At headfi, a good Bose bash has long earned headphone geek streetcred. If you still have leftover energy, explaining why active noise cancelling headphones suck is a good time... So, as Lifehacker shot up the well-written layman's article, "How Do I Choose the Best Noise Cancelling Headphones?", headfiers began polishing their pitchforks.

Author Alan Henry had a couple of good points regarding noise cancellers' ability to cancel noise:

Don't expect miracles. Remember, even the best active noise cancellation can't block out everything. You'll still hear high-pitched sounds, abrupt and sharp noises, and even that jet engine on your flight will seep through—no noise cancelling set of cans can make you think you're not in a plane, but they can help you forget for a little while.

He also quoted headfi founder, Jude:

Trying to satisfy my persnickety audiophile preference for hearing fine details, timbral accuracy and precise imaging, while surrounded by the cacophony of planes or public transport, is almost pointless—not even the best of the current consumer noise-cancelers can overcome plane and train noise enough to free up the more delicate, gauzy sonic details audiophiles like me chase.

My favourite headfi-style comment was this:

Bose are a joke. They don't deliver anything remotely close to what they demand for the product. Audio-Technicas ANC-9 are superior in just about every way possible.

As Alan's article made the headfi front page, I'm expecting lots of old-fashioned Bose bashing to come.