Apple Reportedly Preparing to Remove Bose Audio Products From Retail Stores

[numlock]

Noted, and thank you, not the first time a conjecture of mine has been off.

no sweat. not all of our assumptions can be correct

 

[HenryDJP]

Are you sure? Because Bose throws tantrums, too. Long history.

No, he's not sure of anything. He likes to think he's right and then insults people in the interim.

 

[3282868]

"No highs, no lows, must be Bose"

After owning Bose systems years ago (now McIntosh amps and B&W speaks), I say good riddance. I bought the Bose model shown in the article from Apple, returned it the next day. Horrible sound quality. Once had an Infiniti FX with a Bose system, had it ripped out and replaced - couldn't stand it.

 

[paul55br]

New product line: Apple Beats. "Sound. Like never heard before."

 

[MrXiro]

Plenty of places dictate what "accessories" you can wear. Trying wearing a nose ring any many places of employment and see if you aren't fired. The company's reasons for you not wearing them has no affect on your rights.

And this is why I said you're an insane NFL zealot...

We talk about 1 thing and your rebuttal is about something else. The discussion was about brand not tact. Yes in a professional situation you cannot wear things that aren't deemed "professional". But watches are... so does your job at McDonalds not allow you to wear a Pebble watch because they have a deal with Casio?

But this is why I can't discuss this with you. You'll reach for nonsense just to prove your point, the NFL is as corrupt as FIFA and IOC. Deal with it.

I really hate that I need to spell everything out on these posts to have a discussion.

I'm done. Walking away... wish there was a block button.

 

[bawbac]

Talk about hype. That's any Apple product in a nutshell when it comes to real, measurable performance in quality. They get clobbered by many competitors for far less money.

Fixed

 

[2010mini]

well one good turn deserves another.

 

[miketheappleguy]

Are you sure? Because Bose throws tantrums, too. Long history.

And if they have I wouldn't condone it. This however is about apple right now, though.

 

[thisisdallas]

What brand of audio equipment would you guys recommend? I always see people posting about how everyone should refrain from buying Bose or Beats because of their price and quality, but then when I go to look up superior alternatives, I come up short.

I've currently got Bose SIE2's (Sport Earbuds), and they sound quite good, fit really securely, and are great for working out.

I'm always up for finding superior products, but every offering I've seen from Klipsch and the like seem to have bad reviews or look flimsy or not good for fitness at all.

 

[cjmillsnun]

an neither is beats....if you think beats is better than bose....you have ZERO experience with audio.

Where have I EVER said that Beats were any good?

I have never owned a Beats product and unless they change to being about sound quality rather than just banging bass then I never will.

I prefer Sennheiser or Audio Technica.

 

[CmdrLaForge]

B.O.S.E
Buy
Other
Sound
Equipment

Overpriced junk shouldn't be sold in Apple Stores regardless of what you think of Beats.

Beats are ok...but very overpriced.

You can do much much better for your dollar.

I can only reply in regards to the noise canceling headsets and have to say that I personally find the BOSE way way better from every perspective, sound and usability.

In addition I tried cheaper noise canceling headsets which I ordered from amazon just because I didn't want to drop $300 bugs but none of them really did the job.

If you do not need or want the noise canceling versions then I think there are better headsets from Sony, AKG and of course Sennheiser.

just my 2 cent

 

[Belmont31R]

The NFL is being far too intrusive to ban players from wearing non-Bose headphones. Simple as that.


If Bose is going to pull deals like this then they shouldn't expect their products to be sold in other people's stores.

 

[mdlooker]

Then explain to me why Apple is discontinuing their relationship with Bose?

I sort of think of it as having to girlfriends in the same house. One is gonna say that b*#*h gotta go...NOW!

 

[kerrikins]

both brands are overpriced, but I would much rather buy Bose than Beats.

Frankly I find what Apple is doing here is anti-competitive. but hey, I don't buy accessories from Apple store anyway, so it doesn't bother me.

