Information Madness

Bose's Quiet Comfort 3 headphones are a smaller follow-up to the Quiet Comfort 2s. They offer a more compact design and comfortable cushy foam earpieces. There is a rechargeable battery, full sound, and effective noise-cancelling circuitry. They fold up for storage in the included carrying case. Bose offers a 30-day home trial.Bose has done a remarkable job of shrinking its popular noise-cancelling headphones with the Quiet Comfort 3 while achieving similarly impressive sound quality.

That engineering feat doesn't come at a cheap price for people.

The Bose Quiet Comfort 3s are even more expensive than their predecessors. And when the battery dies, so does the music.Whether or not you think they're overpriced, Bose's luxuriously designed Quiet Comfort models have set the standard for premium noise-cancelling headphones. As their model number indicates, the $349 Quiet Comfort 3s are the third version of these popular headphones. Impressively, the earpieces use memory foam that fits your ears nicely and they do a better job than you'd think of shutting out noise, unlike most on-ear models, which tend to let in and give out a fair amount of sound. The headphones are very comfortable, but because the soft leather pads are pressed right up against your ears, the new models are going to feel steamier if you wear them in warm environments. They're not the best choice for workouts.

These headphones include a proprietary lithium-ion battery. The battery slips out of the headphones and into a compact travel charger that fits right into a wall socket, eliminating the need for annoying cables. You'll get about 20 hours of battery life before you need to juice up.