HEXUS.lifestyle - reviews :: Bose TriPort IE inner-ear headphones

[Bob Crabtree]

Day-tripper John Hill makes another journey of discovery, this time with a set of Bose TriPort IE earphones.

They may go in differently but will that stop them coming out or him being indifferent?

Find out in this HEXUS.lifestyle review.

[hibby]

I've found that looping the cable up and behind my ear helps to hold in slippery earphones, as then it isn't trying to support the weight of the cable in you ear. Only really works if the cable is long enough to do it though, so only useful on Y-split earphones.

Granted, it does look a little unconventional...

[PMM]

I thought High independance in headphones = lower current draw and thus less power consumption.

Volume being a direct relation to voltage rather than current.

Therefore Being of higher resistance = less current draw and thus less current drain on batt's.

I could be wrong but feel the article is incorrect in that respect.

[Rolphus]

Wait a minute... £65 is a lot to spend on headphones?

*looks at his Bose QuietComfort 3s (this is quite a feat, as they're currently on my head and I don't have a mirror handy)*

*looks at his wallet, bereft of £275*

I do admittedly listen to headphones for between 4 and 12 hours a day at work, but I wouldn't say £65 is a lot of money for a decent pair of headphones.

Nor would I say my QC3s are necessarily good value. I like 'em though

Another point, slightly more serious - if you don't like/don't get on well with earphones, why not look at getting something else? Sennheiser do some nice noise-reducing, lightweight, over-the-ear headphones that work pretty well, for example.

[DeSean]

I love my Shure E2c pair. I run them at lower volume than my old Sennheiser MX500s, but the sound (especially bass compared to ordinary 'phones) is awesome. Cost me about £60 though

[mallett]

i have similar issues with comfort and keeping the damn things in my ears but i went a brought some sennheiser cx300's for just under £30 pound and there great! very comfortable over long periods and have tried them while running and they didnt even think about falling out.

sounds really good too although the bass is a little weaker then i was expecting but now im used to it i dont even notice anymore

[charleski]

I admire the firm's ability to squeeze large sounds out of relatively small things

That would be called 'resonance' Bob, no magic involved.

I had no such problem with the two UK-bought players I tried - a 30GByte iPod and a CD personal stereo unit - though neither as far as I am aware is in any way volume-limited.

I thought all iPods sold in the EU had to be volume-limited to produce no more than 100dB with their supplied headphones. Of course, you can hack the firmware to bypass this.

As far as impedance goes, if you compare 2 speakers with the same efficiency but differing impedance, you will need to deliver the same amount of power to each speaker to produce the same sound pressure level (volume is related to the power applied rather than just voltage or current). But you will need to deliver more voltage (and less current) to the speaker with higher impedance. Since (I believe, correct me if I'm wrong) integrated-circuit output amps are predominantly voltage-limited, they will start distorting at a lower volume if you use higher-impedance headphones.

It might be an idea to review some phones with well-established reputations, like the Shures or Etymotics, so you have a good yardstick on sound-quality.

[Whiternoise]

Nicely done, i'd be interested to see how it compares with my Shure E2G's.

To be fair though, it wasn't the first headphone review, Nick reviewed the aforesaid Shure's a while back - which was what drove me to buy them.

http://gaming.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=5481

EDIT:

I have a problem with my Shure's at the moment.. whether it's through hard use or otherwise, there are small cracks in the plastic covering the wires just where you put it behind your ear (other users should know what i mean). While i'm completely satisfied with the headphone sound quality, i can't help but wonder why the wires are poorly designed - it may just be my lack of care, but it's never happened with any other of my 'phones, and some've been through much worse. I'm thinking about either replacing them (amazon have them for £35, considerably cheaper than the bose, and less than they were a few months back) or getting the next one's up (E3C's, but i'm sorely tempted by the E4C's..)

[xtrmcheeze]

Just to add my experiences here, I owned the Bose earphones for about a week and took them back, you were correct in your assumption that it would cause problems with some MP3 players.

