Smartphones mean always having a soundtrack in your pocket, but their out-of-the-box headphones are generally pretty mediocre. And there isn’t much point in having an HDTV when you can’t enjoy the full aural glory of explosions, witty one-liners and the crunch of bodies on a 20 yard line without bugging your significant other. Audiophile or not, it’s always nice to have a good pair of headphones kicking around, so here, to help you sort through the hundreds of options available, is a list of the best units you’ll see on store shelves this holiday season.
Bose Quietcomfort 15 acoustic noise cancelling headphones
Price – $349.99 On the Street
Six or less – Wow
I did not know sound could sound this good. Solos wail. Drums pound. Explosions are like slap to the face. These are excellent headphones that create a kind of cone of silence shutting out the world, making music sound like its originating inside your brain.
The 15s are also very comfortable to wear, but large, and a rigid design means they aren’t particularly travel-friendly. They also have a forceful built-in springiness—I got a painful smack to the head once when I lost my grip while putting them on.
The unit also irritatingly reqires a single AAA battery, and music stops when it dies. Despite a 35-hour charge, the 15s have no auto-off feature that I could discern, making it easy to drain their juice by forgetting to flip the power switch. But still, you won’t find anything sounding better for lsess than $400.
