6 ms·

Bose's new beat

57 points by zwrose 11y ago

igor_a 11y ago
I had QC25, $300, needs fucking piece of paper to be put into ear cup to work. Bose is a rip off. Just look into this vid - 40000 views of how and where to put piece of paper into your $300 headphones - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OYva0hOW0Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OYva0hOW0Q
- lsniddy 11y ago
  ive had bose repair or replace my headphones 5+ times over the years free of charge for damage i caused
- Someone1234 11y ago
  I own the QC25's and I can say they work just fine without me having to install a piece of paper in the cup. The video you linked to is a repair video, but your comment implies that a new set taken off the shelf don't work unless you install paper, two different things entirely. I haven't yet had an issue with the QC25s except that they do seem to cause noise fatigue a lot quicker than non-noise cancelling headphones. I cannot explain that; just my experience. But the noise cancelling is very good.
- vvpan 11y ago
  Never had the headphones, but somebody gave me a pair of desktop speakers and I've been very disappointed. They sounds "as if" they are awesome, that is pack a lot of bass into a little box, but the sound comes out over-bassed and muffled. I play a lot of roots-reggae and I can hear the bass real well, but everything else is very hard to make out. So what Bose seems to be good at is marketing and tricking the customer into saying "wooow".
- what_ever 11y ago
  The description says that he slept while wearing the headphones so I suppose damage should not be that surprising. Since when 40k YouTube videos became the gold standard for anything? I was one of the group which said Bose are overpriced but my work has open office layout and it gets really loud. Manager agreed to expense the noise canceling headphone and I must say QC25 are great noise canceling/dampening and VERY comfortable and light. Earlier I could not keep headphones on for longer hours but I have no issues with QC. Also they work great on the planes.
  - igor_a 11y ago
    I didn't did anything bad with them just used them in office. I was happy customer until they broke (after 7 month of usage)
- lobster_johnson 11y ago
  I have the QC25, no paper needed. And they are amazing.
- henriks 11y ago
  The noise canceling is amazing, but Bose's quality control could use some improvement: I've had my QC25's replaced twice over the last year, both times due to the same issue: folding them up for storage strains the cable going between the speakers, and at some point it breaks. Two out of three people I know with the same headphones have had exactly the same issue.
- dzhiurgis 11y ago
  Are there any _noise cancelling_ headphones that also sound well? I have no idea, but it seems that it is fundamentally incompatible. I have Superlux hd668b - I think they were like $40 USD, and they sound definitely better than QC25. But... they are not noise cancelling, they look derp and press on my ears. Actually majority of quality headphones appear to have awful designs with curled cables and thick bands that makes people look at you.
wickawic 11y ago
Is this anything more than a puff piece for Bose? I really like the vignette of a dying old man being overjoyed by the state of their noise cancelling technology
- Theodores 11y ago
  > Is this anything more than a puff piece Yes it is. It is also an example of journalism where the writer gets paid by the word, hence the tedium of the 'vignette'. In the UK we don't have 'paid by the word' in quite the same way, so you rarely have to wade through rubbish to get to the gist of the article on a UK website. It is a U.S. phenomenon having the fluff-bloat at the start of the article, and, to be honest, it puts me off reading anything linked here from the likes of the New York Times. I just cannot stand this writing style with the extra 'vignette' or whatever padding out the article into some narrative that I cannot be bothered with.
  - dang 11y ago
    > It is also an example of journalism where the writer gets paid by the word That's a factual claim, which you should not make unless you know it to be true.
    - Theodores 11y ago
      I stand corrected. However, what is the cultural difference between US and UK journalism where UK stuff is to the point (i.e. with a summary of the story, then the story told properly) and US articles always have to have some meandering nonsense that is as tangential as possible to the story? The format makes sense for a book but is a bit silly in New York Times style articles.
- braythwayt 11y ago
  The dead giveaway that it is a puff piece written by a PR firm, and then only lightly edited to preserve the pretense of journalism being involved, is when the piece describes the executives in glowing, hagiographic terms. The marketing team has the piece written glorifying the CEO, which in turn leads to more budget and promotions for the marketing team. The PR firm places the piece everywhere, which leads to more PR briefs. And the "reporters" are starving in a dying industry, so they'll do anything for a crust of bread and the odd review item they can keep. --- p.s. Don't tell me that hackers can't play the same game: http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html
oxide 11y ago
You're a knowledgeable lot, so I think I'll put this question out to you all. I'm looking for a budget pair of cans, I usually spend about 20 bucks because I'm both cheap and poor. I was considering the HD202's, I usually get by with HD201's but the cords short out and fray after a year or so of everyday use. I only have two requirements: over-ear headphones with a comically oversized cord appreciate any recommendations in advance.
- dangerlibrary 11y ago
  Koss PortaPro. They leak sound like crazy and look like they came out of a time machine from the 1980's. But they're cheap and they sound great.
  - darkstar999 11y ago
    Also Koss KSC75's. They are $15 on amazon right now and I swear they sound better than most $100+ cans. The self-proclaimed audiophiles over at head-fi.org love them. I wonder if they use the same speaker/driver as the porta pros?
  - brandall10 11y ago
