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Bose's new beat

cnet.com

61–70 of 78 posts

Re: Bose's new beat

#62
post #21

Audiophiles rag on Bose pretty hard. It's easy to see why if you look at their product line. They have home theater systems, but all of them use tiny plastic cube speakers that trade sound quality for unobtrusiveness. They have soundbars and waveboxes. Bose 901's are arguably their "flagship" audiophile product, but these are designed to bounce additional sound off your walls to make your room sound like a concert ha…

I do think some of their headphones are best in class - Not the greatest value for money though. Their QC line have the best noise cancelling, and if that's the most important criteria they are the ones I recommend to people. (Personally I use Sennheiser for my ANC cans as the sound is better and noise cancelling is not too far off). Their sports in-ears are great also - I've never found any in-ear headphone that bea…

+1 for the MIE2, the best sound quality / confort compromise I found (given my particuliar criterions, I don't like plugs for example).

Little disapointment: the new in hear truesound ones do not sound as good as the MIE2 (personally bought them in hope to replace my aging MIE2 pair). I recommend buying the old ones on ebay if you're looking for that kind of product.

Re: Bose's new beat

#63
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is this anything more than a puff piece Yes it is. It is also an example of journalism where the writer gets paid by the word, hence the tedium of the 'vignette'. In the UK we don't have 'paid by the word' in quite the same way, so you rarely have to wade through rubbish to get to the gist of the article on a UK website. It is a U.S. phenomenon having the fluff-bloat at the start of the article, and, to be honest,…

> It is also an example of journalism where the writer gets paid by the word That's a factual claim, which you should not make unless you know it to be true.

I stand corrected.

However, what is the cultural difference between US and UK journalism where UK stuff is to the point (i.e. with a summary of the story, then the story told properly) and US articles always have to have some meandering nonsense that is as tangential as possible to the story? The format makes sense for a book but is a bit silly in New York Times style articles.

Re: Bose's new beat

#64
post #59
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll have to disagree with your comment there. >Audiophiles rag on Bose pretty hard. >Bose simply doesn't target audiophiles. They don't make audiophile products. That would paint the the audiophiles as ignorant. > Bose has somehow managed their image so that people think Bose really can cram audiophile-grade performance into precisely the kind of tiny, plastic boxes no other audio company can get halfway decent soun…

It's funny, but I'd offer just the opposite advice these days. Most people don't spend enough on their speakers, both in terms of cost and in terms of devoting the space and time to set them up properly. The amount of money you should spend on your source as compared to the rest of your gear has just kept going steadily downwards. Back in the vinyl days you really had to spend a mint to get a good record player, and…

Ah, I meant upgrading source as in making sure you have a high quality mp3/flac/etc to begin with. I was assuming that most people are not listening directly from CD and a significant amount of audio files out there are still of crappy quality.

Re: Bose's new beat

#65
post #64
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's funny, but I'd offer just the opposite advice these days. Most people don't spend enough on their speakers, both in terms of cost and in terms of devoting the space and time to set them up properly. The amount of money you should spend on your source as compared to the rest of your gear has just kept going steadily downwards. Back in the vinyl days you really had to spend a mint to get a good record player, and…

Ah, I meant upgrading source as in making sure you have a high quality mp3/flac/etc to begin with. I was assuming that most people are not listening directly from CD and a significant amount of audio files out there are still of crappy quality.

Do a blind ABX test of files made using popular compression settings vs FLAC or other lossless files. You may be surprised at how good low bitrates can be these days. Obviously, if you care you're going to insist on lossless, but mastering problems (e.g. the loudness wars) are a much bigger culprit of poor audio quality these days.

Re: Bose's new beat

#66
post #5

You're a knowledgeable lot, so I think I'll put this question out to you all. I'm looking for a budget pair of cans, I usually spend about 20 bucks because I'm both cheap and poor. I was considering the HD202's, I usually get by with HD201's but the cords short out and fray after a year or so of everyday use. I only have two requirements: over-ear headphones with a comically oversized cord appreciate any recommendati…

I just bought a pair of Audio Technica ATH-M20x headphones. They are $50, and have a very nice sound considering the price. They have a nice fat cord.

Re: Bose's new beat

#67
I am really not a fan of these kind of companies - Beats, Bose who claim to provide the best sound experience with their mumbo jumbo patented technology, sell earphones at an astonishingly high price which do not even sound good. I search for good earphones/speaker in head-fi - it's a good source of earphone reviews.

I bought MEElectronics A151[0] (1st gen) in 2012, they were at half the price of Bose earphones, and to me, sounds so much better than them. I treat them so badly - throwing them anywhere after coming back home, still going strong.

http://www.meeaudio.com/a151p-balanced-armature-in-ear-headp...

I think one should not make any compromises with earphone and eyeglasses. It was a significant purchase as I was a student then and I feel it was worth it.

Re: Bose's new beat

#69
post #5

You're a knowledgeable lot, so I think I'll put this question out to you all. I'm looking for a budget pair of cans, I usually spend about 20 bucks because I'm both cheap and poor. I was considering the HD202's, I usually get by with HD201's but the cords short out and fray after a year or so of everyday use. I only have two requirements: over-ear headphones with a comically oversized cord appreciate any recommendati…

I've quite enjoyed my JVC HA-RX700s. They're about $35 on amazon and they sound pretty decent to my ears. People on Head-Fi seem to like them at least. I can say that they are over-ear and have a comically oversized cord. They're built pretty well, too.

If I have any complaints it's that they're too big, and the cord is too long but those might be a plus for you.

Re: Bose's new beat

#70
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have the inner ear version, and the noise canceling is ridiculously good. $300 was hard to swallow for the sound quality, but you're paying for the NC.

A good pair of canal-phones that fit properly should provide enough noise isolation (on the order of 25-40 dB, depending on design) that active cancellation is unnecessary in most environments. People performing in front of heavy-duty speaker stacks often use canal-phones to be able to hear what they're doing without going deaf. The caveat is you really do need to mess around with different tips to find ones that fit…

Having had Shures, and now Bose QC20s, there is a significant difference. The noise canceling definitely works.
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