Noise-canceling headphones — once a luxury reserved for hard-core business travelers living on jets — have gone mainstream. Though fancy models still cost north of $200, today you'll find name-brand phones for as little as $50. That's clearly within reach of iPod-toting everyday Joes.

So what makes Bose think its latest entry, the QuietComfort 3 noise-canceling headphones, can carry a ticket of $349? To be sure, some of the answer lies in marketing. The folks at Bose are masterful promoters who understand it's better to put the focus on product benefits and the company's proprietary technology instead of price. Anyone who's seen a Bose direct-response advertisement or stumbled into a "backroom" demo at one of their mall stores knows what I mean. These are the kind of demos where, for example, you listen to big, room-filling sound in a darkened home theater with spotlights shining on some giant tower speakers, only to have it revealed that it was really tiny Bose cubes playing all along.

After those kinds of theatrics, the question naturally shifts from "How much is it?" to "How much is it worth to you?" With the QC 3, I'll admit my answer is "a lot." I won't tell you that there aren't some great high-performance headphones to consider at this price — including fantastic in-ear buds from companies like Ultimate Ears, Etymotic Research, and Shure that will do an excellent (if not better) job of isolating background noise without any active noise-canceling circuitry. But as someone who spends up to 4 hours a day commuting between my rural New Jersey digs and my office in New York, as well as logging enough air miles each year to warrant elite flyer status, I spend an awful lot of time wearing headphones. And lately the QC 3s have become my best friends.

ONE MORE QC FOR THE ROAD Bose probably did more to popularize noise-canceling phones than anyone with the release of the original QuietComfort headphones in 1989 and, more recently, the QuietComfort 2. The QC 2 remains in the line for $299, and the QC 3 takes after it a good bit, starting with a pair of sleek silver earcups that pivot flat so the phones can be stored away in a slim, vinyl-covered hard-case Bose supplies. But there are key differences. The QC 3 weighs less (5.6 vs. 6.9 ounces) and has a smaller, thinner earcup that rests on top of the ear rather than around it.

By their nature, on-ear phones don't keep out background noise as well as those that fully seal around the ears, but both Bose models are said to provide about the same amount of noise attenuation. Bose compensated in the QC 3 by tweaking the noise-canceling circuitry but also by switching to soft, memory-foam ear pads that provide a tight, form-fitting seal while remaining comfortable to wear. To achieve its more compact size, the QC 3 also uses a rechargeable lithium-ion battery rather than the disposable AA cell used in the QC 2. The tradeoff is battery life: about 20 hours before a recharge with the QC 3 as opposed to the 35 hours you're said to get from the QC 2 on a single battery.

Bose packages the QC 3 with some nice extras. The storage case is quite impressive on its own, with its cloth-covered molded insert that perfectly fits and protects the phones and accessories; it even has a clear window pocket on the inside cover where you can slip your business card. There's also a slick 2-hour battery charger with flip-down AC prongs, an airline adapter for plugging into armrests, a quarter-inch adapter for home stereo use, and a 5-foot extension cord. The primary, 4.5-foot cord unplugs from the left earcup so you can use the phones just for noise reduction without unsightly dangling — a nice touch. You can order a Cell Connect kit from bose.com ($40), which has an in-line microphone that allows you to switch seamlessly between music and calls from your MP3-capable phone.

Bose shrank the noise-reduction circuitry down to fit inside the QuietComfort 3's earcups. As with other noise-canceling phones, microphones in the earcups pick up ambient noise so a signal with opposite polarity from the noise can be generated and mixed into the earpiece, hence canceling it out. Otherwise, the phones are uncluttered, with the only a sliding power switch on the right earcup. A built-in red LED indicator lets you know when the phones are on and flashes when the battery is running low.

Note that when the switch is in the off position, it's really off — this slider turns the entire headphone on and off, not just the noise-cancellation electronics. This means, unfortunately, that if you're caught with a dead battery, the QC 3s are utterly useless, which is not the case with many competing models. That's easy to do, too, since without manually tracking your hours of play, there's no way to know your battery is drained until the LED starts flashing, and by then you've got only a little while before it's lights-out, so to speak (though Bose claims you've got 4 hours). I understand the QC 2 suffers from the same drawback, probably because Bose applies equalization in these phones along with the noise cancellation to tailor the sound. But having experienced it once or twice during commutes, I can tell you it's a bummer to have your headphones go dead. I'm squeamish enough now to consider a spare battery ($50) to charge up and stash in the carry case.

