Recently I was fortunate enough to receive, courtesy of DVLUP,  a pair of Nokia BH-940 Purity Pro Wireless Stereo Headset By Monster active noise cancelling headphones. Phew, that is Microsoft inspired naming. The thing is, I was blessed to receive a pair of Bose Quite Comfort 15 Limited Edition active noise cancelling headphones in a draw at a conference a couple of years ago. So I have hundreds of dollars worth of headphones I haven’t paid for. If you know me you’ll know I’m quite a scrooge and splurging on headphones this expensive I would never have done for myself. However, when the Bose failed I was very tempted to replace them. Fortunately their warranty and service was outstanding and in about 4 weeks, they had shipped me a new pair, albeit, not the limited edition. Paying for headphones like this when you use them all day everyday is worth it.

So now I have these two great headphones and I am seeing which I like best. I have always wanted to the Bose to be wireless. I catch the train, which tests the noise cancelling, but the cable management is tiresome. The Purity Pro is Bluetooth with NFC pairing. Sweet. The Purity Pro also has a microphone for calls, rechargeable battery for active noise cancelling, controls for music, calls and volume and amazingly pairs to two Bluetooth devices. For me, my phone and laptop on the train. Awesome. I love all those things about these headphones and it has been a massive step up from the Bose. When I open them up they turn on, and when I close them they turn off. It talks to me to tell me they are connected. If leave them open and not on my head, they turn off noise cancelling to save power. If the battery does run flat I can plug them in and still use them without noise cancelling. There has been times with the Bose that I have taken them off and forgot to turn them off. Do this overnight and bets are you have a flat battery and they are completely useless until you find a new battery.

It would seem for all of the above that the Purity Pro is much better than the Bose. However, the Quite Comfort, are worlds apart more comfortable. I can wear them all day, truly without knowing it. The cups fit fully over my ears and do not touch them. They create a good seal which makes the active noise cancelling very good. Much better than the Purity Pro. Although the Purity Pro is also over-ear, maybe I have big ears, because they are pushed by the edges and inner of the cups. My ears get a bit sore after a few hours. It would probably be fine if I didn’t know it could be way better. They come with iPhone compatible hands free microphone and controls on the wire. I’m one of the few with a Windows Phone though, so it didn’t work. I even got an inline convertor plug that didn’t work either. If the Bose had even just wireless, without all the controls like the Purity Pro, I think that would be enough to not give the Purity Pro a look in. At the Bose store they said most their customers use them for plane travel so wires are fine. Whether that is true or not, I don’t know, but I still don’t like wires.

Either way both these headphones are awesome and I would, and do, recommend both to anybody. Just pick which set of features is more important to you.