To answer that question, you have to ask yourself what is most important to you -- audio and sound quality, or noise-cancellation. There is no doubt that Bose puts out the best noise-cancelling headphones on the market, however they are not the best at reproducing true sound. You are giving up on one quality to get another. Yet, many people swear by them and they do produce a great, albeit it expensive, noise-cancelling headphone.

For more precise audio quality, you might look at the Sure SE530PTH (http://wize.com/headphones/shure-se530pth-profe...) which have excellent hi-fi audio clarity, but use a sound isolation technology that tries to block noise rather than cancelling out (like the Bose).

They are expensive, but if you are looking for high audio quality they may be the solution you are after!