Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Look, I can't compare these to Bose, because I've never tried them before - or any other $300 pair of headphones. However, these are fantastic for me. I work in an open office environment and sometimes the level of noise spikes from ambient to distracting to intolerable (you know how there's always that one person in the office louder than everybody else? I sit next to five of them). The very first day, my colleague and I looked at each other and nodded, it's time for noise cancelling headphones - so I did some research, read some reviews, and bought two Cowin E-7's for us. Having never tried active noise cancelling before, I have to say I'm impressed (my coworker didn't like it, as the noise cancelling made her feel queasy, but that's not Cowin-specific, just the technology in general doesn't agree with her). For me, it puts a strong damper on the background noise. Now if people are talk-yelling loudly, of course I can still hear them, which is great because if someone yells FIRE! I'd like to know about it. But I'm streaming my Boston sports radio and my Pearl Jam and clacking away while my noisy keyboard to get some revenge to those who don't have noise-cancelling headphones like these. Two quick notes which I hope are helpful. 1.) When using it for Skype (the mic works great by the way) or GoToMeeting, Wiindows 10 might identify it as a communications device rather than the proper stereo headphones. I almost returned these because the sound was so scratchy, especially on music. Thankfully I read another reviewer's comment who identified the issue and how to solve it - it's a Windows thing - you just have to right-click your speaker icon, go to Playback Devices, and make sure the Stereo listing of the E-7 is the default device and the default communications device. Then you'll get the full benefit and the excellent sound quality these headphones provide. The second is, if you're like my coworker and don't want noise-cancelling - and buy noise-cancelling headphones for some reason, even though there is a standard pair $10 cheaper right next to it - it's an optional feature you can switch on or off as needed. Sometimes I'll turn it off if it's not noisy in the office, and it still sounds great. Like other headphones with this technology, they can be a bit bulky, but actually they are light and quite comfortable for long use. So overall, I am very happy with this purchase and don't have any negatives to say about it. Do they compare to the more expensive brands? I can't really answer that, but I also can't imagine those brands being so much better that they justify the cost. These work, and they sound great. That's all I need!