Bose AE2 - Any good? (No mindless Bose bashing, please) - Page 2

Maybe why all these Boses and Monster Beats are so pricey is because they put in millions of dollars into 'comfort engineering research'!!!! The conspiracy is open! If you're comfortable, your expectations lower because you're enjoying the lack of irritation so much.

Thank you for the bass comparison. Good to hear from an honest person for a change. Most hate Bose simply because its the cool thing to do. 

 

 How good is the musicality and fun factor vs. the denon and beyer? Which is the most exiting or involving?

I own the Bose AE2 phones, had them for 3 months now. Also i have the Bose OE, Sen HD-555, Sen in ear and sony in ear.

 

the AE2 are the best out of that list of phones i own. There is something about the sound i can not put my finger on yet, but they are so inviting, the sound so open and detailed. The OE are horrible, i hated them from day one. The HD-555 seem very mid biased and both the sony and sen in ear are just to bassy, which is not normal in most music.

 

the AE2's are clear, so detailed, and the soundstage is very open, a few times i have turned to one side to see what that noise was. it was something in the track i had not heard before. Nothing in music really jumps out and says "hear me, hear me" everything in in concert as it were.

 

LOL as i write this im listening to forbidden love (madonna - bedtime stories) for the first time on these phones, and im shocked, there is a male voice very softly whispering on the track during the verses, have never heard this before haha. love it!

I think that most of Bose's research probably goes into psychoacoustics - that is, they find the sound signature that make people (normal people, that is) go "wow!" and immediately feel that they sound amazing.  They do this by sacrificing balance and realism, something that audiophiles with 'phones that are actually balanced kind of hate.  So, while most audiophiles may hate Bose products, your average person who isn't an audiophile, and doesn't care for "balanced" sound, will love them.

 

After all, I've noticed that most of the people who like Bose headphones are clearly just normal consumers, not total OCD headphone collectors like most of us here. :P

People have said the same with the B&W P5's. They are a direct shot at Bose's QC3, trying to make Bose guy's switch.

This is one thing that really makes me angry on forums like this, because i like bose i am (and other Bose fans)  automatically dismissed as "normal consumer" "not an audiophile". laughed at for liking the sound of Bose products. I have been through so much money trying to find headphones and home hifi that works for me. I have bought the headphones listed in my above post and tried many more. With home hifi i have bought in addition to bose, Dali, Dynaudio and B&W speakers, Onkyo and Yahama receivers. Nothing i have bought or heard has been 'better' to the point where i think Bose is bad. 

I have no idea why people hate Bose so much. I am not a mindless hick with bad hearing nor am i an elitist with more money than sense. I have listened to other brands many many times over the last 10 years because i kept getting told on forums that Bose are bad bad bad and if you buy it you should be laughed at and ridiculed. What is sonic perfection to one person is not the same to me, or you, or anyone else as we are all different. If we were all the same you would all own the same model of headphone, but the fact that you dont all own the same ones does not make your claim to be an audiophile any less validated than mine! 

 

I think Bose make the best sounding headphones in the price category they are in. And while i am enjoying my music, which is why we are audiophiles in the first place, you keep buying more and more in the search for the 'perfection' that does not exist, when the Bose AE2 might, just might, be close to the perfection your looking for. But you will never know because your ego wont let you buy Bose.

 

sorry for the rant but after 10 years of crap on forums for being a Bose customer i needed my say

 

live, breathe, love music

 

I will agree to an extent. Everyone's personal preference will differ, and that's expected. That's what makes this hobby so fun, because I like to try a piece of everything to see what "I" like. There have been very cheap and inferior headphones I've tried in the past that ended up being my favorites. One of those include the $20 JVC FX67. It just depends what you find acceptable, sonically and/or cosmetically. Value can be a big weight in this world of audiophiles as well, and I think that's the biggest reason companies like Bose gets bashed so badly. I'm pretty sure nearly every user I've seen comment on a Bose product have said it would be a great value if it was in the, say, $50 bracket instead of the $150 bracket. Value alone will be the deciding and judging factor for many; for others it can be based off what the "reputable" say; and then of course off of personal preference. That's why I agree with and appreciate the ones who have differing independent thought, and have the courage to voice it; just like you have. Even when it means going against the general consensus. If you like Bose products, and have found many other companies just aren't doing it for you, then great! Love them for their sound and not for their reputation amongst audiophiles. Because it's the sound we are all after; even when it calls for spending a bit extra cash, or giving our time and money to an under appreciated or "inferior" company.

Thanks Katun,

I meant no mallice in my post. I just want people to know some are happy with Bose and want to help others asking about them and people saying things that are just negative without reason don't help.

