Bose Quietcomfort headphones, like mine

The Bose Quietcomfort noise canceling headphones are very effective at reducing the overall white noise that I regularly experience in a number of environments.   They’ve been a wonderful way to reduce fatigue while traveling, as well as to protect from hearing loss.

Many years ago, on my first trip back from Japan, I was able to get my companion and I upgraded to business class.   A standard feature for business class is that they loan you the use of Bose QuietComfort headphones.  I’ve played with noise canceling headphones before, but never used a good set on a very long flight.  Having used them on that trip, I’ve been totally converted.   During the flight, I occasionally had to take off the earphones to speak with someone, and I was amazed at the amount of white noise that otherwise happens in the airplane cabin.  It was nearly deafening!  When I landed after 15-20 hours in flight, I was tired, but I did not feel drained.   I was more alert, and felt better overall.

The benefits of  the Quietcomforts were most notable on a large, trans-oceanic flights, but I’ve used them while commuting, and in noisy computer datacenters.    They help on the noisy boston subways, and I notice that I’m not the only ones wearing them.   They don’t solve all the problems, since very noisy squeeling train wheels still get through.  A lot of the more consistent ambient noise vanishes nicely though.  As a bonus, the audio quality is amazing.

I’ve used other noise canceling headphones, and my understanding is that there are other comparable models.   There are also a good number of noise canceling “in ear” or “earbud” headphones, but I’ve never had good experiences with the “in ear” headphones.  In my experience, nothing beats the Bose though.