Audio Video News

Bose has just unveiled its latest set of noise-canceling headphones, the Quietcomfort 15 Acoustic Noise Canceling Headphones. They replace the long-standing QuietComfort 2 headphones in the company's lineup, and sport some new electronics tucked into a case that's surprisingly familiar.

The new headphones look almost identical to their predecessors, with hardly any cosmetic changes made to the familiar grey cups. Underneath the plastic, though, Bose reworked virtually all of the headphones' noise-canceling features. In addition to the internal microphone used in the QuietComfort 2 headphones for its active noise canceling, the new models have an external microphone to pick up even more sound with which to generate an inverse wave. The ear cushions on the QuietComfort 15 were also redesigned, to improve the headphones' passive noise reduction.

Bose offered a demonstration of the new headphones in its store in Manhattan today, and I had a chance to try the QuietComfort 15s. While I don't want to offer any hard analysis from a showroom sampling of the product, I will say that they blocked out 91 dB of white noise quite admirably. Bose QuietComfort 15 headphones go on sale tomorrow at Bose stores, and will begin shipping out to other retailers in a few weeks. They will be available for $299.95, the same price as the QuietComfort 2 headphones.

— Will Greenwald