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Bose QuietComfort 3 Acoustic Noise Cancelling Headphones | 
 enlarge | Brand: Bose
Category: CE
List Price: $349.00
Buy Used: $259.99
You Save: $89.01 (26%)
New (7) from $339.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  111 reviews
Color: Silver
Media: Electronics
Warranty: 1 year warranty
MPN: TJ539VC/A
Model: 3 Acoustic Noise Cancelling
UPC: 017817391276
EAN: 0017817391276
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: Used, great condition. Includes: QC3 headphone, CARRY CASE, battery charger and battery. Has some minor scratches and dents from normal use.
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| Features:
| • | Compact, on-ear design forms a gentle seal to help block unwanted noise and deliver high-quality audio | | • | Bose Acoustic Noise Cancelling headphone technology electronically identifies and reduces noise | | • | Lightweight for hours of comfortable listening | | • | Rechargeable battery offers approximately 25 hours of run time | | • | Rechargeable battery and charger included |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
QuietComfort 3 Acoustic Noise Cancelling headphones deliver acclaimed Bose performance in a compact, on-ear design. Just slip them on and experience full-spectrum noise reduction that fades unwanted sounds into the background. Rich, clear audio reveals nuances you might have previously missed. And a lightweight, comfortable fit offers hours of listening enjoyment. It's a unique combination of benefits available only from Bose.On-ear QC3 headphones match the noise reduction and audio quality benefits of our around-ear QC2 headphones. Wear them when you fly, and you'll notice a dramatic decrease in engine roar the moment you turn them on. Connect your MP3, DVD or CD player, or listen to the in-flight movie. You'll hear audio detail and clarity you may have never experienced before. When you just want to create a sanctuary for yourself, simply remove the detachable cord and enjoy the benefits of untethered noise reduction.Use QC3 headphones at home or at the office and notice unwanted distractions fading softly into the background. An optional Cell Connect cable also lets you use your QC3 headphones with most music-enabled mobile phones. Of course, no headphones will eliminate all noise. But proprietary Bose noise reduction and audio technologies work together to make almost any listening experience more rewarding with QC3 headphones. And when you're done listening, the earcups fold flat for compact storage in a slim carrying case. For added convenience, QC3 headphones are powered by a rechargeable battery with approximately 25 hours of run time. Both the battery and a wall-socket charger are included with your purchase.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 106 more reviews...
QC-3 vs. QC-2 (side by side comparison) July 13, 2006
892 out of 900 found this review helpful
I have used the Bose QuietComfort QC-2 headphones for about a year, and have traveled to Asia over 5 times with them, and domestic travel as well. About 120 hours of air time. Never took them off. Vastly reduces my jetlag. A pleasure to own and use.
On an impulse buy, I bought the QC-3's after a demo at the local Bose store. 30-day return policy. Compared them side-by-side... both on the airplane, home, with and without sound.
My impressions (your mileage may vary :-)
Noise Cancellation:
The QC-3 has impressive noise cancellation, I think it's incrementally better than the QC-2. Perhaps it's a little too 'aggressive'. Let me explain. I feel a little uncomfortable from a (perceived) pressure on my ear. Note: this is not physical pressure from the ear-pieces, nor is it air-pressure, but rather a physco-acoustic result of noise cancellation. I felt this only slightly with the QC-2's. Bose did an amazing job of noise cancellation given the challenges of an "on-the-ear" design which offers less physical noise isolation due to lack of cups. Everyone has a different tolerance to this pressure, the only way to tell is to try them out. Vote: QC-3 for noise cancellation, QC-2 for comfort (again, will vary from person to person).
Audio Quality:
Using MP3's encoded at 192 kbps, and CD audio, the difference in the two headphones is clear (excuse the pun). The QC-2's are brighter sounding with adequate bass. The QC-3's are a little heavy on the low-end, to the point of sounding muddy. Vote: QC-2.
Construction:
Some have complained about the QC-2's breaking at the stem that attaches each earpiece. I never had this problem, but I am also very careful, especially given their cost. I did notice a person break a QC-2 on the plane trying to turn the earpieces to hard. The build quality of the QC-3 is about the same, the stem may be somewhat narrower, so they could be more prone to breaking, however I do not think it's an issue if you treat them with respect. Vote: equal.
Comfort:
The QC-3's are lighter, but I still prefer the "over-the-ear" type of headphone. They feel like they stay in place better. I would be upset if the QC-3's fell off my head while loading luggage in the overhead bin, only to have someone step on them. I never felt that could happen with the QC-2's. I also would rather have a little physical pressure around my ear, instead of on my ear. Vote: QC-2.
