comment on bose in ear headphones.

I am a 40 year old guy that still listens to just about all types of music.
I still listen to 80's metal especially Iron Maiden, and newer stuff like Korn. I also enjoy top 40 and classical, and some good hip-hop once in awhile.

I have an 80gig zune that I happen to like.
I the premium ear buds that it came with were not too bad, but I wanted something a little better.

I have done research on the web and had been to best buy 10 times trying to decide.

Because of the anti bose reviews I went with the ShureSE210. I thought it was worse then the supplied zune premium buds. It was around $140 or a little less. I returned them and bought the Bose in Ear phones. I thought they sounded better then good. I thought they were worth the $99. Yes it did take time to understand the type of fit they offer and that they do not shut out outside noise, but they sound nice.

I do not think that the sound isolation buds were for me because they irritated me after 20 minutes. I also found that I had to remove one everytime someone wanted to talk to me. Especially my wife yapping when I followed her around shopping at the mall.

The bose in ear allowed me to listen to my music and still be in contact with the outside world.

I now may be in the market for on ear phones....Bose????

I do respect all of your opinions and hope you do not come down on me too hard.

thanks....joe

I thought the Bose in-ears were very good and thought they were better than the Sonly EX90LPs. They had a fuller sound than the Sonys. But, I think this is the exception to their lineup. When talking about full sized headphones, Bose can't hold a candle to the many great headphones that are available at their respective prices.

Well Mr Joe, if you didn't like Shures then probably you aren't into IEM world and I would advise you to stay away from it as well. But with regards to headphones, well you have got a wider range of choice. But don't expect the comfort levels on par with the Bose's. Check out Grado's SR-60/80, they should be great for the type of music you listen to. You can just have a look into HeadRoom - Right Between Your Ears as they have got a very big list to check out in the same price range. One things for sure, if you like Bose then just stick to them. Your purchase would only be for once and thats all.

maybe it's just my ears, but none of the silicon tips that came with the bose fit my ears so what I did was take the smallest silicon tips that came with my ep-630 and put them on the bose. The fit was greatly improved, however I've found that if you stick them too far in your ear, it begins to sound muddy. That being said, I would agree with most off your statements (all except the phones being worth the $100) I love the sound with the EQ on "pop" with my creative zen micro. The distinction between the bass and treble is clean unlike the "rock" EQ which ups the bass and almost veils the mids and treble. The treble is not the strong point of these phones, but it didn't sound good at all with the "rock" EQ. Also, if you play around with the custom EQ, setting the treble too high results in static.

Just my 2 cents here, being a maiden fan, you'll certainly recognize my screen name here . If you want to stay in contact with the outside world then you'll need open backed or semi open HP's. The grado sr60/80 fit the bill and listening to some Maiden right now with my sr60's and I love it. Bose tends to get less worth it as their price goes up. My bro does have the bose around ear headphones and they sound pretty airy from what I remember (it's been a few years). I love the in your face sound of the Grado's though and they are a bit cheaper then the Bose one's.

Someone gave me a pair of the Bose IE's (she didn't like the way they fit), and I didn't find them horrible SQ-wise. As with the person who gave them away, what I disliked was they didn't really stay in my ears, even with the special silicone tips they sent out to replace the originals (a major snafu on Bose's part). They were just too loose-fitting, which made it hard to even move with them and have them stay put. I sold them on ebay for $60, which to me was their max value.

If you want a less costly phone that stays in place and allows outside contact, and sounds much better than the Bose, you can't go wrong with the Yuin PK1s ($50) or PK2s ($79). Granted, they are ear buds, not IEMs or canal phones, but when I compared the PK3s directly to the Bose IE's (before I sold them), it was no contest SQ-wise. You could have saved $50 and still got what you were looking for. Of course, they don't sell Yuin buds at Best Buy.

As for over the ear phones, you can do better for the cost and quality, as others have posted here.

No knocking the Bose IE's per se. If they fit you, then great. But there are less expensive, higher quality alternatives out there, at least to my ears. And I did have direct experience with them.

IMO, SE210 isn't a particularly good IEM from Shure, which is why you didn't find it to be your liking.

If you read enough here, you will know we ain't really anti-Bose, we are more like anti-overpriced-Bose (especially their headphone lineup). There are quite a few members who like their Bose IE series, but even they will agree that you can find better full sized headphone than Bose OE series. If you can give us your budget, what type of music you listen to, and in what kind of environment, I am sure you will receive plenty of good recommendation.

BTW, Sorry about your wallet!

i am sorry I really did not mean to call this place or any one anti-bose. I enjoy reading opinions and thank you all. Because of this forum and all of you you have helped me find something I enjoy using.

