Bose headphones

Quick Q from the more frequent travellers / shoppers out in VF land... Ive been looking at getting a pair of the Bose QC2s for some time.
Only choice left is thus:
Should I buy them in the UK , or should I wait until I get to the US & buy them there? Although there is the obvious exchange rate being in my favour, there is the following conundrum:
Bose_US is advertising these for $299 on their site [^] - brilliant price... considering that Bose_UK advertises them at £275!! [:0]
Bose_US also offering 10% off if 2 or more pairs bought! [y]
Basically - the wife & I could both have a set in the US for the cost of 1 pair in the UK. Seems strange, but nevertheless! [?]
I cant quite work out why the diffrence in cost (asides various slurs about everything being dearer in the UK!)

Having looked into it , I can order these from Bose_US online & have them shipped to UK - however the lottery that is import duty & VAT mixed with dearer international postage suddenly make the $299 not so cheap.

Essentially what Im needing to know is : will I be able to pick these up in a stateside store for circa $299+tax or am I just gonna be unlucky on this ??
A phonecall to Bose will be in order, but its Friday night Im sitting at home & Ive left headset @ office so cant Skype them till Monday. [xx(] Hopefully someone out there can extend some guidance on this for me [:I][oo]
Clearly a US based VFlyer who can direct me to a Bose outlet offering these at $300 would be ideal [:?]

Hi,

I don't know about new Bose, but I have some Sony nc-10 earbud types and they cost $99 from Best Buy (electronics chain) here in the US. I have tried the Bose in the past, and good as they are , the earbud types remove so much more of the normal noise, that Pink Floyd sounds really good to me ;-)

As an aside, Virgin sell $30 NC headphones in Target over here, and I was surprised at how good they were.

Hope this helps,

TS

Hi williestott,
I'd wait until you get to the USA and buy them there- $299(+ wretched taxes) seems to be a standard price in all Bose stores in the USA (even the ones in outlet malls) and Mr DL and I both indulged ourselves with the rationale that we were getting one pair "free" so to speak.Personally I love them.
Julie

I am sure I saw a BOGOF offer on these in Vegas domestic terminal. Could wel be wrong looked too good to be true to me!

Definitely worth buying in the US [y] Worked out to around £175 when I bought them last June.

I bought my pair in the Bose store at Columbus Circle, New York. can't remember the exact price but they were in line with what you quoted, plus Manhatten sales tax (I think it's just Manhatten?)

Thanks,

David.

Thanks[y]
Sorted then, so it would seem [:?]
Got 2/3 nights in Vegas towards end, so i`ll hold on unless I find them at a better offer elsewhere[ii]

Having compared the price of the Bose system for the living room (and possibly link system for dining room, bedrooms & quite possibly bathroom & utility room [:I]), Im now trying to work out how to get one back to the UK past the watchful eyes of customs [8D][:w]

Wow - good timing! I was thinking of getting a pair, but with a long stopover in Sin coming up, I guess that may be a cheaper option!

Erm...I do have one question though and I think it's probably a stupid one!

Is the noise cancelling just related to listening to music/movies with, or if you wanted to go to sleep would wearing them do something fancy so that engine and other background noise is also reduced?

There - said it was probably a stupid question!

[mitchja]

It's not a silly question at all and yes you can have just the noise cancelling on without listening to anything.

As soon as you switch the headphones on, the noise cancelling kicks in and you can hear the difference straight away.

They arn't particulary comfortable though if you sleep on your side as they are quite bulky.

Regards

Thanks...that's handy to know, and while I travel economy, which is probably for the next year or two, sleeping on my side isn't an option anyway [:(]

Basically - the wife & I could both have a set in the US for the cost of 1 pair in the UK. Seems strange, but nevertheless!

Just another case of rip off Britain[:(!]

[Scrooge]

Depending where you are staying in Vegas there are a few place's you can get them.

The Sharper Image store's carry them.there are store's in the Fashion Show Mall and the Dessert Passage mall.

Also there is a Bose outlet in Vegas at the Las Vegas Outlet Center.

Another option is amazon.com - they will ship anything they stock to a hotel or place where you are staying. Hope you enjoy them, and definitely purchase in the US and pretend like you've had them for a while if questioned when returning through customs!

[Bazz]

Originally posted by jetwet1
...Also there is a Bose outlet in Vegas at the Las Vegas Outlet Center.

The price here was the same as the full retail price charged by other Bose stores (as DragonLady said above). They also didn't have any stock when we wanted to buy them! I was told that due to their popularity the Outlet Stores weren't supplied with much stock and what they did get sold out very quickly.

[Scrooge]

Originally posted by Bazz

Originally posted by jetwet1
...Also there is a Bose outlet in Vegas at the Las Vegas Outlet Center.

