The Best Noise-Cancelling Headphones: The Top 3

Looking for the best noise-cancelling headphones online is time-consuming and can be confusing. The following is a list of the top products as rated by some of the more popular and trusted review sites online, PC Mag, CNet Reviews, Playlist, OnHeadphones, Consumer Search and Seat Guru. The following lists are by no means exhaustive and more will be added over time.

I have not included customer reviews since they tend to be very sporadic, based on emotion or personal agenda, plus they are only based on the one product. The professional reviewers have been doing this for years and have the luxury of testing numerous headphones against each other, providing a more technical and objective result.

They are listed with prices and the pros and cons as noted by the reviewers. The prices are the MSRP and current Amazon and eBay prices for comparison.

There are three names that crop up more often than others across the six review sites. These are the Bose QuietComfort 2, QuietComfort 3 and the Sennheiser PXC300 and in 4 out of 6 of the reviews, the BoseQC3 came in at number 1 as the best pick. I will start with the top 3 reviewer's picks and follow up separately with the rest of the list.

Bose QuietComfort 3
MSRP: $349
New on eBay for: $285
Amazon Price: new $349; used from $330


Just because this was the best overall choice of the reviewers doesn't mean it is a perfect product. It just means that Bose beat out the other headphones in more areas. In fact, the reviewers noted room for improvement in both the QC2 and QC3.

Pros:

• Smaller and lighter than the QC2 while maintaining excellent noise-cancelling ability
• Sound quality better than the QC2
• Comes with rechargeable battery which lasts for 20 hours
  
• Folds up compactly for storing

Cons:

• Price
• When the battery dies, so do the headphones. There is no music pass-through when the battery runs out. That means you need to make sure the battery is charged before you take off on that long flight. You can buy an extra battery as a spare, but you have to buy from Bose and they are charging $50. Also you will need a charger, another expense if you want that spare battery.

Bose QuietComfort 2
MSRP: $299
New on eBay for $225
Amazon Price: new:$299 used:$279.99


Pros:

• Above average sound quality
• Comfortable around-the-ear fit
• Good quality noise-cancelling feature
• Good battery life - requires one AAA battery for 35 hours of use

Cons:

• Price
• Need to carry batteries around with you
• As with the QC3, no music pass-through when battery is dead or noise-cancelling feature is switched off
• A bit bulkier than the QC3 (weighs 7 oz.)
  

Tip: One reviewer, Seat Guru, liked both of the Bose headphones, placing them at 1 and 3 on their list. They even had a suggestion for anyone looking to buy the QC2: "With the next generation of these headphones on the scene, it might be a good idea to look for a bargain pair of these on eBay..", and from the looks of it, this is what most people seem to be doing.

Sennheiser PXC 300
MSRP: $199
New on eBay for $129.99
Amazon Price: new:$125.87; used:$119.99



This is an on-the-ear headphone as opposed to the Bose QC2 around-the-ear headphone. It uses 2AAA batteries for approximately 80 hours of operating time.

Pros:

• Good comfort level
• Good noise-cancelling performance
• Very lightweight (2.3 oz)
• Some remarked that the sound quality was slightly better than the Bose models
• Lets music pass-through even if battery dies
• Price
  

Cons:

• Volume is limited
• Noise-cancelling electronics are separate and cannot be disconnected from the headset
• Noise-cancelling performance was challenged on louder planes