Bose® QuietComfort® 15 Acoustic Noise Cancelling® Headphones(Old Version)
by Bose
|
List Price: Our Price: $222.00 You Save: $77.95 (26%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: CE See more product details |
|---|
Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Bose® QuietComfort® 15 Acoustic Noise Cancelling® Headphones(Old Version)
Customer Review: Using with hearing aides
Summary: 5 Stars
There are so many reviews already, I thought I would take the time and write a review from the perspective of a hearing aid user. I have severe hearing loss, and wear a pair of Siemens Ceilo behind the ear aides. In the past, full ear headphones were never an option for me. They generally made the aides feedback terribly, and they tended to make the background noise worse. It was kind of like cupping your hand behind your ear, to funnel more sound to your ear. I've been using ear-hooks, which work with the inductive telephone coupling in hearing aides. That does work, but the frequency response of the aides in telephone mode is severely limited, making for rather low fidelity music.
These were on display at a large store near here. I tried them on, and was blown away. The sound quality is amazing, and the noise reduction is impressive. These cooperate with my hearing aides fairly well. If I turn the aides down pretty low, and run my mp3 high, they don't feedback at all, and I get enough volume. Like most folks, there are times (and I should know better, but still....) when I like to "blast 'em." I can turn the aides up a little and get a much higher level of volume, but that does cause the aides to feed back some during quieter times in the music. The noise canceling feature cuts out background chatter, and the television. And there is none of the effect I described earlier where other headphones tend to funnel outside noise into your aid.
I'm very-very happy with these. They aren't perfect with my aides, but they do work very well. The increase in fidelity (to me) is worth a little fiddling around to get things just right. My advice would be to buy them someplace that has a great return policy and try them out for a couple of weeks. I'm hearing nuances for the first time in some music that I've listed to my whole life. I can't recommend these highly enough.
Now if we could talk Bose into making something similar with larger ear cups, or redesigning the body in some way so that it doesn't cause feedback.........
Customer Review: The quality of the COMPANY matters too...
Summary: 5 Stars
Over the past ten years, I've gone through a dozen or more headphones, including four with active noise reduction, and -- until recently -- have selected them based on their technical features. Here are two examples, however, of why the company behind the purchase also matters when picking a product:
1. Experience with Sony MDR-NC40: I bought these in an airport and immediately discovered that my ear canals are too small for even the smallest earbuds. I called Sony, got disconnected twice, finally reached a service representative who told me that smaller earbuds were available, but I'd have to BUY them (for tiny bits of silicone that cost virtually NOTHING to manufacture) and -- worse -- fitment did not qualify for a return of the product despite the fact that the product was worthless to me if I could not get the earbuds to fit. When transfered to Sony's parts department to order a set of the smaller earbuds (and feeling resentment for having to pay for them!), I again got disconnected twice. I finally gave up and gave the headphones away.
2. Experience with Bose Quiet Comfort 15: I took my well-used Bose Quiet Comfort 1 headphones (a decade or so old with scuff marks and scratches all over them) into my local Bose store to do a noise reduction comparison. The noise reduction was considerably better. I mentioned to the salesperson that I liked the newer model but I couldn't really justify spending $300. At that point, he mentioned that Bose has an upgrade policy and I could exchange for my old headphones for a $200 credit against the price of the new ones. My net cost was $99.
My point here is not that Bose makes better products (I leave those evaluations to the science and objective judgement of organizations like Consumer Reports), but that Bose is customer-focused, it stands behind its products, and it is highly reasonable (maybe even too much so!) in terms of honoring customer loyalty.
From that point onward, I've become more loyal to Bose simply because I know that they'll stand behind what they make.
Customer Review: These Changed My Life!
Summary: 5 Stars
I work in an old building in Midtown Manhattan. All day long, I am aurally assaulted by the sounds of the old noisy fans in the building heating/AC system and the loud fans in the two PCs on my desk. There is a disturbed woman in our office that hurls profanities at her computer and phone all day long on the days when she has no medication. To top it all off, at least once a month there is a loud parade coming down Fifth avenue that usually features off-key opera-type singing. My job entails analyzing complex financial statements and listening to company conference calls for detail.
I always thought these headphones were either an expensive gimmick, or just didn't work. I was so wrong!
