The Bose in-ear headphones follow on from the long-standing Bose Triport earphones, bringing that famed Bose design to a whole new swathe of mobile phone-toting folk. However, the company has long been accused of offering expensive products that can’t match up to the best of its rivals. We find out whether the trend continues in this Bose in-ear earphones review.
At first glance, these Bose in-ear headphones look almost identical to the Bose Triport earphones, and that’s because they are in fact very similar. The most notable addition is a microphone that lies discreetly down the cable, letting you use these earphones as a hands-free kit. However, other factors come to define these earphones more than this one.
Although they use a rubber tip that delves some way into your ear canal, these are quite far removed from the IEM – or inner ear monitor – headphones that have become increasingly popular over recent years. The main difference here is that the Bose in-ear headphones offer very little in the way of sound isolation.
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They don’t blast out sound to the outside world like bundled buds do, but if you’re in a noisy, crowded environment, it’ll still seem noisy and crowded when you’ve got these babies plugged in. However, the Bose in-ear headphones do off-set this by pounding out the bass at considerable volume. And by volume we mean size as well as simple loudness.
Compared with other bass-hungry earphones, the Bose in-ear headphones don’t fare too badly on the detail front either. However, they still suffer from the issue that has plagued a number of Bose products – the price. For a ton, you could get yourself a significantly higher-fidelity pair of earphones.
As well as the low-end competes with the baying crowds of a city, it tends to stomp over the rest of the sound. The bass isn’t as slack as you’d find on a pair of £30 earphones, but it feels thoroughly out of place at this price point. It’s significantly bloated, and tends to steal the limelight in a way that ends up sounding really quite juvenile. It’s not taut or lean, and these are the sort of adjectives we generally expect to start using when splashing out this amount of cash, which is after all what the Bose in-ear headphones cost.
Plus, comfort and style-wise, these earphones aren’t exactly winners either. We found that the Bose in-ear headphones tended to work their way out of our ears on the move, while that two-tone cable finish in an acquired taste we’re yet to acquire. Although decent sounding, these earphones once again prove that you’re paying for the brand with a Bose product.
