New Headphones

[Thepunkinator]

I know headphones are more of a religious discussion but I wanted to share.

I own a couple pair of good headphones and headphone amps at home, including my favorite the AKG k701's. Well I wanted a pair for the Droid since I travel a lot. I did NOT want the Bose as I feel they are way overpriced for you get and the quality in the end is subpar. I'm also not a big fan of in ear phones. I settled on over the ear or on ear style. Over the ear, though, seemed a little too large for my style and unfortunately a lot of the on ear phones were smallish. I also wanted closed back because I didn't want everyone to hear my music. Let's add in that I wanted solid bass since I fly a lot and it gets drowned out. So basically a DJ style headphone.

After a lot of research I decided on the Audio-Technica ATH-ES7. I have to say that I'm thoroughly happy. It has everything I wanted and more. Not to mention they look really good, not cheap. They sound awesome (after a good break in period) and look good with the Droid.

If you're looking for new phones give them a look. Oh! Be sure to be very careful as they are one of the most copied headphones out there. There's tons of fakes. There's a good thread at Head-Fi on how to spot the fakes and also a list vendors that are confirmed to sell the real ones.

Anyway, hope this info is helpful to anyone looking. Cheers.

 

[dvdcatalyst]

I actually own the Bose.

I bought the QC2 a couple of years ago after a lot of pondering over the price. Over the years, Ive used a lot of headphones, and never exceeded the $150 mark, so the $300 for them required a lot of thought. Reading 100's of reviews, following up on referrals of people to other products, reading reviews on those, I ended up going for them.

I was not disappointed.

They worked like a charm. They didn't filter out everything, but the noise of walking on an old threadmill, or even the noise from the conditioner unit located next to my office just fade into oblivion when you flip the switch, and this is without playing any music.
Reading or watching a movie on my iPod Touch in the bedroom while my wife is watching (ugh) lifetime shows right next to me was as peaceful as if you are on a planet of your own.

Unfortunately, due to my own stupidity, they died after the warranty period. Thankfully, Bose has a nice deal in place for their customers. Regardless of what happened to them, you send them back, pay $100, and you get a new pair.

I never got to it, mainly due to money issues, but I have a trip coming up to visit my parents (its been 5 years) in a few months, so I figured it would be nice to have them again for the plane, so I called Bose again, and started the process. The QC2's are no longer available, and have been replaced by the QC15 model, which has better noise canceling, still for the $100 "trade-in" fee. Or I could upgrade to the QC3's for $150, but my ears are sensitive, so on-ear was out of the question.

Yesterday the QC15's came in, and last night, I used them while reading for a couple of hours, and they are better.

I recall Best Buy has them on display, but rather than to use their demo setup, I would recommend bringing your own device with some of your favorite music on it to give it a test. In general, Bose headphones have a slightly more prominent bass, so you might have to play with the equalizer settings a bit to get the best results.

The QC series of headphones do come with a few extra's.

A hard-shell carrying case (big enough to fit your device or some accessories, an airplane adapter (2-prong) and a battery.

The other reason why I picked the QC2 (QC15) over the QC3 is that it uses standard AAA batteries, rather than a custom rechargeable one. For a lengthy trip, its easier to replace.

 

[Thepunkinator]

I've owned Bose in the past as well. Just like their home systems they tend to do really good marketing to convince the general public they are the top of line innovators in their space. Unfortunately it's just not true. There are many other choices that people just haven't heard of that have much better build quality and far superior sound.

In the end though, if you're happy with what you purchase and use then that's all that matters.

 

[vatothe0]

I like my Shure E3C's for travel due to the compact size, noise reduction and sound quality. If they are in your ear correctly, they sound amazing for something so small. If they are in wrong, they sound thin and worthless.

When I worked in home audio, we always joked about the Bose motto of "Better sound through engineering" and changed it to "Better profits through marketing."