Bose recruits QuietComfort 15 headphones into war on noise

What is it with headphones and extra wordy product names? The Bose QuietComfort 15 Acoustic Noise Cancelling (still with us?) cans are out today, accompanied by an official press release loaded with an impressive array of vague improvements. There's a new "proprietary acoustic design" for passive noise cancellation, "more sophisticated proprietary electronics" for the active stuff and a "new proprietary ear cushion." Clearly, Bose wants you to know its stuff is uniquely awesome, but of course the one way to know for sure is to go test them out for yourself. Your nearest purveyor of audiophile equipment should have them already, and he should let you have a pair for $299.

[nsfw Posted Aug 20th 2009 1:12PM]

I used to travel over 100,000 miles a year and I would never in my life schlep around those big ass bose with me. On occasion I received Bose NC headphones to use with the flights entertainment system and i found them to be pretty poor. I have some denon d5000's at home as reference. I've owned the ER-6i, the ultimate ears SuperFi 5 pro, Sen earbuds, and even the $30 sony earbuds and the newest apple ones as well. I gotta say, all of these are better than the Bose. They block out a ton of noise on the plane as well. For those that say that ear buds don't fit your ears, all of those above fit very differently. I find it hard to believe you've tried all the different fittings.

[Krazy Posted Aug 20th 2009 3:20PM]

Bose is overpriced. Really when you buy their stuff, you're just paying for a name. Not even a great one at that.

[GHODZILLA5150 Posted Aug 20th 2009 4:01PM]

If you want an excellent pair of Noise Canceling Headphones with amazing sound try these:

http://www.amazon.com/Planet-NC600-Harmony-Canceling-Headphones/dp/B001H189BS/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1250798401&sr=8-9

Able Planet NC600. Incredible Headphones (especially for the price). Very comfortable and the Bass is really good. I travel alot and when I put these on I hear no outside noise whatsoever.

[The Dead Marxist Trio Posted Aug 20th 2009 4:08PM]

I really love the backlash against Bose here, it always makes me feel at home.


"There's a new 'proprietary acoustic design' for passive noise cancellation"- which means:
"We really packed the shit out of these with foam."

Also, my "nearest purveyor of audiophile equipment" doesn't have these, as they sell audiophile equipment.

I've listened to all the QC and in ear line by Bose, and I've yet to find any of them that even hold a candle to my Sennheiser HD-595s. I've been looking into canalphones w/ a mic recently for my phone, and it's come down to Senn and Shure.

It torments me, the choosing! (

[clarinetJWD Posted Aug 20th 2009 5:33PM]

I have the Sennheiser CX-300 in ear monitors, as well as an old pair of Shure EC2s. Before you make a decision, please look at Etymotic, Ultimate Ears, and Westone. All 3 brands will easily beat the entry level models from Senn and Shure. (I'm a huge Sennheiser fan, so I don't often say that.) My favorite is the Westone UM2, but those are really expensive. The UM1 is excellent as well (I left mine on an airplane, so I upgraded). Ultimate Ears Super.fi 3 is the big surprise for me. Clocking in as one of the cheaper ones, they have very excellent sound quality.

[sowwn Posted Aug 20th 2009 5:50PM]

From my experience, people that hate on BOSE are loud mouth smug idiots.

I have Shures, Senns, and BOSE phones (QCs and the cheap ones).
The build quality is great, the sound is BETTER, and they are across the board more comfortable to wear for extended periods of time.

Audiophiles will cry all day about how BOSE tunes the sound. Who Doesnt!? Do you guys sit at home listening to your audio flat on calibrated reference monitors? I have listened to systems flat, and they sound terrible. Give me an EQ anyday.. better yet, let somebody figure it out for me so I do not have to think about it.

Everybody has different ears. BOSE ships lots of product because they sound good enough that people will gladly plop down the bills for them after a listening test.

My guess is that 98% of the haters have never tried them.

BOSE is the Apple of audio... you hate flame it because you cannot afford it?

[The Dead Marxist Trio Posted Aug 21st 2009 12:11PM]

You've obviously never listened to a comparison of the phones you mentioned on a decent and properly powered system. Get yourself a decent headphone amp, then we'll talk (maybe you could sell one of you 50 pairs of phones.)

