Bose has a reputation for its products being the epitome of quality. And I can’t really complain, I’ve owned a pair of Bose Tri Port headphones which I got a few years ago, and they have lasted me since (about 3 years). As with the Tri Port headphones, the QuietComfort 3 produce excellent sound quality, with nice bass that you just can’t get with earbuds or typical headphones. I’ve owned my pair of QuietComfort 3′s for a year now and this is my experience with them.
What’s in the box
The package is pretty much run of the mill for mid to high end electronics. Yes this is a review of the actual product, but I feel the packaging plays an important role in the sale and perception of the product. Maybe Bose’s stand is that packaging is irrelevant because it’s the overarching quality of the product that counts. All I’m saying is it that with a product that costs $350 the packaging could and probably should be of Apple caliber.
Alright, back from my little aside there in the box you’ll get:
- The headphones (of course)
- Two 5ft long 3.5 mil jack cables
- Wall charger
- Two rechargeable batteries
- 3.5 mil to 1/4 inch jack adapter (pretty sure of this)
- Carrying case with room for the charger, batteries, etc
- Airplane jack
My thoughts
Unlike all the other Bose headphones, these are actually on-ear, which sit on, which some of you may like, but personally I prefer around-ear. Actually when I got these I was suprised at how small they were, as I thought they were around-ear like my Tri Ports. Just something to consider when buying.
Also like my Tri Ports, the padded parts of the headphones have seem to worn down a lot (about 1/2 the puffiness that they used to have).
If you’ve never had or used noise cancelling headphones before, you might want to try a friends or test them out somehow, because they can be a bit hard to get used to. Unless you’ve become accustomed to them, your ears might sting. All I can say is it takes time to adjust, and make sure that the headphones are on correctly and completely cover your ears.
For $350 these headphones are extremely pricey. Are they worth the high price tag? I don’t really think so. In terms of noise cancellation, yeah these are pretty much top of the line. But simply enough, around-ear headphones cancel noise automatically just through the fact you have a wall around your ear. So comparing the reduction of the Tri Ports to the QuietComfort 3, the QC3 wins, but not by as much as you’d think.
In my opinion, the Tri Port headphones are a much better buy, but if you really think noise-cancelling is the only way to go, the QuietComfort 3′s are definitely a solid option.
Additional info
The 5ft cables have headphone jacks on either end, but one end is a 2.5 mil which you probably wont see on too many other headphones, so you probably wont be using these cables for anything else.
The second battery came in a padded yellow envelope.
