Forgive me father for I have sinned [Archive] - Audio & Video Forums

PDA

View Full Version : Forgive me father for I have sinned



elapsed
07-24-2011, 08:45 PM
Been on over 15 trips in the past four months, including longhauls to Europe and Asia where I wasn't able to fall asleep. I decided enough was enough and began searching for a pair of noise cancelling headphones and after careful deliberation.. I decided on the Bose QuietComfort 3.

Have to tell you, the silence is just blissful, and the audio quality is not half bad, but considering I am only using the headphones for sleeping and watching movies on planes I don't feel any need to compare them to Stax 407's or Senn 650's

So there you have it, I'm the proud owner of Bose headphones. And I like them.

cheers,
elapsed

JohnMichael
07-24-2011, 08:52 PM
For your penance recite 3 Hail Mary's and 4 Our Fathers. Promise to sin no more and enjoy the headphones.

pixelthis
07-24-2011, 08:54 PM
Been on over 15 trips in the past four months, including longhauls to Europe and Asia where I wasn't able to fall asleep. I decided enough was enough and began searching for a pair of noise cancelling headphones and after careful deliberation.. I decided on the Bose QuietComfort 3.

Have to tell you, the silence is just blissful, and the audio quality is not half bad, but considering I am only using the headphones for sleeping and watching movies on planes I don't feel any need to compare them to Stax 407's or Senn 650's

So there you have it, I'm the proud owner of Bose headphones. And I like them.

cheers,
elapsed

Good for you.
I HAVE a BOSE set of mediamates, a friend is using them on his computer, and they have always sounded amazing.
BOSE is great for such specialized apps, its when they start wading into the deep water of high end audio and HT that they get into trouble.
AND THEIR "wave" radio is quite obsolete, when shopping I went for the YAMAHA, it has IPOD dock and sound that beat the pants off of the "wave".:1:

RGA
07-24-2011, 09:20 PM
Been on over 15 trips in the past four months, including longhauls to Europe and Asia where I wasn't able to fall asleep. I decided enough was enough and began searching for a pair of noise cancelling headphones and after careful deliberation.. I decided on the Bose QuietComfort 3.

Have to tell you, the silence is just blissful, and the audio quality is not half bad, but considering I am only using the headphones for sleeping and watching movies on planes I don't feel any need to compare them to Stax 407's or Senn 650's

So there you have it, I'm the proud owner of Bose headphones. And I like them.

cheers,
elapsed

Frankly I am a bit sick of the Bose bashing - Bose has made some decent products and I have heard some good things about their headphones for awhile. The problem with Bose IMO was never really the sound but the price they charged for the sound they offered. Bose is the biggest of all the "fashion statement first sound a distant second" company. B&O sells WAY more expensive stuff that also sounds way overpriced. Bose sold the Acoustimas which got killed but at the time they were selling it mainly for people who did not want to ever "see" the stereo. So of course it was awful. Very small speakers and woofer in a box is a glorified home theater in a box.

That and the price of the 901 which at least had a worthy design intention. Plenty of other companies like the notion of direct reflecting technology. Long time poster here Skeptic/Soundmind went on endlessly that this was the only design that could reproduce classical music properly. And a big famous reviewer at one of those print magazine hailed the 901 as the best loudspeaker he ever had in his home - this was a very well known reviewer but his name escapes me - it was the original 901 I do remember that I think it was in the 1960s. but Still.

I just went and looked it up online. The speakers are selling for $1398.95 from Bose. That's less than they used to sell them for. I had the opportunity to hear them in a Pub in South Korea and for that purpose they actually do arguably a better job than a direct radiator. Because they spread the sound around over a much wider distance in different directions no matter where you were you got the same general presentation - kind of omni-directional like. As background music not all that bad. At $1400 it's not absurd.

Hi-Fi Choice in one of their 1996 issues did a blind panel level matched review of a bunch of speakers and while the Bose model, 305 I think, didn't win the shootout it did well enough in many listener's opinions to get a recommended tag.

Bose certainly has the money that if they every truly wanted to do a great job building a truly exceptional system they could do it. But it will take them putting quality above pure profit and then open minded reviewers to review their gear fairly.

Hell Cerwin Vega has come out with a truly great $1000 pair of speakers and the words great speakers and Cerwin Vega is difficult to get out. But if I was to buy a set of speakers tomorrow and I had $1000 the CLS 215 would be THE loudspeaker at the top of the list and everyone else would need to prove they had something over them.

hifitommy
08-15-2011, 04:44 PM
i only engage in bose SPEAKER bashing. about the ONLY decent one is the 301. 901s might be good for rear channels due to the dispersion to their rear.

their other products including car stereos are resspectable. they did not however invent the noise cancelling 'phones, that was probably sennheiser.

elapsed
08-15-2011, 06:02 PM
their other products including car stereos are resspectable. they did not however invent the noise cancelling 'phones, that was probably sennheiser.
Per Wikipedia entry on Noise Cancelling Headphones:

"By the 1950s, systems were created to cancel the noise in helicopter and airplane cockpits. Dr. Amar Bose (founder of the Bose Corporation) began work on his noise-cancelling headphones[1] in 1978 on board an aeroplane. After nearly a decade of research, Bose would commercially market the first noise-cancelling headphones."

