and this is almost as important as the noise canceling. the QC3s are pretty good, although imho not as good/comfortable as the QC15s. But might be a good compromise if you want something more portable. + its rechargeable rather than throw away AAA batteries on the QC15s. I cant recommend in-ears though if you want to wear them 7-8 hours day, Monday-Friday. Unless you have ear-canal's of steel...
Ok, so the advice can be summed up as: +3 hours/day, 5days/week: go for over ears, choose comfort Guess I'm getting some of them 15's! Just wished they would update them with a newer model as they have been around quite a while. Feel kind of dumb now. I was in NY last summer and tested them at B&H but didn't buy them as my old office space was 'ok' and we had just moved into the new office. Too bad, would have been a lot cheaper. cheers, Michiel.
I'm a frequent traveller. I think I'm going for the QC20s. The QC15s are just a bit too big and unwieldy for travelling with. Plus I don't own an iPhone anymore...
The QC's, and electronic cancellation in general, do very little to cancel out the relevant portion of office noise... voices and other chatter. AC noise, fan noise, engine noise = fantastic and this is one thing the QC's do really well. But for all-purpose, non-flying use, you're wasting a large portion of the QC's capabilities. If you're sticking to Bose (and being an Apple fan, you are of course - if not going Beats or B&W) then the AE2 is probably just as effective at keeping non-engine type noise out. Thing is though, neither are the best of breed in terms of passive isolation. Would I be wasting time in mentioning something which isn't sold at the Temple of Apple?
Hi, yes offcours. All suggestions are welcome. I just thought, when it comes down to Noice-Cancelling, that Bose is #1. And I hate Beats. Don't get me wrong, I love Apple, but don't love whatever other (non-apple) products they sell. I was probably going to get the Bose headphones from another retailer as well... cheapest will do.
Well, they sell it because these brands are the same thing in the end - marketing and form over function for people who aren't quite sure what they're buying, but are certainly not going to let other people know that. Comfort is very debatable, but one of the best passive noise-blockers is the Sennheiser HD25. It's on-ear and I personally find it torture, but many others say they're totally OK with it. There are lots of versions of the standard phone available with cosmetic differences - aluminium earcups, coloured earcups, etc. Delivers a crisp, incisive sound with a slightly compacted sense of width but nevertheless really good performers. Very lightweight, fully rebuildable and robust to boot. If you can try it in a local music store (and then of course you are going to buy from them, OK?) or get it from somewhere with a return policy it might help you make a risk-free decision.