I’m facing an increasing amount of travel with my job and would like some sound cancelling headphones to make travel more bearable. I’ve been looking at the bose sound comfort 25’s but have seen the akg n60’s reviewed very favourably.

A couple of questions I guess, does anyone have experience of either of these and are noise cancelling headphones worth the investment or is it better to get the same priced normal bins?

It depends if you want to only listen to music through them or sometimes just enjoy complete silence.

I have used the Bose and a number of friends and family who travel extensively swear by them. Click the switch and all external noise just disappears.

If you will only be listening to music through them then go for a pair of ‘phones designed purely for music playback. Closed back so as to avoid annoying people.

The new NAD ones on particular get excellent reviews and are around that price point…

I’ve had a pair of the Bose Quiet Comfort in ear noise cancelling earphones for a couple of years now.

They are quite brilliant. The bits that stick in your ears are very comfortable and external noise just goes away. Weather it’s the daily train commute or long haul air travel, they’ve always been great.

I want to listen to music and watch films during travels and also whilst working.. I’m not a total audio geek but know what I like.. is playback adversely affected to such an extent to spoil a listening experience?

Not really but why go for nc phones if you’re not going to use the nc bit?

If you’re commuting a lot though there is likely to be times when you don’t want to be listening to anything and that’s when you can just flick the nc switch and enjoy the silence…

I think you misunderstand.. i want the next but have heard having that makes for crap playback

Travel long haul once a month or more at the moment. Wouldn’t be without my Bose. Yes, you can get better sounding headphones, but in flight, I’d rather have excellent sound with excellent noise cancellation, thanks.

I’ve got Bose ones I got through work and I’ve always taken them on long haul flights. They work really well at cutting out the drone of the engines. I don’t normally bother for shorter flights though.

Cheap Sennheiser mm550x’s on Amazon.

110. Were well over £200.

ive got these –

http://www.sony.jp/walkman/products/MDR-NWBT20N/

they go for about 50 quid on ebay.co.uk imported from japan sellers

N on the end of the model number is noise cancelling and they only seem to sell that model in japan

totally blocks out kids screaming; chavs shouting at each other and drunks sitting next to me on the train

problem is I cant hear any important train announcements

I travel a fair bit with work and have these:
Click me

I’m a bit of a cheapskate so didn’t want to stretch to the Bose, which I’m sure are great. The Goldring’s work well and I would recommend them.

After years of travelling and using a number of cheaper noise cancelling products i’ve finally bitten the bullet and invested in the Bose ones. Not cheap and you can get better sound quality for similar money – though the sound quality is still excellent, but the noise cancelling bit is very good, so good its a bit eerie at first. The only downside is that you can’t sleep on your side. I don’t like in-ear options as after a couple of hours or so of being in my ears they start to get uncomfortable and itch so over-ear are far more comfortable for long periods of time for me.

Bose over ear jobs here, (QC15’s) used them on long haul flights many a time & theyr’e so comfy I don’t know I’m wearing them but most importantly, they sound awesome.

Owner of some Bose nc headphones here and got them some 12 years ago. Found them excellent on long haul flights for both music, audio books and films and they are still going strong.

Bose qc25 here (I think, over ear ones) and they are great. Use on any flight, just for silence sometimes, the only way I can sleep on a long haul flight. Bloody good sound as well. Id buy a pair tomorrow if I lost mine. Possibly the only issue is that the over ear cans can result in a sweaty head after a few hours, but not a deal breaker in any way at all.

Thanks all.. resounding bose fans here.. tempted to go to those compared to the unknown akgs

Check out the Audio – Technica quitepoint headphones.

bose qc15 owner here, sound great, the nc is excellent, memory foam ear cups so super comfy, also have mic and inline controls, so if you have an iphone you can control music player and take phone calls too.
truly excellent, would buy the same again happily.