Vocals are a big thing for me, especially female vocals. For some reason Bose seem to make vocals just rush over to meet me and take me right into the music. Sarah brightman on my Bose hifi or ae2 cans can almost move me to tears, a feat not met from another brand yet.

I understand many don't like Bose and it's their right to say so. But denigrating people because they like Bose is not helpful to anyone.

People always say that there are better headphones but never say what they are can u tell me some of those

This thread has me curious how the Denon NC800's compare to the QC15. I got a a set of QC15's at an airport kiosk after a particularly annoying flight, and the noise cancellation is pretty good. 

...And they always get it wrong. Such as many people used to suggest e.g. the AKG K518 as much better than the original Triports. As much as I don't rate 'listening station auditions', you'd have to be deaf - or more truthfully, talking out of your behind based solely on what you read here - to be able to say the AKG is a better buy.

 

 

What I don't like about the AE2 is the over-prominence of treble, which veers into roughness at times. But there's decent levels of detail, the bass is well controlled, and there's not that much mid-bass prominence... but like the HD280 and similar phones, this can do low bass pretty well, so although you don't get a wall of bass, the low hits are certainly there. Staging is reasonable, emphasising the centre mix due to the angled drivers.

 

 

I don't think it's amazing, but at the same time there's nothing horribly wrong with it and as for 'Overpriced' etc, I think given compromises evident in other phones from names with more Head-Fi cred, I think it's not grossly overpriced. Yes... you still get the closed phone honk, but the phone has a nice balance of usable isolation and pretty much ultimate comfort for this product category. The AE2 is my primary 'just walking around' phone and winter ear warmer, and was itself an upgrade from the Triport which I had for many years. The original Triport was in all honesty a much harder sell, for me it was simply a compromise between acceptable sound, usable isolation and weight/comfort, but with the AE2 it's much easier to say 'this is actually a viable product'. God knows I've tried many, many others. 

 

 

I think that for a casual-use pair of phones, you do have to take into account the ease-of-living-with of a phone. I know that many here would e.g. consider the DT770 a portable phone (and I'm not preaching to that particular choir), but realistically speaking you have to consider how practical it is in your mode of usage. And I think the AE2's get that particular element right.

 

 

I just bought a pair of the Bose AE2 as a back up for my Sennheiser HD 558 which are getting repaired due to the cracking issue. As everyone has read, they are very light and very comfortable. The design does look and feels cheap, especially the very thin cord which bothers me. Since thats the part that always fails me on most of my phones! Luckily I haven't heard of anyones sets falling apart. I am a bit disappointed in the lack of accessories, such as a 3.5 to 6.3 adapter. 

 

Anyway what I really, really like is that just like the Sennheiser, the cord is detachable! Not only that the connector is a standard 3.5 jack so I was able to plug in a much thicker Sennheiser cable right into it. This is huge! and maybe even worth the slightly inflated price tag. For me frayed cords are a huge let down, especially on good $300 phones out of warranty. So the fact that I can just replace it with a standard  3.5 mm jack audio cable is great. Also the ear pads are also replaceable. This does in some ways make up for the cheaper design.

 

As for my thoughts on the sound quality, well I wanted something that would be neutral, good bass but not dominating. Well the AE2s are just that, but they do lean "just a bit" on the bright side and there is a small hole connecting the low-end with the low-mid section which makes the music sound a bit cold. Has anyone else noticed this? Its not to a terrible degree, but its there. Hopefully some burn in will balance things out.

 

I'll report more after some burn in time. 

 

Pros:

Lightweight & comfortable

Decent bass

Clear highs

Replaceable Cable and Ear Pads

 

Cons

Feels Cheap

Very thin cable

Dips in the low-mid range, lacks warmth.

 

 

EDIT: I made a mistake above. The cable from the headphones is not a 3.5 mm jack, it is actually smaller. However a Sennheiser cable from the HD 5x8 series will fit. That cable is longer, thicker, and terminates to a 6.3 mm jack.

Edited by TJ Max - 9/15/11 at 12:01pm

Bose AE2's are actually very good. For one thing, they're not cheap like a lot of people in these forums say, they're just really light, which is what makes people think they're made cheaply. Also the people who say that Bose headphones break easily are usually very careless with their headphones, I deal with these kinds of people every day at school and they're the type of people you really need to be careful about lending your headphones to (if you choose to lend out your headphones). A great review for these headphones can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/Bose®-AE2-Audio-Headphones-White/dp/B0091EBU28/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1360368051&sr=1-2&keywords=Bose+AE2

 

Check the review titled "Stop Listening to the Bose Bashers". It shows that these online forums are completely wrong about Bose headphones. You would be amazed at the process this guy went through, even trying V-Moda Crossfade LPs, which have gotten stellar reviews. 

i wore glasses with my ae2's. had no problems