Bose Around-Ear Headphones Review By New England Yankee
In review after review for years (professional reviews, that is, not user reviews like these), regardless of the type of equipment, Bose shows up as competent, at times among the better finishers, but rarely at the top. I believe they are more expensive than they should be for what they deliver. Where Bose does best with headphones are the models with active noise cancelling circuitry. (These aren't noise cancelling.)
This particular pair is a case in point. They are priced well above the headphones against which they compete - and deliver less in both build quality and sound fidelity. Take a look at the headband alone, never mind the earcups and wiring. On the sound side, Bose takes an approach that boosts certain parts of the spectrum, typically the highs, and they aren't known for their bass extension. Material recorded in lossy media like MP3 can sound better with a response profile like this, but the same characteristics destroy nuances when used on high-fidelity equipment.
I regard porting the ear cups, as Bose does with these, as a marketing gimmick. Tuned ports are used in speakers (i.e., bookshelf and full-size speakers) for a variety of reasons, but the cone movement of a headphone speaker does not require it. Bose ports and channels all kinds of things, though (think of their Waveguide radios) and this appears to be part of the marketing plan.
You can buy into better, medium-range headphones from both Sony and Sennheiser that are better in every way and are common in recording studios where fidelity has to be accurate. The most common headphone of this type and in this price range ballpark found in studios is probably the the middle of the Sony MDR line(MDR-V6, MDR-7506, MDR-V600, etc.) - better headphones that cost less.
