It does smell kind of strange. When these pillow came home I was a little skeptical of how these two pillow fit in a small box. I havent used it yet but plan on using it with my two kayaks. Along our lives, we know 1 to 4 gay people, some of them very good friends. Big and bulky in your hand and in your purse. This, folks, is as good as it gets, and the story benefits from some serious fleshing-out of the Imperial side of things. These things work when they want to, which is not often. I also like the fact that the Monoprice has a built in li-ion battery, and I like the fact that the noise cancelling feature can be used without the volume-boosting electronics, so if you just want the noise cancellation for a long plane ride, the battery will hold out all that much longer. But my initial impression is that I’ll probably return it. They are tight and fit perfectly over the housing but just be ready to struggle a little and try not to put in too much force, else they will tear.