Thursday, 16 June 2016

Bose headphones

Bose Corporation produces headphones for consumer, aviation and military
use. The models range includes in-ear headphones, mobile headsets, supra-aural headphones, circumaural headphones and military/aviation headsets. The company was the first to release active noise cancelling headphones as a consumer product.

Bose's consumer range of active noise-cancelling headphones are called QuietComfort. For industrial noise-cancelling applications, Bose produces the A20 Aviation Headset, Space Shuttle Headset and Combat Vehicle Crewman Headset.

Bose released the QuietComfort 3 Acoustic Noise Cancelling Headphones ("QC3") on June 15, 2006, the company's first pair of on-ear headphones. Bose states that, although headphones which envelope the ear provide greater passive noise isolation, the QC3s have the same amount of total noise reduction as the QC2s due to improved active noise cancellation. Memory foam is used to improve the passive noise isolation.

The QC3's earcups are powered by a rechargeable lithium-ion battery; Bose claims a battery life of 25 hours.

The headphones were favorably reviewed in Sound & Vision and were the first headphones to receive that magazine's Editor's Choice award, in 2006.That year, the QC3s also received a Potentials Magazine Gold Star Award "Bronze" for Premium Incentives.In 2007 they received a Red Dot Award for product design.

Bose QC3 headphones are provided by American Airlines for use by passengers in premium flight classes on some long-haul flights.

The Bose On-Ear headphones are Bose's first supra aural headphones and were introduced on October 12, 2006. The Bose On-Ear is similar to the Bose QuietComfort 3 Headphones, but without active noise cancellation. The cord is detachable; both 43 and 16-inch cords are available.

Shortly after the release of the iPhone in 2007 Bose redesigned the OE's headphone plug on the detachable cords to make it iPhone compatible.

In 2008, the Red Dot Award for product design was awarded to Bose On-Ear Headphones(note, this design award does not include audio quality in the evaluation criteria).

On November 1, 2010, Bose released its first wireless Bluetooth headset. Ambient noise sensing automatically adjusts the volume level based on background noise so that, in theory, the user should not have to adjust the volume when walking between quiet and noisy environments. Signal processing attempts to amplify the caller's voice and reject background noise, allowing the caller to be heard more clearly; however, in practice call quality is poor for models without A2DP. The headset design is similar to Bose's IE2 headphones.

The first release of the Bose Bluetooth headset was criticised for having poor call quality, a lack of features and a high price tag.

On October 2011, Bose released its second-generation Bluetooth headset. It comes in both a left and a right ear version, supports A2DP, and the automatic volume control based on background noise level (termed "Adaptive Audio Adjustment technology" by Bose) has been revised.

The headset also has a volume control, a command button for answering calls and a sliding on/off switch. The Series 2 model was judged a "solid performer" and praised for improved call quality (presumably due to the inclusion of A2DP), however the criticisms of lack of features and high price remained.

The headset was discontinued on 3/31/2015 


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