It depends very much what you use them for I suppose. I travel a lot by plane and train and these headphones are a godsend. It is no effort at all watching movies and hear every single sound which is impossible with normal headphones. I use a rooted Nexus (I think you can now just install an app for it), a travel usb stick and these headphones (the wired ones in my case). If for every day use, they may not be what you are looking for. But I will not be without these while traveling any time soon, if ever. This is a cracking price and I would buy them if I hadn't had the wired ones already.

See my comments and review link below.
They have no competition in terms of NC.

I was hoping the new Sennheiser 550 or Sony 1000-something ones would beat them, but from a sneak preview the wirecutter guys gave me on the comments section and my own test on the 550, this is not the case.
Was very disappointed, so opted for the 35s after all.

Depends on your needs. The AKGs have nowhere near the NC capabilities of the Bose.
I too thought I valued sound quality more than NC, and got the Sennheiser Momentum 2.0, which are even better (and more expensive) than the AKGs in every aspect. But after a while, and having experienced the NC capabilities of the Bose, I realised that in most cases that I use NC headphones I don't really care apo SQ that much (on an airplane or public space watching movies or youtube or whatever, and rarely doing critical listening with FLAC files or anything of that sort); noise isolation is much more important in this context.

I also thought that I'd be better off with on-ears as they are more compact.
Having used them and compared them to over-ear ones, I can tell you that they are very tiring for long sessions (pressing on your ears hurts after a while), while the over ears offer better sound & isolation and the size difference is not that much when you fold them up and put them in their case; so actually doesn't make much of a difference in your backpack, for example.

So I'm selling my Sennheisers. I'll use my non-noise cancelling, wired AKG 702s when I want to go for SQ.
In all other uses, the only thing I'll miss is their build quality and good looks compared to the Bose. :smiley:

Also see link in reply to guitar_h3ro below.


Wirecutter do some pretty solid and thorough roundups.
E.g.: http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-noise-cancelling-headphones/

The Bose have brilliant noise cancelling, although only average sound quality for music and movies, but after borrowing a pair for a flight I just couldn't justify the cost for a few flights each year.

Instead I bought these from 7 day shop for £32 based on the reviews... I've tried them side-by-side with Bose on a transatlantic flight and while the noise cancelling isn't as effective as on the Bose headphones, they are probably about 80% as effective... so still a huge improvement over standard headphones. Sound quality is pretty much on a par with the Bose too i.e. not brilliant but more than adequate.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/7dayshop-Headphones-Active-Cancelling-Aeroplane/dp/B00AXVURFY

There's a Bluetooth version too for a few quid more (but not tried them)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Headphones-Earphones/7dayshop-Freedom-Cancelling-Bluetooth-Wireless-Headset-Handsfree/B00R7KDSZ0

If I flew more often, then yes, I'd buy some Bose... but as I don't the 7 day shop ones are pretty damn amazing for the money.

not much I would say; I used an older version on flights and I own a pair of Sennheisers PXC 350s. The 350's were as good as the Bose in terms of NC and I think they sounded a bit better. However both were good and helped reduce background noise whether or a plane / train / tube etc

I wear my QC25s OVER my preferred in-ears. Best of both worlds. <3

You mean Amazon's thieving exchange rate is standard and XE's, which is the actual current exchange rate and closer to what your card will be charged (if you disable use of said thieving exchange rate) is "random"?
Sounds like it's time to update that "etiquette", if it exists.