5 ms·

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

by 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
    For $100 more, you can get UE4s molded to your ear canals. You can stand next to an arriving subway train (LOUD) and barely hear it. http://pro.ultimateears.com/ue-4-pro http://pro.ultimateears.com/ue-4-pro
    - overcast 11y ago
      There is a difference between isolation and noise cancelling. I need to be able to hear normal noise, but block out droning of airplanes and white noise.
      - beloch 11y ago
        Canal-phones are not for you then. Over ear noise cancelling cans or buds would be appropriate.
        overcast 11y ago
        I know what is appropriate for me, the inner ear version of the noise cancelling BOSE plugs. Because they don't heat up my ears, are far more comfortable, a small inconspicuous foot print when traveling with a single 30L backpack, and they work.
  - beloch 11y ago
    A good pair of canal-phones that fit properly should provide enough noise isolation (on the order of 25-40 dB, depending on design) that active cancellation is unnecessary in most environments. People performing in front of heavy-duty speaker stacks often use canal-phones to be able to hear what they're doing without going deaf. The caveat is you really do need to mess around with different tips to find ones that fit and shove those suckers in deep enough to get a good seal, which a lot of people hate doing. Noise cancellation is great to have in over-ear cans but would be of very limited utility in canal-phones, assuming their isolation doesn't suck. $300 will get you a very good pair of Etymotics or Shures, which you should be able to get very good isolation with. If you can afford more, custom molded canal-phones are the gold standard. I've heard, in many places, that Bose's noise-cancelling over-ear cans are decent though.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- newman314 11y ago
  Try Etymotic. Not good if all you are looking for is bass but has served me well as travel earphones vs. Bose QC which are too bulky for me.
- hipsterrific 11y ago
  My car came pre-loaded with Bose speakers and, quite honestly, they're the best speakers I've heard in any car I've driven. The sound is pretty good considering that my car's stereo system is actually better than what I have at home. I've never tried their headphones though, I'm not in the market though I'll probably end up going Alclair for custom, in-ear stuff (I play drums so it's nice to have in-ear monitors).
  - beloch 11y ago
    I'm not really into car audio, but I'd imagine this is one place where Bose probably does pretty well because everyone is forced to use the same tiny boxes.
- Guillaume86 11y ago
  +1 for the MIE2, the best sound quality / confort compromise I found (given my particuliar criterions, I don't like plugs for example). Little disapointment: the new in hear truesound ones do not sound as good as the MIE2 (personally bought them in hope to replace my aging MIE2 pair). I recommend buying the old ones on ebay if you're looking for that kind of product.
ksk 11y ago
I'll have to disagree with your comment there. >Audiophiles rag on Bose pretty hard. >Bose simply doesn't target audiophiles. They don't make audiophile products. That would paint the the audiophiles as ignorant. > 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. I don't think anyone who buys Bose products even knows what audiophile-grade means, let alone expect it. People try them on, stuff sounds good, and they buy them. The average person does not have any interest in learning the intricacies of what makes stuff sound good. >Bose fails as hard as anyone else at that, but somehow people believe they've succeeded and line up to buy their products. Maybe people believe it because Bose headphones actually sound better to THEM? Yes, sure maybe SOME people get swayed by the marketing (like any other product in the world), but I don't think a large segment of the population will spend hundreds of dollars unless they can get some tangible benefit. Sure, maybe its sad that they spent all their hard earned money on something that they could have gotten for a fraction of the price from some other vendor - but this applies to TONS of products out there. And interestingly enough, even the so called audiophile-grade manufacturers are not really going to tell you, for e.g. that you're better off upgrading your source (the most important link in that chain), than your gear. All of the several thousand dollar headphones and amps and dacs, IMHO, are also one step removed from snake-oil. It reminds me of all the wine drinkers who buy all these expensive wines, and going off of memory, they have them do a double-blind trial and they pick out the cheap wines as tasting just as good. (FWIW I don't own any Bose products, but I have invested/wasted about $5000 in audio gear over the years :))
- beloch 11y ago
  It's funny, but I'd offer just the opposite advice these days. Most people don't spend enough on their speakers, both in terms of cost and in terms of devoting the space and time to set them up properly. The amount of money you should spend on your source as compared to the rest of your gear has just kept going steadily downwards. Back in the vinyl days you really had to spend a mint to get a good record player, and it didn't hurt to keep buying copies of records that got a lot of play. Spending even more would net you concrete reductions in noise, less wear on your records, etc.. These days S/PDIF out from an the on-board audio chipset of a motherboard and a decent receiver/pre-amp or DAC are overkill for 99.9% of the sound systems out there. High end CD transports are pure snake-oil.
marshray 11y ago
I've owned and worn out dozens of different pairs of headphones and my Bose QC25 noise cancelling phones are hands-down one of my favorite consumer products ever. But I agree with you about the audiophiles. I would never buy Bose speakers for anything other than a desktop PC.

