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<p>I’ve tried them, the noise-cancelling doesn’t make the audio quality any better, and it just so happens that my $150 headphones sound about twice as good as $300 bose headphones I tried. This is a well known phenomenon, just go to an audiophile forum like head-fi.org and they’ll tell you the same thing. Bose is only top of the line for people who haven’t tried real audiophile headphones, which ironically cost less than bose.</p>
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I found [this</a> graph](<a href=“Build A Graph – Headphones.com”>Build A Graph – Headphones.com) interesting.</p>
<p>In a noisy environment, Bose fidelity with -20 dB of isolation presents a purer and more enjoyable listening experience than, say, Audio-Technica fidelity with -5 dB of isolation.</p>
<p>However, Shure fidelity with upward of -20 dB isolation for all audible frequencies (-30 dB for most) is superior to either. It’s really amazing to see a pair of non-active-noise-cancelling headphones beat the QC15’s isolation in the entire frequency range. That’s quite a testament to the power of an ear canal seal.</p>
<p>Those graphs usually don’t give a very good picture of sound quality, because a lot of high end headphones that are known to be much better than the ones you compared have graphs that would make it seem like they’d be worse, when it’s not the case. For example, denon ahd7000.</p>
<p>People will always have their opinions. I can’t be bothered to research all the different aspects of top quality headphones. For me, Bose QC15 headphones are perfect. Snugs perfectly around the ear and cancels out most of the noise. I can wear them for hours without my ears getting sore.</p>
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The graph just represents isolation, of which more is always better when there is background noise. In a silent room, I prefer my current Sennheiser HD650 (not graphed since it has no isolation at all) over the Audio-Technica over the Shure over the Bose. That’s a purely subjective judgment that can only be made by listening; someone else might have a different preference. I’d probably be more favorable toward the Shure model if given a chance to do A/B comparisons with it using lossless recordings like I did with the Bose and Audio-Technica models.</p>
<p>But none of that matters when an airplane engine overpowers the music. In that environment, I’d prefer Shure over Bose over Audio-Technica over Sennheiser. Maybe even Bose over Shure if the music is harshly recorded or highly compressed because more detail isn’t necessarily more enjoyable in that case.</p>