Per Wikipedia entry on Bose headphones:

"The idea of personal noise protection by actively controlled headphones was originally documented in a 1960 Russian patent application.[1][2] In the United States, the idea for active noise cancellation for helicopter and aircraft pilots was patented by Dr. Lawrence J. Fogel as early as the mid 1950s U.S. Patent 2,866,848, U.S. Patent 2,920,138, U.S. Patent 2,966,549 and Canadian patent 631,136. According to Bose, the company started noise-cancellation involvement after Dr. Amar Bose went on a 1978 flight to Europe, utilized the headphones provided during the flight only to conclude that he couldn't really enjoy the sound with the roar of engines in the background."[3]

In 1986, Bose applied their noise-cancellation technology to develop headphones to protect the hearing of pilots participating in the first non-stop around-the-world flight.[4]"

cheers,
elapsed

hifitommy
08-15-2011, 06:19 PM
thats pretty impressive if true. i was under the impression that it was senn or logically david clark whose headphones are frequently used industrially.

is that EGG on my face?

elapsed
08-15-2011, 06:45 PM
thats pretty impressive if true. i was under the impression that it was senn or logically david clark whose headphones are frequently used industrially.

is that EGG on my face?
No egg at all, I promise! I found one some source that indicates that both Bose and Sennheiser presented active headphones for pilots almost simultaneously, but I can't find much information on Wikipedia and I can't find any claims from Sennheiser themselves. So I think the general consensus is that Bose were first to market.

I would have considered Sennheiser but the PXC 450 and 350 are both more expensive that the Bose, and I'm really not using them for anything more than TV's and movies while flying so I'm not looking for audiophile sound. And as a business traveler I see Bose more than any other headphone and the reviews always rate them in the top two, I feel I made the right decision

cheers,
elapsed

dwayne.aycock
08-23-2011, 02:20 PM
I to must come out of the closet and admit that I listen to QC2 phones as well. My last confession was about 6 months ago when I took a flight from Atlanta to San Francisco. I watched 2 movies and my IPOD. I felt dirty....... now I feel better

Sir Terrence the Terrible
08-23-2011, 02:48 PM
I to must come out of the closet and admit that I listen to QC2 phones as well. My last confession was about 6 months ago when I took a flight from Atlanta to San Francisco. I watched 2 movies and my IPOD. I felt dirty....... now I feel better

I know you fell better, but do you still feel dirty? An Ipod for movies, off with his head!!! The Ipad is much better in that respect, I would get a headache trying to watch a movie on a Ipod.

markw
08-23-2011, 03:07 PM
I know you fell better, but do you still feel dirty? An Ipod for movies, off with his head!!! The Ipad is much better in that respect, I would get a headache trying to watch a movie on a Ipod.Maybe I read it wrong, or perhaps I interpreted it wrong, but he said " I watched 2 movies and my IPOD". I took that as two separate acts, watching two movies (and then listening to music) on the IPOD, but I've been wrong before. ...once.

In either case, I just gave Dwayne a safe exit. ;)

Sir Terrence the Terrible
08-24-2011, 07:17 AM
Maybe I read it wrong, or perhaps I interpreted it wrong, but he said " I watched 2 movies and my IPOD". I took that as two separate acts, watching two movies (and then listening to music) on the IPOD, but I've been wrong before. ...once.

In either case, I just gave Dwayne a safe exit. ;)

Mark' that makes perfect sense. Now that I have read it again, you are right. Nice safe exit....

bobsticks
08-24-2011, 09:58 AM
...one doesn't always have to choose the most expensive tool in the tool box. Congrats and enjoy.

GMichael
08-24-2011, 10:22 AM
I had a Bose system in my Acura. It sounded every bit as good as the HK system I have now.

dwayne.aycock
08-24-2011, 10:40 AM
I watched 2 movies (mission Impossible, and James Bond/ die another day). Then I listened to some good jazz on the ipod. West Montgomery is the bomb!!

TheHills44060
08-24-2011, 11:06 AM
I had a Bose system in my Acura. It sounded every bit as good as the HK system I have now.
Really, huh...So did mine but my experience was different. I immediately took out the head unit, outboard amplifier and ripped out the integrated subwoofer-spare tire deal. 100% Bose eradicaton = 100% percent improvement.

elapsed
08-24-2011, 11:22 AM
Really, huh...So did mine but my experience was different. I immediately took out the head unit, outboard amplifier and ripped out the integrated subwoofer-spare tire deal. 100% Bose eradicaton = 100% percent improvement.
Audiophiles are prone to excessive exaggeration.. it may not be your cup of tea, but Bose makes some decent car audio. Would love to hear what you liked or didn't like about the factory installed Bose system. If it made you feel better by replacing the components then more power to you

It just seems so easy to bash Bose, let's all jump on the bandwagon

cheers,
elapsed

TheHills44060
08-24-2011, 11:41 AM
Mr. Elapsed I owned a pair of Bose 501 Series III and have nothing bad to say about them. They looked nice and I liked how they filled a decent size room with sound no matter where the listener was located. Especially good when having a gathering.