    That's a popular Head-fi recommendation, as well as their sibling the KSC-75 (same drivers). The great thing about headphone audio nowadays (as opposed to just 10 years ago) is there are quite a few low cost options that sound great. Unfortunately they're not well known unless you do some research. That said, if you want top-tier audio out of something extremely portable that isolates to a degree, I cannot recommend Sennheiser's IE800 highly enough. I've spent many a kilobuck over the past 15 years and these are some of my favs. Not cheap at $800 retail (used in the $500-600 area), but totally worth it if you listen often while working. I have other IEMs that cost 2-3x as much and prefer these. Most of time I use these in conjunction w/ Roon audio player and a Tidal sub straight out of the headphone port of my 13 rMBP - total audiophile bliss.
    - andrewblossom 11y ago
      How do you find Roon? Worth the money?
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
hellofunk 11y ago
I have been using the Bose QC noise-cancelling headphones for many years. Bose has been great. They even replaced my pair for a 70% off upgrade price after being a loyal customer for only 3 or 4 years, so I could get some new features and nice cushy new soft ear muffs. They take a beating. I constantly drop them on hard floors, the travel with me all over the world constantly, and their quality has never diminished.
bequem 11y ago
I might read like a puff piece to some, but it was insightful nonetheless. Thanks for sharing it!
ArchReaper 11y ago
This is obviously a very thinly veiled marketing piece for Bose.
beloch 11y ago
Audiophiles rag on Bose pretty hard. It's easy to see why if you look at their product line. They have home theater systems, but all of them use tiny plastic cube speakers that trade sound quality for unobtrusiveness. They have soundbars and waveboxes. Bose 901's are arguably their "flagship" audiophile product, but these are designed to bounce additional sound off your walls to make your room sound like a concert hall. The problem is that nobody masters recordings for speakers that intentionally add reverb. These gimmick speakers are designed to wow in the showroom with the right tracks, but do you really want everything you hear to sound like it's in a concert hall? Bose simply doesn't target audiophiles. They don't make audiophile products. However, they've carved out a niche for themselves that makes them billions every year. That niche is basically one step removed from snake-oil. Bose has somehow managed their image so that people think Bose really can cram audiophile-grade performance into precisely the kind of tiny, plastic boxes no other audio company can get halfway decent sound out of. Bose fails as hard as anyone else at that, but somehow people believe they've succeeded and line up to buy their products. Whatever Bose is doing for advertising, it's elite. This article is probably an example of what they're doing.
- jordanthoms 11y ago
  I do think some of their headphones are best in class - Not the greatest value for money though. Their QC line have the best noise cancelling, and if that's the most important criteria they are the ones I recommend to people. (Personally I use Sennheiser for my ANC cans as the sound is better and noise cancelling is not too far off). Their sports in-ears are great also - I've never found any in-ear headphone that beats the MIE2 in comfort and not falling out, and the sound isn't bad either.
  - overcast 11y ago
    I have the inner ear version, and the noise canceling is ridiculously good. $300 was hard to swallow for the sound quality, but you're paying for the NC.
    - cballard 11y ago
stcredzero 11y ago
This guy generally has good advice: https://www.youtube.com/user/ZeosReviews https://www.youtube.com/user/ZeosReviews (But let me know if he turns into an affiliate marketing shill.) Headphone guide: https://www.reddit.com/r/Zeos/comments/3ttvhy/guide_headphones_general_music/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Zeos/comments/3ttvhy/guide_headphon... Gaming headphone guide: https://www.reddit.com/r/Zeos/comments/3tu9gl/guide_headphones_gaming/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Zeos/comments/3tu9gl/guide_headphon...
_rob 11y ago
Wow that suspension is amazing. If you don't have the time to watch the entire article you should at least watch the video demonstration. I wonder why they don't integrate it into ambulances. In that application cost or weight shouldn't matter as much.
soundlab 11y ago
For decades Dr. Bose held an aggressive "not invented here" bias, which they are now finally moving on from. It's great to see Bose becoming active in the startup scene in Boston, including a sponsorship of the MassChallenge accelerator. Say what you will about the marketing hype or sound quality, it is an extremely well run diversified business that goes way beyond headphones.
bumbledraven 11y ago
The Bose L1 Model II is a good sound system for small bands.
Shorel 11y ago
Bose sounds like a really nice company to work in.
- colanderman 11y ago
  I have two friends who work there who enjoy it very much. Good company culture and work/life balance, while still working on interesting products.
kanche 11y ago
I am really not a fan of these kind of companies - Beats, Bose who claim to provide the best sound experience with their mumbo jumbo patented technology, sell earphones at an astonishingly high price which do not even sound good. I search for good earphones/speaker in head-fi - it's a good source of earphone reviews. I bought MEElectronics A151[0] (1st gen) in 2012, they were at half the price of Bose earphones, and to me, sounds so much better than them. I treat them so badly - throwing them anywhere after coming back home, still going strong. http://www.meeaudio.com/a151p-balanced-armature-in-ear-headphone-with-inline-microphone-and-remote-2nd-generation/ http://www.meeaudio.com/a151p-balanced-armature-in-ear-headp... I think one should not make any compromises with earphone and eyeglasses. It was a significant purchase as I was a student then and I feel it was worth it.
aidenn0 11y ago
I met an engineer that worked at Bose. They had some quirky rules like "no eating in the office" not because of mess, but to get you out of your office at least once every few hours.
chiph 11y ago
> The idea was to invent a system that anticipated and rose above bumps in the road. A little like riding on a magic carpet. This became the Bose Ride seat for commercial trucks. http://www.boseride.com/ http://www.boseride.com/ It has a linear actuator that is run by a computer monitoring a set of accelerometers.