These things have changed my life. They are expensive, at about $300, but worth every penny. When I put them on, before turning them on, they already block a lot of sound. But the cacophony of annoyance still gets through. As soon as I flick that switch, poof! the noise is gone. I mean totally gone. I can barely even hear my own typing on the computer.
In fact, these things block the noise so effectively that it feels like you need to pop your ears. After one day, that feeling went away. I find I can understand the conference calls better now as well because by taking away the background noise, the speaker's voice is all that is left.
These are much more comfortable than I expected, although who likes to wear headphones all day long? They are nicely cushioned and I find the attention to detail almost Apple-like. For example, the wire will disconnect from the headphones for those times when you just want the noise cancellation without listening to anything. They are bulky, but fit into a reasonable sized case for travel.
Audiophiles - you'll have to read a different review, I'm sorry, I'm no expert on how these compare in musicality to other headphones. But if you sit in the direct line of a torrent of profanities and other annoying constant noises like I do, these are for you!
Customer Review: Amazing Noise Reduction
Summary: 5 Stars
I have used noise canceling headphones for about 5-6 years, so I know how they work and the degree to which they will lessen noise, as well as what type of noise they will lessen. I have always been interested in the Bose QC2 but never invested the $$ because of the breakage problem, plus the phones I was using were, I thought, pretty much as good as it was going to get for noise cancellation. I read about the QC 15's and their new technology, and also that the headpiece had been redesigned so as not to break so easily, and the fact that there is now a single cord, not a Y-cord, which I hate. I decided to go ahead and take the plunge.
I could not believe the noise reduction the first time I put them on. They reduced much more noise than any noise-cancelling headphones I've ever used. Just the passive resistance (the improved ear cups) is noticeable, but I was in a small bedroom with a pretty noisy window air conditioner and a fan, and once I put the headphones on, literally 6-7 feet from the a/c, I could not hear it at all, or the fan either. I was shocked that they could block noise that well. The next thing I tried was the TV. Like all noise-cancelling headphones, they don't cancel out all noise, and certainly not voices, but their blockage of voices is again more than my previous two pair of NC headphones. I would say there is a significant difference in reduction of all types of noise when compared to my previous headsets, but again as with any NC headphones, they don't completely cancel out voices.
As far as music, well I'm not a super-picky audiophile in terms of music quality. I think my music sounds slightly better than my other headphones, but not incredibly, spectacularly better. But then, I bought the headphones strictly for their noise-canceling ability, and any improvement in sound of music would be a bonus for me. The music does sound quite good. I'm extremely satisfied with my QC 15's.
Customer Review: it is what it is and it is good
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought these today to replace my Sennheiser 250s which has served me well for many years. Just felt I wanted to step it up in the nosie cancelling department after traveling to Europe 2-3 times a year for the last 15 years.
PROS:
Best Noice Cancelling I Ever Experienced. Twice as good as my Sennheisers (of course three times more expensive).
The sound quality is very good. As good as any $100-150 headset I ever used. I bet that most regular people that aren't into Grado or BeyerdDynamics or high end Sennheiser will agree that these are very nice sounding. I just watched Underworld and some of those werewolf growls sounded very deep and crisp. Also listened to music, everything from Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Rihanna to Manowar, Iron Maiden and Amon Amarth with some Tom Petty, Dixie Chicks and 50 Cent thrown in for good measure and it all sounds really good.
Comfortable. I had them on for several hours now in front of my pc. Will fly to europe with them on Saturday and I will update my review then.
Build quality. Compared with the Monster Beats Studio that were self-disintegrating in the next shelf in the store (seriously, have you ever seen anything more plastic looking for 399?) where I bought these the QC15s seem quite sturdy.
CONS:
They are expensive at 300. I think you have to look at it like a $100 pair of headphones with $200 worth of Noise Cancelling.
SUMMARY:
I like the QC15s a lot and gave them five stars.
However if you are not going to use them in planes, trains or other noisy environments I think you may be better served with a pair of non-active noise cancelling headphones. $300 will buy you something spectactular, sound quality wise.
So buy these for their top-of-the-line noise cancelling. The more than adequate sound quality is a bonus but not the reason to pay $300