The New York Times’ David Pogue wrote up a great review of noise canceling headphones. I’ve got a pair of the Bose 2 QuietComfort 2 headphones, and I don’t fly long distances without them. The difference in sound between whatever device you might listen with and the Bose (either with something playing or just the noise canceling feature) is amazing! I enjoyed reading about David’s three-leg trial where he actually put all ten models on and compared them. Read the article, and make your own choice; I’m very happy to see that there are alternatives to the very pricey Bose models.