57 points by zwrose 11y ago

I had QC25, $300, needs fucking piece of paper to be put into ear cup to work. Bose is a rip off. Just look into this vid - 40000 views of how and where to put piece of paper into your $300 headphones - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OYva0hOW0Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OYva0hOW0Q

lsniddy 11y ago
ive had bose repair or replace my headphones 5+ times over the years free of charge for damage i caused
Someone1234 11y ago
I own the QC25's and I can say they work just fine without me having to install a piece of paper in the cup. The video you linked to is a repair video, but your comment implies that a new set taken off the shelf don't work unless you install paper, two different things entirely. I haven't yet had an issue with the QC25s except that they do seem to cause noise fatigue a lot quicker than non-noise cancelling headphones. I cannot explain that; just my experience. But the noise cancelling is very good.
vvpan 11y ago
Never had the headphones, but somebody gave me a pair of desktop speakers and I've been very disappointed. They sounds "as if" they are awesome, that is pack a lot of bass into a little box, but the sound comes out over-bassed and muffled. I play a lot of roots-reggae and I can hear the bass real well, but everything else is very hard to make out. So what Bose seems to be good at is marketing and tricking the customer into saying "wooow".
what_ever 11y ago
The description says that he slept while wearing the headphones so I suppose damage should not be that surprising. Since when 40k YouTube videos became the gold standard for anything? I was one of the group which said Bose are overpriced but my work has open office layout and it gets really loud. Manager agreed to expense the noise canceling headphone and I must say QC25 are great noise canceling/dampening and VERY comfortable and light. Earlier I could not keep headphones on for longer hours but I have no issues with QC. Also they work great on the planes.
- igor_a 11y ago
  I didn't did anything bad with them just used them in office. I was happy customer until they broke (after 7 month of usage)
lobster_johnson 11y ago
I have the QC25, no paper needed. And they are amazing.
henriks 11y ago
The noise canceling is amazing, but Bose's quality control could use some improvement: I've had my QC25's replaced twice over the last year, both times due to the same issue: folding them up for storage strains the cable going between the speakers, and at some point it breaks. Two out of three people I know with the same headphones have had exactly the same issue.
dzhiurgis 11y ago
Are there any _noise cancelling_ headphones that also sound well? I have no idea, but it seems that it is fundamentally incompatible. I have Superlux hd668b - I think they were like $40 USD, and they sound definitely better than QC25. But... they are not noise cancelling, they look derp and press on my ears. Actually majority of quality headphones appear to have awful designs with curled cables and thick bands that makes people look at you.