Accessories:
The QC-3 has a less complicated jack that attaches to the headphone (it's detachable, just like the QC-2's). The QC-2 has a hi/low volume control on the jack stem, while the QC-3 has no adjustment and is adjusted somewhere in between (which is why they are not quite as loud as the QC-2's, given the same volume setting from your MP3, DVD, computer, or stereo). The airplance adapter does serve to attenuate the audio further, if needed. The QC-3 carrying case is a little smaller than the QC-2, but not a significant difference. The covering on the QC-3 case is smooth, which I prefer over the QC-2 case. I do not like the way the QC-3's fit in the case, the ear-pieces do not sit firmly where they are supposed to go. With the QC-2, you know exactly how they fit in the case, it just seems like a better fit. Vote: averages to equal.
I hope this quick review is helpful. I elected to stay with the QC-2. Rgds,
QC-2 v QC-3 Comparison June 24, 2006
503 out of 518 found this review helpful
I did a fairly comprehensive A/B test this evening at our local Bose store (their first stock arrived today).
I had given my QC-2s to my wife and bought ER 6i's because of the bulk of the QC-2 case when travelling, but have never been wholly comfortable with the ER 6i's stuffed in my ear canals.
I saw the QC-3 ads and since I am travelling to Europe next week I hoped to secure a pair before leaving.
What I found physically: QC-3s are for me less comfortable with the required pressure on the ear. The QC-2s feel 'lighter' to wear, though they are actually around 20% heavier. The QC-3 case is slightly smaller and thinner, but not significantly, and with the battery charger, if anything slightly heavier.
A small, but potentially critical design flaw: the QC-3 'on' light is incorporated into the switch, rather dull and much easier to miss, certainly under store lighting. But if you leave them on from your last use, since they use a rechargeable battery requiring a mains charger, you will be out of luck on that long flight! With the QC-2, the risk is far less and the remedy a single spare AA battery (30 hours of use with the QC-2s v 20 hours per charge with the QC-3 rechargeable battery).
What I found aurally: to my ears, and those of a Bose staff member who joined me in the test, the QC-2's are slightly more detailed, with slightly more depth. This is in a quiet store, not an airplane, mind you, and listening to a CD not (a compressed) iPod source. I would guess that any aural difference would be much harder to hear on a plane.
Fact is, in a store one has no way of knowing just what the acoustic differences will be on a plane. Evidently the QC-3s have stronger noice cancellation to compensate for their open design. What is the net effect of this?
I was tempted to purchase the QC-3's to allow an on flight comparison with my wife's QC-2's (and of course to be the 'first kid on the block'!)
But just on a comfort level alone, for me, the QC-2's win out and I purchased another pair (albeit the recently updated version).
So why didn't I buy them on Amazon? If it hadn't been for the 4-5 day initial shipment delay and my imminent departure for Europe, I would have One-Clicked my way to the QC-3's but in this case I'm glad I didn't!
 QC2 is Same Quality with Less Ear Pain August 2, 2006
279 out of 282 found this review helpful
I was preparing for a long trip to Ukraine. This involved both a very long initial flight, then a flight from Kiev to Lviv, plus many 3+ hr long van rides to various destinations and an overnight train trip between the main cities. I knew I would really need a noise cancelling headphone. With the Bose QuietComfort 3 just coming on the market, I was willing to pay the top dollar in order to maintain my sanity.
When I first received my headphone set - only days after it was released - I was thrilled. It was small, easy to carry in its slim case, and it had a rechargeable battery. This seemed like the perfect headphone for travel. I already had my 60 gig iPod ready with "sleep music". Now all I had to do was plug it in, and encounter pure bliss.
The headphones were really comfortable to "put on" - they fit on top of the ears rather than "around the ears" like the previous model. They were very light and non-intrusive. Lying sideways on a pillow didn't pose much of a problem. I waited the proper time to charge up the battery, and then I put them on and turned them on.
WHOMP. It wasn't a *physical* sensation. It's not that the foamy earcups pressed against my ears strongly. It was an INTERNAL sensation - the pressure of the waves of the speaker against my eardrums. It actually hurt. I turned it off. The sensation went away. I turned them on again and WHOMP, there was that pressure again.
This intrigued me so much that I did research and made a specific playlist of songs on my iPod that involved left-right sounds, i.e. songs like We Love You, Lightning Crashes etc. where songs only play out of one speaker or the other (left or right). The pain would definitely come more strongly out of the speaker that was not playing music. Whenever there was "silence" or soft levels of sound, the pressure of the "anti noise generators" would hurt my ears.
