What Includes

The $349 headphones are packed into an attractive outer cardboard box.  Inside is a packet of information, a carry box inside which are the headphones, and a separate plastic box with accessories.  Lastly, there's a pack of dessicant to keep everything de-humidified.

The information packet contains a quick reference card that purports to tell you all you need to know in a series of illustrations with no words, a warranty card, and an owner's guide.

The owners guide has ten pages of information in English, and then repeats the information in Spanish, French, and something like Japanese or Chinese.  The instructions are well written and easy to understand.

The warranty is for a one year period, not nearly as generous as the lifetime warranty on the competing Solitude headphones.

Inside the accessory box is a carry strap for the headphone case, a gold plated 1/4" adapter plug for using the headphones with, eg, a home stereo system, and a gold plated 63" extension cord.

The headphone carrying case is similar to the QC2 case, but slightly smaller - about 3/4 of an inch less wide and less tall, and 1/2" less thick.  Frequent travelers who already have a way too full carry on bag of road warrior gadgets will appreciate this slight reduction in size.

Inside the headphone carrying case are the headphones themselves, plus the detachable connector cord that goes between the headphones and any music source, the battery recharger, and a gold plated adapter to convert between the two prong plugs required by some airline seats and the regular plug on the connecting cord.  There is also a business card holder with ten business card sized advertisements for the QC3 - Bose hope you'll choose to pass these on to admiring fellow passengers.

The headphone carrying case has one surprising omission compared to the case for the QC2.  It has no zipper pouch to store the connecting cable in; instead you're apparently expected to just squash it in and leave it loose.  This slightly increases the chances of losing the cable and is a puzzling omission.  Perhaps if they left out the business card holder and the advertising cards for their product, they'd have space for the cable holder like they offer in the QC2 carry case.