Why is it anticompetitive? Apple can sell whatever they like in their stores. If they started requiring other retailers of Apple products to stop carrying Bose, *that* would be anticompetitive.

 

[brendu]

Good point. My example was a bad one for the reasons you pointed out. I am replying to you because it was the most sensible and polite reply to my statement. Thanks.

Sensible and polite commenting is rare on this website anymore. The more we can spread it the better.

 

[bbeagle]

The players is contracted by the NFL the same way an apple employee is contracted with apple. If in the contract (which all NFL contracts have in them because of the collective bargaining agreement), stipulates that an employee may not wear equpitment that their employer has exclusive rights agreement with another company. That employee (in this case NFL player), may not wear at NFL events.

I'm waiting for the MacRumors article:
'Apple employee fired for saying the Samsung Galaxy S5 is better than the iPhone'.

Will be the same people out saying - but that's his right! How dare Apple fire him!

 

[Luap]

At least an Anti-Bose sheep knows more than a Bose sheep. two way street.

Personally, I've never bought Bose anything, or Beats for that matter.

If I'm buying something in the audio world, I'll buy something from a REAL audio company that's catering to higher quality sound. Unfortunately, it usually costs more money and there isn't much one can do about that.

For a $99 headphone, there isn't much to really choose from. But when you get to the $350+ bracket, more players emerge that have better sound.

The whole concept of noise canceling is NOT for better sound quality, it's for noise isolation. How do you get better sound AND better noise isolation? Closed back headphones. Open back allow ambient noise, which is why you use open back headphones in a quiet environment, but if you are in a noisy environment, you need something to isolation external sound and noise canceling is one way to do it, but it does NOT produce better sound quality.

There are headphones, like the Beyer DT 770 M, which have 35dB of noise isolation and are designed for studio use by drummers, and they don't use noise canceling. i don't know how well they sound compared to Bose or Beats headphones, but these are closed back headphones that cost $250 at Sweetwater Sound discounted. But there are other closed back headphones to investigate. So look at the noise isolation level and then listen to them to see which is the better sounding product. But the inherent problem with noise canceling technology is that it doesn't improve the quality of sound, it just removes ambient noise through producing an opposite noise to cancel out what you don't want, but it also doesn't make a better sounding product.

A good custom ear bud will work great, but they start at around $600+ for the custom molds, etc. but they do sound fantastic, especially the $1000 models that have up to 6 drivers in each ear.

This is my point. By your own admission you have little to no experience of Bose products. And I'd wager a lot of anti Bose people posting here also have no experience of their products.
Me? I own an old set of Bose acoustimas speakers. They still work and sound great. I've also worked with their professional PA systems and the larger systems at least, were very good.
On top of that, I own a set of PMC studio monitors, Kef studio monitors, and a pair of Beyer Dynamic studio headphones. Plus i've worked in several recording studios (as well as my own) for over 20 years. So I know what professional sound is about, and I know from actual experience that Bose generally make gear to sound good, rather than be sonically accurate. Because accuracy doesn't always mean "enjoyable to listen to" believe it or not. Case in point, my PMC's have superior specs to the Bose by quite some margin. Yet, the Bose rig is nicer to listen to.

Now im not saying Bose hasn't made some crap in their time. But you know what? I've definitely heard other highly regarded manufacturers turn out some crap from time to time too. Yet they don't get any of the flack that Bose does. Because Bose bashing is the internet trend for sheep, and the sheep haven't thought of anything witty that the letters JBL, EV, Kef, Bowers & Wilkins or Denon etc etc could stand for yet.

 

[mojolicious]

It would be nice if all these Bose/Beats/NFL threads had a "hide all posts of a 'Beats are trash'/'Bose are trash'/'both are trash' nature" filter.

Oh, one of these Anti-Freedom of speech, huh?

Why? Is it that you are afraid that others disagree with you?

This is part of the problem with the masses, they are afraid of hearing something that contradicts what they are manipulated into thinking.

