Bose headphones, I was a skeptic

But now I'm a believer. A few years ago, I'd bought some cheap Sony noise cancelers. They were good for blocking some constant noises like a dot matrix printer or fan, but didn't touch things like office chatter. I work in a small office and several of the people around me are doing customer support over the phone and sometimes with the ever annoying speaker phone. Its a necessary evil sometimes. And one lady next to me is very loud on the phone.

The Sonys started developing shorts and I might be getting more cranky in my old age as the talking became more bothersome. One day last week, I had enough and went to Best Buy. These might be the best thing I ever bought. With a little music or talk radio I can barely hear any noise around me. It has to be something very sharp, and then its muffled in the headphones.

No one else here may have a need for them, but I would recommend them to anyone.

Thanks for posting this. I bought a cheap pair (I don't remember the brand) and, as you report, they work pretty well for constant noise, like engine and road noise in the car, but they don't work near as well as I'd hoped. I'll remember the Bose's for the next time I think I'll need them.

Interesting. I have seen the ads for the noise cancellation headphones and wondered how effective they were. I could sure use a set the next time I am forced to fly. The last time I did (a few years back now) the noise level really disturbed me.

One question I have, do you need to have something playing like music or a audio feed?

No you don't even have to plug the cable into the headphones, but they do need a battery. Without an audio feed they will block background noise and muffle other noises around you quite a bit. Without the noise canceling being turned on they are decent noise mufflers. They must have just lots of noise canceling material in them.

One test I did when I got home was to just put a battery in them and sit here with the tv on. All I could hear of the tv was a slight murmur and it was turned up a little over half. About double the level I normally listen at. Then I clapped my hands as hard as possible. I heard what sounded more like a golf clap.

One annoyance I do have with them is that they do require being turned on to hear any audio feed, so they will not work without a battery.

They have proven comfortable enough to wear all day, which wasn't something I could do with the old ones.