Bose earbuds, great sound - small details
My new Lenovo PC has such a great sounding sound card, that I decided to upgrade what I used to listen to it. The PC speakers are OK, but not really music quality. I must have a half dozen sets of buds and headphones around. One set of headphones is a pair of Sony MDR-7502 Professional. I also have IPod ear buds, which I was quite impressed with when I first got my IPod.
At a major retailer I found a display and put on the Bose around hear (full) headphones. Not the noise cancelling headphones, just regular headphones. Wow. The clarity was really amazing. Now other brands may have been great too, but only the Bose were there for demos. I liked the around ear better than the on ear. It was a little less expensive (all VERY relative) but less compact.
The ear buds were not available for demo for obvious reasons. I went home, checked out my Sony headphones and found that, indeed, the clarity of stuff made in this decade is better. Heading to a Bose store I found earbuds that you can demo! I stared at them for a bit, and the fellow said “we do clean them after anyone tries them out.”
A little detail. Nice.
I tried the ear buds, and indeed their sound was great. Unlike other buds I’ve used, you don’t have to put them far in to have them stay in place. They rest easily just inside the ear. And a neck cord holds the weight of the cord, rather than your ears.
A little detail. Nice.
Many buds are marketed as “extra bass”. I prefer a flatter more natural reproduction. I prefer clarity over volume. So when you turn the volume down and still hear the fingers slide in the guitar strings in the music, that’s inspiring stuff. Bose even specifically says to turn off bass boost settings on your music player. They designed it to sound natural, and I think they got it right.
The connector is not inline, which would be pulled at an angle in the side of my PC. And it isn’t a right angle, it is at a perfect angle.
A little detail. Nice.
The cord is just longer than arms reach. Just right.
These buds were about $100. There are others in that price range. I tried Shures some time ago, and they sounded good but were not as comfortable as these Bose. Great sound and clarity is expected in this price range, but I was also impressed with these small details. I forget I have these buds in your ears. The music sounds natural and balanced song to song, I have no impulse to add bass to one song and remove it from the next. I’m sure I’ve wasted more on cheap buds. These are an investment in listening to your music collection again for the first time.
- the Muse