Thank You all.

Joe

Don't appologize - there ARE many anti-BOSE people here! But then again many are also just against the rediculous price of the BOSE - you are definately paying for the name.

I agree with you 100%. I, too, went to Best Buy dozen times. I bought all three of the BOSE TriPort offerings. I liked the sound of the IE buds but they were not stable enough for me to use at work. One little movement of the cable and they shift causing me to lose sound. I like the design, and I like the sound of them. Like you I also like to be able to hear the outside world a little bit so when my co-worker's need me they can get my attention. If BOSE could make them somehow more stable I might have considered them.

As for the other BOSE TriPort models, I really like the AE models. Sure, you can get a whole lot more headphone for the rediculous price they cost, but the BOSE AE's are very, very, very comfortable for long periods of wear. Keep in mind that these DO block out more noise though. Which could be good if the wife is in a bad mood and nagging you!

Last, I totally agree on the Shure's. I tried the SE210's and hated them. I didn't like the sound and I really didn't like the feel - they hurt my ears within 15 minutes. Supposedly you eventually get used to this but since I didn't like the sound anyway, I took them back. I didn't like the fit/feel/sound of the SE110's either. I tend to like the fit/feel/sound of canal-type phones, the silicon tips that go into your ears just a little bit. They don't have a ton of isolation so you can hear a little if your music level is low, but I can wear them for longer periods of time. I like a lot of bass so I ended up choosing the Denon AH-C700's when Amazon dropped them to $99. They're a great deal.

M.

circuit city has a much better selection of high performance phones if you want to deal with a retail store in the future.

Bose tend to voice their headphones in the manner most pleasing to the average listener. It certainly sounds nice on first listen, but then you notice the muddy bass, rolled-off highs, and absolutely terrible transients. In the long term, it starts to grate on your ears.

The problem is, in the portable market, there is so much rubbish lying around, that something that's a bit above the consumer norm, like Bose, automatically sounds great in comparison.

I also think that lower-end IEMs sound like rubbish; I'll go even further and say that most higher-end IEMs sound like rubbish too, at least in comparison to full-size headphones costing the same. You really do pay for miniaturization and isolation first and foremost. It wasn't until I hit custom-molded IEMs that I found something I liked.

But, in terms of full-size headphones - I can't make a suggestion not knowing your budget, your intended use, and your sonic preferences. But, my usual advice for starting out is the Audio-Technica ATH-A900 if you want something closed, or Sennheiser HD595 if you want something open that doesn't isolate. Both are good-sounding headphones that can be easily driven by portable sources.

If you want to plunge headfirst into high-end, you're probably best off with a Sennheiser HD580 or HD600 and a headphone amp of some sort. I can't really recommend one without knowing more, but the amp forum is a click away But, once you get a very revealing transducer, be prepared to throw lots and lots of money at it in order to make it happy - a very revealing headphone will show you all of the defects in your signal path, and pretty soon, you start upgrading sources, amps, interconnects, power components, etc, all just to take it to the next level. It gets really expensive really fast, but it sure does sound nice in the process.

The latest generation of the Bose IEs have finally incorporated the design features that should have been there from day one. The ear buds now have a tab on them that fits into a slot on the silicone tips, effectively locking them in place. Bose has also changed the audio plug to an almost 90 degree form making it much less obtrusive and making the cable's sleeve less likely to tear. Without getting into arguments about the audio quality (which I happen to like with the Ipod's EQ set to Acoustic) Bose is to be commended for correcting the design flaws but, frankly, should be offering a rebate to any prior generation IE owner who wishes to "modernize". It should never have taken 3 generations to figure this out.

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That's quite a valuable piece of information for all those who - like me - browse the forum and read descriptions of faulty design features. Now these accounts can be put into (a historical) perspective.


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I wish Microsoft had come up after 3 generations with a Windows version that really works and doesn't need continuous "service packs"!

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Generally speaking, I don't like "on ear" models, they always remind me of wearing headphones (which I tend to forget with the "around ear" models) and the harness gets out of place more easily.

The BOSE OEs sound as if there was a foam layer between the ears and the source, so they're much more veiled and dark in respect to the IEs.

You might want to try the BOSE Around Ears, they are light (only 140 grs), never get out of place, perfectly adapt to the form of your head (having joints), and isolate more than the OE model (i.e. like closed studio headphones). I can't imagine any better fitting AE model. The overall sound impression is brighter and more detailled than the BOSE In Ears, but the bass is fatter and more prominent (you would have to hear for yourself if it's acceptable for you). The resolution is higher (for instance, harp chords come like crystal-clear pearls), yet the overal sound impression is more distant and slightly less balanced than with the IEs.