Hello everyone. Tonight I will be reviewing the Bose Around Ear headphones and directly comparing them to my MS-1.
The reason Im doing this review is because Bose gets alot of hate around here. Yes, there will always be better for your money. But I bought them because I was curious, and to be completely honest, Ive always kinda admired the Bose sound signature. That being said, I have nothing against Bose at all and this review is completely unbiased.
I burned in the headphones with 100+ hours of pink noise, listening every couple of hours for changes. When I first listened to them right out of the box, I was unimpressed. The bass was quite exaggerated and peaky around 60hz, the mids were distant, and the highs didnt extend far at all. I let them play the pink noise and they started to change after a couple hours. By the time they hit 30 hrs, the bass settled down alot and the peak started smoothing out. The mids were becoming more and more alive as bass got tamer and the highs started extending more. The soundstage was getting bigger and imaging was getting more precise. 50 hrs, not as much change. Maybe less peaky and more mellow bass. The soundstage sounded the same width, but imaging got better. 75 hrs, again, just slightly smoother response, mabey better highs, clearer mids. After 75 hrs, it didnt really change much to speak of. These things changed alot during burn-in, especially after 24 hrs.
The best way to describe the Bose Around Ear sound is "fun". It does have a dark sound signature and bass is pronounced, but it isnt as sloppy and overpowering as alot of people say. Out of the box, maybe it is. But even though this headphones bass is exaggerated, I can still hear the midrange and inner detail of the music (which is contrary to other reports). These actually arent too far off from my MS-1 as far as detail, everything is there in both phones. And actually, alot details come out stronger and more pronounced on the Bose. Things like ringing timbre of cymbals and even the notes themselves come out quite rich and strong. So rich and creamy in fact, it dosent sound real. The big, big difference between the MS-1 (or other audiophile stuff) and Bose was the MS-1 sounds more realistic, natural and transparent to what was on the recording. The Bose on the other hand has an artificial tone to it. Male voices sound more masculine than life. Bass impact is very strong but not true to the real instrument. Bass guitar sounds too warm and the double bass is somewhat sloppy but still acceptable. One good thing is they extend down to 30hz or so before noticeably dropping off, which is better than my MS-1. The midrange has the tonality of a $20 Sony with certain (but not all) instruments, but is much more detailed. Treble is sweet sounding but dosent extend far enough and sounds a little exaggerated and fake. Everything just seems "enhanced" with extra warmth and richness to make almost any recording sound powerful and enveloping.
Belive it or not, I can recognize the notes and frequencies of the sounds better with the Bose, which would make them good for transcribing. For example, I hear every note of a guitar solo quite well on the Bose. Every note that comes out sounds rich and authoritative. The MS-1 has a more transparent and cold tone to it but is actually more correct and brings out true richness and impact when the recording calls for it, which is something the Bose cant do for crap.
The MS-1 are better in almost every respect. But these 2 headphones couldent be more different from eachother. The engineers had different goals in mind. I think Bose went for the unrealistic sound on purpose, and in my opinion did a good job at it. They even say the purpose of their products is to simulate the live sound experience. I haven't been to a concert in a long time, so I dont know about that. What I do know is this singers chest and lungs must have grown bigger when I threw on the Bose.
I did a blind test on my Dad between the MS-1 and Bose (he knows nothing about audio and dosent care). He said every time that the Bose sounded better. And it dosent suprise me because most average people like that bigger than life, Rock EQ type of sound. Nothing beats the true to life, high fidelity audiophile sound. But in my opinion, Bose did a good job of creating a "pleasant" sounding headphone for the un-educated mass market. They are extremely comfy and lightweight, look cool (IMO), and you can get them locally with ease. That is why they are popular. They sound great without sounding like the real thing, and that is something people can tap their toes to no matter how awful the recording.
Im returning them tomorrow for a full refund. I cant afford them and I wouldn't use them much anyway. But the Around Ears have my respect and id consider buying them if I wanted a purposefully artificial sound. I like the music that comes out of them, but they just dont sound "right" like my MS1. They do, however, have a unique personality that is enjoyable in its own right. You cant really set a price on something that is supposed to be different than the competition because you have nothing to compare them to. Like I said, these are not audiophile headphones and they dont try to be. Take it for what it is, dont flame me about it.
BTW: Take a look at the pics. The drivers are angled in the earcup, kinda like ultrasones.