If you want to get out of being brainwashed by Bose and Beats, you have to go elsewhere to investigate what's REALLY out there.

I had a friend of mine that bought a Bose 5.1 system for $1200 and I told him he should have gone to a stereo store that specializes in audio equipment because there are other things on the market that sound better for a similar price. He ended up bringing back his Bose 5.1 system that he spent $1200 on and bought a Yamaha receiver with some Paradigm speakers that spanked the living crap out of the Bose system for the same amount of money. It wasn't even a contest. Plus, since I know the owners of the audio store, they also managed to give my friend a discount which helped even further, but even the cheapest Paradigm speakers kicked the Bose up and down.

Um... it's not so much I'm against freedom of speech, it's more I'm against having to filter through tedious and irrelevant opinions on the relative merits of audio equipment manufacturers in a thread where such opinions have absolutely no place.

I'm glad your friend likes his Yamaha/Paradigm set-up. You're the best! But I think you knew that already, right?

 

[TsunamiTheClown]

Aside from the obvious one-ups-manship that the removal of the Bose gear from the Apple retail environment symbolizes, I wonder how Bose sees Apple stores as far as a valuable marketplace.

Has Bose sold an appreciable amount of audio gear there or not? I think that if they do (or did as the case may soon be) then there may have been some signals sent to the Bose company that we are largely unaware of.

I think it is obvious that Apple see Bose as a take-it-or-leave-it line of merchandise. They must be convinced that they can do well without Bose as a product line.

And then there's the NFL. They are a non-profit donchaknow.

 

[00sjsl]

Their store, their rules. I don't see American Eagle selling Abercrombie, do you?

It's not that unusual for stores to sell own brand and premium brand products. The less choice there is the less incentive there is to shop there.

 

[usarioclave]

Given that Apple sells all the other products, it sounds like Bose decided to remove themselves from Apple. It's too bad, choice is good.

 

[rsocal]

The NFL/Bose deal only included players to not be seen with anything else up to 90 minutes during interviews after the game. If I were a player, I wouldn't wear anything in public unless I had to, but I wouldn't use Bose headphones in the first place, I'd be wearing HD800's, Stax or something better to begin with. But if my job required me not to wear another brand, then I simply wouldn't wear anything. They aren't required to wear Bose headphones, they just can't wear something else for that 90 minute period after the game and during a game.

Personally, I stopped watching professional sports because they aren't run as a sport, they are run like a business and they have gotten way out of hand with the sponsorships because that's the only way these Pro Sports organizations can exist, they HAVE to have sponsorships in order to stay in business, because people aren't going to pony up 4x the ticket prices to watch a bunch of jocks play.

I myself stopped watching sports like I use to, for most of the same reasons.

I don't mind them running it like a business, it's their business practices that I don't like! Especially when it comes to contracts with players and sponsor's. IMHO it's not about the sport anymore, it's not so much as the money, it's all the ******** politics etc.

 

[Arran]

Without corporate sponsorships, sports would crumble ...

Ahem, without corporate sponsorships, sports could focus on "sports" again.

 

[johnnygee]

Don't agree

B.O.S.E
Buy
Other
Sound
Equipment

Overpriced junk shouldn't be sold in Apple Stores regardless of what you think of Beats.

Beats are ok...but very overpriced.

You can do much much better for your dollar.

I've been using the SoundLink Mini, the QC 20i and the bluetooth around the ear headsets for a while. I have zero complaints.

 

[numlock]

The NFL is being far too intrusive to ban players from wearing non-Bose headphones. Simple as that.


If Bose is going to pull deals like this then they shouldn't expect their products to be sold in other people's stores.

i would say they are far too intrusive to sign such deals in the first place but these are the norm today.

however this deal is around 6 months old. did any players or the players union protest then?

and lastly this not some action of bose. they have a deal with the nfl. if the nfl wants to remain credible both to the viewers and sponsors then they have to stand by their word.