I’ve never been a big fan of in-the-ear headphones, also known as earbuds. Maybe this goes back to my kidhood, listening to a cheap transistor radio, late at night, through its crappy hard plastic earpiece. Or maybe it just goes back to my mom saying never put anything except your elbow into your ear. Whatever the reason, until recently earbuds never worked for me. They do now, or at least two of them do, one of which is this entry from Bose. Called, with utter lack of hyperbole, the Bose in-ear headphones (without initial caps!), they set a new high water mark of comfort within a notably uncomfortable product class.
Selling for a very reasonable C-Note, the Bose in-ear headphones come with three sizes of flexible silicone tips. The idea is that an earbud sized to fit everyone will fit a whole bunch of people pretty badly. After a bit of experimentation, I discovered that the largest of the three sets mated to my ears very well. Indeed, they were comfortable over the course of more than two hours of listening. What’s remarkable about these earbuds is that they make such light contact with the ear canal that you barely aware of them being present at all. This is a good thing.
Of course, for a C-Note it’s not enough that the Bose in-ear headphones don’t hurt. They ought to sound good, too. I’m delighted to report that they do. I should mention, here, something very important about Bose products, which is that they always sound exactly the way the company wants them to. While some “golden-eared” audiophiles take issue with the philosophy behind that sound, my own take is that Bose owners are an overwhelmingly happy group. The Bose sound is, to my ears, big, warm, and inviting. This is in contrast to the more clinical and sharp-edged sound that those aforementioned audiophiles — and I used to be one — often use to describe their speakers and headphones of choice. (In the real world — my real world, anyway — big, warm, and inviting will always trump clinical and sharp-edged.)
Truth to tell, I hardly ever have the occasion to listen to music via headphones. One such occasion is on an airplane, but that environment pretty much demands that I use Bose’s big, warm, and inviting Noise-Cancelling Headphones. But you’re not me. You, in fact, might be a big fan of the “my world and keep away from it” school of listening, and if that’s the case, the Bose in-ear headphones are just dandy.