[Azure]

Yesterday I finally went to a Fry's Electronics for the first time, and lo and behold they had a TriPort set up. I gave it a while, expecting somewhat crappy sound. I wasn't familiar at all with the kind of music that was played (and I personally didn't like the genre), but it sounded GREAT. I was perplexed. It sounded incredibly detailed and had a nice airy quality to it; the soundstage was great. It reminded me of the SA1000s, except with less harsh highs and a stronger bottom end. For $150 they seemed to be worth every penny (Yes, this is shocking to me as well, and I'm coming from a STAX rig). The whole time I couldn't understand how they were producing such great sound (And at the same time I was enjoying the mini-eargasm I got...yes, I got a mini-eargasm from the BOSE TriPorts...*feels ashamed*). Does anyone know how they set up their TriPort stations? I'm not sure what the source was; the whole set up was a demo/sampling station. There were like 5 or 6 different ~12 second samples; you could cycle through the different song samples and adjust the volume (All via round microswitched buttons).

Biggest surprise ever.

Possible factors that could have caused the system to sound great:
-Very good source material/highly detailed passages were selected
-I did not have a better headphone right there to A/B
-I hadn't heard my SR-404 in ~16 hours
-The BOSE TriPorts are actually pretty darn good

EDIT: I have NO idea why I posted this in the lounge. If someone could move it to the Headphones forum, that'd be great.

 

[PiccoloNamek]

I had a similar experience at Target. I really wasn't expecting them to sound as good as they did. I wonder if there was a specially prepared equalizer somewhere in the signal chain.

 

[blinx]

im thinking that they selected music that makes the triports really shine. in the summer i was in the seattle airport and i hooked up my portable setup to some bose cans, sounded like crap, way bloated mid bass that rattles your head, this is coming from a DT 770 owner.

so as i said, its probably music thats really detailed and just sound great with the music.

 

[Zorander]

First impressions could be deceiving. It's best to try them at home.

 

[Azure]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zorander /img/forum/go_quote.gif First impressions could be deceiving. It's best to try them at home.

Yes, but can they be THAT deceiving? I mean, if someone here asked what the TriPorts are like compared to the SR-404...oh my. First impressions can be deceiving, but can they be THIS deceiving (I mean, has anyone ever listened to the PS-1 with an SDS-XLR and said "Where's the bass?")?

 

[blip]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Azure /img/forum/go_quote.gif First impressions can be deceiving, but can they be THIS deceiving (I mean, has anyone ever listened to the PS-1 with an SDS-XLR and said "Where's the bass?")?

Yep, there's so much that goes into audio perception (particularly during a short audition under conditions that you are not controlling) that hearing something one time can lead to all sorts of odd audio ideas.

I actually had a similar experience with the Bose TriPorts... I tried them on in an Apple store and they sounded pretty good. Nice detail and great dynamics though kind of a flat soundstage. But overall a lively fun sound. I did a double take! Then I realized that they were cranked up quite a bit. After turning them down, they sounded less appealing but still pretty nice. Then I poked around until I found a demo track that I was familiar with and I realized that they had all sorts of irregularities... particularly a big bump in the mid-bass. (Though, honestly, I like a little hump there anyway... but this one was way too large.)

That said, I'd say they are more worthy than most Bose products and I could see them sounding nice with the right combination of gear and preference.

 

[bhd812]

Awhile back I had a good hook up at bestbuy, I would know the dude in the audio section and he would give me a direct copy of best buys Demo cd.
this is the cd that has the music used on the setups there in the audio section. klipsch,bose,jbl and I think another company had their own section with an intro and sometimes 4 songs to be demo'd on the companys gear.
I think bestbuy has a new cd in store every few months, so its sort of changing and up to date.

Of course this is not close to what the bose setup you heard is, as in the energy bose puts into their marketing but I will tell you this.

out of the 4 cd's i have with all the bose demo music on it,every track is mastered/recorded very hott...its very loud,up-front,big loud bass at 40hz.
sounds amazing but it is nowhere near what an audiophile would use to judge their gear. its a marketing idea to make sure bose's stuff sound great to the persons ears at time of the demo.
go back and listen to the same setup at the store and you will be able to pick out the hott level on it. ask the person working if there is anyway you can get a copy of the cd/demo music..some people will do it surpising, some wont.

the bose intro tack on one of my cd's is what i use on my setup when/some one comes over my house. i let them listen to the track on the bose HT setup outside my room then on my setup..then we go back to the bose with their cd the like and go to my speaker setup again...their mouths drop everytime.

 

[nikongod]

bose eq's EVERYTHING they give consumers to listen to. if its a "public use disc" its eq'd to sound good on the target system. this is not dificult, once you know the eq you want there are TONS of audio programs that will "tweak" a cd to fit the eq. then you jsut reburn the disc the way you want it.

if i am not mistaken they also use an amp to drive the headphones, where a consumer would just plug em into the walkman...

there are a few pretty good articles that detail how bose makes their showrooms work so well...