QuietComfort Headphones

I just got these on sale at Costco for $170 on the last day of the discount. They were listed as normally being $330 and I needed new headphones so I said fuck it. I'm pretty satisfied with my purchase after listening to some music and thought the sound quality was pretty good although I'm not a huge audio expert.

I’ve got a pair of B&W Px series that I use for air travel that I like. I gave my wife my Bose ones after I got them. Good sound quality, good noise cancelling, comfortable, come with a nice case for travel. Can find them on sale or used in your range if that is an option.

I haven’t listened to all of the ones you’ve listed, so not sure I can say with 100% accuracy, but I do like them and chose them over the Bose due to sound quality. (The Bose probably has a smidge better noise cancelling.) I think the Px8 is more about “luxury” build quality, so if that isn’t important the Px7 is a fair bit cheaper and will still be very high quality.

I have these and they are fantastic

Hello, I travel a lot for work, long haul flights of 12 to 14 hours. Tried AirPods Pro, Bose Ultra QC ear buds, but after a while I cant take the pain or they fall out (yes ive tried the different bits to fit my ear). Also use a pair of Bose QC SC headphones and to be honest I dont like them. The noise cancelling is good, but they push against my ears and after a few hours I have sweaty lugs. Hoping someone can recommend a pair of good headphones good for long haul flights that wont cause me sweaty crushed lugs. Sky is the limit in price, I use iPhone and Windows Surface when travelling. I was looking at the AirPods Max, but looking for some recommendations before I try those.,

I have owned both. I currently have the Sony headphones. They sound good but are not as comfortable as the Bose. The Bose also sound amazing. I'm about to pass these Sonys on to one of my kids and go back to Bose.

I've been demoing the Bose Quietcomfort SC ($220 at Costco right now) and I'm ... reasonably impressed? They're not best in class at anything but they're better than the competition.

\[**Tl;dr:** These are a perfectly good pair of ANC headphones that will serve most people very well. They’re not super resolving and their slightly bassy consumer tuning and their layering and instrument separation leave a lot to be desired from an audiophile standpoint, but they sound perfectly nice and the ANC functionality is great; exactly what I’ve come to expect from Bose. They’re also a distinct step up from some of their competitors with regards to their controls and app-accessible tools. They’re my new recommendation for anyone trolling in that market; if I didn’t already own similar products that I like better, I would probably keep a pair of these for travel. Unfortunately, they have to compete with the Airpods Max and Bose 700s in my collection, and those are headphones that I REALLY, REALLY like for this use case. Whole-hearted recommendation for most people, they’re just not for me. [**Scores:**](https://daemonxar.blogspot.com/2025/02/on-my-skewed-rating-scale.html) Cost-agnostic:  6 out of 10 Cost-sensitive:  7 out of 10

I've tested most of the ANC headphones on the market, and my honest recommendation would be a pair of Airpod Pro2s with a pair of workmans headphones over top (when necessary). By themselves I think the Pro2 do a better job of noise cancelling a plane better than anything on the market (even over the ears), and if you add a layer of nice isolation over them you're golden. (The Pro2 also have the side benefit of being great headphones in their own right, with a lot of usability beyond just flying, and they're on pretty decent sale at Costco right now). Alternatively, if you don't want to wear tradespersons ear muffs, the Airpods Max are a REALLY good pair of ANC headphones. If you don't want the Apple ecosystem, the only other set in your price range that I like the ANC on is the Bose Quietcomfort, but the sound quality is ... lacking, and the ANC isn't quiet as good as either Airpods for anything other than a consistent drone like an airplane's engines. I'd skip the Sonys, both for sound quality and ANC quality reasons. Sennheiser has better soundquality than Bose (especially if you use the personalization tools and spend some time on EQ), but less quality ANC. Good luck! I just took a flight with my nervous-flyer girlfriend with her using my Bose 700s last month, and she did great. I'm sure you will too!

The QC are a step down from the M4 in terms of sound quality, but pretty equivalent in ANC. They're currently $169 at Costco if you don't mind the White Smoke color, though.

A lot of modern active headphones have a pretty good DAC mode where they connect to a PC via a USB-C cable to get lossless/low latency connections while letting all the parts of the headphone operate the way they're designed, so if the goal is just to listen plugged into a PC you can definitely do that that way. I really like the Fractal Scape at $200, but it has a (removable, flip up-able) boom mic. The challenge you're running into is that that's an usual collection of requirements in the modern market outside of the cheap stuff; most headphones that give a damn about mic quality use a boom, so you're stuck with the low-end market. Maybe one of the Bose QCs? The sound isn't amazing but would be a step up from where you're at, a little behind the M4.

Hi , I am looking for a few thoughts on what would be the best option for ANC wireless headphones for flights? I am by no means an audiophile, I just like to listen to music and as long as it doesn't sound crappy, i'm pretty happy about it. My issue is when am I overpaying for something that would be wasted on someone who doesn't use an equalizer, for example. Budget would prefer to be $250 max but can easily go up if it's worth it. Located in the USA, MN specifically. here's a list of what I have looked at, as well as teh price for where I am located. These would be for new, not used. * ~~Bose Quiet Comfort (current?) - sale - $175~~ * Bose Quiet Comfort Ultra - sale - $260 * ~~Bose QC Costco - $200 online, likely less in store~~ * AKG N9 Hybrid - costco - $240 online * Beyerdynamic Aventho - $200 * ~~Sennheiser Momentum 4 - $175~~ * ~~Sony XM4/XM6 - $300/$400 - I've also seen people say on here a lot to avoid the xm5~~ I currently have a pair of beyerdynamic mmx200, which I think have a pretty good sound output and use while at home. Tried on a flight though and so much engine noise came through. Thank you all for the help! Edit/Update: I went and tried out a few options at a couple stores nearby. The Bose QC base, sony xm options, and sennheiser m4 all did not fit my ears well. Bose was a small ear cup that resulted in having to fit behind my ears and putting pressure on them from behind. Sony and Sennheiser both had shallow cups and my ears were pressed against the foam and folding back from that.

The ultrasound sat fine on my ears, it was the qc base model that was funky. I was an apple user but switched back to android, simply because of keyboards 😂 I think I am leaning to the qc ultra just because the others I'm not really able to try without purchasing first. And the ultrasound didn't bother me at all in terms of how they sat As for ear buds...I have found maybe one pair I've liked? They tend to either fall right out of my ear or put weird pressure on it and I can only wear them for an hour max.