My first Bose purchase

Before everyone thinks I've just dumped any street cred, I bought a set of quiet comfort 20i ear buds. No, not going to use it with my vinyl front end (Linn) digital front end (Simaudio and W4S) or FM front end (Magnum Dynalab) all feeding a tubed headphone amp (Bottlehead). And no, they don't sound better than my Revel speakers via Pass electronics or Sennheiser headphones, but damn, it does what it says it does - cancels out noise, and is more than good enough to watch a movie or listen to music via an iPad on a flight.

Anyone else using these?

 

No but I will admit to having a Bose Color bluetooth speaker that I use when camping or on the porch if I'm smoking a cigar.

 

Nice purchase enjoy!

 

Meanwhile people enjoy constantly bashing on Bose for their apparently overpriced equipment, most do not recognize what Bose's goal has been in the latest year: giving good audio solutions in non-ideal context.

Think about those who do not have the proper space to put towers, amplifier and sources, think about those who have a big WAF problem or a very noisy environment.

Bose have dumped an awful lot of money into R&D to find solutions for everybody, giving them good audio quality while fitting to their needs.

AFAIK, Bose's noise cancellation technology is among the best on the market and if you're willing to use headphones in a very noisy environment without sacrificing audio quality, Bose is the way to go.

Bose is not for the audiophile with deep pockets, big rooms and a condescending partner.
It's the white knight of the audiophile in distress.

 

My issue with Bose isn't the sound quality really. It's that I've done a number of home installations for people and I've had enough of their products fail on me that I get nervous whenever a customer says they want me to connect their new TV to their old Bose Acoustimass systems. I can't tell you how much I hate those things. They're just poorly thought out pieces of crap how all of the proprietary speaker wiring has to connect to the subwoofer. Not to mention that they're not service friendly at all. Get a disc stuck in the base unit? good luck opening it up with a screwdriver like you could with anything else. Most likely you'll have to ship it to their service center. They drive me crazy.

 

I had a 1st gen Wave Radio that gave up after ~15 years but that's the only trouble I've had. My 301's continue to please. Bose is a good line I don't think I'd ever worry a purchase from them.

 

When I traveled a lot for work I really enjoyed my Bose noise canceling headphones - wore out the pair literally (headband broke, speakers were fine) over a 10 year period and many flights.

 

Same here. When I called about fixing the headband, they said they do not offer parts but sold me a new pair (QC15 at the time) for about 1/2 price. I did have to send the old pair back, at their expense.

No doubt there will be a parade of haters queuing up to post that will tell you what headphone you should have bought, but I can say that on a plane (the only place I use them) they work very, very well.

 

I don't like Bose for several reasons, but I will agree, their noise cancelling is among the best.

 

What are those little "Spock Ear" translucent rubber/plastic protrusions for?

 

I have a Bose Acoustimass speaker setup for 5.1 sound in our front room, but *just* the speakers. My amp is still a standalone amp and all my components are discrete (the "system in a box setups give me the willies). For what it is (quick and dirty surround sound for TV and movies in a form factor that takes up, for all intents and purposes, no space in a challenging room), it's actually very good.

Would I advocate it for a dedicated theater or a nice stereo setup? No, of course not. But Bose is fine to surprisingly good for what it is. Don't ask it to do more than that and all will be well.

 

I don't own any Bose stuff, but I've tried out some of the noise cancelling cans and damned if they didn't do a very good job cancelling out noise, and they seemed very comfortable. If I did much air travel I'd definitely buy a pair.

 

My car has a Bose system, and it sounds very nice, thank you.

 

Mine does too and it sounds beautiful!

 

I see that these (Bose QuietComfort 20i Acoustic Noise Cancelling Headphones) are IEMs.

I hope this is not too OT, but I always wondered... All of the IEMs I have had experience with, block almost all of the outside sound once I get the right tips for a good seal. What does the noise cancelling technology add - blocking even louder levels of outside sound?

(BTW, the best car stereo I have owned was a Bose system that came in a used 1990 Nissan Maxima SE. Cassette front end on that one. I used quality cassette recordings from LPs and some recorded from CD. I have heard three Bose home systems - 2.1 with the speakers that you could angle two directions. One was an elaborate demo put on by Bose. The other two systems in people's homes. The home speakers were not for me. The owners (and their wives) were very happy with them.)

 

No, mine doesn't as it's an old car (13 years old).

The car stereo sounds like the one in my 2002 Mazima GLE, except mine has both CD and cassette. Like I said, it sounds wonderful.

Edit: maybe not the same stereo, since I just realized there is a 12-year difference in model years! Still, I'm sure it sounded great.

 

I've used non-noise canceling iem's on many flights. First, jamming the bud into your ear isn't comfortable, and even so, you still get the constant drone of the motors. The he technology works -

 

I bought the Wave Tower back in 1996 while I was out of town on a long job. Back then there were few choices for a portable system that played CDs, when I found the Wave Tower at a Bose Outlet in Destin, Florida I bit the bullet, it very expensive, $800 if I recall correctly, and that was discounted! It served me well for several years before the CD player gave out, I had it replaced at too high a cost, and it lasted for many more years before punking out. By then it was being used as a casual system in my kid's play area where my wife used it the most. We just hooked up her Denon carousel CD player to it and continued on. Finally the Bass and Treble sliders started getting noisy when adjusted and the Bose was retired for a while. But just last week I set it up in the back of the kitchen for my wife so she could use the radio which still works great, for 19 years use, I'm not complaining about what it cost. I now have excellent equipment and thanks to the forum vastly increased knowledge about gear, but I'm not going to be a Bose hater, their product has it's place.

I also have a pair of the Quiet Comfort headphones and really only use them when traveling. They have their purpose and for that they work very well, but for non-travel listening I select other options, I'm not much of a headphone person anyway. I am looking forward to soon receiving my very affordable Audio-Technica ATH-M50x Headphones which I just bought on Massdrop last week.

 

Do you mind sharing what you paid for the M50X? I bought a set on Amazon and am curious about the price difference, as I've heard about Massdrop but not paid too much attention to it. A PM is fine if you prefer, so as to not take the thread too far off topic.

 

My mother has one of those small Bose CD player/Radios on her counter. Much better sound than you would expect from a clock radio.

 

My parents have had one of those for years and they do a great job filling a room with good sound.

 

I have the qc 15 which I use mainly for travel. Not the best sounding phones at that price point but as others have said, they're the best for noise cancelling and probably sound better than most when in a noisy environment. I sometimes use them at home listening to music from the PC when surfing the net. They certainly are passable SQ wise even when not used for its intended purpose.

 

Agreed. This is the one thing that Bose does very well. My mother-in-law has one of those radio/CD players & we have a Sound Dock at my house. They both can fill a room with decent sound, while taking up very little space. I've also heard some acoustic guitarists use their speakers and they sound pretty good too, again while taking up little space.