The noise cancelling feature is exaggerated on Bose's advertising. You're not going to get your cathedral everywhere as I've read. I think the biggest problem is that there's no explanation on Bose's web site about what the noise cancelling feature really does.There's noise cancelling feature, it really exists, but I'd love to know why it doesn't work quite well on sounds like a vacuum, dialogue, or noisy computer cooler.Yet the sound is awesome! I can hear instruments in some songs I've not realized before when I was wearing other headphones. If you do care about sound quality, it's for you.