by Electrodynamic

Pros: They sound incredible
Cons: They're made by Bose

I suppose if you do enough things bad enough, long enough, you're bound to do something right eventually. Apparently the Bose earbuds are their stumble into a great sounding product.

Bose's mantra is EQ'ing the $hit out of tiny horrible sounding drivers in order to make them listenable. After they do that they market the bejesus out of the product and it sells like hot cakes. Gotta give it to them though, they do sell a lot...and they sell to their target market really well.

Anyway, I was given these headphones to listen to while not knowing who made them. My dad walked up to me and said that after 4 years of buying and selling every kind of earbud (Shure, Sennheiser, etc) he could, he finally found the pair that has sounded the best. I asked what they were and he refused to tell me or show them to me - he only asked that I listen to them. So I agreed, closed my eyes, and he put the earbuds in. What came next was a completely flat, very listenable, pair of earbuds that were not only comfortable, but stayed in place too.

The Bose earbuds offer fantastic sound quality. The midrange is incredibly smooth and non-fatiguing. On Pat Metheny albums you can pick out fatiguing speakers / headphones really quickly but with the Bose in-ear headphones I can listen to Pat Metheny all day long without ever feeling uncomfortable.

The bass is really good. The only place where they don't shine too well is below 30'ish Hz. I say 30-ish because most of the time when I'm listening to in-ear headphones I'm not in a place to really listen for sub-30 Hz information anyway. And come to think of it, the only time I've heard information below 30 Hz was with a pair of Beyer Dynamic headphones in a quiet room. Everything from Linkin Park to Stanley Clark is well defined and very very listener-friendly. The bottom end isn't too heavy or too thin - it's just right. When it needs to be powerful, the bass is powerful. When it is supposed to be laid back, the bass is laid back.

And the top end is fantastic as well - not too bright, and just right. I really can't get over how linear these earbuds are. Nothing is overpowering and nothing is really lacking. Transients are spot on, and the fidelity re-defines what you think about other speaker systems.

I honestly have never come across a set of ear-bud headphones that sound anywhere near this good. These are a 10 out of 10 and the closest I've heard in comparisson rates about a 7.5 out of 10.

I almost hate to say it, but Bose makes the best sounding in-ear headphones I've ever had the pleasure of listening to. :)

The earphones come with 3 different ear pieces to fit the headphones to your ear canal, and a carrying case.