Help! Bose ae or Bose oe?
Jun 10, 2009 at 1:12 AM Post #76 of 87
Technocrafts;5751919 said:
Quote:

TheMarchingMule;5749255]Did you guys realize that this thread is two years old?


It doesn't matter, whoever wanders around here likely want to learn about Bo$e cans. They should know the truth...(Better later than never).


True, I know I did when I joined a month ago. I thought Bose was awesome. Now I savor the feeling of superiority I get when people talk about Bose. I think that's my favorite thing about hi-fi equipment - it gives me a new way to feel superior to the unwashed plebeian masses.
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Jun 10, 2009 at 1:43 AM Post #77 of 87
Quote:

Originally Posted by tvrboy /img/forum/go_quote.gif
True, I know I did when I joined a month ago. I thought Bose was awesome. Now I savor the feeling of superiority I get when people talk about Bose. I think that's my favorite thing about hi-fi equipment - it gives me a new way to feel superior to the unwashed plebeian masses.


Great, elitism is your main purpose for hanging around here.
rolleyes.gif
 
Jun 10, 2009 at 2:11 AM Post #79 of 87
Elitism seems to be the main purpose of many on head-fi. Someone even went as far as saying that Bose were the worst headphones he ever heard. Really? If that's true, some people have led very sheltered lives! I am not a Bose fan but they are definitely not the worst phones I've heard. Not even the most overpriced. Would I buy one? No! I like to get the best value for my money possible but alot of people on this forum can't use that as their reason for not buying Bose. Some posters act like they were born with the knowledge that there is a better product at a better price. They weren't. Fortunately, There are some very friendly and knowledgeable people here who give honest instructive answers.
 
Jun 10, 2009 at 2:11 AM Post #80 of 87
it is a bad thing.

tbh: I like triports AEs because they are the most comfortable circumaurals that I believe are actually portable. Too bad they're still cheap and poorly designed (aesthetically).
 
Jun 10, 2009 at 5:01 AM Post #82 of 87
The first time I heard the Bose QC2, I thought it was a great pair of cans. I bought into the hype and imagined it as the reference against which all other cans should be judged.

Yes, I was that young once.

I can't give anybody lessons on "cool." I honestly don't care what people think of me while I'm listening to headphones. In fact, one reason I'm listening to headphones is to tune them out. I'm the kind of guy who wears Grado GS-1000s to the gym (though I prefer the intimacy of the RS-1). I just don't care what people think. If that makes me elitist, then I'll just have to live with myself for a very long time. Let me know when it's okay again to base my opinions on my own experiences, and not the putative reactions of jocks and prom queens.

If you value clarity, on a budget, I'd buy the Grado SR-60. With the L-Cush pads, they're pretty thumpy in the bass department.

If you want THUMP, THUMP, THUMP like Godzilla is tap dancing in the room next to you, buy some hip hop and a pair of Dr. Dre Beats. I know, all the other elitists will start flaming me, but those Dr. Dre Beats have a headphone amp inside of them and they shake like a low rider during mating season. Plus, unlike the Bose QC2, you can open them up a little by positioning the speaker outward a little, letting in a lot of high frequency presence muffled by all that bass. You can't do this with Bose.

If you want great sound while tuning out the world, I'd reach for the Westone UM3X, an IEM that curls upside down, resting in your ear like a hearing aid while the earpiece corkscrews into your ear canal and creates a solid seal. This IEM has tremendous balance. It's very clear while producing ample, tight, bass. If you want even more bass, buy the Westone 3's; they trot out the bass like a party animal chuckling as he saunters from room to room with a drink in hand. Etymotic's ER4P is a low-key IEM with dazzling clarity (and decent bass once you find your inner-ear G-spot). For an IEM with a visual flair and good sound, take a look at Ultimate Ears' Triple Fi 10, which is the attainably-priced version of its $900 UE10 (with universal tips as opposed to having an audiologist send your ear specs to UE for a custom-fit earpiece). The Triple Fi 10 has the best of both worlds - ample bass and sparkling high frequency - while sporting a cool shell (mine was in cobalt blue). Believe me, if you're walking up with a pair of dangling from your ear canal, nobody is going to be throwing rocks at you.

I'm not cool. I walk up with my RS-1's, looking like a World War II bomber - and they laugh - that is, until I give them a chance to listen. That's usually where the eyes get big and they start asking me where I got my cans.

By the way, if your impression of Bose is from a display item, be aware that Bose probably spends more research time on the demo songs than it does on the headphones themselves. I did some research on Bose's demo CD, then downloaded the tunes right off iTunes. They are dramatic, midrange friendly-tunes that use upper-bass effects (like flamenco dancing and shallow drums) to give the listener the sense that these headphones are just popping with quality. There's so much energy and excitement in those recordings, I was able to use them to showcase my crappiest cans and make them sound halfway magical. I played those tunes on $5 cans I bought from Walmart and was amazed at how Bose-like they suddenly became. Don't be fooled by marketing.
 
