For Christmas, my wife got me a pair of Bose Triport IE headphones (In-Ear) knowing how much music I listen to on my daily journey back and forth from Boston.
I have a Nano Ipod that’s always loaded with all kinds of funky stuff.
From Mojo Nixon (Elvis is everywhere) to Anita Baker and Nine Inch Nails, I have some pretty cool stuff.
I’ve been using this pair of Sony earbuds for a few years now and my wife thought it would be nice if I had something just a bit better if only to improve the quality of sound.

She thought a Bose product would be a vast improvement to my current earbuds.

And at 99$ a pop, you would think these buds would sing, right?

I immediately put them in and gave them a trial listen.
It was early Christmas morning so I chalked up my blasé first impression to the fact that I’d only had one cup of coffee.
Maybe more Joe was needed to awaken my ‘rock and roll’ battered auditory senses.

I gave the Triport IE headphones a good listening to on the way to Boston on the following day.
Halfway to Beantown, I pulled them out and thought, God, these suck.

They weren’t any better than the crappy Sony buds I’d been using.
I was gobsmacked.

In short, the IE buds sounded boxy (blatant and annoying midrange), bottom heavy (bass up the ass), and lacking in anything resembling vocal sibilance (1.5Hz +).

I’m thinking, this is a Bose product, it should blow me away.
It really didn’t.

The icing on the proverbial cake comes when you put the damn things in your ears.
They feel like you’re inserting a cold and jelly-like cadaver finger into your auditory canal. Eeegaaads….

Must be me.

I called Bose the next day and said I wanted to return the buds, the rep asked me why.

Because they sound like shit, I said.

Ahhh, customer dissatisfaction, he said.

The buds were a distant memory the next day and I was back with my crappy Sony plugs and feeling a bit downtrodden.

Fast forward to a few days ago;

I’m at Target with my wife and go to see what they have for headphones.
The first thing I see is a row of neatly displayed Bose Triport IE earbuds.
Noooo, Thanks.

Next to the earbuds is a Bose display of two new headphones; one that covers the ear ($139.95) and one that ‘sits’ on the ear (OE @ $179.95).

I fell in love with the OE’s because they were foldable and sounded incredible in the store.
Obviously, they were the more expensive of the two sets of headphones but hey, I’m just being honest.
Don’t waste your time looking for a better price. It doesn’t exist.

My Christmas/ Birthday present turned out to be a pair of the OE’s.

These headphones make NIN a religious experience.
If you can believe anyone, believe me.
If you passionately listen to music on headphones, throw me a bone and click on the picture above.
My French Riviera chateau awaits…

~m

I hate Saturday trains. They’re crowded with a repulsive number of loud and obnoxious families traveling with offspring that need to be made into a kiddie stew.

Thank the technological Gods for my Ipod: the keeper of my sometimes fragile sanity.

I spend between 12-15 hours on the train to and from Boston each week and my current Ipod Shuffle (512MGs) only has enough memory for @115 songs. Sounds like a lot, right? You wouldn’t believe how fast you get sick of 115 tunes. I finally broke down and ordered an Ipod Nano the other night. (tax refunds are nice sometimes, huh?)

It has 2GB of memory or @500 songs. The listening options will undoubtedly make my head spin compared to my Shuffle.

The technology is just amazing; evil, but amazing.

If you’re not familiar with Itunes, on the left sidebar there’s a little banner that says “Radio”.

When you click on the banner, a genre list opens up with 15-30+ internet streams; commercial free, CD quality digital sound. Do you pay extra money for this feature? Hell, no. (Rooooocy, you got some splainin’ to do!)

This is how insidious the program is: you’re listening to Sky.FM and you hear a song you really like. You just have to gaze at the top of the Itunes program. There you will find not only the artist, but the song title as well scrolling across the screen. Gotta have it, right?

Click on “Music Store” and do a power search on the song title.

Whoop, there it is.

And it’s only 99¢.

One more click and the song automatically downloads into your Itunes library. It’s primitive impulse and at less than a buck for a song I can only imagine that it’s more addictive than smack. I like the fact that you can be selective when choosing specific songs off an album. There aren’t many albums out there these days where every track is a keeper. My opinion though.

You have the option of keeping a credit card on file in your Itunes account (really evil) or you can load up with an Itunes Music Card and get your fix without the plastic guilt.

For those reading this post that already own an Ipod….oh, that’s right you left five minutes ago. Can’t say I blame you.

If you’re on the edge and thinking about getting one these MP3 players, the Ipod is worthy of the investment. And no, I’m not getting anything for this Apple plug. Just knowing how many times my Ipod has saved my crumbling sanity seems payment enough. Did I mention I hate Saturday trains?

~m