[swaffleman]

Yeah. I have never owned anything that could be considered high end, but I have in fact listened to several pairs. A couple of very expensive pairs of Senns and Grados come to mind. I liked them but I felt that, as you do, the price didn't justify the increases in quality. I'm actually very happy with the Sony MDR V6s, which I sort of consider a benchmark for audio quality, and I'm not alone in that. I'm also happy with the Koss Porta Pros and Bose OE's, even though I can recognize their cons.
 
The Bose OE's were my first "better" pair of headphones. I bought them about 3 years ago. I was previously using a pair of Sony MDR V150s. Sometimes I will use a pair like them called the V300s for running...hah. But yeah, after the Bose I discovered the porta pros and V6s, and I've been happy there.
 
A few people here (ahem uncle eric!

) have criticized me as "not knowing what truly good sound is", but eh. At least I don't spend thousands of dollars on stuff.
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I'm a midfier myself, I stay away from the really expensive stuff generally because I find I don't get bang for my buck. I tried the RSA Mustang once, which I thought was already going into the high-end and found that it just wasn't worth it. I went back to mid-fi and got the E7 instead.  I've also tried some of the "nice stuff" like RS1 and the HF2 found I didn't really like them all that much compared to their lower end breathren, so I decided to stay down with the low end. Some day I will probably find a really high end set of gear that I really want, when that happens I'll probably pull the trigger but this isn't something I am going to do without sampling the item firsthand. I've learned my lesson and will never do a blind buy of high end expensive gear ever again.

 

[Landis]

I work for an authorized reseller of Bose products and I have to say that price v. performance with them is not exactly great-- this is from personal listening sessions. A long-term customer of mine came in a year or so ago and said he had just been to an electronics expo of sorts, heard some Bose speakers and he said they were absolutely incredible... I was familiar with the model he listened to and I then showed him several similarly priced models from Klipsch, Polk and Energy and he only liked them more than the Energy speakers from his recollection-- Which I should mention, that those Klipsch speakers were actually rather impressive... Although considering he is a good customer of mine, I wasn't exactly quoting MSRP to him. The Bose commission is actually higher than the aforementioned companies, but I'd rather he'd come back to me happy than come back to me annoyed and wanting to upgrade down the road, even if it meant more money on my pay stub.
 
That's an example of their speaker performance, but in terms of headphones, they have decent noise canceling, which I can respect them for and their sound quality, speakers or headphones, isn't terrible, but for most folks who are able to compare products, it just doesn't match the price versus what most of the competition can dish out. 
 
 

 

[swaffleman]

I've heard that older Bose products, speakers in particular, are better than their newest ones. I would be inclined to agree. I have a buddy who just got these little cube speakers with a sub woofer (He mostly uses them on his laptop for general music listening as well as for movies). They sound pretty good all in all, but they don't compare at all to some old 2 feet tall speakers I have from Bose that are probably over 20 years old. These speakers are great and they match the ones we use at our music school class rooms...I'm not sure what those are but they sound very good and they are about the same size.

 

[Mochan]

The Bose Acoustimass are great little speakers for style but in terms of sound don't pump out as much as I'd like. But they're ok.Not a bad set but could be better.

 

[Prog Rock Man]

Quote:

.......A few people here (ahem uncle eric!

) have criticized me as "not knowing what truly good sound is", but eh. At least I don't spend thousands of dollars on stuff.

 

Oooo, what does a "truly good sound" sound like?

 

[cravenz]

Quote:

The Bose Acoustimass are great little speakers for style but in terms of sound don't pump out as much as I'd like. But they're ok.Not a bad set but could be better.

agreed, and that is exactly my experience with my companion 5s. it's nice, but it still leaves a lot to be desired and well, I haven't heard much otherwise and since I'm in land of no audio, and everything else is uber expensive here, I'll wait it out.
 
but since I'm renting and it'll be sometime before I work, I'm quite happy with everything at the moment, but once I do work, then I'm gonna save up for a nice home sound system

 

[freakmax]

overprice

 

[tvrboy]

Seriously why so little understanding of the "search" function?

 

[tyty5150]

Quote:

 

You are.
 
The thing is, though, Citizen Kane is a BETTER movie than, say, The Hangover.  There is no debate among film scholars about that claim.  Which would I rather watch?  Well, I'm not sure.  Which would YOU rather watch?  The Hangover, I can practically guarantee it.  Which is fine with me, but you have to realize that your taste does not dictate the quality of the film.  Your taste is at least partly separated from quality.  And that's fine.
 
I have no problem with people who listen to Bose and Skullcandy, I guess, though I feel they're wasting their money.  What I'm concerned about is any claim that that makes them equal.  Movies like Citizen Kane are crucial because they are the most foundational films and become part of the lexicon of film over time.  The Hangover will be all but forgotten in 15 years.  Likewise, people will still be listening to AKG, Sennheiser and Beyerdynamic headphones from this era 15 years from now (the way that we listen to their headphones from 30 years ago now), when all of the current Bose headphones are in pieces in a landfill somewhere.
 
I just feel it's important not to equate taste with quality.

