Comparing to some of my seriously heavy travelling friends, my average of 60+ annual flights doesn’t look that bad. That is why every time when I heard them bragging about another pair of the newly bought noise cancelling headphones, I used to roll my eyes and go “yup, right, why on earth would I spent that amount of money on the headphones”. Then a colleague of mine borrowed me a pair during the transatlantic flight and I finally got it.
All air companies in the world should run a campaign – rent a pair of the noise cancelling headphones for a flight and offer a passenger to buy one at the end of the flight. If it is not a Ryanair flight, I bet at least 20% of the travellers will purchase a pair. The most cautious airlines can start with the business and the first class passengers.
As you might guess, I bought myself a pair the day after that flight. Gosh, it is truly a product from the category – “you don’t know you need it until you have it”. I am writing this from a T2 of El Prat airport (Barcelona) from a pretty crowdie café. Let’s admit it, T2 is not the nicest terminal and you get what you pay for, huh, but somehow I don’t care. I put on a pair of this white Bose’s, turned them on and all the typical “bzzzzzzzzzzzz”, “grrrrrrrr” and “aghaghgha” that you can never avoid, unless you are sitting in a lounge, have disappeared. No, you are not becoming completely death. All the important messages can still be distinguished, for example, a change of the gate for your flight. But you are getting your own world right where you are. No matter what!
Apart from travels, I will use it in day to day situations, no music, simply in a noise cancelling mode:
- Open space office desk when I really need to prepare for the Customer meeting;
- During working in a too noisy café;
- At home when my beloved boyfriend is watching a FC Barcelona game way too loud and I am reading;
- During the long runs when I need to relax and let my mind wonder around without any white noise.
- During live concerts to get past all the unimportant buzz.
Should I mention that listening to music with the noise cancelling mode on is getting you to a different level of really enjoying the sound (no, this is not the marketing post!).
As I made my research, I discovered that there are different types of the noise cancelling headphones (in-ear or over the ear; wired or wireless), different designs and, of course, different price tags. Mine criteria were:
- Over the ear as I feel uncomfortable with having any in-ear headphones for longer than an hour.
- Wired as I don’t want my phone to get out of the battery even faster than it does now (yes, even with the battery bank) and yes, using the connector for the newest iPhone is annoying.
- A sound brand that I can trust.
- Sleek design in mostly white colour. No comments about this one, matter of taste.
Bose QC25 was a natural choice for me and I am truly in love with them and can honestly recommend them to anybody who is looking for a durable and quality noise cancelling headphones in a pretty design (no, you don’t need to get them in white colour, there are variety of colours available, even your own designed colour scheme).
As a conclusion, if you don’t have noise cancelling headphones, be sure to get a pair asap or put them to the birthday/Christmas wishes list because once you try them on you won’t want to take them off.
A feeling of putting “mute” on the external world is priceless and addictive.
Work. Tri. Travel. 
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