The Bose Company has touted itself as an audio leader for years. These days you can hardly fly anywhere without seeing the ubiquitous Bose Noise-Canceling Headphones on at least a few of your fellow passengers. The Bose product line includes far more that just Wave Radios and Noise-Canceling Headphones however. This review covers their smaller, more affordable In-Ear Headphones.
While not quite on par with their bigger noise-canceling siblings QuietComfort 2 and 3, the lightweight Bose In-Ear Headphones offer excellent sound in a less costly alternative. Being ear-bud style headphones they cannot come close to the noise canceling ability of the QuietComfort models, but they were not designed to do so. They do deliver clear crisp sound as long as background noise is not too loud. As almost all of my listening involves music, I tested these headphones listening to a variety of types of music. From the violins (and fiddles) in symphonic music (and bluegrass) to the cymbals in jazz, all sounded clear and true. The bass is not overpowering as I have found with cheaper ear-bud style headphones. Since I don’t have the ability to change the bass setting on my player this was important to me.
Ear-buds with adapter removed on one earbud
These are by far the most comfortable ear-buds I have ever worn. They come with soft rubber adapters that fit right over the ear-bud so they fit more precisely in your ear. Bose offers (and includes) three different sized sets of adapters for different sized ears. These provide an excellent seal in your ear, but also are the source of my major complaint about these ear-buds. Even minor movement like walking quickly broke this seal and I found myself constantly pushing them back in my ear. I finally switched back to my old buds for walking or running.
Closeup of ear-bud adapters
Bose sends along a very nice leather case in the $90 kit as well. Unfortunately, it is just a case, and you must jam your iPod and the headphones into it and attempt to close the case without catching the cord in the zipper. If you use a smaller player such as a nano you hardly need a case this large. I already had a nice case for my iPod and would prefer a case made just for the headphones, such as the one that came with an old pair of Sennheiser ear-buds I used to use. With that case the headphones wound up into a small hard plastic case which also kept the cords from getting tangled.
If you are looking for comfortable ear-buds with great sound these are a winner. Unfortunately, it you plan to use them while working out or walking, you may experience the frustration I did with the headphones coming loose and end up switching back to your old ones!
 |
Subscribe to our RSS feed. |
Product Information
| Price: | $90.00 |
| Manufacturer: | Bose Corporation |
| Pros: |
|
| Cons: |
|
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
After 6 months (of continually pushing them back in my ear) one of the cables broke (strands inside the insulation) and rendered the pair useless. A common fault I’m told. Not impressed, I’m now on the Etymotics hf5 and much better fit and quality…
I agree with this review: the Bose Ear Buds sound great, but suffer from some ergonomic problems. In addition to the case issues mentioned, the rubbery cord seems to seek out objects with which to get entangled, and the ear-bud adapters also come off the ear buds too easily. For the money, Bose should have included more than one spare pair in each size, although you can order more from the company online. Finally the black-and-white cords look sort of doofy and draw a little more attention to themselves than one would like…
I tried these earbuds shortly after they came out. They just don’t stay firmly inserted in the ear.
I’ve tried many other in-the-ear products and the Etymotics hf5 are defintely the best. They insert well into the ear and with a bit of moisture (saliva) around the flange, they cut out extreme amounts of noise. They are good enough to wear on the NYC subway and still listen to music without having to crank up of the volume.
The Etymotics do have a design problem that causes a short where the wire connects to the audio plug. This happens after about 1 year of use.
But even though my Etymotics fail, I always go back and buy another.
Thanks for the review of these Don. I have been contemplating switching to some ear bud style headphones for awhile now but am wary of getting a set that keep falling out. Could you tell me what type you usually wear? (the ones that you switched back to after testing these?)
thanks
Have one myself. Can’t live without it!!
I have never really been able to wear in-ear phones before… they’ve always been just a bit too big or something – never stayed in. I’ve been using these for a year and not only am I very impressed with the sound quality, but they’re so comfortable I can wear them all day with no problems. And compared to most Bose products they aren’t ridiculously expensive.
I just change 3 ipod, but I don’t change my bose In-Ear Headphones. When I do sport activity I prefer my Bang & Olufsen Earphones, This is very stable in every position (I use in downHill) but the sound is not the same of bose.