Help a newbie avoid Bose!

[GreatDane]

Quote:

Originally Posted by PhilS So a good part of the explanation for "why they suck" is that anyone who has heard what music sounds like through good headpones knows that the Triports do not produce sound of that quality. An analogy might be made to wine. If you are not experienced with various types of wines, you might pick up a cheap bottle and taste it and say: "It tastes good to me." But an experienced wine drinker who has sampled many varieties could taste that same bottle and think it tastes like krap. Now, the wine expert could probably describe for the other person why the cheap wine lacked all sorts of various qualities found in the good wine. But his best advice might be "Spend some time drinking the good quality wines I recommend and your palate will become educated enough to know what I'm talking about." So . . . , the best thing to do I think is to select, based on recommendations from others in this forum, some cans for the same price as the Triports and train your ears to hear what decent phones sound like. Then when you go back and listen to them, you will understand what we are talking about.

Very well stated.

 

[skylinedo]

triports are decent at most. but shelling out 100-$150 on them is outrageous. at most they're worth $30 imo

 

[Meyvn]

The Triports will sound good to most people who haven't heard better headphones. Go over to Radioshack, purchase a cheap pair of Koss KSC75s, and I'll be surprised if you don't think they're significantly better sounding than the Triports. I personally hate the Triport's sound signature because it has overblown bass, almost no mids, and very little detail. The main problem I have with them, though, is that they're aggregiously overpriced, since, no joke, my $10 KSC75s, IMO, sound MUCH better. Most 'newbs' find this to be an outrageous statement until they compare for themselves. If you do decide to make this comparison/have already made it and disagree, more power to you, but you'll probably find a lot of people here are on the same side I am with this debate. I'm not of the camp that just goes around Bose bashing on these forums, though. I have a lot of respect for what they've done as far as advertising is concerned; they've become a world reknowned brand essentially by media. Not to mention, they've instilled in many people a desire for better sound. Lots of people have found these forums specifically BECAUSE of Bose. In a way, you could say our community owes them a lot.

Back on topic, if and when you get into headphones, you'll realize that there are clearly multiple markets for them. 90% of the stuff you'll see in standard electronics stores, regardless of price, is usually crap. There's the consumer market, the DJ market, and the audiophile market. The consumer market really only has three things in "quality" consideration: amount of bass, build quality, and look. The audiophile market replaces "amount of bass" with "sound quality." It is unfortunately quite rare when the two markets coincide. There are very, very few headphones in the audiophile market that can be found in regular stores, regardless of price. Yet, the fact is, the very bottom of the audiophile market tends to sound better than the very top of the consumer one, because the consumer market does not take sound quality into consideration at all, beyond the bass. Their standards of what makes a headphone good are completely different.

 

[Headphony]

Forget the Triports. Get AKG K81DJ's. Everybody else is getting them!

 

[Gaughtfried]

I used to rent out the Triports on a regular basis for extended listening. They are definitly better than my KSC75s to my ears, but from memory they are definitly outclassed by the K81DJ. In terms of performance, I'd stick the Triports right between the two; however their price blows. It blows hard and that's the reason why people here don't like the Triports. Bose tends to overercharge for something that can be clearly had for less, and that in by itself rubs alot of people the wrong way.

And yes, I used the KSC75s on clips (which didn't fit well), in an enclosure and clipped by their balls on another headband. I guess I'm not a Koss fan.

 

[vapman]

here's one good example. my friend got a pair of triports before either of us knew anything about headphones.

Grado SR-60: $70~ new
Bose Triport: $140~ new

Durability
SR-60: Very good
Triport: His broke twice, eventually got some IEM's.

Sound
SR-60: Warm, laid back, very nice
Triport: A little worse than the SR-60's IMO

Company Support:
Grado: They break, you send them back, they fix it
Bose: "lol $10 drivers in our $150 headphones, won't fix it happens all the time tho lol"

 

[kool bubba ice]

Quote:

Originally Posted by j-dawg Can you help a newb out and explain why Bose Triports suck so badly? Target had a display with Triports plugged into a Shuffle and it sounded great to me. Real nice and crisp, tight bass, and soundstage seemed very lifelike especially on the acoustic jazz tracks they had on the player. Now, I've been lurking and searching and reading here for quite some time and I can't find a good solid explanation. I'm guessing that peeps decided that they suck so long ago that the good threads have been purged. There are a few things that I've found. Mainly that they're overpriced which I can believe especially considering how fragile they seem. Also I think somebody once joked that they convert all bass frequencies to 60hz; 100hz goes in - 60hz comes out; 45hz goes in - 60hz comes out. Now that's funny! Is it that bad? Can I get a good comprehensive explanation? Thanks guys. edited to remove a confusing statement at the end of the post...

No highs. No lows. Must be Bose..

