[markt1600]

I concur with Longhorn above. I too own the ATH-ANC7 and the QC2s and on an airplane, with noise cancelling active, the QC2s have better noise cancelling and, to my ears, they sound better. The ATH-ANC7 may sound better than the Bose in a quiet environment with noise cancelling turned off, but that isn't the environment that I purchased the headphones for.

 

[wishboneash]

I have the QC2 and I did a side by side comparison with the ATH-ANC7 (a friend brought it to work) and the QC2 was far better in terms of noise cancellation. I am satisfied with the QC2's sound quality and the muffs are very comfortable and can be worn for hours. Again compared to the AT, it feels soft. My friend concurred with the sound quality. He only bought the AT because it was cheaper.

 

[Gluegun]

Bose is good at one thing in headphones -- active noise cancellation.  If you want sound quality, or one of the more fruitful ways of doing sound cancellation (ie passive like earplug style headphones can get -- seriously, canalphones blow the bose out of the water in isolation, value, sound quality), then you need to go away from ANC and Bose entirely.  But if for some reason you can't use canalphones, have money to burn, aren't too much of a stickler in sound quality, require active noise cancellation rather than passive, than the Bose models are okay.

 

[pablobell]

Or use IEMs with QC2/15's over the top, the Bose cable is detachable so it works fine, might be a bit too quiet though.

 

[LOmarica]

The main difference is sound quality. The QC 15s have a more balanced sound, as base is improved as well as mids. comfort is equal. My choice would be the QC 2s, as they are much cheaper. The improvements of the QC 15s are not worth the price difference. As far as Bose "not able to compete at the price point", that is nonsense! There are many headphones priced above 300.00 that do not sound as good as Bose, nor as comfortable.