Lets begin, shall we. Subjective views are apart of the life with earphones. No single earphone will be right for every person’s ear. I accept this and hope you can too. So you are going to always have different views from one person to the next. So what I will try and do is play the part of the two main people that are going to have a opinion on this earphone. The audiophile style and the consumer sound style people. Why? Because this is one of those earphones that won’t have a middle ground in most cases.
From a Consumer Sound aspect of sound, these earphones will be One of …if not the best Bass power you will ever need in your life. The sure amount of bass even when you lower the bass level all the way down…still hits harder than 70% of the earphones out today. And my God, don’t ever raise the bass levels …they will destroy you head with bass pressure. They are even more powerful than the original Bose quietcomfort and that saying something. So if you listen to alot of Rap and R/B and you love that Hard and heavy BASS…this earphone will be your earphone for that type of sound direction. It polishes this off with the Very BEST ANC ever made because it’s Bose and NOBODY can do ANC better than them. It has very nice Battery life and will fit into you ears for work outs as long as your ears aren’t too small. It also comes with some neat features for voice command gimmicks and a new app that is way more useful than it’s previous version(even though it’s a little slow). The bottom line is that it’s a really fun and energetic Earphone and maybe the most powerful in dynamics that exist today at a amazing price of $180.
The Audiophile View:
However, if you are an Audiophile or someone who doesn’t just listen to Bass and rap, this whole thing changes greatly. For us, the sure amount of overdone Bass is problematic and messy, to say the least. It’s just everywhere at times, even when it’s not supposed to be. I can safely tell you that if you love mids, or very great detailed separation, correct timbre, and airy sounding earphones, this is the very last earphone you want to buy. It is one of the worst accurate earphone I’ve heard in years. Vocals don’t sound true to life, separation of sounds and space is hollowed out at best. It’s All Bass and Treble.
On top of this, I don’t believe it offers any venting and that means all that bass creates even more pressure inside you ears and heads and makes for a very uncomfortable feeling. Also, if you like quality looks and material of your devices, this is not it. The whole unit is made out of the cheap plastic that is ready to scratch and scuff and the case doesn’t look like it would survive even one fall to the ground. And as far as earphones that disappear into your ear to give you the illusion that nothing is there…this ain’t them. You will feel the fat bulge of its case in your ears at all time along with all that pressure from the bass and none vents. Basically, if there was a sound to compare this too it would be the old Beats by Dre headphones( although the bass is better textured than the Beats).
Thoughts as a whole:
I really think earphones are only as good as the subjective mind and ears allow them to be because no earphone will be perfect for all people because all people seek different things and have different ears shapes and frequency sensitivities. I can tell you without a doubt that these Bose Buds are possibly the worst earphone I have brought this year in terms of accurate sound and quality and yet one of the very best earphones for Bass and ANC. You, as a consumer, have to understand what you like prior to purchasing anything. I wouldn’t dare suggest the Bowers and Wilkins for none audiophile people or people who only care about Bass. Just like I can’t recommend the Bose Buds for anyone who loves Details, Mids, layered and accurate Bass, Great Accuracy, Timbre, and Soundstage or Treble details. I understand if a Rap only listener thinks the Bose Buds are the greatest thing on earth. Or an ONLY ANC searcher thinks that the Bose has no equal. And to them…I say get the Bose, especially at $180. This is such a great buy for these people at that level of Bass and / or ANC. For me though…there isn’t a world that could exist to place the Bose over the pi8’s for me. They are just not in the same league. The pi8 remains my best sounding earphone and don’t see that changing until the pi9’s. I might keep them as my backup …backpack earphone because I can see these coming in handy in noisy places much more than I can my Pi8’s because of the amazing ANC.
Problems I found with the Bose:
The left side earphone would not activate all the time when you take it out of case and you would to put them back in the case to get them to repair….and the volume would lower and rise sometimes. And then at points of songs the sound would almost do a wave like motions of up and down volume. And the app is slow. Hopefully that will work these things out for those who love this type of earphone and plane on making these apart of their rotation. Or possibly I could have something unique to mine. However, at the end of the day I can’t take muddy mids, wrong timbre and tonality, overblown frequency in bass and the number one issue …no venting, is no option for me for long term use. There just isn’t really a competition for me here. I would go with every single earphone I have ever purchased in 2024 over these for every day listening, but that’s because I seek quality, comfort with venting, accuracy, and balance over the direction Bose are created for. You may be different.
If I need a earphone that i know will shut out the world …Bose have no equal. But if I need to sit down and listen to music, asmr, audio books, etc,etc and I want to be lost into another world…they just won’t be my choice over others and that’s fine because I don’t believe Bose meant for these to be anything more than what they are.
Tech-N-Things 