 

[tyloh73]

I was in my local target few weeks ago and listened to the same setup you mentioned,shuffle-->triport,well,in contrast,i didn't find them sounded nice,high was grainy,mid was muddy,bass was not focused,lack of impact and air.background is not black enough.etc.

 

[polvodediamante]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Meyvn Back on topic, if and when you get into headphones, you'll realize that there are clearly multiple markets for them. 90% of the stuff you'll see in standard electronics stores, regardless of price, is usually crap. There's the consumer market, the DJ market, and the audiophile market. The consumer market really only has three things in "quality" consideration: amount of bass, build quality, and look. The audiophile market replaces "amount of bass" with "sound quality." It is unfortunately quite rare when the two markets coincide. There are very, very few headphones in the audiophile market that can be found in regular stores, regardless of price. Yet, the fact is, the very bottom of the audiophile market tends to sound better than the very top of the consumer one, because the consumer market does not take sound quality into consideration at all, beyond the bass. Their standards of what makes a headphone good are completely different.

Wow, I never really thought of it like that but it makes sense now. Because before becoming an audiphile I used to hear stuff and gauge it by the ammount of bass it made, to me that was the good stuff. I guess I thought that way because I had a car audio customizer's way of thinking (since that's what I was always around) in which bass output is idolized and respected over the rest of system.

It takes a lot to snap you out of that mind set. It can either be a $100,000.00 system on a hummer in which a good balance between the audio components is emphisized (and let's face it, that's hard to come by) or a set of audiphile marketed (to put it as Meyvn did) $400.00 headphones. Definetely the cheapest way to stay on and enjoy that standard is through headphones.

The way I now think and judge audio systems in general has changed drastically, I now find myself (like everyone in this room, I'm sure) listening for stuff that my friends or siblings have as of yet no grasp or appreciation for. I know compared to many members of this site I'm still very much so unexperieced in what I'm sure are even finer points of audio quality but it's definetely better than nothing.

I guess in conclusion. And as already stated by Myvn, there is a big difference between being an enthusiast and just another generic consumer I just figured it be good to share my first hand observations of this phenomena.

A bit off topic I know, but I just had to share my newly found revelation which I'm sure all of you were aware of.

Dude, the best thing you can do if you are still skeptic after all these replies is simply to go have a listen at a bunch of headphones that are in the Tripods price range. Although, it's prolly gonna be hard to find a store near you that carries all these since bose is carefull about which products it is placed next to on shelves (and for good reason!).

 

[TheMarchingMule]

Two things I'll say from what I read here:

1.) What treble?
2.) See my sig. More than enough info you wanted and needed to know.

EDIT: Just checked my sig; the website seems to be down. 0_o

 

[nibiyabi]

Apparently it's back up.

 

[TheMarchingMule]

Ah, so you're right.

Check it out, everybody!

 

[undeRdEFonE]

Bose is really bad in many of head-fier's opinions , they concentrate on marketing and they use really bad mechanisms to build their headphones, i've tried Bose quietcomfort2 which costs Us299 and it lost to a 100$US headphone, i can get AKG k701 which costs around the same price but outstanding sound quality ( provided its used with an Amp ).

Happy listening without Bose

 

[nikongod]

Quote:

Originally Posted by j-dawg There are a few things that I've found. Mainly that they're overpriced which I can believe especially considering how fragile they seem. Also I think somebody once joked that they convert all bass frequencies to 60hz; 100hz goes in - 60hz comes out; 45hz goes in - 60hz comes out. Now that's funny! Is it that bad? Can I get a good comprehensive explanation? Thanks guys.

this may be strong explination of what i would call "one note bass."

if you have ever pulled up in your car next to another car with a sterio where all you can hear is the one note of the bass drum thumpin away, youa re experiencing one note bass.

most (all?) bose products have a very pronounced dip in the sound in the 100-200 hz range. this just suxors. they also have a rolled off topend, after 13khz(or so) they start to dump sound.

if you want to compare, you only need to do one thing: let yoru ears decide. get a pair of CHEAP headphones and compare them to the triports. check out some of the senheisers that bestbuy sells int he $30 range. im not joking, the $30 senheisers sound less terrible. it only goes up from there.

 

[saturnine]

Meh, I actually kinda like my Triports. They aren't audiophile cans by no means, but they are comfy, portable & sound better than the KSC-35/75, PX100 & MD-33 IMO (please don't burn me at the stake). Plus, they are closed.

Also, did I mention that I only paid $75ish for my pair? I purchased a broken pair from Head-Fi'er MrSlacker (thanks again man) and couldn't fix them (dead driver) for around $20 IIRC, and Bose sent me a new pair for $50. For this price I consider them to be quite good, but $150 is crazy high.

If you are paying retail, get something else