by beloch 11y ago

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
  For $100 more, you can get UE4s molded to your ear canals. You can stand next to an arriving subway train (LOUD) and barely hear it. http://pro.ultimateears.com/ue-4-pro http://pro.ultimateears.com/ue-4-pro
  - overcast 11y ago
    There is a difference between isolation and noise cancelling. I need to be able to hear normal noise, but block out droning of airplanes and white noise.
    - beloch 11y ago
      Canal-phones are not for you then. Over ear noise cancelling cans or buds would be appropriate.
      - overcast 11y ago
        I know what is appropriate for me, the inner ear version of the noise cancelling BOSE plugs. Because they don't heat up my ears, are far more comfortable, a small inconspicuous foot print when traveling with a single 30L backpack, and they work.
- beloch 11y ago
  A good pair of canal-phones that fit properly should provide enough noise isolation (on the order of 25-40 dB, depending on design) that active cancellation is unnecessary in most environments. People performing in front of heavy-duty speaker stacks often use canal-phones to be able to hear what they're doing without going deaf. The caveat is you really do need to mess around with different tips to find ones that fit and shove those suckers in deep enough to get a good seal, which a lot of people hate doing. Noise cancellation is great to have in over-ear cans but would be of very limited utility in canal-phones, assuming their isolation doesn't suck. $300 will get you a very good pair of Etymotics or Shures, which you should be able to get very good isolation with. If you can afford more, custom molded canal-phones are the gold standard. I've heard, in many places, that Bose's noise-cancelling over-ear cans are decent though.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
newman314 11y ago
Try Etymotic. Not good if all you are looking for is bass but has served me well as travel earphones vs. Bose QC which are too bulky for me.
hipsterrific 11y ago
My car came pre-loaded with Bose speakers and, quite honestly, they're the best speakers I've heard in any car I've driven. The sound is pretty good considering that my car's stereo system is actually better than what I have at home. I've never tried their headphones though, I'm not in the market though I'll probably end up going Alclair for custom, in-ear stuff (I play drums so it's nice to have in-ear monitors).
- beloch 11y ago
  I'm not really into car audio, but I'd imagine this is one place where Bose probably does pretty well because everyone is forced to use the same tiny boxes.
Guillaume86 11y ago
+1 for the MIE2, the best sound quality / confort compromise I found (given my particuliar criterions, I don't like plugs for example). Little disapointment: the new in hear truesound ones do not sound as good as the MIE2 (personally bought them in hope to replace my aging MIE2 pair). I recommend buying the old ones on ebay if you're looking for that kind of product.

ksk 11y ago

I'll have to disagree with your comment there. >Audiophiles rag on Bose pretty hard. >Bose simply doesn't target audiophiles. They don't make audiophile products. That would paint the the audiophiles as ignorant. > 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. I don't think anyone who buys Bose products even knows what audiophile-grade means, let alone expect it. People try them on, stuff sounds good, and they buy them. The average person does not have any interest in learning the intricacies of what makes stuff sound good. >Bose fails as hard as anyone else at that, but somehow people believe they've succeeded and line up to buy their products. Maybe people believe it because Bose headphones actually sound better to THEM? Yes, sure maybe SOME people get swayed by the marketing (like any other product in the world), but I don't think a large segment of the population will spend hundreds of dollars unless they can get some tangible benefit. Sure, maybe its sad that they spent all their hard earned money on something that they could have gotten for a fraction of the price from some other vendor - but this applies to TONS of products out there. And interestingly enough, even the so called audiophile-grade manufacturers are not really going to tell you, for e.g. that you're better off upgrading your source (the most important link in that chain), than your gear. All of the several thousand dollar headphones and amps and dacs, IMHO, are also one step removed from snake-oil. It reminds me of all the wine drinkers who buy all these expensive wines, and going off of memory, they have them do a double-blind trial and they pick out the cheap wines as tasting just as good. (FWIW I don't own any Bose products, but I have invested/wasted about $5000 in audio gear over the years :))

beloch 11y ago
It's funny, but I'd offer just the opposite advice these days. Most people don't spend enough on their speakers, both in terms of cost and in terms of devoting the space and time to set them up properly. The amount of money you should spend on your source as compared to the rest of your gear has just kept going steadily downwards. Back in the vinyl days you really had to spend a mint to get a good record player, and it didn't hurt to keep buying copies of records that got a lot of play. Spending even more would net you concrete reductions in noise, less wear on your records, etc.. These days S/PDIF out from an the on-board audio chipset of a motherboard and a decent receiver/pre-amp or DAC are overkill for 99.9% of the sound systems out there. High end CD transports are pure snake-oil.

marshray 11y ago

I've owned and worn out dozens of different pairs of headphones and my Bose QC25 noise cancelling phones are hands-down one of my favorite consumer products ever. But I agree with you about the audiophiles. I would never buy Bose speakers for anything other than a desktop PC.