So often you read product reviews from people that just acquired the product. They have only had a limited opportunity to put the product through its paces and are really only able to give a first impression. At best you might read a review after a few months of use.
I have been using the Bose Quiet Comfort 3 headphones since 2008, nearly five years. It all started when, for the first time in my career, I did not have my own office with a door. The workplace had gone open-concept and the associated noise was a new experience. I wanted something to dim the drone and I had heard that noise cancelling headphones might do the trick.
Someone else in the office had received a set of Bose QC3s for a gift. I gave them a try and they were great; then I saw the price. That got me looking around. Surely I could do better. I started researching headphones and found a lot of reported downsides to the Bose units: they were too fragile, they used a proprietary battery, and they were expensive. I did find some Sennheiser headphones that sounded pretty good and they were half the price of the Bose, so I bought them; big mistake. They just did not cut it. They were not very comfortable and they had no-where-near the noise cancellation of the Bose headphones I had, had a chance to try.
I decided to take the $400 (plus tax) plunge when Bose had a $50 accessory deal. You would get your choice of accessory to a value of $50; I went for the spare battery after hearing horror stories of dead batteries on long plane flights.
From day one I was not disappointed. They worked just like the first ones I tried and they were comfortable enough for me to use all day long. I was expecting to be swapping out batteries everyday, but to my surprise the battery lasts forever. I listen to Radio Paradise when I work and I can play that all day long all week long on a single charge. I can make 10 hour each way round trip flights and not worry about running out of power, though I have the spare battery charged and ready to go if I need it. The airplane adapter is great cleaning up the signal on the old school planes that were built before the iPod generation.
My very first flight with the headphones was almost a disaster. They were new to my travel kit and I left them on the plane after an Air Canada flight to San Francisco. I figured I had just thrown $400 down the drain, but I left my name with Air Canada operations and they got them back to me via Montreal a few days after I returned. They come with a nice little case including a spot for a business card, so it is pretty easy to keep all the parts together and identifiable.
After about three years I noticed that the ear pads had started to wear and needed to be replaced. For about $40 including shipping, Bose sent me a new set of pads that were easy to replace for the old ones. After nearly five years one of the two cords that came with the headphones started to separate between the wire and the connector sheath. Unfortunately I could not find a replacement at bose.ca, but I found something compatible on eBay from China. For $7, including shipping, I got a new cable. It is not quite the quality of the original, but it is working just fine.
I loved my Bose QC3s from the first time I tried them and I still love them five years later. They have only needed minor maintenance and a little care. They are always put away in their custom fit case after use. They can still be purchased today. They are not any cheaper today than they were five years ago, but I must say they are worth every penny. I see they now include an iPhone/iPad adapter. My total cost over five years has been just about $500. At 200 work days per year, averaging about 5 hours per day of use, I figure I have paid about 10 cents an hour for a comfortable and quiet working environment.
While I cannot claim to have tested a wide variety of headphones, I sure think my Bose QC3s are the greatest headphones ever!
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