wickawic 11y ago

Is this anything more than a puff piece for Bose? I really like the vignette of a dying old man being overjoyed by the state of their noise cancelling technology

Theodores 11y ago
> Is this anything more than a puff piece Yes it is. It is also an example of journalism where the writer gets paid by the word, hence the tedium of the 'vignette'. In the UK we don't have 'paid by the word' in quite the same way, so you rarely have to wade through rubbish to get to the gist of the article on a UK website. It is a U.S. phenomenon having the fluff-bloat at the start of the article, and, to be honest, it puts me off reading anything linked here from the likes of the New York Times. I just cannot stand this writing style with the extra 'vignette' or whatever padding out the article into some narrative that I cannot be bothered with.
- dang 11y ago
  > It is also an example of journalism where the writer gets paid by the word That's a factual claim, which you should not make unless you know it to be true.
  - Theodores 11y ago
    I stand corrected. However, what is the cultural difference between US and UK journalism where UK stuff is to the point (i.e. with a summary of the story, then the story told properly) and US articles always have to have some meandering nonsense that is as tangential as possible to the story? The format makes sense for a book but is a bit silly in New York Times style articles.
braythwayt 11y ago
The dead giveaway that it is a puff piece written by a PR firm, and then only lightly edited to preserve the pretense of journalism being involved, is when the piece describes the executives in glowing, hagiographic terms. The marketing team has the piece written glorifying the CEO, which in turn leads to more budget and promotions for the marketing team. The PR firm places the piece everywhere, which leads to more PR briefs. And the "reporters" are starving in a dying industry, so they'll do anything for a crust of bread and the odd review item they can keep. --- p.s. Don't tell me that hackers can't play the same game: http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html

oxide 11y ago

You're a knowledgeable lot, so I think I'll put this question out to you all. I'm looking for a budget pair of cans, I usually spend about 20 bucks because I'm both cheap and poor. I was considering the HD202's, I usually get by with HD201's but the cords short out and fray after a year or so of everyday use. I only have two requirements: over-ear headphones with a comically oversized cord appreciate any recommendations in advance.

dangerlibrary 11y ago
Koss PortaPro. They leak sound like crazy and look like they came out of a time machine from the 1980's. But they're cheap and they sound great.
- darkstar999 11y ago
  Also Koss KSC75's. They are $15 on amazon right now and I swear they sound better than most $100+ cans. The self-proclaimed audiophiles over at head-fi.org love them. I wonder if they use the same speaker/driver as the porta pros?
- brandall10 11y ago
  That's a popular Head-fi recommendation, as well as their sibling the KSC-75 (same drivers). The great thing about headphone audio nowadays (as opposed to just 10 years ago) is there are quite a few low cost options that sound great. Unfortunately they're not well known unless you do some research. That said, if you want top-tier audio out of something extremely portable that isolates to a degree, I cannot recommend Sennheiser's IE800 highly enough. I've spent many a kilobuck over the past 15 years and these are some of my favs. Not cheap at $800 retail (used in the $500-600 area), but totally worth it if you listen often while working. I have other IEMs that cost 2-3x as much and prefer these. Most of time I use these in conjunction w/ Roon audio player and a Tidal sub straight out of the headphone port of my 13 rMBP - total audiophile bliss.
  - andrewblossom 11y ago
    How do you find Roon? Worth the money?

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

hellofunk 11y ago

I have been using the Bose QC noise-cancelling headphones for many years. Bose has been great. They even replaced my pair for a 70% off upgrade price after being a loyal customer for only 3 or 4 years, so I could get some new features and nice cushy new soft ear muffs. They take a beating. I constantly drop them on hard floors, the travel with me all over the world constantly, and their quality has never diminished.

bequem 11y ago

I might read like a puff piece to some, but it was insightful nonetheless. Thanks for sharing it!