PERFORMANCE Putting aside those occasional rude (but avoidable) blackouts, the QC 3s are an absolute pleasure to put on every day. While I wouldn't describe them as rugged, their build is fairly solid and sure, with details like shiny metal rings around the earcups that lend a feeling of quality. That's something I couldn't really say for the company's Triport headphones ($140), a traditional non-canceling model I've also used.

I'd rate sound quality among the best I've heard from headphones. I found them cannily balanced: They were fairly detailed in the high frequencies, if perhaps a touch rolled off, and notably full-sounding down below, with a slight bump in the upper bass to give the impression of more low-frequency information than headphones normally deliver.

The Short Form

bose.com / 800-999-2673

Snapshot

Though expensive, these super-comfortable headphones deliver the goods on all counts.

Plus

•Good sound quality •Excellent noise cancellation •Superb comfort

Minus

•No sound without battery •Expensive

Key Features

•Active noise-canceling circuitry •Tri-port vented earcup design •QuietComfort foam ear cushions •20-hour rechargeable lithium-ion battery •Compact battery charger •Hard protective carry-case with shoulder strap •Detachable 4.5-foot cord •5-foot headphone extension cord •Airplane headphone jack adapter •Overall headphones: 7.4 x 5.3 in; 5.6 oz (with cable); earcup outside dimension: 2.9 x 2.3 in •Price: $349

The result is an overall warm sonic character that wasn't as crisp in the highs as some headphones and speakers but had the benefit of revealing the instruments without being fatiguing over long listening sessions. I was concerned at first that heavily-engineered pop recordings, like John Mayer's "No Such Thing," would sound too bass-heavy on the QC 3s, but when I cued up this and other tracks like it on my portable music player, they merely sounded rich without being overly thumpy. On "Baby, Dream Your Dream," a jazzy number performed by piano-playing lounge singer Tony DeSare on his Telarc CD Want You, I delighted in following the steadily ascending and descending string bass and listening to the resonance of the instrument's wood cavity. DeSare's Tony Bennett-like voice and virtuoso keyboard work filled in the mids, and the texture of the struck cymbals, while not sounding as brash as real metal, was still revealed nicely.

Best of all, music came from a greatly subdued background during all my travel thanks to Bose's excellent noise-canceling circuitry. Like other active noise-canceling headphones, the QuietComfort 3s are most effective on constant "random" noise — the steady drone of a jetliner cabin or the rumble of a train car. In situations like these, the headphones provided blissful peace — I needed only to flip the switch on with no music playing to see how remarkably effective they were, and to hear that they were free from any of the "clicking" or other odd effects that afflict some noise-canceling headphones. A transatlantic round trip to Europe was made considerably more tolerable thanks to the QC 3, even just for sleeping during the flights. Although the QC 3s did less well suppressing individual voices, a cacophony of them, such as in a crowded train coach pulling out of New York's Penn Station after a Rangers hockey game, faded nicely and was easily drowned out by the music.

Finally, I have to comment on the QC 3's comfort. I have simply never before put on a pair of on-ear or around-ear phones that could provide this level of background noise isolation and still be so easy to wear over long periods. Their light weight, especially for noise-canceling phones, is an advantage. But Bose obviously spent some time finding just the right density memory foam for the earcups and coming up with just the right pressure to apply to the ears with the headband. The combination simply has to be experienced to be appreciated. Maybe it's just me with my admittedly small cranial cavity, but I hardly know they're on.

BOTTOM LINE Bose may charge a lot for its technology, but it's a company that isn't afraid to keep innovating and reengineering products to make them uniquely their own. Though I've not used the QC 2, the QC 3's reduced size, lighter weight, and on-ear design have no doubt pushed the envelope for noise-canceling headphones. Meanwhile, the Bose QuietComfort 3 noise-canceling headphones' performance, fit and finish, and "presentation" out of the box have instilled in me a pride of ownership whenever I pull them out on the train amid all those losers with generic white earbuds. I can't even tell you what that's worth.

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