Bose QuietComfort 2 Acoustic Noise Cancelling Headphones

Other products by Bose

Product Details

Product Manual [108kb PDF]

• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• ASIN: B00021Y9OA
• Item model number: 2 Acoustic Noise Cancelling
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (80 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 28, 2006

Product Description

Product Description
Experience the innovative combination of the best noise reduction technology and the best headphone audio performance with the QuietComfort 2 Acoustic Noise Cancelling headphones. The premium headphones dramatically reduce unwanted noise, and advances in Bose technology make what you want to hear sound even better. Their ergonomic design allows for a comfortable fit and the fold-flat feature makes storage of these lightweight headphones even easier.Slip on a pair of QuietComfort 2 headphones and hear your music come alive. Decades of Bose research combine with the Acoustic Noise Cancelling headphone technology to deliver the ultimate in audio performance. This award-winning technology electronically identifies and reduces the unwanted noise around you. So you hear more of what you want to hear? and less of the tiresome sounds that have so often distracted you.Proprietary TriPort headphone technology also helps give you the best headphone audio performance while keeping the design compact and streamlined. Unlike conventional, bulky noise reduction headphones, QuietComfort 2 headphones are lightweight and comfortable. Listening to your favorite music, you may even forget you have them on.Whether you take them on a trip or to the office, your QuietComfort 2 headphones will fold flat to store easily in a bag or briefcase. A single detachable audio cable gives you easy access to portable players, home stereos and in-flight entertainment systems, all with less tangling than two-cable designs. That same cable can be removed so your headphones can go "cordless" when you simply want the benefits of noise reduction.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

200 of 204 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing product if you are a business traveler..., May 21, 2004

By	P. Summersgill (San Rafael, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

First of all, let me say that I resisted buying the Bose QuiteComfort 2 headphones for a long, long time. I travel a fair amount for business, and had been looking for a pair of noise cancelling headphones for those long plane rides, but I didn't like the $300 price tag. I bought and returned a number of the cheaper Sony alternatives after finding them dramatically inferior. A business colleague had the Bose headphones, and I borrowed them for a test drive. There really isn't a comparison. Turn on the power and the ambient noise really does melt away, whether you have music playing or not. I now use them to review and edit audio files on my laptop when I'm flying, watching DVDs, as well as mowing the lawn while listening to my iPod. I never noticed the pressure that an earlier reviewer mentioned, but after reading their reviews it is there. However, it's never caused me any discomfort. Really, I have nothing bad to say about these headphones.

121 of 122 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great noise cancellation, very comfortable, August 1, 2006

By	Lisa Shea "LisaShea.com" - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

Ironically, while most people buy a version 2 before they buy a version 3, I bought the Bose QuietComfort 2 *after* I had purchased the Bose QuietComfort 3 newer headphone set.

Here's the issue. The QuietComfort 3 are the brand new version, they cost more, and they are "smaller and lighter". They offer pretty much the exact same noise cancelling quality, but they fit on top of your ear vs being a larger, bulky around the ear style like the QuietComfort 2.

However, when I tested out the QuietComfort 3 for a month, I found them to be quiet painful. Not in a "pressure on the ear" sense - they were quite comfortable to wear. Rather, when you turned them on, the pressure they exerted on the actual eardrum in order to "cancel noise" hurt. It was a physical sensation, when you turned them on and felt that WHOMP of wave energy pressing against your eardrum. Anybody who thinks the QuietComfort 2 is uncomfortable in that sense hasn't tried the QuietComfort 3 yet.

Yes, I realize that in order to cancel out ambient sound waves, there has to be an opposite sound wave to cancel them out. It's simple physics. However, because the QuietComfort 2 is an around-the-ear design, it doesn't have to blast that cancelling wave right at your eardrum. The larger "air area" being encapsulated by the ear cups gives you more area to work with, and you can block out the sounds without bombarding the ear canal with signals. I did numerous tests with the QuietComfort 2, with my set of iPod playlists that had left-only and right-only sounds, and even during the quiet parts, it was quite comfortable.

Also, as much as people might say that the QuietComfort 2 has "large" ear pods, I really didn't find them bad at all. I was able to sleep with them, wear them without feeling silly at all. The case, in fact, is about the exact same size as the QuietComfort 3 case.

In all, I am EXTREMELY happy that I traded in my QuietComfort 3 headphones for the larger but "kinder" QuietComfort 2 set. The noise cancelling ability is pretty much exactly the same, and the long term comfort is FAR superior. Plus, since the QuietComfort 2 takes batteries vs rechargeable plug-in items, it means if I drain the battery, I simply plunk in new ones. With the QC3 I'd have to wait for a recharge, assuming of course I had the appropriate charger (and outlet access) for whatever airport or country I'm in.

71 of 73 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Headphones, August 22, 2004

By	Wirenut "wirenutt" (Liverpool, NY United States) - See all my reviews

After reading some of the other reviews, I feel I must weigh in with my opinion of these headphones. I bought them online from Bose after some research of similar products. I'm not made of money, but $300 didn't seem bad, since I do really enjoy listening to music, and I own some incredible Klipsch speakers. I believe the most important component in an audio system is the final link, the actual sound transducers, whether they are the speakers, or headphones, so I tend to not scrimp on either.

That being said, I have listened to a wide variety of headphones, and I own a pair of Sony V600's. The sound quality of the Bose QC2's are on par with the best I have heard. I personally do not get the sensation of "pressure" mentioned by others, however the noise-cancelling feature does produce a sensation that, frankly, you don't get anywhere else. It's not bothersome to me at all, and I don't even notice it after the first minute of listening. As a frame of reference, I work in a noisy manufacturing environment, and I wear foam earplugs in my ears over 8 hours a day, so the QC2's are entirely unobtrusive to me.

As a testament to their noise-cancelling ability, I wear them when I mow my lawn with my cheap (noisy) riding mower, and in that capacity they are nothing short of phenomenal. I plug them into my Muvo MP3 player and turn the volume on the player up to about half to three-quarters, and I don't even notice the mower engine anymore. No other headphones I've tried were able to let me enjoy listening to music while I mowed.

The AAA battery seems to last forever. The construction of the QC2's can best be described as very high quality, but light. The 'phones weigh very little, but I wouldn't want to drop them off of a table for fear of them breaking. I tend to be very careful with my electronic "toys," but I still find myself treating these even more carefully than usual.

The bottom line is I am completely satisfied with my QC2's. They don't cancel all noise out completely, but they do reduce it very noticeably, cancelling lower frequencies (street rumble, footfalls on stairs and floors) better than higher frequencies (female voice, television sound.) When I bought them, Bose was running an offer of a free CD player with the purchase of the 'phones, and that helped push me over the fence. Even without the free player, I can recommend buying these without reserve.