I'm no expert, but I've been around the forums long enough to give some useful advice, in my opinion.
I realize that Bose headphones are not the best bang for buck, but they do provide a unique set of attributes that not many other headphones do.
They're light for their size, they're closed, circumaural, portable, comfortable, and also small/stylish. Not many other headphones do all those things at that price range.
Not to mention, they sound good.
They probably don't sound as good as similarly priced models such as the ATH-M50 (which I own), Sennheiser models such as the HD25, some Ultrasone models, etc. But none of the previously mentioned do all the things Bose does with their AE line.
If you have money to spend and need a set of cans that are closed, comfortable, small, and stylish, Bose AE are the way to go. But I do believe that their OE line isn't the best choice.
And maybe the OP knew that Bose did not deliver the best sound quality but wanted what Bose offered, and narrowed his/her choices down to the OE or AE2 model.
Bottom line, my vote goes to the AE2. If you decide you like the OE better, there are better alternatives.