I've been through two pairs of over the ear noise cancelling headphones which have both worn out faster than anticipated, so I'm after recommendations on what to replace them with.

The first pair were JBL which I purchased at an airport duty free store somewhere for a few hundred dollars. They were good to start with (with great noise cancelling) but a wire broke or got loose inside them somewhere only about 6 months after purchase, so if I bumped them while wearing them, I got a loud crackling sound in one ear. This was annoying but I put up with it for a while. They were bought overseas so seemed difficult to do a warranty claim.

The second pair were Sennheiser MB660 and were quite expensive at the time (circa $700 from memory). These were better quality however over time the battery has buggered out to the point that they no longer charge.

In both cases, the ear pads haven't lasted well. The pads on the JBLs de-laminated fairly quickly (the fake leather starting falling off) and on both brands, the ear pads are in various stages of falling apart completely (pleather cover lifting off exposing the foam inside), making the noise cancelling far less effective. I'm not aware that I have particularly abrasive ears - but maybe I do lol.

Note my use case is primarily for plane travel, but I also use them for occasionally listening to the TV late at night. Neither of these should be particularly taxing and in both cases I would have expected them to last a lot longer than they have.

I see Bose have released a gen 2 version of their QuietComfort Ultra headphones ($729 at JB). Keen to understand what the general feeling is about Bose headphones in terms of quality and longevity. I've owned Bose home theatres before and know that equipment was built well but not sure about their headphones.

Not too concerned about price so long as the noise cancelling function is good and they don't fall apart after a couple of years from what I would say is average or even below average use (I certainly don't use them every day).

The other option is to just buy lower priced units expecting them to fail and just replace them more frequently but that seems like a hassle. I'd rather a good pair that lasts (or has replaceable ear pads at least)