Bose On-Ear Headphones, Have you ever used them?

[bwfc0907]

Hi guys

I'm thinking of getting the Bose On-Ear Headphones, the £117 pair. If you have used them can you please let me know your views on the quality of sound and build.

I listened to them in an apple store and thought the sound was excellent but I only had time for a minute listen.

Please don't just use this thread to have a go at Bose.

Thanks

David

 

[MooneyFlyer]

Hi guys

I'm thinking of getting the Bose On-Ear Headphones, the £117 pair. If you have used them can you please let me know your views on the quality of sound and build.
...
David

I've used them -- the QC3's I believe. I personally own the QC2's (over ear). Some observations:

• Sound is great on both
• On ear doesn't heat your ears up as much as the Over ear version (this can actually be a big deal if you need to wear them for a long time -- say 10 hrs on a flight)
• Some people claim that the overall noise canceling isn't as good with the On ear because of the potential leakage through the On ear material. It's possible depending on your ears I guess. (there's probably dB specs on each somewhere).
• QC2's have a single AAA battery -- so I carry a spare with me. The QC3's have a rechargeable with a specific charger (not a mini-USB). This just means you have to be more diligent about keeping the battery up. The battery in the QC2's does last a long time. I didn't use the QC3's long enough to know the battery limits.
• My QC2's wouldn't directly work with my iPhone 1st gen because of the inset headset jack (dumbest idea ever). I hand modified the connector a bit with a razor blade and it works fine. The newer models of each *might* have this fixed, not sure.

I travel upward of 150,000 flight miles a year and carry these on nearly every trip. I have found that I feel much better at the end of a long flight having had noise canceling. They are a bit bulky -- I wish they could have made them fold in half but that has its own challenges.

Some friends have others like Sennheiser, Shure, Sony, etc. and claim better noise canceling performance per $. Most people agree the Bose sound very good.

Hope that helps, good luck.

 

[scott99]

I have the QC3's (On ear ?). I love them, great sound ! Good Bass, good highs. Overall, worth the price. I bought an adapter for my 1st generation iPhone, and now have a 2nd generation iPhone, and dont need the adapter.

 

[M-5]

I owned these for a couple of weeks: (Bose On-ear headphones)
http://www.bose.com/controller?url=.../audio_headphones/on_ear_headphones/index.jsp

I used them mainly with my iPhone 2G, and no adapter was needed either. The sound quality was very good, but I noticed that they would start to bother my ears after about an hours and a half. It might have just been my ears though. They were very good for car rides as they block out a lot of outside noise.

I returned them because I decided to purchase the Bose SoundDock. It just better suited my needs.

My friend also purchased the same headphones, and she used hers extensively, but hers stopped working after a couple of months...and I believe this is her second pair. So I'm not sure how long they last. The chord seems kind of flimsy to me.

Anyway, I thought they sounded great.

 

[nimda0]

Do either of these have a microphone?

 

[scott99]

Do either of these have a microphone?

Bose has a mic adapter that they sell for $39, but it doesn't have a button that you would use to push to talk/or to use on the music (change songs. pause, etc), so I find it useless, and I didn't buy it. If it had the button, I would have bought it, you actually have to answer the phone like you normally do.

 

[knarzie]

i absolutely love them. having said that, like all bose, they are quite bass heavy.

 

[cyclingplatypus]

I've got a pair that I use almost daily, like knarzie said a little heavy on the base but nice and the mic kit works very good too.

 

[jparris1]

Bose has a mic adapter that they sell for $39, but it doesn't have a button that you would use to push to talk/or to use on the music (change songs. pause, etc), so I find it useless, and I didn't buy it. If it had the button, I would have bought it, you actually have to answer the phone like you normally do.

I use the Bose with the Shure adapter. This gives you a mic and the button.

 

[bwfc0907]

Thanks for taking the time to reply. Its helping me make an informed decision.

 

[alphaod]

I've never owned my own, but borrowing friend's ones to use, my conclusion is they are poor value though the sound cancellation is excellent. They are poor value because for the amount of money you spent on them, the sound quality isn't as good as you would like. For that kind of money, I would pay for a Shure SE110 in-ear headphones. Offers substantially better sound quality, offers terrific sealing, and definitely is a lot cheaper.

 

[jaseone]

I've never owned my own, but borrowing friend's ones to use, my conclusion is they are poor value though the sound cancellation is excellent. They are poor value because for the amount of money you spent on them, the sound quality isn't as good as you would like. For that kind of money, I would pay for a Shure SE110 in-ear headphones. Offers substantially better sound quality, offers terrific sealing, and definitely is a lot cheaper.

You mean to you they are very poor value! For those that travel a lot the noise cancellation is very valuable indeed and for that the QC3's really excel, although I have been hearing a new model of Sony's with digital noise cancellation are even better!

I don't use my QC3's as everyday earphones but rather just for long trips or even for shorter flights if I'm traveling alone. I just find I arrive at my destination a lot more relaxed using the QC3's even if I don't have them plugged into anything with the noise cancellation switched on, which is what I did for this last trip to Sydney I am currently on.

 

[alphaod]

You mean to you they are very poor value! For those that travel a lot the noise cancellation is very valuable indeed and for that the QC3's really excel, although I have been hearing a new model of Sony's with digital noise cancellation are even better!

Yes to me they are poor value; for same money I purchased reference quality headphones. I guess I also prefer passive noise isolation.

 

[jjcore]

Bose is only decent quality. For more bang for the buck, look at Shure, AKG, Grado, Etymotic Research, even the Klipsch Custom 2's and 3's are gonna be better than Bose.