m.vandemore's Full Review: Koss QZ-2000 Consumer Headphones
Last year a friend and I took a quick trip to a trade show in Las Vegas and as we were seated on the SWA plane he unvelied his latest gadget. A BOSE QuietComfort "Noise canceling" headset.
He let me wear them during take off and I was stunned at how the once noisy cabin had become as quite as a Barnes & Noble reading area. He then plugged in his new MP3 player (Creative Labs Nomad) and started playing a song through the headphones and in no time I was in a blissful state feeling like I was in the comfort of my home listening to the stereo. I was struck by how much more relaxed I felt just by eliminating the ambient roar of the jet engines. Of course my bliss soon ended when we reached cruising altitude and my friend wanted the headphones back for his own enjoyment. Ever since then I have been looking to get a noise-canceling headset of my very own. I trip from Los Angeles to Europe provided the perfect excuse and so I thought the time was right to purchase so headphones. Now if I had bought the BOSE I would probably not be writing this now, but there is only one draw back to the BOSE, they cost $299 USD. I don't fly long distances very often so the KOSS QZ 2000 headphones intrigued me because they ostensibly did the same thing as the BOSE, but they were available for half the price. ($150 USD) My friend said he had read good things about the KOSS headphones at Audio Review. http://www.audioreview.com/reviews/headphone/
So I decided to be cheap and go for the KOSS headphones. And, to ensure something good to listen to, I bought the MP3 player too.
So I sit in my seat, preparing to spend the next 12 hours of my life on this plane, but smug in the knowledge that I had the magical KOSS headphones in my possession. The plane pushes away from the gate, I put my headphones on. The plane heads toward the runway, I hook up my MP3 player. I hear the engines start to rev up, I turn on my headphones. The engines get louder, and louder... and louder... I check to make sure the headphones are turned on. I turn the headphones off and the jet engines go from annoying loud to deafening so I turn them back on. This is not the miraculous experience I remembered with the BOSE headphones. I pressed the earphones up against my ears and the noise was virtually eliminated. Unfortunately I looked like an idiot and it's damn near impossible to keep your hands up to your ears for 12 hours straight.
So here's my opinion. For reasons of cost or comfort (or both) KOSS has made the headphones fairly loose fitting whereas the BOSE headphones envelope your whole ear with a hard shell exterior that seems to seal some of the noise out. (Although clearly the noise canceling circuitry is doing most of the magic.) As I said, if you clasp the KOSS headphones up against your ears it seemed to me to be the comparable effect, but that's not the way they work if you just put them on. The bottom line is that I was disappointed with the quality. Although in fairness I should mention that I bought a set for my mother for Christmas and she wore them on a trip to England and thought they were great. So I guess it depends on your expectations. In terms of design and quality, I think they look a little funky, like a discarded prop from STAR TREK: TNG, but they do collapse nicely and fit in a nice carrying case that comes with the headphones. They don't seem to be exceptionally fragile but they don't feel like the last set of headphones you'll ever have to buy. The bottom line is they don't really compare well to the BOSE and if you are a frequent traveler, I would definitely spend the extra money and get the BOSE.
I guess the real clue was there in front of me all along: KOSS bills its headset as "Noise Reduction" headphones while BOSE has named theirs "Noise Canceling" headphones. For once there is truth in advertising.
New advances in materials and design have served to expand the performance of stereophones. Koss' Product Development team and engineers look for the ...More at PCNation
Koss QZ2000ACTIVE Quite Zone 2000 Active Noise Cancellation Headphones are the ultimate noise reduction stereophone. Never before, on the consumer mar...More at Adorama
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