If you're talking about the Bose, I think they're fine as-is. If you're talking about the Sony's... you're not supposed to EQ over BT. That's not how that's supposed to work.

For sound quality you're going to want something else. EMI shielding is better on certain phones... namely Sony Xperia and Samsung Galaxy S devices. HTC devices with BoomSound feature their own internal amp along with the Qualcomm DAC, and those have some really nice headphone output. Matter of...

These have got to have the worst sound I've ever heard out of a bluetooth over-ear setup. Ever.   My roommate has the MDR-XB950BT and I have the Bose AE2W. We decided to swap for a day because I always tell him I love bass... and I do, but wow. Just wow. These Sony's. It's really hard to...

  Nope. Qualcomm WCD9310, with an inline class D headphone amp.

Quote:   Depends on what type of sound OP wants/prefers... warm or cold. And also, if the OP is willing to install a custom ROM. For instance, the i9300/N7100 (Galaxy S III/Note II) have completely different sound profiles based on if you're running CM10.1 or a Samsung ROM. Samsung almost...

  AE2w (wired at the moment) Galaxy S III i9300 (Wolfson w/ custom compiled Voodoo kernel) FiiO E12 Mont Blanc

Quote:   Active EQ is basically just Bose saying there's a DAC in the BT adapter on the headphones that produces what they think the music should sound like. Basically it's their hard-coded EQ built into the dongle firmware.   Quote:   The Surface Pro comes with a Marvell...

Quote:   I've found that Samsung is the only company that makes an Android phone with perfectly clean audio output... the i9300/i9500 has practically NO EM interference. 

I guess if your laptop's DAC is truly that bad (which I've heard some really bad ones), I'd go ahead and just get an amp/DAC combo.

  "S****y" constitutes an Intel Z2460? Interesting. I'm not even sure which Android device that is, but what DAC are you using?

Quote:   The 518 just doesn't get very loud. I have the FiiO E12 M-B and even it does nothing for the 518's. Now, my Bose AE2's on the other hand... the E12 actually makes them sound like their price point.