Again, I've been quite happy with mine. The reason I bought them is that I tried a pair and tried a pair of some others as well and I liked the bose QC2 for the fit, quiet, etc. If you read the reviews on Amazon for example, also you can tell that average people are quite happy with them. Like with the iPhone the negative reviews seem to come primarily from people with a major agenda. For example, I saw some negative reviews suggesting all other sorts of products, yet not mentioning any personal experience. It reminds me of reading the iPhone3G comments on Hofo when all the N95 users came out of the woodwork to try to convince all of us we made a huge mistake.
When this set wears out, I'm going to revisit the list you sent me (I've written them down). Till then I'm happy. Do you have any good websites you could recommend on this subject?
As has been said, Head-Fi is an excellent source of all things headphone. And of course, the average person is thrilled with Bose; they are never exposed to anything better, ever. It is extremely rare to find a pair of headphones that isn't garbage in a retail store; the only ones I ever see available seem to be the Sennheiser PX100, which are not closed, so automatically are less useful to some people. At the same time, I've never met a Bose fan who hasn't liked the sound of the $10 Koss KSC75 better than their Triports or QC2 upon my convincing them to audition it.
There are also some halfway decent IEMs in Best Buy/Circuit City from time to time, but they're a completely different kind of sound that not everyone likes to begin with. Bose is the only brand that isn't absolute junk that people can ever get a chance to audition, and their marketing makes up the rest.
CD3660 said:
Incidentally, I enjoy my Bose QC2's very much as well. Whilst some people might prefer other brands, it is absurd to call them bad.
As you suggest, there are certain products (such as Bose and the iPhone) that instill a certain hatred in people who then embark on some sort of crusade of criticism.
I'm all for balanced reviews and constructive criticism, but venomous attacks on a company and its products is unnecessary.
I've never met another company that I would ever criticize as much and as often as I do Bose; this comes from numerous audition of every one of their products available for such, extensive listening comparisons in people's homes and at stores with other brands, and a lot of research into the company's history, marketing and products. The typical iPhone critic hates it because it's popular; they rarely have any direct things to say about what makes another phone better, why they hate it, et cetera. I don't criticize Bose because it's popular, or even close, and you haven't been listening if you think so.
For literally the entire history of their company, Bose has outright lied in its ads to its customers. The research they build the entire foundation of their company on simply does not happen. They continually have made claims about using new kinds of speaker drivers and technologies that they invented when they in fact almost ALWAYS use much older technologies that are either the same, or even in some cases inferior to other audio companies.
Just one example is their first line of speakers starting in the late seventies; they made claims for
years that they used "space age paper" that they invented in their speaker cones. To begin with, nearly every audio company even by then already shunned cone speaker design in the higher end market because it couldn't produce the same frequency range (especially low, low bass and higher frequencies) that either the classic horn or the newer mylar spherical designs were capable of.
Then, people bought Bose speakers and tested the "space-age patented paper," and it was just basic hemp paper that everyone else had been using for years. It took about 15 years for Bose to stop denying that it was "space age" and they had invented it. And they STILL haven't stopped putting paper cones into their speakers. "Coincidentally" it is THE cheapest material to put in them.
The "Acoustic Wave Music System" or Wave Radio is another huge sham that they claim as some great technological development. It's just a couple speakers tossed into a radio. That's it. Yes, it sounds better than the 19.99 Jensen at Wal-Mart, but there is nothing revolutionary about it; in fact, I've repeatedly seen and heard better sounding models even at Target from time to time.
Bose is also one of the few large audio manufacturers left that have never even successfully received THX certification on a SINGLE product.
They dominate the "high end" market because they have a stranglehold on the big chain stores; they are nearly always either A. The ONLY thing you can actually audition or B. In a separate area from the other products where you cannot directly compare. Throw in the fact that at most stores, Bose is the only brand that isn't absolute junk, so even if there WERE a chance at comparison, of course it would win over the entry-level Sony earclips.
My problem with Bose is primarily rooted in the awful stranglehold it has on the entire audio market so that other companies that make far better products are held down or forced out to the point that you can rarely find decent stuff in large chains without just lucking onto it by accident.
I don't vehemently criticize Bose because I think their stuff are the awfulest sounding things there ever were. I DO think even the best products of theirs I've ever heard sound like they should cost about a fifth of what they do, I CAN show you a ten dollar pair of headphones that sounds better than the QC2 and QC3(that said it's an excellent headphone, so it's not as damning as it otherwise would be), and I DO think their reputation has been built on lies and is maintained by bullying retail chains, and supporting those tactics by buying their products, even if they were worth it, which they aren't even close, is an awful thing to do for free markets.
