Being a frequent flyer, I am also a frequent purchaser on technology to make the trip a little more pleasant. One of the key tools I use are a pair of headphones to block out the noise. One of the problems is that there are few good comparisons of all the choices out there. So when a review shows up from David Pogue of the New York Times, I had to read it. The obvious winner in this review was the Bose offerings. But a few surprise runner-ups were Panasonic and Audio-Technica headphones. Surprising because they are significantly cheaper. I own a pair of the original Bose headphones which are very comfy but unfortunately way to big to fit in my Tom Binh Empire Builderalong with everything else in there. I have also owned various pairs of Sony’s which while smaller offer pretty weak noise-cancellation. Now I carry one of two different pairs of headphones, solely based on which is closer at hand when I pack my bag. They are actually noise-suppression instead of noise-cancellation, but they do almost as good a job as the Bose at a fraction of the size. First is theEtymotics ER6 ($140) and the Shure E5C ($450). I think I prefer the Shure’s but that may just be me trying to justify the extra cost. But since I have been on planes for over 160 hours so far this year, that’s a pretty small price to pay for a little more comfort.