[PointyFox]

Oops. Bumped ancient thread. Oh well.
I like the triports, they sound excellent, but have a closed headphone sound.  The only better closed headphones are the Denon Dx000s.  While the triports have great sound, similar sound can be had for less price with more durability.  However, nothing cheaper will have as good of frequency response.  ( I like flatish, with slightly more bass).

 

[swaffleman]

I'm not gonna lie, I actually like the way they sound, even though I recognize that they are overpriced and don't perform well.
 
I like the bass. They have a huge impact. The other levels are fine, it's just that the bass is to overpowered that it sort of forces the other frequencies to compete, making it seem muddy. The Bose around ears don't have this problem.
 
The around ears are warm and a bit hallow sounding, which is actually a cool sound sometimes. But I much prefer my much cheaper Sennheiser HD 201s.

 

[PointyFox]

^ Wow, it's rare to see someone who's objectively listened to them.
Yeah, the hollow sound is from its closed design, and is the most noticeable difference between them and high end open headphones.  I've never heard any muddyness, but maybe it's part of the closed design. I don't know of any audiophile closed headphones to compare them to.  The closest is the Denon Dx000, and even those are semi-open and leak tons of sound.  I think the reason audiophile companies don't make closed headphones is that they'd end up sounding like the triport AE or worse

.  It would be interesting if Bose decided to make audiophile headphones, with complete disregard for cost, weight, comfort, and isolation, like the other companies do.

 

[Uncle Erik]

That overpowering one-note bass is reason enough not to buy them. I was convinced that the first pair I heard was broken or vandalized. I had to listen to two more pairs before I realized that that was the factory sound.

 

[swaffleman]

 
Quote:

That overpowering one-note bass is reason enough not to buy them. I was convinced that the first pair I heard was broken or vandalized. I had to listen to two more pairs before I realized that that was the factory sound.

The around ears don't have that issue though! I never liked the on ear ones.

 

[PointyFox]

Yeah, the bass on the AE is great.  I listened to the OEs in a store which sounded kind of muddy though.