You've listened to a system that was flat, huh? With headphones? Again doesn't make sense... unless you're talking about either a system that doesn't have an EQ (99.999% of which aren't flat) or a system that did, with the EQ set flat. Either way, every piece of gear adds or takes something away, so the chance you've actually listened to a flat system is next to nil. Personally I prefer as little processing as possible; if the engineers did their job properly, it should be the best it can be on a flat as possible system.

As for the Apple=Bose argument, that's just blatantly untrue. Maybe if somehow you were able to take Bose hardware and for some inexplicable reason slap a really sick UI in them... (which is impossible and doesn't make sense, thereby invalidating your argument) I'd say Denon is a much better comparison. It's expensive, but it's really nice, and you could get one cheaper and be ok, but for a really top of the line end-to-end experience, it's all or none.

[sr1329 Posted Aug 21st 2009 12:44AM]

What an idiot must have written this article to think any audiophile retailer would stock this crap. Maybe the Apple store, but no self-respecting audiophile store would.

[amnon Posted Aug 22nd 2009 1:49AM]

I have had Bose QC2s since October 2004. In 2008, after numerous trans atlantic flights and use in the office, I found out they didn't have cell interference protection when I tried to connect them to my BlackBerry Curve. At the time, the QC2s were an upgraded model that had cell phone interference protection, and Bose allowed me to exchange my old pair (3.5 years old) for a new one with full warranty for a very low price.
Do all the other models everyone here touts have cell phone interference protection? I know unpowered headphones (like in-ear which I can't stand) won't need it, but what about the powered ones? That's a critical factor for me as I connect my QC2s to a BlackBerry Curve and others I tried (not the models others suggested) didn't have that.

[phacops Posted Aug 22nd 2009 7:59AM]

bose always reminds of monster cable... great package and ads but way short on specs for the $$$.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 22nd 2009 8:44PM]

Complain all you want.

Each to their own. But to be honest sound at the end of the day is subjective.

Bose as a company aims to provide consumers with a high performing system but also one that is simple and easy to use.

Complain about their home entertainment systems. But show me one with such high performance, so little footprint and so little components for less price?

Complain about the QC headphones but I can guarantee you (after searching around for loads of pairs myself) that you will not find something with as high noise cancelling. And whoever said the sony noise cancelling headphones were good is a complete idiot. They demonstrate them in the sony store by playing aircraft noise THROUGH the headphones and then reducing the volume of that noise...

Complain about the docks for the ipod but present me with something that runs on battery for 10 hours and has a brilliant sound?

So go on then. Run away to your countless magazines and come back with some 'answers'. If you genuinely present me with something better I will obviously applaud you.

I am an Audio Engineer so I know what good sound is believe me. And yes, you can get better than Bose. But I can assure you the better sounding systems will be at very least 10x the size. And yes you can get a better price, obviously; but somewhere I read once that Bose ploughs 100% of its profits back into research and development (you may have to check up on that. It's a vague memory) that's not exactly a rip off is it? Because it's not going into the pocket of some overweight Yank.

Knock Bose if you want. I'm not defending the sound quality. Just throwing out every single argument against Bose as a company. Because people criticise it for being 'under-performing', but forget what the products are made for. Simplicity, elegance, etc.

And people who criticise the frequency range of the products are naive. I have a few bose products (Triports, Earphones, Music Monitors, Sounddock portable) and have just frequency tested them all using Apple Logic Studio 8. They respond to a full 20-20 range.

Also, I want people to come back with results where I can trial the products for 30 days (like i got to do with all my Bose products).

Regards,

The only person who really knows what he's talking about here.

P.s. Check out this vid. WOW! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSi6J-QK1lw

[borislav Posted Aug 25th 2009 1:04AM]

So now that the QC15 is out, anybody know any good deals on the QC2? Ebay is obvious but a crapshoot.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 28th 2009 1:21PM]

Yeah i forked out $300 for these... but I love them, really comfortable and sound awesome. beside just music I can listen to podcasts on the subway. I tried the in ear style but just found them a pain in the a$$.

I love them...