Headphone hierarchy: The most popular high-end headphones from Bose, Dr. Dre, and Ludacris compete to be number one in the competitive headphone market

It’s not hard to design headphones that win raves from bloggers and customers. Just give people a big, fat bassline and you can expect to be showered with praise for phenomenal beats, exceptional sound quality, and blissful, skull-vibrating pure bass.

It’s a much trickier task, though, to design headphones that actually give users all of the above, deservedly winning plaudits for the booming basement—while sounding just as good in every other department. Rocking the house and stomping the beats one moment, bringing out the best in fragile folk and spine-tingling sonatas the next—that’s the real trick that few headphones manage to perform.

The Bose “QuietComfort 15” headphones, sold at $300, currently get the most attention among noise-cancelling models. Reviewers say the QuietComfort 15 (also known as the QC 15) headphones do a great job of filtering out ambient noise, especially low tones like the drone of airplane engines.

Although they are much more comfortable than the “Beats Studios” by Dr. Dre, the Bose headphones are not as light or portable as their brandmates, such as the Bose “QuietComfort 3,” priced at $350. The Bose sound tends to be muted and laid-back, so the QuietComfort series might not be best for those seeking the highest audio accuracy.

One of the most popular headphones are “Beats Studios” by Dr. Dre. As for accurate reproduction of music, the only genre they seem to reproduce properly is rap and pop. Other genres, such as classical, rock, blues, electronica, sound artificial with these headphones.

Here’s what you get for your money: First off, the “Beats” are actually more than just a pair of headphones. Thanks to a built-in microphone in one of the two provided cables, they also double as a headset for mobile phones and fit a majority of today’s phones, including the iPhone.

Secondly, the “Beats” offer a certain amount of noise isolation and are clearly intended to compete with Bose’s Quiet Comfort models that are particularly popular with travelers and command an equally high-flying price.

It seems like every major musical artist is coming up with his or her own line of headphones; now joining this trend is hip-hop rapper Ludacris. His new headphones, the SL300 “Soul” by Ludacris, claim to “deliver such a high quality of pristine, balanced sound that they are appropriate for use by music professionals.”

While the bass of the SL300 is definitely raised for that extra oomph and punch (best suited for listening to Hip Hop, Pop and R&B), the bass region is controlled enough to sound balanced with a variety of music including Rock, Metal and Jazz.

Now the ultimate question: Which is the headphone worth spending on?

First things first: If you hold the SL300 in one hand and the “Beats” in the other, you may be as surprised to feel just how much more well-built the SL300 look and feel. It’s not something that can be noted in pictures, but the difference is very apparent in person.

The SL300 headband is also slightly larger and feels more impressive than the Beats Studios. In terms of noise-cancelling and call quality, the SL300 and the Beats are on par with each other; however, the SL300 edges out the Beats just slightly in the amount of ambient noise it is able to eliminate. Nonetheless, the QuietComfort 15 offers the best noise-cancelling capabilities hands down out of the three.

The comfort on the ears is about equal, but the extra padding on the headband allows the SL300 to rest more comfortably on the head compared to the less padding on the Beats and QuietComfort 15.

Overall, while all three headphones boast similar sound quality expected from high-end headphones sound, the SL300 was able to produce better sounds for more genres, making them the better headphone.

It’s difficult to compare the Bose QuietComforts to the SL300 and “Beats” because they specialize in different categories. Bottom line is, if you want noise-cancelling headphones to drone out the baby crying next to you in the airplane, the Bose QuietComforts are the ones for you. However, if you’re looking for headphones that bring out the best sound from your music, I’d recommend Soul by Ludacris.