I used them with a Sandisk Sansa e200 and the volume was severely low, so when I turned up the volume to what I was wanting to hear, the e200 actually skipped! This was something I could repeat over and over again with the e200 and even my friend's iRiver player (cant remember model number) which was also a flash based player. Apparently these drew too much power from the players when set at a higher volume.

The other issue I had was that the earphones would not stay in my ear when running, biking, or anything like that. Also, the different sized ear plugs became disconnected from the buds all the time, making it very easy to lose the ear plugs. I was expecting a bit more from $100 (US) earphones.

So after taking them back, reading reviews of different earphones, I ended up going with the Sennheiser MX75 Sport earphones. They were only $50 (US) online, sound very nice (not as much bass as bose, but better mids and highs), and didn't require me to turn the volume way up on my Sansa. They never fall out of my ears either, the only bad part is the green wires...

-xtRm CheeZe

[SiM]

If you compare these to other similarly priced IEMs (such as etymotic er6i, ultimate ears super.fi 3, westone um1) you would have probably come up with a different opinion regarding sound quality... The bose probably are not bad - there is just better out there. The bose are meant to be very comfortable though, if thats what you are looking for.

I'm a long-term fan of Bose products - the company just so often seems to get things right.

99% of audiophiles would find that statement... well... blasphemous... lol

I have a problem with my Shure's at the moment.. whether it's through hard use or otherwise, there are small cracks in the plastic covering the wires just where you put it behind your ear (other users should know what i mean). While i'm completely satisfied with the headphone sound quality, i can't help but wonder why the wires are poorly designed - it may just be my lack of care, but it's never happened with any other of my 'phones, and some've been through much worse. I'm thinking about either replacing them (amazon have them for £35, considerably cheaper than the bose, and less than they were a few months back) or getting the next one's up (E3C's, but i'm sorely tempted by the E4C's..)

Shure CS are famously very good, they will probably give you a new pair under the warranty.

[Bob Crabtree]

Nicely done, i'd be interested to see how it compares with my Shure E2G's.

To be fair though, it wasn't the first headphone review, Nick reviewed the aforesaid Shure's a while back - which was what drove me to buy them.

http://gaming.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=5481

First on lifestyle, though!

[Stoo]

First on lifestyle, though!

Most people don't really make the distiction Bob, it's still a HEXUS review..

Sarcastic smiley not really needed chap..

[Bob Crabtree]

Most people don't really make the distiction Bob, it's still a HEXUS review..

Sarcastic smiley not really needed chap..

Most people don't pick nits quite as comprehensively as you did...

[GeorgesMum]

Hello Bob and everyone
I wondered if anyone can answer the question I have about headphones. PLEASE? (Where are my manners?)

What Ive noticed is (I'm VERY new to computers so this is why I'm carrying this sign!!) headphone leads are not long enough.

Or is it just me? I have two sets of headphones. One I cant use, cos the hole in the 'tower' thingy is too small, and the second ones, well I can hear alright through them, but I cant sit up straight in my chair comfortably when I wear them, cos the lead aint long enough. They'd be OK if I was there to lick the keyboard clean, but its not dirty, or if I balanced my chin on the glass desk and then made my eyes blur cos Im too close to the screen (monitor!! Clever!) and sometimes if I'd fell asleep and was sat there with my chin on my chest, then theyd be alright.
But what Id actually like to do was sit up and work, or lean back in the swivelchair and listen to wmp and actually I wouldnt mind cordless so that I could use them whilst slimming myself using my treadmill and covering the constant 'drone' you get from the motor!!

Has anyone else had this problem, or am I on my own here?

Can anyone recommend a reasonably priced option for me, and does any1 know of a company that make them with leads longer than about 8feet?

Kind suggestions that didnt mark below the belt at my ignorance (we all gorra start somewhere in this learning quest!!) would be greatly appreciated, and I would be indebted to you all here at Hexas

[SiM]

You can buy extension cables for headphones...

loads on ebay eg:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=140112169664

[dave87]

I usually run my headphones either from my laptop (port is somewhat closer to me) or through speakers.

As SiM said, the other way to go is to get an extension lead