Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Since how this compares against the Bose QC 35 is what many want to know, here are my thoughts having used both. Music Audio quality- The Sony MDR-1000x is better than the Bose 35 hands down. Don't want to use all the technical terms about ranges and what not, but for what it's worth, if you want a great music listening experience, these are the headphones for you. Noise Cancelling- I wore the Bose QC 35 while playing music on the streets of Manhattan and to all intents and purposes I was in a sound cocoon, this is without fidling with the (non existent) controls . I did same with the MDR-1000xs on the streets of LA, it took me probably an hour and a half of tweaking the settings to get the same level of noise isolation, and I still don't think I've figured it all out. If you want a straight out of the box solution, go with the Bose, if you want to be able to tweak what you hear and how you hear it, and have the patience to experiment, go with Sony. Noise reduction in the real world seemed to be on par. Bells and Whistles- See above. The Bose is a plug and play device that's a one size fits all, the Sony is one which requires you to fine tune it. Having said that, I think the controls on the Sony are much better than those of the Bose. Bluetooth- Pairing the Bose is a snap, knowing what they are paired to is also as easy as pie. The Sony on the other hand require some work, however, if one has an NFC enabled device, then some of that work is eliminated. Having said that, for ease of pairing (and switching), Bose is the winner. Price- Sony comes in at $50 higher. If you want more control of how you use your headphones, the premium is worth paying. If you want the path of least resistance, it isn't. Look and feel- The Bose feels lighter and is more comfortable based on the number of times I had to adjust each pair of headphones for comfort. When it comes to the 'coolness' factor, I think both are neck and neck, though I felt cooler with the Bose QC 35. Overall- Since this is ultimately a device with which to listen to music, the Sony is a better choice seeing as the Noise Cancellation is on par with the Bose but the 'sound' of music is significantly much better. Update 1: Used this headset for a 2 hour check-in and pre boarding wait and a 16 hour flight from the West Coast to the Middle East, 2 major observations: a) Headphones worked in Bluetooth NC mode for the entire 18 hours. Had a full charge when I got to LAX, battery was on low when I got to Qatar. Sound quality did not get degraded at all. b) I had a woman and her toddler next to me for the entire flight, though he was adorable, he wailed on and off for the vast majority of the flight. Except for when I chose to look at him, I won't even have known he was crying. When I removed headphones to see if he was very loud or NC was just that effective, it turned out it was the latter. Attached pic is of him after he refused the cot and literally fell asleep with his head by my feet. d) Proper programming sequence to get best quality sound and NC is : i) NC - > Noise Cancelling on ii) Ambient Sound need not be pressed except you want to hear ambient sound, then choose normal to hear everything around you or voice to hear just voices. iii) If you really want to go the extra mile, press and hold NC for 2-3 seconds to start the optimizer, it will do as promised. BTW Gentleman who said he heard a hissing noise on his 15 hour flight, I tried to replicate that, it happens if NC isn't on, just Ambient Sound.