Sound off

 

Submitted by Eric Daniel

In the Army, it seems to be a rite of passage that troops use their first paycheck right out of Basic Training to buy the biggest, most expensive stereo they can find at the PX.  While I won’t say I was immune to the temptation (after all, I was single, had no bills, and was flush with disposable income) I did curb the urge to go right out and get one.  After all, I was on day 120 of a 4 year commitment, so I had plenty of time.  Besides, with three other roommates, who had all succumbed, there was more than enough stereo to go around.

Anyway, long story short, just before I ETSed, I made my stereo purchases, and of all the equipment I bough on the way out, the only items still in use are my Bose 901 speakers.  Though they can be a bit demanding on how they’re set up for optimal sound, properly deployed I think they are some of the best speakers available.

Well, while on deployment, I started thinking how nice it would be to be able to take my mind off the fact that I was trying to sleep in a non-air conditioned brick oven.  As with garrison duty, there were quite a few folk who had purchases stereo equipment and had it shipped in theater.  Well, I decided there was no way in hell I was going to try and go that route; the combination of sand, dust, heat, and wind is pretty destructive to electrical equipment over there, and besides, I wanted something portable.  In addition, I didn’t want anything that had to compete with ambient noise, since I couldn’t turn the war off, I was going to have to go with something that generated sound closer to my ears, namely headphones.  Well, the one thing I didn’t want was a CVC sized unit taking up space on my head, and in my bag, so if I was going to get headphones, they would have to be small, and easy to pack up.

Going back to my experience with Bose, what I settled on were the Bose triport, in-ear headphones.  Simply put, for their size, these little earpieces put out the best sound quality I’ve experienced.  While larger units might produce better range, these are usable anywhere (though granted, I still use cheap, “disposable” headphones when I’m at the gym or what not) and will fit in my pocket.

Check out the Bose in-ear headphones here.

Comments

[Jason]

When you buy Bose, you're paying for their advertising budget, which is massive. Any other speaker in the same price range will be superior, since other manufacturers put their money into... the speaker.

Notice that the 901 page gives more details about the composition of the cabinet than the drivers? That there's no frequency response graph or even specs? There's a reason for that.

The "reflection" "technology" is just added reverb, which does indeed replicate a live concert... held in a gym.

Reflections smear the sound, leading to a loss of clarity. That is why recording studios have foam on the walls at the reflection points between the monitors and the engineer's chair. Good concert halls are also designed to control reflections, and sound-absorbing acoustic panels are one of the cheapest and easiest upgrades you can make to your stereo.

http://www.atsacoustics.com/

(If you want reverb, most stereo receivers these days have a number of "hall" or "concert" settings which will add reverb. But can still be turned off any time you want to hear that jazz singer as though she were sitting right across from you.)

It's a little harder to mess up in-ear headphones, but there are still better brands for the money.

http://www.etymotic.com/

[Dean J]

I'm a huge fan of some of Shure's products, which are all over Amazon.

[Dean J]

Actually, commenting on the first comment, W-bin subwoofers use reflection in a great way.

Bouncing the sound off an internal surface lets the speaker emulate a much larger speaker, giving it better bass response.

Whereas some treble might be sucked up, if the reflecting surface is of high enough quality, the increase in available bass should more than make up for it for 99% of the listening public. :-)

[Eric Daniel]

Dean,

Was there a particular Shure product that you use or that you could recommend?

[Tom Weber]

I have had a set of Shure E2c Headphones for four or five years now and they are the best portable music accessory I have ever owned. I prefer their earpieces to the softer ones used on the Bose in ear models. They came with a handful of different sized ear pieces to give a semi custom fit. The ones I found best for sound isolation were the orange compression foam version. The sound quality is excellent and I have found that I get better battery life out of my iPod since I don't have to turn the volume up as high to compete with outside noise. The cord is shielded with some nylon braiding and they came with a handy little zippered pouch that will go in a pocket or be clipped inside a bag.

Shure now make an updated model called the SE 110. The assortment of earpieces is a little smaller, but still gives a good range of fits, the cord is still braided, but now made as a modular unit for use with remote controls. And as a bonus, there is a microphone adapter available, allowing you to use it as a complete hands free kit for any phone/PDA with a 3.5mm jack.