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Comment by jordanthoms | Hacker News Reader

I do think some of their headphones are best in class - Not the greatest value for money though. Their QC line have the best noise cancelling, and if that's the most important criteria they are the ones I recommend to people. (Personally I use Sennheiser for my ANC cans as the sound is better and noise cancelling is not too far off).

Their sports in-ears are great also - I've never found any in-ear headphone that beats the MIE2 in comfort and not falling out, and the sound isn't bad either.

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My car came pre-loaded with Bose speakers and, quite honestly, they're the best speakers I've heard in any car I've driven. The sound is pretty good considering that my car's stereo system is actually better than what I have at home. I've never tried their headphones though, I'm not in the market though I'll probably end up going Alclair for custom, in-ear stuff (I play drums so it's nice to have in-ear monitors).

I'm not really into car audio, but I'd imagine this is one place where Bose probably does pretty well because everyone is forced to use the same tiny boxes.

Try Etymotic. Not good if all you are looking for is bass but has served me well as travel earphones vs. Bose QC which are too bulky for me.

+1 for the MIE2, the best sound quality / confort compromise I found (given my particuliar criterions, I don't like plugs for example).

Little disapointment: the new in hear truesound ones do not sound as good as the MIE2 (personally bought them in hope to replace my aging MIE2 pair). I recommend buying the old ones on ebay if you're looking for that kind of product.

I have the inner ear version, and the noise canceling is ridiculously good. $300 was hard to swallow for the sound quality, but you're paying for the NC.

For $100 more, you can get UE4s molded to your ear canals. You can stand next to an arriving subway train (LOUD) and barely hear it.

http://pro.ultimateears.com/ue-4-pro

There is a difference between isolation and noise cancelling. I need to be able to hear normal noise, but block out droning of airplanes and white noise.

Canal-phones are not for you then. Over ear noise cancelling cans or buds would be appropriate.

I know what is appropriate for me, the inner ear version of the noise cancelling BOSE plugs. Because they don't heat up my ears, are far more comfortable, a small inconspicuous foot print when traveling with a single 30L backpack, and they work.

A good pair of canal-phones that fit properly should provide enough noise isolation (on the order of 25-40 dB, depending on design) that active cancellation is unnecessary in most environments. People performing in front of heavy-duty speaker stacks often use canal-phones to be able to hear what they're doing without going deaf. The caveat is you really do need to mess around with different tips to find ones that fit and shove those suckers in deep enough to get a good seal, which a lot of people hate doing. Noise cancellation is great to have in over-ear cans but would be of very limited utility in canal-phones, assuming their isolation doesn't suck. $300 will get you a very good pair of Etymotics or Shures, which you should be able to get very good isolation with. If you can afford more, custom molded canal-phones are the gold standard.

I've heard, in many places, that Bose's noise-cancelling over-ear cans are decent though.

Having had Shures, and now Bose QC20s, there is a significant difference. The noise canceling definitely works.

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