neiname

Is spending $299 on it worth it?

I'm looking to get a headset to watch movies when my fiance goes to sleep and was wondering if the Bose headset was worth it or was there another option that would be more affordable but provide the same quality of sound. Comfort and quality are my biggest factors.

Thanks

joshd2012

From what I hear about Bose, I would say no. I haven't heard about Sennheiser, but all the higher end audio stores carry them. I would also like to know if these headphones are worth the price.

Blade

Why are you buying noise cancelling headphones? They're supposed to block out loud droning ambient noises...it sounds more like you just need a good headphone set, not necessarily noise canceling ones.

cowanrg

get a good pair of sennheiser or even sony's. i have the sony mdr-v700, and they are killer. i use them for movies and music when i want it LOUD at night but dont want to wake anyone.

the bose are "ok", but if you can, buy the sennheiser or sony's, and BRING them to the bose store. do a side by side test, and find that the bose is once again overpriced.

story: i had a lady the other day come into my store and say that she had heard those bose headphones on a plane. she said the sound was "orgasmic" (yep, she said it...). she wanted THOSE headphones, none other. so, i told her to just give the sony's a shot. she dropped $150 on them immediately. she had them on for like 1 minute, and just said, "give me those". this was even AFTER i had told here where to get the bose. she didnt care after hearing those.

edclem

for listening in quiet ambient environments, I highly recommend Sennheisers. I've had a pair of HD 570's for about a year and a half. They're fantastic.

Noise cancelling headphones are mainly beneficial in high ambient noise level environments, such as while on a plane.
There are other brands (such as Sony) that offer active noise cancelling headphones for significantly less $ than the Bose. I'd be willing to bet that in side by side testing they may well be comparable.

mvc

I've had my Sennheiser 580's for about 3 years now. Its an awesome headset. The only problem is that the cord breaks easily. These headphones make my altec lansing speaker set sound like totaly crap.

iveal

If sound leakage disturbing your wife is a concern, then get a good pair of closed headphones. Sennheiser HD280, Sony V6/V7506, or a pair from Beyer Dyanamics are often recommended. Check out www.headphone.com and their recommendations.

Movie_Man

For your purpose, it doesn't sound like you need a noise-canceling set. After reading many reviews on the net, I bought 2 pairs of the Sennheiser HD-497 at Amazon for $47.99 each.
I haven't opened them up yet, they're gifts for my wife & myself.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...212259-7007265

I see the price has now been changed to $54.94.

neiname

Sound leakage is not a problem, the problem is the other night I couldn't watch LOTR because she was sleeping in the other room and everytime the music started up I had to ride the remote as to not have her wake up. I want to get a pair of headphones so I can listen to my heart's content.

Thanks for the headphone website it was very informative and I think I will be going with the Sennheiser HD580. Now I just have to find the best price.

CheapBastid

http://formen.ign.com/news/26758.html

iveal

The Sennheiser HD580 will not disappoint. Sennheiser is known to have exceptional sound imaging, so if your system can provide a decent downmix of the various channels, I imagine you will be able to derive a decent immersive experience. If not, Sennheiser does sell a separate Dolby DSP module for its headphones, but many headphone enthusiasts do not think much of it.

Sennheiser has a $20 rebate on these until the end of December. Newegg (www.newegg.com) sells these for $125 + shipping from time to time, but you could find more notable retailers which sell them for a bit more ($140-160). Many recommend the use of a headphone amplifier with this particular set though to deliver its full potential because of its high impedance (provided by headphone.com). If this discourages you, you may also want to consider the Grado line of headphones (~ 32 ohms versus 300 ohms for the HD580) or the cheaper Sennheiser HD497, which is lower impedance. Note that Grado headphones generally do not provide the same depth of soundstage that Sennheisers do. You can also simply get the HD580 headphones now and get the amplifier later, knowing that in most cases, your headphones won't be the limiting factor to sound quality in your system.

You may want to read some of the threads found at Head-Fi forums (www.head-fi.org) where many headphone enthusiasts hang out and should be able to help you more if needed.