My statement was about the Bose system that came in my car and only about the system that came in my car so keep your exaggeration comments to yourself.

cheers,
hills

GMichael
08-24-2011, 12:16 PM
Really, huh...So did mine but my experience was different. I immediately took out the head unit, outboard amplifier and ripped out the integrated subwoofer-spare tire deal. 100% Bose eradicaton = 100% percent improvement.

Maybe the system you replaced it with would be equally better than the HK system I have now. It's hard to compare any stock system with a custom one.

TheHills44060
08-24-2011, 12:53 PM
Maybe the system you replaced it with would be equally better than the HK system I have now. It's hard to compare any stock system with a custom one.
I agree wholeheartedly. I was simply stating that I was very underwhelmed with the stock Bose offering compared to other stock setups I have heard in other cars. I also know that many other owners of Acuras were also more satisfied dumping the Bose system and replacing with a moderately priced aftermarket system.

GMichael
08-24-2011, 01:01 PM
I agree wholeheartedly. I was simply stating that I was very underwhelmed with the stock Bose offering compared to other stock setups I have heard in other cars. I also know that many other owners of Acuras were also more satisfied dumping the Bose system and replacing with a moderately priced aftermarket system.

Mine was nice. I did add a Rockford Fosgate sub though.

TheHills44060
08-24-2011, 01:44 PM
Mine was nice. I did add a Rockford Fosgate sub though.
You were lucky then. Mine came with an adequate head unit I guess but the front/back speakers were really bad and the hokey amp and subwoofer in the spare tire was horrible. I ended up getting a pretty nice Pioneer radio and lower end Infinty speakers. Never bothered to replace the Bose sub and went subless.

Overall I was much happier considering I never felt the need to replace the factory setups of any other car I had owned before.

hifitommy
09-04-2011, 09:43 AM
i'm BAAAACK.

RGA:

"the 901 which at least had a worthy design intention" NOPE! not worthy, FLAWED thinking and overpriced. the sound is already in the 9 reflected to 1 direct ratio when it reaches the microphone. to dilute it another 9:1 is to make audio soup. the soundfield and images therein are now no longer related in any way to reality. for background music, or especially rear channels in a surround system, they would be at least OK if not very good. but that would have to be at a low used price and in great shape.

also, there is no real deep bass to speak of and the high frequencies are truncated. their newer systems for surround lack dynamics, low, and highs as well.

the car systems, noise cancelling headphones, and maybe even the radios seem to be pretty good even if some of them are pricey.

the mentioned CV speakers would be an excellent choice at their price. see the absolute sound review by robert e. greene, a math professor at UCLA:

TESTED: Cerwin-Vega CLS-215 Loudspeaker | AVguide (http://www.avguide.com/review/tested-cerwin-vega-cls-215-loudspeaker)

i am usually not a CV proponent but certain reviewers can be trusted, REG among them. i for one would love to hear these hulks.

StevenSurprenant
09-13-2011, 07:07 AM
Frankly I am a bit sick of the Bose bashing.

Most people don't bash Bose because they are so bad, rather because they are over rated and over priced. Good marketing!

As a speaker they are fairly decent "compared" to many other speakers available. No, they won't compete with high end audio, nor with a similarly priced (well chosen) system of competing brands, but they do have their draw.

The average person knows very little about audio and an all in one box of components takes all the guess work out of the purchase and it's almost invisible in the home and many times sounds relatively nice.

Mr.Bose stated that in the early years, during his research, that he tried accurate speakers, but people preferred that warm fuzzy bass and slightly bright highs. So, rather than go down the path of creating accurate speakers, he gave the people what they wanted. When done right, I will admit that it is a pleasing sound, but, personally I can only take it so long before I crave accuracy.

The crux of the debate is that there is no right or wrong in audio, it's all a matter of taste. Most people buy an image. For instance, Harley Davidson motorcycles are over priced and over rated compared to most other brands, yet people crave them. In the end, who cares? It's their money.

Mike Anderson
09-30-2011, 06:25 PM
Been on over 15 trips in the past four months, including longhauls to Europe and Asia where I wasn't able to fall asleep. I decided enough was enough and began searching for a pair of noise cancelling headphones and after careful deliberation.. I decided on the Bose QuietComfort 3.

Have to tell you, the silence is just blissful, and the audio quality is not half bad, but considering I am only using the headphones for sleeping and watching movies on planes I don't feel any need to compare them to Stax 407's or Senn 650's

So there you have it, I'm the proud owner of Bose headphones. And I like them.

cheers,
elapsed


I'm gonna go out on a limb here, and.... completely agree with you!

I have the same headphones, and damned if they don't actually sound pretty good, in addition to being great noise-cancelers.

I never even would have thought of buying a pair, but there was a demonstration pair at a local shop, and I tried them out for the heckuvit. I was amazed at how good they sounded, for Bose stuff.

The speakers, on the other hand, are definitely not my bag. But those headphones are bad at all for the occasional plane flight.

Baniebs
10-04-2011, 08:23 PM
Nothin wrong with Bose!