Tame airplane cabin noise with the new Bose Quiet Comfort 15.
September 1, 2009 2 Comments Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009, Netcast 908
I love to go Bose Press Events because they’re famous for their “fake you out” demos. That’s where you think you’re listening to one thing, but it’s really not that way in reality. At their latest demo, four members of the press at a time were ushered in a special area setup in the Bose Time Warner store in Manhattan. Inside this room, interior “cabin noise” from various airplanes were played and the loudness level was displayed on a large screen. One airplane cabin registered 91-92 db, which is pretty loud! Then we put on the QuietComfort 2 headphones that were on top of each desk. The QC2 headphones did a good job of reducing the airplane cabin noise. I’ve been using the QuietComfort 2s since they came out and they make a long flight much more bearable. (There’s also a Quiet Comfort which 3 has a lighter, more open design, but performance is about the same as on the QC 2.) Then we were instructed to open a drawer at the side of the desk so we could experience the brand new Quiet Comfort 15! When I slipped them on – well they were ‘knock your socks off’ amazing! I asked if I had missed 12 models of the Quiet Comfort since the number jumped from 3 to 15! The gentlemen from Bose said “no”, but the engineers felt the new headphones offered such a dramatic improvement, just going up one number wouldn’t be right. Then we went onto a demonstration of the audio quality of the headphones. We watched a video of Yo Yo Ma and Diana Krall. Great sound, great bass, great everything. And here’s the Bose “gotca” came in. We didn’t know it, but as we were watching the music video, the sneaky Bose folks added back the airplane noise to the demo room. No one watching the demo noticed it. When the music ended, there was silence. Then we took off our headphones and everyone broke out laughing when realized we had heard the mini-concert quietly, over the 91decibel airplane noise! That showed just how effectively the QC15’s work. Very impressive! The price is $299, the same price as the ones they’ve replaced. And they’re available now. By the way I asked the President of Bose, Bob Maresca to verify the demo was totally on the level. I knew it was, but I knew you would ask. Bob said: “Would we fake a demo? Never! Trust us, you were listening to that music over the cabin noise!” Hey, Bob grew in Brooklyn, 2 blocks from where I grew up, so I know he’s telling the truth! Besides, it’s Bose. Like they need to fake anything.
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Headphones may be used to prevent other people from hearing the sound either for privacy or to prevent disturbance, as in listening in a public library. They can also provide a level of sound fidelity greater than loudspeakers of similar cost. Part of their ability to do so comes from the lack of any need to perform room correction treatments with headphones.