Like many of you guys I have responsibilities to children, to our spouse, pets, and bills.

I have been so fascinated by the Bose headphones for a while now, but when I checked out the price online I couldn’t believe how much they were asking!!!

I did try few different ear-buds and ear-phones, behind the ear headphones, and traditional headphones, but I have not found a product that suits my need.  I think … as of now I have spent about $30 on them.

The ear-buds made me hear too much (body movements, frictions and etc), the ear-phones made my ears sore, and the headphones were just uncomfortable (especially since I have a huge head).

Anyhow, my husband recently brought home a Sony’s noise-cancelling headphone for $60 (including tax) and I almost killed him when he came home with it.

Not only it cost that much, but I am not a huge fan of headphones!  Did you know there are increasing number of hearing losses among younger generation because of headphones or loud music in the car or tv’s?

According to the American Academy of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, “Although 10 million Americans suffer irreversible noise-

induced hearing loss, with 30 million more exposed to dangerous noise levels each day … (Fact Sheet: Noise-Induced Hearing Loss in Children).”

Kids are attending more music concerts without wearing ear plugs, digital portable players such as MP3 players are so readily available to kids, many games allow kids to use headsets to communicate with other online players when playing video games, and cells phones are common among teens as well.

An “ear specialists say a whisper is 30 decibels and that a normal conversation is 60 decibels.  The sound from an iPod Shuffle has been measured at 115 decibels … that about 25 percent of people using portable stereos had daily noise exposures high enough to cause hearing damage (Fact Sheet: Noise-Induced Hearing Loss in Children).”

Back to my husband’s purchase … I was about to send him back out to return it, but he is the type of a guy who doesn’t buy stuff often for himself – it’s always for the family.

So, I tried the headphone last night and it is awesome.  I honestly can’t compare our Sony’ to the Bose because I have never tried it and don’t know personally anyone who owns it; but hey, whatever suits their boat.  Maybe I need to have richer friends … what do you guys think?  Haha

Well … with that said … here is a great review I came across, from cnet website by David Carnoy on 6/24/2003, regarding the Bose headphone.

Good:
1)    Super comfortable
2)    Effective noise-canceling
3)    Easy storage since the device folds and comes with its own carrying case
4)    30-day home trial

Bad:
1)    Expensive
2)    Music dies when the batteries die

Bottom line:
1)    Great product
2)    Editors rating – 4 out of 5 stars; average user rating (out of 178 reviews) of 3 ½ star out of 5

Here is a review by Jasmine France (12/5/2008) on Sony’s headphone.

Good:
1)    Affordable
2)    Earpads are soft
3)    Include airline adapter and pouch
4)    Nice looking

Bad:
1)     Headphones tends to chafe
2)    Bass is lacking
3)    Not really effective on noise canceling

Bottom line:
It’s good for traveling, and if you are on strict budget.

I agree with most of what France said about the headphone, but I would like to share what I think about the headphone.

1)     It is relatively light even though it looks heavy and bulky.
2)    It folds for easy storage
3)    Has a long cord; which is awesome because other headphones restricted my movements.
4)    Sound is great; especially since I don’t put the volume too loud – I have very sensitive hearing, but it doesn’t leave a loud ringing in my ears.
5)    Because it comes with the extra large plug thing (sorry don’t know the technical term for it) I let my child use it to plug into the keyboard while they play around.

Now here is the bad part.

1)     It is still kind of expensive for my preference.
2)    It does have the bulky feeling – so I can’t take it with me when I am walking my dogs; so I still use my earphone with my Apple iPod.
3)    The head pieces moves too much when I try to fold it back in.
4)    I personally don’t think it’s ideal using it with your laptop because you have to drag that thing every time you move – I think it’s great for a desk top because you can put it on your desk when you want to take it off.  This is just a personal feeling about the product.

All-in-all I can’t really compare because I don’t use it for reducing noise in the airplane or cars or sleeping or anything like that.  And I don’t use it to play loud music that requires lots of bass support to fully enjoy the music.

I am happy with it, but I would be more happy with it if my husband ONLY paid $20 for it!

Reference:

Carnoy , D. (2003)  Bose QuiteComfort 2.  Cnet reviews.  Retrieved from http://reviews.cnet.com/headphones/bose-quietcomfort-2/4505-7877_7-21165521.html 9/1/2009.

Fact Sheet: Noise-Induced Hearing Loss in Children.  American Academy of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery.  Retrieved from http://www.entnet.org/HealthInformation/Noise-Induced-Hearing-Loss-in-Children.cfm  on 9/9/2009.

France, J.  (2008)  Sony MDRNC7 headphones (black).  Cnet reviews.  Retrieved from http://reviews.cnet.com/headphones/sony-mdr-nc7-headphones/4505-7877_7-33352178.html  on 9/9/2009

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