On the contrary, I haven't seen The Hangover and prolley won't for a bit.  Movies could have bad acting, but who says someone can't like that?  Quality of a film doesn't seem any different than taste to me.  Someone might be attracted to what you consider poor quality.  You are attracted to what you consider quality.  opinion, Opinion, OPINION.  It is all opinion.  I do believe that Silverado was not very successful like many other westerns that are considered top notch quality, but I know many people who love it.  Same with the Speed Racer movie.
 
I think Bose can be looked at similarly, it is all opinion based.  The sound Bose offers does not please you, so you can stay away from it, no need to bash it.  Respectfully declining is much more appropriate.
 
Even if you think people are uneducated and think Bose sounds bad, you can't stop other people from having opinions that differ from yours.  If someone picks up the Bose and listens, then picks up an audiophile headphone that is cheaper and likes Bose better, that is just their opinion on how they want to perceive the sound coming out.  So the investment is fine with them to pick up the Bose.  I do understand this isn't the case often times, because they only listen to the Bose and then pick those up, but like I've said before, that is good enough for them and they don't care to look further.  Audiophiles < people who listen to music.
 
I like debate, but I don't like bashing.

 
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I'm not sure I follow the headphones vs movies analogy. I might like a movie for any number of reasons, even if it is bad. Headphones are more like cameras or microscopes. They are instruments with which to engage the senses with something else. I watch movies for the movie. I listen to headphones.... not for the heaphones, but for the music. Same with the camera - I want to capture some beautiful moment, object, scene. My goal isn't to play with the camera.
 
So, Bose headphones are like a decent P&S camera that is sold for 3x the price of its functional competitors. It is not more stylish, ergonomic, or feature-rich. It does, however, have a powerful marketing machine promoting it as the best camera EVER. EVER!!!!
 
People with their fancy DSLR cameras or German-made classic rangefinders (shooting on slide film, perhaps) find such marketing insulting, even if they have nothing against the little P&S itself.

I agree with your argument.

 

[tyty5150]

Quote:

 
 
 
Yet another Bose Bashing thread appears (yawn).

I'm trying to direct people away from bashing, not do more bashing.

 
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Seriously why so little understanding of the "search" function?

I understand the "search" function.  Didn't like what the previous threads offered.

 

[tyty5150]

 
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Bose is the Apple of computers....ooooooooooooooo, take that!

In some ways, I have to agree to this.  Not for the same reason you are going for I'm thinking.  I respect Bose for it's successful marketing and nice looking equipment, and I respect Apple for their neat looking products and differences in what they sell compared to other companies that sell computers.  For example, Dell, HP, Samsung, Toshiba, etc. basically select all the hardware from other companies (processing chips, sound cards, graphics cards, etc.) then add an OS and something to piece it all together.  Apple is different in a sense that they created the OS and some of the hardware and the actual pieces holding it all together.  I suppose I believe there are better products out there for my money because I want an audiophile sound and because I'd rather work with something that is open source and with which I can have more functionality.  But I will not bash.

 
Quote:

I'll take that as an insult of Apple mac
 

 

IMO, Apple is only hurting itself by keeping things closed.  The iPhones and iPods used to not have the functionality of running more than one task at once, so jailbreaking came out.  They kept the source code to themselves, so nobody had easy access to fixing the problem but it still happened anyways.  Yes iPhones and iPods are very, very successful, but I do think they would become more praised (along all other Apple products) if their software was open source like Linux, more problems would be solved faster and the product would become way more user friendly.  Also, I find Apple doesn't offer as many programs as Windows or Linux.  Linux is lacking somewhat behind Windows, but is making advancements.  So with Windows and Linux I have so many more options and so much more functionality for so much cheaper.  Just my opinion though.

 

[swbf2cheater]

Lots of hate on Bose for their false advertising and lies to the community via their tv commercials.  they literally say you wont hear this kind of sound quality anywhere else and its unrivaled.  Snap off 75% of their price and look to really your pick of a sennheiser or something else and you will find things superior to them in every way.
 
well, its not unrivaled, the JVChas700 is basically a QC2 clone.  The sound quality is only slightly better in the highs on the bose.  Bose is like 200$, the JVC are $30 and come with memory foam pads instead of junk foam padding.
 
The grado sr60i right now is better than the Qc3, the grado 80i is better than the newest Qc15 from bose that is priced at $300.  Sennheiser has some priced at around 20-50$ that outperform the Q15.
 
>.>  thats how much bose stinks and wants to steal your money with lies and false promises.
 

 

[krmathis]

Their price tag <-> sound quality ratio.

 

[Noobiiee]

Quote:

Their price tag <-> sound quality ratio.

It's mean to be >< 

 

 

[Prog Rock Man]

I spent sometime at a listening post with ipods and various headphones including the Bose Around Ear, Denon AH D1001 and B&W P5s. The Bose were the cheapest at £99 compared to the Denon's £110 and B&Ws £250. The Bose did not even feel like a £99 headphone such was the material used to make it and generally flimsy design. The Denons felt much better value for money. Sound wise they each had their own strengths and weaknesses and the Bose did OK. If money were no object I would get the B&Ws, then the Denons and last the Bose.