ArchReaper 11y ago

This is obviously a very thinly veiled marketing piece for Bose.

beloch 11y ago

Audiophiles rag on Bose pretty hard. It's easy to see why if you look at their product line. They have home theater systems, but all of them use tiny plastic cube speakers that trade sound quality for unobtrusiveness. They have soundbars and waveboxes. Bose 901's are arguably their "flagship" audiophile product, but these are designed to bounce additional sound off your walls to make your room sound like a concert hall. The problem is that nobody masters recordings for speakers that intentionally add reverb. These gimmick speakers are designed to wow in the showroom with the right tracks, but do you really want everything you hear to sound like it's in a concert hall? Bose simply doesn't target audiophiles. They don't make audiophile products. However, they've carved out a niche for themselves that makes them billions every year. That niche is basically one step removed from snake-oil. Bose has somehow managed their image so that people think Bose really can cram audiophile-grade performance into precisely the kind of tiny, plastic boxes no other audio company can get halfway decent sound out of. Bose fails as hard as anyone else at that, but somehow people believe they've succeeded and line up to buy their products. Whatever Bose is doing for advertising, it's elite. This article is probably an example of what they're doing.

jordanthoms 11y ago
I do think some of their headphones are best in class - Not the greatest value for money though. Their QC line have the best noise cancelling, and if that's the most important criteria they are the ones I recommend to people. (Personally I use Sennheiser for my ANC cans as the sound is better and noise cancelling is not too far off). Their sports in-ears are great also - I've never found any in-ear headphone that beats the MIE2 in comfort and not falling out, and the sound isn't bad either.
- overcast 11y ago
  I have the inner ear version, and the noise canceling is ridiculously good. $300 was hard to swallow for the sound quality, but you're paying for the NC.
  - cballard 11y ago

stcredzero 11y ago

This guy generally has good advice: https://www.youtube.com/user/ZeosReviews https://www.youtube.com/user/ZeosReviews (But let me know if he turns into an affiliate marketing shill.) Headphone guide: https://www.reddit.com/r/Zeos/comments/3ttvhy/guide_headphones_general_music/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Zeos/comments/3ttvhy/guide_headphon... Gaming headphone guide: https://www.reddit.com/r/Zeos/comments/3tu9gl/guide_headphones_gaming/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Zeos/comments/3tu9gl/guide_headphon...

_rob 11y ago

Wow that suspension is amazing. If you don't have the time to watch the entire article you should at least watch the video demonstration. I wonder why they don't integrate it into ambulances. In that application cost or weight shouldn't matter as much.

soundlab 11y ago

For decades Dr. Bose held an aggressive "not invented here" bias, which they are now finally moving on from. It's great to see Bose becoming active in the startup scene in Boston, including a sponsorship of the MassChallenge accelerator. Say what you will about the marketing hype or sound quality, it is an extremely well run diversified business that goes way beyond headphones.

bumbledraven 11y ago

The Bose L1 Model II is a good sound system for small bands.

Shorel 11y ago

Bose sounds like a really nice company to work in.

colanderman 11y ago
I have two friends who work there who enjoy it very much. Good company culture and work/life balance, while still working on interesting products.

kanche 11y ago

I am really not a fan of these kind of companies - Beats, Bose who claim to provide the best sound experience with their mumbo jumbo patented technology, sell earphones at an astonishingly high price which do not even sound good. I search for good earphones/speaker in head-fi - it's a good source of earphone reviews. I bought MEElectronics A151[0] (1st gen) in 2012, they were at half the price of Bose earphones, and to me, sounds so much better than them. I treat them so badly - throwing them anywhere after coming back home, still going strong. http://www.meeaudio.com/a151p-balanced-armature-in-ear-headphone-with-inline-microphone-and-remote-2nd-generation/ http://www.meeaudio.com/a151p-balanced-armature-in-ear-headp... I think one should not make any compromises with earphone and eyeglasses. It was a significant purchase as I was a student then and I feel it was worth it.

aidenn0 11y ago

I met an engineer that worked at Bose. They had some quirky rules like "no eating in the office" not because of mess, but to get you out of your office at least once every few hours.

chiph 11y ago

> The idea was to invent a system that anticipated and rose above bumps in the road. A little like riding on a magic carpet. This became the Bose Ride seat for commercial trucks. http://www.boseride.com/ http://www.boseride.com/ It has a linear actuator that is run by a computer monitoring a set of accelerometers.