Today at my local store, I had a chance to test this full-size headphone from BOSE. My first impression - I was totally shocked by how bad it sound. Vocal and treble is bordering on shrillness and, sometimes, makes me cringe. I didn't get to test bass though, because they had only one song uploaded on the pmp. The only good thing I have, to say about this phone is soundstage which seems to be big. Other than that, I would never guess this phone is priced at $350. However, this price tag got me wonder if it is the phone that actually producing abysmal sound quality or is it cause of poorly encoded file. It would be great to hear thoughts of members who actually have experience with this phone.

I had the same experience as you do with the Quitecomfort 15 from BOSE. Yes, you might consider its soundstage is huge, but it just lack the depth and dimension. It's just there and does not interpretable as a stage of the sound dimension ... sadly.

I don't so NC. you want NC buy the Sennheiser HD25-1's, best NC headphones i've tried ... but without all that gubbins. 

IMHO......the Bose QC2 are great, they can be had used for way less than $300. I have them, I wouldn't get on a plane without them. For listening just they're not the way to go. There are a lot better phones for way less money that sound better. depending on your ears, Grado SR225, Denon D2000, Byer 880....etc. There are a lot of choices, ya' just got to listen to them before buying. CanJam would be a great opportunity if you could make it.

Actually the QC15s are quite impressive for their NC capabilities. Soundwise, they are better than the QC2s. BUT, IEMs tend to isolate better and for the same price will give you much better sound.
 

 
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kenta said:

I had the same experience as you do with the Quitecomfort 15 from BOSE. Yes, you might consider its soundstage is huge, but it just lack the depth and dimension. It's just there and does not interpretable as a stage of the sound dimension ... sadly.

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You put it nicely. I could feel the soundstage but something was missing which I don't know how to describe in english because of my limited capacity of it. Sort of like lacking weight in sound(I'm not sure that's the correct way to describe). I spot the difference right away cuz I was on my ie7 before I tried it on and it was in your face difference.


 
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macedonianhero said:

Actually the QC15s are quite impressive for their NC capabilities. Soundwise, they are better than the QC2s. BUT, IEMs tend to isolate better and for the same price will give you much better sound.
 

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My ie7, half of that price, has much better sound quality than that. Frankly, I was expecting great sound quality from this phone as it is from well-known phone maker and having the price tag of $350. It was huge let down in the end.
 

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anthonym said:

My ie7, half of that price, has much better sound quality than that. Frankly, I was expecting great sound quality from this phone as it is from well-known phone maker and having the price tag of $350. It was huge let down in the end.

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Well known != good. Depends on what sort of demographic knows it. Bose, in this case, is known mostly by people with no experience listening to high end audio. We can't expect them to know what's best if they don't know any other company.

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anthonym said:

 
My ie7, half of that price, has much better sound quality than that. Frankly, I was expecting great sound quality from this phone as it is from well-known phone maker and having the price tag of $350. It was huge let down in the end.
 

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Why were you let down? It's BOSE!!!
Buy
Other
Sound
Equipment
 

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head injury said:

Well known != good. Depends on what sort of demographic knows it. Bose, in this case, is known mostly by people with no experience listening to high end audio. We can't expect them to know what's best if they don't know any other company.

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Well, I was in the same boat as they are, before head-fiers spoiled my ears and burned my wallet good. Sometimes, it's better not to know what the good taste like.

 
Quote:

macedonianhero said:

 
Why were you let down? It's BOSE!!!
Buy
Other
Sound
Equipment
 

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Hi. When you have the Bose on and you click play for the first time do you hear a click sound from the left speaker where the cable is located? This sound disappears as you click next etc but when you pause the song for a long time and then play it again the click sound reappears.

Having one or two sets of good headphones and to my mind a good ear, I thought I would add my contribution to the pot for what it's worth. I own Sennheiser HD25, Bose QC 15, B&W P5, yamaha 100 in ear, B&W C5.
My first comment is that 'good' sounding headphones is purely a subjective phrase and dependent on your ears and their ability to hear frequencies, and then personal taste. This ability changes throughout our life and different people hear different ranges of frequencies. For these purposes I can only speak for my hearing comparing the Bose QC 15 with other quality headphones. The Bose certainly have a laid back 'smiley' equalisation associated with them. I wouldn't call this bad, far from it they are open with a wide sound stage and due to not overemphasising the midrange sound in some way more realistic. The sound from bass to mids to trebles is seamless unlike some of the the other headphones I own. The bass in particular is articulate and does not suffer from muddyness and confusion with the midrange again suffered by other headphones that should know better. One of the most pleasant factors of the Bose is that you are not aware of the bass until it's there in the music. Yes the P5s and the sennheisers offer great mids and trebles but this can be very wearing over time and you do not get the "here in the room" experience that you get with the Bose, it feels like someone is singing / playing straight into your ears which isn't pleasant for some recordings in fact it can sometimes be painful if the recording is shrill. Having got sound out the way I will move to the noise cancelling part of the headphones. This puts a smile on the face of anyone who tries it for the first time, however can take a little time to get used to. The feeling is that of unpopped ears when no music is playing through them, however when the music begins this soon fades away. They do take some getting used to, you strangely find yourself turning down your music while you're out in the madding crowds, which seems odd but you find that you just don't need the volume. I was not aware until I did a side by side comparison of my other headphones how intrusive ambient sound is on my music and found myself hearing drumstick counting hits at the beginning of songs that I never knew were there, and all this in the middle of a big city! yes I admit it I am a big Bose fan but only because I tried them and liked them and not because of the name, I have tried other big names in headphones but their fatiguing in your face nature make them difficult to live with on a regular basis for me. These are just my honest thoughts, if you find them useful Great! If not please ignore them.