I've flown with a couple of Lightspeed headsets, and they are good. Good passive and active noise cancellation, and mine lets me know if the batteries are getting low. Takes two AAs. The only problem with them is they are like you said, quite large.

What has impressed me most about Lightspeed is their customer service. I had one headset develop a short in a wire. They replaced the wire, battery box, ear seals, and headband all free of charge, and then overnighted the thing from Oregon to Florida. Not sure if Bose would have done that.