This is OT, but to the OP, don't put too much faith in what cnet says. Back in the day they usually had quite thorough *overviews* which meant I could read everything about the product and make my own decision, and I found even some reviews were well done. Nowadays, however, it is best to look elsewhere. Especially in the hi/head-fi world, cnet is not the last word.
What people hate (maybe even that strong a word is warranted?) about bose here is that people pay a premium for a sometimes sub-standard (for price) level of quality, and then insist that bose has no peers in quality sound.
Bose has marketed itself as the high in high end and since people don't know otherwise they accept it, especially once they've heard a bose product, which in most cases will outclass anything they've heard before. So there is perfect correlation in the customer's mind: bose reckons they're the best, and a little testing on your part shows that to be true. Bose is asking for a lot of money, but they're the best, so therefore their stuff *must* be worth the asking price.
Still, the normal triports (not those oe/ie ones) look and feel nice, I will concede that.
