Excellent headphones for getting stuck on the tarmac at JFK for 10 hours. Just make sure you bring enough batteries.
What is it about Bose that gets audio reviewers so upset
that we refuse to review their products? For as long as I have been working in
the consumer electronics industry, I have been part of a cabal of writers who
treat Bose as if they have the plague. On a personal level, I have listened to
almost all of the Bose speaker systems and component systems and they are not
my thing. Sonically, they do some things quite well, but the tonal balance and
presentation does not jive with how I enjoy listening to music. Nothing
personal. I know many people who really like the Bose “sound” and I do not feel
pompous enough to tell them that they are wrong. One thing I have learned over
the years listening to entry-level gear that I thought was great, and some
cost-no-object equipment that I found to be less than overwhelming, is that everyone
hears things quite differently and that life is excessively short to tell
people that they are deaf.
End of rant.
One thing one has to admire about Bose is that they do a
superb job of marketing their products. They are everywhere, all the time, and
the message gets through to people that Bose is #1. Riding the subway in Manhattan one morning was
a fascinating exercise, as there were dozens of Bose ads on every train
promoting the new TriPort In-Ear headphones. It was impossible to miss them. A
quick look across the platform and I counted at least six people using Bose headphones.
The noise in the subway is quite deafening, so I was happy to have my Ultimate
Ears super-fi 5 Pros with me, which do a great job of noise isolation. As I sat
down on the 1 train, I noticed that the man sitting across from me was wearing
a pair of Bose QuietComfort 2 noise cancelling headphones.
I pointed to my own pair of headphones to see if he was
paying attention.
My fist turned and I gave him the thumbs up signal.
He smiled. Winked. Did the same with his fist.
I got off at the next station.
Not that there is anything wrong with that.
The Bose QuietComfort 2 Acoustic Noise Cancelling headphones
feature Bose’s noise cancelling technology, which electronically identifies and
reduces noise, while at the same time preserving the acoustic signal.
One unique feature about the headphones is that they have
different gain settings for in-flight/home stereo systems and another when you
are using a laptop, DVD player, or portable media device. There is a very
noticeable difference in the volume when you switch between the two.
The ear cushions are very soft and comfortable making long listening
sessions quite easy on the head/ears. The headphones are light, but I often
feel quite sore after listening to other headphones that are sealed. Not so
with these.
There is real debate among those of us who review headphones
about the validity of noise cancelling technology and whether the sound quality
suffers as a result. My ears do notice a difference and I am not sure that in
all cases, it is a worthwhile trade-off. The original QuietComfort 1 were
decent headphones, but something weird was going on with the bass response. The
drivers seemed ready to take off on some tracks and never come back down.
Fortunately, the problem seems to have been resolved with
the QuietComfort 2 and in a very big way. Call me crazy, but I rather enjoyed listening
to these. The noise cancelling technology works, although I doubt that it is
cutting out as much noise as the manufacturer claims. I sat on the subway
listening to these and they did eliminate an adequate amount of external noise.
Sonically, I found them to be quite warm and engaging; a characteristic
I have never really associated with Bose products. Vocals were fleshed out,
without a major loss of detail and everything move along at a decent clip. Bass
response was meatier than it was taut, but it was a level of low-level
resolution that I could live with. The top end certainly does not have the
airiness of the better headphones from Grado, Sennheiser, AKG, or Ultrasone,
but its cut-off point makes poor recordings listenable.
The QuietComfort 2 are not inexpensive, so they have to be
judged against headphones in that price range. Would I buy them over the
Ultrasone HFI-700 or AKG K 601s? No, but that does preclude a recommendation.
The fit and feel is excellent, and they do fold up nicely for travel.
I must confess that I was prepared to really hate them.
In a weird way, I almost admire them.
Weird.
The Verdict
