Bose And Bang and Olufsen Morale Dilemma
With many complaints about the Bose Marketing methods in the U.S. I can understand people going for them, but B&O are a different kettle of fish altogether. When thinking about earphones B&O is not a name that immediately jumps out at you, me or anyone. Yet with the hefty price tag that both the B&O A8 and Bose Triport IE have, I’m beginning to understand why many will by them.
For those who simply want to look good, without paying for the privilege, the option is now there to do so. To show off to unsuspecting friends and family, to parade to you colleagues at work, yes, I can see why such products are bough.
For those who buy them because they actually want decent sound, counterfeit Bose and Bang and Olufsen’s are a constant irritation. Although some numpty’s will come out with comments like: “The fakes will sound better” and “Bose sucks!” or “They’re over priced.” these comments are hardly helpful to the poor people who’ve handed over their hard earned, expecting to get the real thing.
I’m hoping that fake headphones will help to keep people on the straight and narrow of headphone buying. However then we fall into another problem of fake headphones. The: how do you get rid of the fake headphones you’ve just bought? And the obvious choice iiiiissssss… ebay, unfortunately, or you could fob them off to your friend. But that leaves you with another morale dilemma of: what kind of friend does that make you, fobbing your mate off with cheap knock off’s? It’s not easy is it?
I have no answers to these dilemmas other than
A) Buy from the officials companies themselves.
B) Pick an alternative.
Alternative A8
Here’s a quote from headfi.org.
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f4/review-yuin-pk1-vs-b-o-a8-255889/
A few things you need to know:
- B&O is a designer brand, it is expensive because it is a designer brand, like Gucci or LV.
- A8 is basically a redesign of AT’s ATH-CM7. They use the same speaker unit. However, due to the design of the housing, I think A8 has a slightly better SQ.
- I don’t own a ATH-EC7 (clip-on), but from what I read so far, EC7 is slight better than A8 on soundstage and detail (because of larger, improved drive).
So it’s the Audio Technica ATH-CM7. You can get these Audio-Technica ATH-CM700ti Titanium Stick Earphones from audiocubes.com
Bose Triport IE alternative
Well i’ll make this sort and sweet. Get the Ultimate Ears Metro.fi 2 earphones. They’re far better, I think they look good, and for the price I’ve yet to hear anything better. The bass is far better controlled, and they’re far more detailed. The Bose lean towards the extreme side of warm. And remember that the first gem IE’s had problems with the ear buds. You can get the new replacement buds, but when I tested them (without the new buds), the Triport IE’s only stayed in my ears for a few seconds at a time before easing out of position. So I had to hold them in position, great, I don’t think!
