With great pain and considerable reservation I admit that I bought Bose Quietcomfort 2 earphones. There weren't many good choices. They are comfortable and they work ok--typical Bose sound, as in not great but very relaxing on long flights. In two years they fell apart so I e-mailed Bose to ask how I could get them fixed. To my amazement I received a quick response which after exchanging a couple of e-mails has me receiving a free replacement. Now that's good service these days. I was shocked but I have to admit they stood by their product. Raised my opinion of Bose 1000%. It may not be all marketing. There may be happy customers. I am happy with them. When was the last time you had something that cost $300 replaced for free (even if they were only worth $50 initially)?

My wife chuckled and pointed out that now I could listen to the Bose earphones for another two years until they fell apart.

Outlaws are you listening? We need noise cancelling earphones.....