My boyfriend thought I was insane :) He did sense it when I played the left-right song set. We went into a local outlet where they had the demos set up of the QuietComfort 3 and the QuietComfort 2 (the older over-ear model). Both are rather good at blocking sound, to pretty much an equivalent degree. However even with their store models I could feel that same pain when the QuietComfort 3 headphone was turned in without a strong sound signal coming through. Of course their sample sounds are all loud, throbbing music, perhaps for this very reason. It's easier to mask an "airplane engine simulation" if you're listening to Santana blasting away on Smooth. I mentioned my ear pressure issue to the clerk, and he said he found the exact same thing.
Finally after about 30 days of testing, I called up Bose and asked to exchange this in for the QuietComfort 2. I would much rather have the around-ear headphone (which really, the case is about exactly the same size and the headphone itself is just as comfortable for me) and have far less pain. My thought is that with the around-ear shape they didn't need to blast directly towards your ear as much with the noise cancelling waves in order to counterbalance the ambient noise.
If you're looking at these, I would really compare the two side by side in a store. I tried my very, very best to stick with the QuietComfort 3 since I already had them in my house and they were smaller. I just couldn't do it - they bothered me too much to imagine using them for 2 weeks straight.
 QT 3 vs QT 2 vs Sony NC50 vs Shure E4c October 7, 2006
99 out of 111 found this review helpful
Quick Note --- I have tried all four headphones (QT 2, QT 3, Sony NC50, Shure E4c) while travelling on airplanes, so I've taken them to the best noise challenge possible --- my comparisons of all four are below --- I DO NOT RECOMMEND PURCHASING the QT 3 --- my reasons below -
The QT 3 have an excellent sound, are very portable, and very comfy --- but I'm going to be comparing them head-to-head to the Shure E4c and the Sony MDR-NC50 (my other favorite headphones)
1. SOUND --- The Shure E4c clearly has the best sound, mostly because they are engineered to allow for the highest amount of fidelity to come through, whereas the Sony NC50 and QT 3 muffle their sounds with way too much bass, in an attempt to cover up the loss of fidelity --- still, the sound of QT 3 is very good, but it's not better than the Sony MDR NC50, which is is probably a bit better
2. COMFORT --- I was impressed with the QT 3's fit and comfort, mainly because their sound seems to be just as good as the QT 2, yet its clearly smaller and much lighter ---- the Sony MDR NC50 is bigger, and the Shure E4c is buds --- if you like headsets (not buds) then I would prefer the QT 3 over the Sony MDR NC50 when it comes to size/comfort, only because they are much smaller and more portable - but not by a lot
3. NOISE CANCELLING --- the noise cancelling is pretty solid on the QT 3, but I'm more impressed with the Sony NC50 noise cancelling ability --- I found the Sony NC50 to have better sound and noise cancelling ability, but more importantly is the fact that the Sony NC50 has a MONITOR button that allows one to interrupt the music and hear outside noises, in case someone is trying to talk to you --- the fact that Bose couldn't include this feature is a bit disappointing ---- the Shure E4c, of course, are buds and do not have noise cancelling abilities, but their proximity to one's earlobe makes noise cancelling unnecessary
4. PRICE --- believe me --- the QT 3's are not worth $350 --- the Sony NC50 has better sound quality, better noise cancelling, and better features (MONITOR button) --- the only reason the QT 3 would be better than the NC50 is because of size and portability (but that's only by a little - the NC50 is not huge) --- with that said, you can get better headphones for 1/3 the price --- if you are game for going to the $350 price range, then go for the Shure E4c or E5c, as their sound quality is TERRIFIC (but granted, you'll have to like 'buds')
Don't be afraid to spend over $300 for great headphones --- they do make an AWESOME difference --- but the QT 3 is a ripoff because Sony has produced a better, all-around, pair of headphones for 1/3 the price
And clearly, the best sound is found in a company like Shure --- believe me, even though the Shure headphones lack 'noise cancelling' it is a feature that should not deceive you --- I've often used the Shure E4c on many airplane rides and have always been very pleased
So in conclusion --- the QT 3 is not bad --- it's actually good --- but it's not worth the price when there are so many better products out there
HAPPY BUYING!!!! LOVE AND PEACE!!!!
Proprietary Rechargable Battery!?!?!?! November 27, 2006
61 out of 74 found this review helpful
All you need to know about these is that they unnecessarily use a proprietary rechargeable battery.
That means that when you are on the plane and the battery dies, you're stuck, unless you happened to buy and charge a second, very expensive battery.
There's no reason why these headphones need a proprietary rechargeable battery. The QC 2's and many other choices use a standard AAA battery that provides 40-60 hours of use.
The only product that I've ever seen that needed a rechargeable battery is a digital camera, which draw so much power when you use the flash that a standard alkaline won't work.
Shame on Bose for trying to pull this on consumers! If you want a Bose, buy the QC 2!
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