The price here was the same as the full retail price charged by other Bose stores (as DragonLady said above). They also didn't have any stock when we wanted to buy them! I was told that due to their popularity the Outlet Stores weren't supplied with much stock and what they did get sold out very quickly.

Well that just plain suck's,what's the point in having an outlet store if it's not going to stock the products [?]

Just an FYI..if you have a citibank CC find out if it is possible for that card to earn thankyou reward point's,if it is 30k point's get's you a set of QC2's.

Originally posted by Bazz

Originally posted by jetwet1
...Also there is a Bose outlet in Vegas at the Las Vegas Outlet Center.

The price here was the same as the full retail price charged by other Bose stores (as DragonLady said above). They also didn't have any stock when we wanted to buy them! I was told that due to their popularity the Outlet Stores weren't supplied with much stock and what they did get sold out very quickly.

Although given that the $$ price is almost half their £££ price, "full price" in the US surely isnt that "bad" [:o)]
Also I cant blame Bose for wanting to limit the sale of their products, a few more luxury brands became household names & have since fallen by the wayside as everyone strives to have it - suddenly everyones got it & others stop buying it

Basically, there is a maximum demand for any product - whether chocolate bars or headphones ... if Bose chose to flood their outlet_stores with them, theyd soon exhaust the number of people who could/would actually buy them.
If you handle it right you can lower prices & increase profits ... but if your selling 100 of x to make £y profit , why burdon yourself with maybe having to sell 250 of x before you make £y profit? Your production costs would jump & your then under pressure to sell more to make the same amount of money to meet your overheads.

[Bazz]

Big names have Outlet Stores to sell overstock, end of lines, unpopular lines and sometimes, repaired, returned or incomplete products. Okay, sometimes they also sell special purchase items through these outlets.

Given Bose is a premium brand, they only have a small number of QC2 products available to the Outlets because they can sell all they can produce through their full price stores and mail campaigns. We understand this.

I don't think anyone is suggesting Bose should "flood" their Outlet Stores with the product, just a few more would be nice [y]

[mcmbenjamin]

Ok so there are a bunch of thread on Bose headsets. I have the Bose Avaition X headset and it is truely set for Pimps such as myself. I had a QC2 but my father took a liking to it so I gave it to him.

So waht is the general mood? QC2 or Q3? Is there any news on a QC4? Sorta set on Bose as the customer service rocks!

Sat in a factory at the moment listening to internet radio and wearing my QC3's. Cancelling the ambient factory noise perfectly, dead comfortable to wear all day, and not too big and bulky for street use.. I've used them daily for my walk to the office or station for the last 8 months.

QC3's all the way![oo][oo]

[mcmbenjamin]

Originally posted by PVGSLF
Sat in a factory at the moment listening to internet radio and wearing my QC3's. Cancelling the ambient factory noise perfectly, dead comfortable to wear all day, and not too big and bulky for street use.. I've used them daily for my walk to the office or station for the last 8 months.

QC3's all the way![oo][oo]

Yea, was reviewing the other thread and certainly did notice your like and usage of your QC3 PVGSLF.

My main questions are:

1) Does the seal around the ear on the QC3 have an effect on the noise reduction? I notice on the Aviation X headset that it I have a gap between my head/ear and the headset; sound quality is reduced.

2) Do I want to poney up for extra batteries? With the QC2 I could just buy AAAs.

Any input is good. Thanks. [y]

I'm a fairly big guy, and I guess have ears in proportion! I find the QC3's make quite a snug seal on top of my ears with no gaps.
You are right though, if they don't sit properly then sound quality and apparent noise cancelling is affected. But the padding is thick and I should imagine will mould quite nicely to most ears.

I did compare QC2's and QC3's side by side under the white noise demonstrator in a Bose shop. I would say that the QC'2 do have the edge on overall noise reduction. But QC3's are so much more wearable in situations other than on planes.

As for batteries... I'm not sure if its standard, or I just got lucky but I got two batteries included in the price. They last a good 20 hours each and you get @1hour of power light flashing warning that power is running low.

I have the larger QC2's and wouldn't swap them for the 3's. The big advantage is the seal that the "over ear" method of the 2's use is better for sound quality than the "on the ear" of the 3's. The down side is that they are a little larger - personally I'd go for the slightly larger 2's because of the better acoustic noise reduction. As for batteries, the 2's take a 2xAAA's and I don't see the cost as significant or relevant given the price of the headphones...

Vizbiz,
Was there a change in the design of the QC 2@s? The reason I ask is that mine only have one AAA battery

No, as far as I know the QC2's have always used 2xAAA - I've had mine for about 6-7 years and wouldn't travel without them.

Cheers.

Originally posted by vizbiz
No, as far as I know the QC2's have always used 2xAAA - I've had mine for about 6-7 years and wouldn't travel without them.

Cheers.

I have just taken my battery out and its definatly 1X AAA not 2 [?][?]

[Decker]

suspect QC1s use 2 and my QC2s only use one.