I wanted a set of headphones with a very specific goal in mind: to minimise the office noise in my open plan office. Granted, this is not everyone's requirement, but after researching and testing out numerous so-called noise-cancelling headphones, Extreme Isolation's headphones out perform anything I looked at (included headphones three times the price - ie. Bose QuietComfort 3). Good noise-cancelling headphones might work fine for cancelling out singular drone type noises (ie. planes/trains), but as for the removal of the vast majority of ANY type of noise, look no further. Phenomenal performance.