Bose QuietComfort 15

Cable Connectivity (7.29)

The Bose QuietComfort 15s have a cord that’s about 5.5 feet long. This is a pretty good compromise: portables usually stick to a 4 foot-long cord, and stationary cans’ cables typically start at 8 feet. The extra length doesn’t really hurt portability much, because it’s so thin. The extra 1.5 feet should help connect to a stationary audio source without feeling like you’re right on top of it, but it won’t span an entire room either.

Also below is a gigantic picture of the airplane adapter, for your viewing pleasure.

Portability (2.50)

The QC15s are meant to be portable, but don’t really have the form factor for it. Like all Bose headphones, the QC15s come with a fancy case to lug the things around in. We’d recommend using it, even though it adds a lot of unnecessary bulk. The QC15s don’t have a collapsible band,and their ear cups don’t collapse particularly well.

Below is the case, which has a pouch to help keep the cord contained.

Maintenance (5.00)

You can remove the headphones’ pads and the small oval of felt underneath, but you can’t get much further than that unless you have a tiny screwdriver.

Other Features (0.50)

Battery

The headphones won’t work without batteries. That’s annoying, since you’ll have to replace the battery every so often.

Active Noise Cancellation

The QC15 might have really effective active cancellation, but it’s implemented much more poorly here than other active-cancellers. You can’t listen to music without cancellation turned on, so if you run out of batteries, you’ve also run out of luck (we are assuming you define ‘luck’ as ’the ability to listen to your music with a set of headphones, because seriously, is that too much to ask).