Bose headphones?

[Ben]

Anyone have and can recommend these things? I live with roommates but also like loud music. My birthday is coming up, thinking these might be worth getting? If not these, what else we got?

[tonyy]

How much are you looking to spend? My buddy got a set of Bose headphones that are absolutely incredible. The sound quality is amazing.

[Ben]

I'm not looking to spend anything...hahaha. Bday present.

[gogolfing]

Can't go wrong with any Bose product.

[Fraser]

  gogolfing said:

Can't go wrong with any Bose product.

Not quite true. I think most Bose stuff is over-rated but really like the QC2 and QC3 headphones. As my wife and I travel quite a bit they are indispensable and one of the first things to go in the carry-on. They might be called noise cancelling but in reality they aren't. They do get rid of ambient noise like that 'whoosh' that you have when flying but anything with variable frequency, talking, crying babies etc isn't cancelled out, and is actually amplified somewhat since the ambient noise that covers it is removed by the headphones. If you want to get rid of all noise look for noise isolating headphones.

As for sound quality, they are pretty good but I've got some Bang & Olufsen in ear buds that are much better than the Bose and some Grado Labs headphones that blow them out of the water. In fairness the last pair were more than double the cost of the Bose. With the QC2/QC3 product you're paying for the noise cancelling ability (and marketing!).

[David in FL]

  Fraser said:

really like the QC2 and QC3 headphones. As my wife and I travel quite a bit they are indispensable and one of the first things to go in the carry-on.

I travel alot on business and agree. The QC headphones are great. Good sound and they help isolate you from the incessant background noise of the plane and the rest of the passengers. Worth the money to me.

[uttexas]

I have some Grado SR80 headphones. They are awesome, better than bose, and much cheaper. They are open air design (not for private listening) and a bit fragile (not for working out with). They are perfect for loud music/movies. All headphones will destroy your hearing if listened to loudly.

see this site for reviews/recommendations "Cans" is the British term for headphones
http://www.goodcans.com/

[Ben]

Awesome, thanks for the good feedback so far guys.

[Stacey_E]

For the money, most Sony models I've seen and tried do a great job. During 20 years as a semi-pro musician I was amazed how many Sony headphones I saw in different studios. I'm of course talking about the big ear muff types, and I'm not exactly sure if those would fit your requirements.

And not to preach, but the poster that mentioned the thing about them potentially damaging your hearing is right. With quality headphones you will not have to crank them up to get the full spectrum of the sounds.

Pete Townsend of the Who is notorous as being a rocker who has lost a good bit of hearing. Most people contribute that to their excessive and sometimes record breaking stage volume. He himself contributes it to headphones. Being a family man, but a musician by trade, he often had to do a lot of listening at home late at night when the wife and kids were in bed. He claims that most of his hearing loss came this way, by constantly listening to headpones at high volumes to avoid disturbing the family.

[Razorhog]

I highly recommend Sony MDR-V6. You'll see them in use in studios a lot. Comfortable and sound great for under $100.