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Bose unveils new QuietComfort 15 headphones

Bose has a new set of noise-canceling headphones hitting stores on August 20. The company says its QuietComfort 15 headphones, which cost $299.95, offer the best noise-canceling of any QuietComfort model to date.

David Carnoy Executive Editor / Reviews
Executive Editor David Carnoy has been a leading member of CNET's Reviews team since 2000. He covers the gamut of gadgets and is a notable reviewer of mobile accessories and portable audio products, including headphones and speakers. He's also an e-reader and e-publishing expert as well as the author of the novels Knife Music, The Big Exit and Lucidity. All the titles are available as Kindle, iBooks, Nook e-books and audiobooks.
Expertise Mobile accessories and portable audio, including headphones, earbuds and speakers Credentials
  • Maggie Award for Best Regularly Featured Web Column/Consumer
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David Carnoy
The QuietComfort 15s look almost identical to the QC2s, which are going away. Bose

If you were thinking that the next pair of Bose noise-canceling headphones would be called the QuietComfort 4s, you'd be wrong. Instead, Bose has decided to go with with QuietComfort 15, though they're technically Bose's fourth pair of consumer noise-canceling headphones to hit the market.

Why the jump in number? Well, it appears that even though the QC15 headphones share the same design as the QC2s, which they will replace, Bose really wanted to set them apart from earlier models, declaring that they offer the best noise-canceling and sound quality of any QuietComfort headphones to date. The number 15 seems kind of random, but we're not marketing pros, so who are we to judge?

I tried a pair at Bose's launch event at its store in Time Warner Center in New York City. The company locked us in a small backroom and fired up some pseudo-airplane-cabin noise ranging from 84 decibels to around 91 decibels. The simulation indeed revealed that the new headphones are better at blocking out noise. They also sounded pretty good, too, though we'll have to run them through our own sound tests to determine just how good they really are.

Priced at $299.95, the QuietComfort 15s arrive in stores tomorrow. We should have a full review up soon.