I ran into this situation myself once, albeit under different circumstances. I work as a volunteer sound technician at my church, and I always had my Beyers with me for mixing on our 24 ch Ramsa Sr4424 mixer. One day, after mass was over, the guitarist comes up to me and says he is going to buy some Bose QC2s because he is going on a long flight for a business trip, and he kept talking about how they blocked out noise. All I could think was, "Oh jeez!" But in reality I just shrugged it off and went on my way (mostly because I didn't want to argue).
Mind you, the QC2s are overpriced, and probably don't sound too great (I've never heard them, personally.) What it comes down to is not ignorance, but a simple lack of information. People don't do enough research in order to get what they want. And even if they did, on a website like this, a pro-Bose owner wouldn't stand a chance. And of course, if you go to the Bose website, they give every reason and the next (mostly just a bunch of gimmic) why the QC2s are so great.
So the problem is, not only do people react out of simple mis-, or under- information, but when they try to do research, looking for a straight answer leads them to biased, slanted, or just plain wrong reviews. E.g., buyer A buys QC2s. They have only heard other $20 headphones before, which are no better than open cans at isolating. For the first time in their lives, they put on headphones which (to them) block out a fair amount of noise. Buyer A then writes a glamorous review about the QC2s, who loves them. In turn, Buyer B reads the review, and buys them off of Buyer As recommendation. Attitude can wreack havoc. If you think the QC2s are good, you will look for the good. If you think they are bad, you look for the bad.
Is it any wonder Bose gets away with what they do? The only real way to know for sure what you're hearing is good, is to compare it with several other headphones. But how many people have the time, money, and effort to do so? I see many people on Head-Fi have run in to others who know of Grado. But how many non-head-fiers in the world know of AKG, Sennheiser, Alessandro, Beyerdynamic, Stax, Audio Technica, and so on? These companies don't advertise, and that is to their own loss, IMO, because people go on what they know, and don't put hours and hours of effort into research.
These people want the best, I'm sure. But they don't know how to get it, so they convince themselves that what they have and see is good, until something comes along their way that is better. And while people associate more $$$ with better (and that is generally the case, despite what some say around here), the high price alone makes them feel satisfied.
As far as Bose goes, there is better for less, yes. But people don't see that without research (information) into what else is out there. Realise that not everyone is into this hobby like we are! They just want MUSIC, they may not care about the details and intricacy- to them, it is trivial at best. And what really is best anyway? There is no "ultimate" headphone that everyone agrees upon. Bose is a company that has taken advantage of this, marketed it well, and sells products with huge profit margins. By our standards, this is blasphemy!! But as a company, Bose is very successful, and just like Apple, has huge profit margins.
Anyway, sorry for my incessant rambling. I guess the jist of it all is "Knowledge is power."
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Originally Posted by brandoj
It's fun to see the varying levels of maturity in posts here.
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I agree. This thread says a lot about how people deal with others, and how open minded they are. Some comments are uncalled for, while others are generally helpful. A very fun read!
