In the olden days, you didn’t need much to enjoy air travel: a pair of goggles, a trusty biplane and a song in your heart. These days, the equipment list is slightly longer: a roll-on bag, a neck pillow and an eye mask — not to mention T.S.A.-friendly slip-on shoes, a fold-out laptop case and an all-plastic watch.

And noise-canceling headphones.

Regular headphones deliver music directly to your ears. Noise-canceling models also reduce any dull, consistent roar around you, like airplane engines, vacuum cleaners and presidential campaign speeches.

O.K., that last one was a joke. Noise-canceling (NC) headphones don’t actually reduce irregular noises like speech and crying babies in the row behind you. Even so, cutting down airplane roar is supposed to cut down on “noise fatigue,” an edgy tiredness that comes from hours-long exposure to loud noise. They also let you listen to music or videos on the train or plane at a much lower (and safer) volume.

For years, Bose has ruled the NC headphones roost. They’re incredibly good, but incredibly expensive; the latest model, the QuietComfort 15, costs $300. They’ve now been on the market for more than two years; surely, in that time, somebody must have introduced some less-expensive or better-featured rivals.