Jun 10, 2009 at 5:39 AM Post #83 of 87
Quote:

Originally Posted by Bones2010 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Elitism seems to be the main purpose of many on head-fi. Someone even went as far as saying that Bose were the worst headphones he ever heard. Really? If that's true, some people have led very sheltered lives! I am not a Bose fan but they are definitely not the worst phones I've heard. Not even the most overpriced. Would I buy one? No! I like to get the best value for my money possible but alot of people on this forum can't use that as their reason for not buying Bose. Some posters act like they were born with the knowledge that there is a better product at a better price. They weren't. Fortunately, There are some very friendly and knowledgeable people here who give honest instructive answers.


You make a valid point. You could do a lot worse than Bose. My Bose IE's only lasted about 20 minutes (the time it took me to take them back to BestBuy while my wife argued with me about taking back headphones I had just purchased) but the QC2 and Triport have their charms. I listened to both as demos and enjoyed the experience, though I found the QC2 muddy when compared to my Grados. With Bose, the architecture allows for a more efficient boom-boom but the treble is fairly veiled. At the Bose store, and Best Buy, I didn't notice it as much because Bose controlled what I listened to. I was always listening to selections from the Bose CD. But when I listened to these same cans at the Apple Store, I had a chance to listen to different selections from the iPods they were hooked up to. While some recordings were better than others, I was surprised at how can-like these headphones were.

Does that make Bose such a terrible product? Probably not. It's when you compare the hype to the reality that Bose comes off looking like a rip-off. But for the market Bose has been trying to reach, it's a little like complaining about the fidelity of a car stereo. Outside of all the hype over whose subwoofers can break glass, the makers of car stereos have a few things going for them: (1) The listening area is about the size of a phone booth; (2) It doesn't take much juice to get some decent bass; (3) FM is already sonically limited, making it easier to apologize for car stereos that don't sound any better; and (4) the noise and acoustics of a car environment make it even easier to accept limited fidelity.

If you're looking for a name brand, something everybody has heard of, Bose is it. If you're looking for a product that goes out of its way to argue that it practically invented sound, Bose is it. If you're looking for a package, some item you can tear out of its box and accept as wonderful because that's what they call it in the commercials, Bose is it. Bose headphones aren't terrible, and for those who want to strap a name brand to their head, they're certainly useful as status symbols. It's when you're around a bunch of headfiers who happen to care about the sound, and sound only, that Bose ends up crucified.
 
Jun 10, 2009 at 11:40 PM Post #84 of 87
Bones2010;5752096 said:
Elitism seems to be the main purpose of many on head-fi. Someone even went as far as saying that Bose were the worst headphones he ever heard. Really? If that's true, some people have led very sheltered lives! I am not a Bose fan but they are definitely not the worst phones I've heard. Not even the most overpriced. Would I buy one? No! I like to get the best value for my money possible but alot of people on this forum can't use that as their reason for not buying Bose. Some posters act like they were born with the knowledge that there is a better product at a better price. They weren't. Fortunately, There are some very friendly and knowledgeable people here who give honest instructive answers.

Unfortunately some of the statements made here appear to be a bit snobbish or offensive to some, but I'm convinced that most of the members on this forum share their views and experiences for a positive purpose. The fellow who earlier invoked elitism in my opinion did so with no intent to offend anyone. Personally I am not a fan of any Bose products, but I did not come to that conclusion over night, in fact, a short few years back I had the misconception that Bose was the industry leader in consumer audio products, and I do own a pair of triport ae. Last year I was ready to purchase the qc3, I took advantage of their thirty day trial and compared them to other headphones and iems. Unfortunately for Bose, though the qc3 sounded good, the sound was inferior when I compared them for example to the Shure se-310s, even to the Sennheiser cx-300 that I still own. I tried many others straight out of the iPod without amp, (Sennheiser cx-95, Audio Technica ath-esw9a, Sennheiser hd-595) to name a few, but I tried many others and to my taste they all were miles ahead of the Bose flagship active noise canceling cq3. The triport ae, the stripped down cq2 sounds like a pair of bundled iPod buds with the Griffin earbud Ear Jam adapters. Go ahead try and compare both if you don't believe me, though I would admit that sound quality is a very subjective matter. All and all, trough experience I learned that BOSE means Buy Other Sound Equipment. Others may say "No highs, no lows it must be Bose". I would say No highs, no lows and a lot of empty space in between. Sad but true. This is why so many audio enthusiasts are trashing Bose, the products Bose markets not overpriced, that is an understatement. Bose is a downright ripoff, this is what we try to convey and we have absolutely no intention to insult anyone. If you own any Bose sound product and you happy with it, more power to you, no one here will ever criticize you for that.
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Jun 11, 2009 at 12:09 PM Post #85 of 87
Quote:

Originally Posted by middlemaniac /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Hi, I have the Bose ae right now and am wanting to return them for the oe. I have had the ae for a while and love them but they are a bit fragile. I love the amount of bass in the headphones, which is why I love bose. Should I get the oe instead? Do they sound better?, are they less fragile? I also like that they are a lot smaller than the ae. What should I do?


How about selling them and getting some decent phones instead?
DT770 Pros will give you as much bass and vastly better quality overall for the same price.
 
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