 Well, here we go. Oh my god, it sounds like a go-kart. So the good thing about flying in a plane from the 70s is that it hasn't fallen apart yet. Legend has it that in 1978, MIT professor Dr. Amand Beaux was on a transatlantic flight from Switzerland when the flight attendant offered him a pair of headphones. Shortly afterward, as the story goes, the plane was so noisy that Beaux could hardly hear the in-flight music at all. So he fetched a pen and a napkin and began jotting down the first mathematical calculations for how to remove airplane noise from his listening experience. Fast forward 22 years and Beaux released the first active noise-canceling headphones for consumers, followed 18 years later on this installment of Why the F- Advertiser-friendly content Holding a baby kangaroo, are you guys buying this? The QuietComfort 25s, which somehow are still the best-selling headphones on Amazon.com, along with like these other super cheap ones. So let's see then, what makes these things so bloody special? Noise-canceling headphones work by incorporating a microphone, or in this case microphone-zuh, in each ear cup on the inside by the user's ear and on the outside to measure ambient sound. They take that ambient sound measurement and they compare it to the desired signal coming from your device and then they generate a new waveform that's exactly equal but opposite to the noise coming in, destroying the unwanted waves by way of destructive interference. So as you can imagine, this technology works better on frequencies that are consistent, which is why noise-canceling headphones are awesome at filtering out noise from airplane engines or HVAC systems, but not so great when it comes to crying babies and annoying co-workers. Since the year 2000 release of the original QuietComfort acoustic noise-canceling headphones, now known as the QC1s, Beaux has released a new set in the lineup at least every three years, including the Google Assistant-equipped QC35 Series 2s that launched in late 2017 for $350. Pretty pricey and out of reach for a lot of people. Now the best-selling headphones on Amazon, and therefore the true subject of this video, are these QC25s, originally from 2014. They only cost about $180 on Amazon today, if you go for the Apple version, with the version for Android devices being $20 more for some reason. The only difference is the functionality of the inline controls, so we grabbed the Apple version and gave it a shot on an Android phone. Turns out we were actually still able to play and pause our music and even skip tracks, but there was no volume control and when we tried to use it to hang up a phone call, music started playing instead. So if that stuff matters to you, then you should either pay the extra $30 or try your luck on a cheaper third-party cable. But then hold on a second. As evidenced by my almost entirely faded eyebrow ring scar, it is not the year 2000 anymore. There are actually a bunch of noise-cancelling alternatives to Bose, like the super popular Cowen E7s that are a fraction of the price. So how is a $200 product still on top when every other product in this Appetizer series has been budget AF? Well, it's because low price doesn't mean high value, and people purchase products in order to get a job done, either that's a soundbar, whose job is to make dialogue easier to hear, a tablet, whose job is to play Netflix in bed and not be destroyed by your kids, or a 4K smart TV, whose job is to be 4K and a TV that's like maybe smart or something. So then what's the job to get done with noise-cancelling headphones? Maybe comfortable airline travel or productivity at your desk. Well, that means that automatically Bose is targeting a more affluent clientele, people with jobs or who travel regularly. And the bottom line is that the QC25s are really good at their job, something that is worth paying a little extra for. Not only do they offer category-leading noise cancellation, they're also really comfortable for hours at a time, and they're super portable thanks to their folding headband and lightweight rugged carrying case. After all that, the fact that they punch way above their weight in terms of sound quality is almost just a bonus. Now that's the friendly value that we expect in this series. Or at least that's what I would be saying if the three top-rated customer reviews for this product weren't all one star. Now if you sell enough headphones, you're bound to get a bad review or two, but it's become enough of a pattern that it appears as though Bose has been scrimping on the materials lately. A lot of these things seem to struggle to last longer than a year to a year and a half. So if you're not into that sort of thing, maybe you should save your money after all, especially considering that the best-selling headphones in the on-ear and the in-ear categories are both super cheap. The most popular on-ears are actually these, the new K11s. I can't quite figure out why, but I do have at least a theory. So they're marketed towards kids with bright colors, a durable braided cable, and a parent-friendly price of just $15. But there's a lot of headphones for kids out there. What makes these ones stand out, I think, is the fact that they're useful for parents too. So the headband expands from child-sized to absolute melon. The sound quality isn't complete trash, and they go loud, which is unusual since a lot of kids' cans have volume limiters on them for safety. I mean, who needs safety when you got convenience, right? The suckiest thing about these as far as I can tell is the fit. So the earcups don't articulate, which means that at least with the pair we've got and on my head, they don't quite sit flush against my ears, so they don't seal particularly well. You won't have to worry about that though with the best-selling IEMs, the Panasonic ErgoFit earbuds, for under $10. Of the 54,000 reviews of these things, 82% of people gave them a 4 or 5 because they fit well, they sound decent, and they can last for years and years. That might explain how they've been around since at least 2012. Look at this. The box still says iPod on it. Those still exist. Isn't that fun? Anyway, if your phone still has a headphone jack, there's really no reason not to check out any one of the three options that we gave you guys today. Just make sure that you're putting them on correctly. We'll have them linked in the video description. So thanks for watching, guys. If this video sucked, you know what to do. But if you appreciate that we actually got in this thing to make this video, or you liked the video in general, you can hit that like button, get subscribed, or consider checking out where to buy the stuff we featured at the link in the video description. Also down there is our merch store, which has cool shirts like this one. And our community forum, which you should totally join. I don't know what a knot is, but... Okay. So we're going then.