Bose® On-Ear Headphones

The Bose was a gift from my wife, which, at first, I gladly accepted. But the sound dissapointed after some while.

Putting these on my head, I couldn't believe the comfort. They are very light and the ear cushions are soft as a cloud. The ear cushions somehow suck onto the ear resulting in a better isolation than with some IEMs I've tried. I've fallen asleep many times forgetting I'm wearing them. I also wore them in loud places without having music playing. I then noticed the strong microphonics which are actually rare for a headphone. It's not the cable, actually, but your very own foot steps. However, it's not an issue with music playing.

The also fold up nicely and the included pouch seems robust enough. I count the looks as a plus, too.

The first thing that you'll notice with music, though, is the strong bass and the warm and smooth presentation. The bass has its very own signature and it's difficult to compare it to other headphones as with the Bose it seems to be a completely different dimension. It's very boomy and dark. I guess it works well with Pop but fails with all other genres - at least from a hi-fi perspective.

The rest dissapoints completely. The mids are taken in from the bass (Corinne Bailey Rae's voice sounds way too dark and even vibrates like coming out of an uncontrolled subwoofer) and the highs seem like they're cut off. Hi-hats sound very annoying as a "Tz" sound results in a "Tsh" (like it's also the case with Sennheiser's CX series). There's no soundstage at all (the sound is projected right into your ear without even trying to be anything but flat) and the resolution is very low. You will definitely not hear new things in your music that you haven't heard before!

Also, the sound is very colored. It's very difficult to tell an acoustic guitar apart from an electric guitar.

Many people critisize the build quality, but I'm not one of the people that throw their € 160 into a bag so I didn't have the slightest issues.

Short, if you feel comfortable paying $ 150 for comfort, which I'm sure many non-head-fiers are, you'll be alright. But if you want to enjoy music, like emotion in voices, prefer the bass to be precise or have any music with highs then stay away!

I just hope that other brands copy the portable design as there's no portable headphone as comfortable in the same price range.

Compared to other 'phones though, the Bose does actually sound much better than the AKG K450 (another failure) but has absolutely nothing (sound-wise) on the much cheaper Hippo VB, for example. Nothing!