Alternatives to Bose's QuietComfort Headphones

[thirsty moore]

Looking for affordable noise cancelling headphone alternatives, and I know there are some knowledgeable board members.

[Herr Professor Doktor Doom]

I don't know if any of the alternatives offer this, but if you can you should go for 'phones that offer the same ear-cupping form that Bose has.  The noise cancelling by itself is not enough otherwise.

[Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer]

I don't have any knowledge, but appreciate your efforts to get something that cancels the noise. I really want to bitch slap the people on Metro that play their bad hip hop and alternarock so loud that you can here their headphones halfway across the train car.

[kosmo vinyl]

while not the noise cancelling version, i really like my sennheiser  PX 100 for sound and comfort.  their noise cancelling version would be worth checking out

[chaz]

Originally posted by kosmo vinyl:
  while not the noise cancelling version, i really like my sennheiser  PX 100 for sound and comfort.  their noise cancelling version would be worth checking out

Yeah I'm gonna pick up a pair of these one of these days.  I love my grado's but they're a bit of a beast to haul around....

[Herr Professor Doktor Doom]

I had some Sennheiser noise cancelling headphones and didn't like them.  They gave this weird sense of pressure in the eardrums, that became painful after a few hours.  But, as they say on the internet, your mileage may vary.

[pj]

Originally posted by Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer:
  I don't have any knowledge, but appreciate your efforts to get something that cancels the noise. I really want to bitch slap the people on Metro that play their bad hip hop and alternarock so loud that you can here their headphones halfway across the train car.

Hey, at least live with the knowledge that they won't be able to enjoy their terrible taste in music 20 years down the road because they went deaf listening to their ipod at ridiculous volumes.

[thirsty moore]

Originally posted by Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer:
  I don't have any knowledge, but appreciate your efforts to get something that cancels the noise. I really want to bitch slap the people on Metro that play their bad hip hop and alternarock so loud that you can here their headphones halfway across the train car.

I guess you never saw the Star Trek movie where Dr. Spock gives the Vulcan death grip to a guy who's blasting his boom box on the bus.

[ggw]

The New York Times recommends the Sennheiser PXC300:
 
 Noise-canceling headphones are another option for reducing sounds in noisy places, but they use a different technique. Instead of simply blocking sound, they include electrical components that actively cancel out noise; the device produces inverted sound waves to offset sounds detected in the environment. They require power sources like batteries, and they filter out sounds mainly in the lower ranges â?? the drone in airplane cabins or noise on trains and buses.
 
 A model from Bose (www.bose.com), the QuietComfort 2 Acoustic Noise-Canceling Headphones, is one such product, available for about $300. They are bulkier than Walkman-style headphones but comfortable, and the fit is snug. The padded headband wraps over your head, and the earphones, also padded, totally enclose your ears.
 
 In my tests, on a cafe patio within earshot of a noisy highway, the overall experience, from the comfortable fit to the noise cancellation to the audio quality, was good. Listening to some brassy swing tunes that featured prominent bass amid an array of horns, the low sounds, as well as the highs, were strong.
 
 Noise-canceling headphones are also available from Sennheiser (www.sennheiserusa.com), based in Wedemark, Germany. The PXC 300 model ($200 at Amazon) is one of several portable options. The earpieces do not completely cover your ears and the headband folds up, a bit like a pair of eyeglasses, to fit inside a case. Because of the small headset size, an additional tube-shaped enclosure is provided to store the batteries and components.
 
 In tests at a noisy cafe, the PXC 300 filtered out much of the din, with higher frequency sounds like chatter and laughter occasionally getting through at muffled and tolerable levels. The audio quality was good; in Pink Martini's "Clementine," which begins softly with piano followed by percussion, then vocals and eventually horns, the sound was vibrant and clear, and the world around me slowly dissolved away.
 
 You can get them for less than $200 on eBay

[thirsty moore]

Thanks all!

[brian_duty]

I got a pair of AKG k26p headphones a few weeks ago, and they sound amazing.  What's also cool is that they fold up pretty small, so I can put them in my pocket (jacket at least, wouldn't want to try jeans).  They play loud, so I end up not even needing to turn the Ipod up more than 50%, and they don't disturb others around you.
 
 http://tinyurl.com/jovmw