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Bose's brain-dead QuietComfort2
I was happy enough with my old pair of Bose QuietComfort noise-canceling headphones, which I purchased through the Apple Store when they first came out sometime in 2004, I think. But they eventually bit the dust, the victim of many, many travel miles.
I tried a pair of high-end ear buds, but didn't like them.
So, when I was in the Apple Store again a few days before setting off for Europe, I checked out a new pair of Bose QuietComforts. The new version of the Bose QuietComfort1 no longer contained noise-canceling features, though it's being sold at the same price as the original version, which did contain noise-cancellation.
So the Apple Store salesman steered me to the pricier Bose QuietComfort® 2 Acoustic Noise Cancelling® Headphones, which was more comfortable, seemed to play iPod tracks in higher fidelity, and, yep, contained noise-canceling features. (It retails on the Bose site for $299, plus shipping.
There's one thing the new version contains that the old version didn't contain: a single AAA battery. No big deal, you say? Perhaps, but I've had my AAA battery die three times in the past month.
See, the unit has no way of knowing when you take the headphones off. So you're expected to turn off your headphones every time you take them off. Having never had to turn off my headphones in several decades of music listening, it's a hard practice to get into.
The kicker is this: If you don't put in a battery and turn the unit on, you can't listen to music. That's right. The Bose QuietComfort® 2 Acoustic Noise Cancelling® Headphones don't work if you simply plug them into your iPod or other MP3 player.
News flash to Bose: Music cancels outside noise! Let your customers listen to music without the need for a stupid AAA battery. Jeesh.
May 31, 2006 at 06:58 PM in Consumer | Permalink
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Comments
the Altec Lansing noise cancelling headphones work the same way, but at the insanely cheap price of $30 at buy.com (usually $130 more!) i can live with it.
Posted by: cdawg at Jun 1, 2006 7:18:47 AM
Um, you don't get it. The Bose headphones kill almost all outside noise, allowing you to listen to music at much lower decibel levels that don't hurt your ears. That's why they require a battery--there's noise-cancelling circuitry in them. They're expensive, but they're amazing, and most frequent travelers I know won't get on an airplane without them.
Posted by: huh? at Jun 3, 2006 4:15:03 PM
Actually, I do get it.
Bose's 1st generation noise-canceling headphones required no battery.
Yes, they've improved the noise-canceling technology, though it's only a modest improvement from earlier versions.
But my main point is still dead on: You should be able to listen to music without the noise canceling feature. That's still brain dead, and it's a design feature that should have been implemented but was not, for whatever reason.
Posted by: JD at Jun 4, 2006 1:52:50 PM
I have to disagree with you on this -- I get on a small plane with PROPELLERS every time I fly out of my town, and those Bose babies (with the battery in and the unit turned on) do something my previous two sets of noise-cancelling cans could not do -- they eliminate the headache-producing drone of those props! Plus, who doesn't carry extra AA's and AAA's whenever they travel?
Posted by: Mindy McAdams at Jun 15, 2006 9:19:48 AM
