Bose SoundTrue Ultra in-Ear Headphones - Apple Devices, Frost

I bought these for my teenage granddaughter as a Christmas gift. She absolutely loves them. She had been using my Bose over-the-ear noise cancelling headphones but wanted an in-ear headphone. While they do not cancel out background noise at quite the level of the over the ear (they are not designed to), she relates the sound quality is "great", very close to the over-the-ear pair. I used them to listen to several songs and agree. She says she has not experienced any noise caused by cord movement as other reviewers have mentioned and even after using them for hours with iPad and iPhone including while doing her daily run, they are very comfortable in her ear and stay securely in place. A few days ago she suffered a femur fracture and was placed in an immobilizing brace and on crutches. The first day she was on crutches and trying to learn to use them effectively, she dropped the iPad with her in-ear headphones plugged in. It hit the floor and bent the plug of the headphones which caused loss of sound in one ear. She was just devastated. I contacted Amazon customer service and explained what happened - they sent her a replacement pair at no cost which arrived in two days! You can imagine how thrilled she was to get them! What wonderful customer service!

So I looked into headphones ranging from $100-$300 brands include shure, audiofly, sennheiser, bowers and wilkins .. etc. I looked into noise cancelling and pretty much all models in my price range. I ended up going with the soundtrue ultras because they seemed to have the best inline mic and sound pretty good to me. Bass is better than I expected and max volume is just fine for me. One of the knocks on this particular model is the max volume being too low. I turn them up about to 3/4 and they drown out people talking in the room with me. I had my wife try them out and I did notice a little sound leak. Nothing that I would be worried about, but could be an issue for some people. The problem I ran into was the lack of decent mics on most earbuds I researched. I wanted to like the shure's, but the mic has a terrible rating. These are the perfect earbud for me since I dont need noise cancelling and dont really like the sound of the ones I've tried so far.

To make a long story short:- Sound quality is bad, serious. It is muffled. It is weak. My reference is the previous model, the True one.- Something is wrong because you can hear your foot steps echoed in the headphones as you walk.- Sound isolation because of the new ear plug is bad. You want to be able to hear your surroundings, specially when walking. The True was much better in that aspect.- Touch the cable above the splitter and hear this crazy echo. Touch the splitter and hear this crazy echo. Only if you touch the cable near the phone plug you don't hear the echo. It is VERY bad as other reviewers have mentioned. I did not believe it.- Something went wrong with the iOS control buttons. It feels weird, it fails sometimes. It is not natural. The volume up has different sensibility than volume down. Press twice to skip and pause the music half of the times. Just terrible! I never had these problems with the previous model.- I only bought this one because I lost my True model during halloween (I know, silly me!). I am returning this one and getting the True one. To be honest I prefer my $6 from CVS than this one. Sounds better!

I found the sound to be excellent and the fit is really comfortable. But as other reviewers have noted (note to self: read the reviews before you buy), the cord does transmit a lot of noise. I now use the buds when I'm relatively stationary. I would not recommend them for those who want them for more active pursuits.

I was psyched to invest in my first "expensive" headphones, and from the moment I put them on I could tell they weren't for me. There is a stethoscope effect that I just couldn't get over. Every movement of the cord is heard very loudly, which won't work for me as a person who loves to listen to music and podcasts as I walk to work. Additionally, they plug your ears so well that you can barely hear your own voice when you use the microphone to make phone calls. I found it really disconcerting. As much as I wanted the noise isolating, I'm realizing that it's actually (possibly more) annoying to hear all of the other little sounds like your own breathing. I may downgrade to the SoundTrue which doesn't seem to have this level of noise isolation.

As a self proscribed headphone/earbud enthusiast, I have tried many over the years. Most proclaim to do all things well, and rarely live up to the claims. The Bose SoundTrue Ultras live up to their claims - excellent sound, excellent microphone, comfortable earpieces, and a cord long enough to work in many situations. My only beef is they are expensive, but at least you get a high quality, super comfortable, and highly reliable product. Even comes with a nifty holding case that conveniently fits in pocket, backpack, etc. If you can afford the money, these are some of the best around. In my experience there are still too many unresolved or not totally resolved issues with bluetooth wireless headphones.

Sound quality is amazing. Great fit. Love the Bose headphones. My whole family each has a pair or two (although different types). The only down side of this model is where the left and right cable connect. Seems a weak point where cables can break (had that happen before). I liked the previous version better.

Good sound isolation. Muffles outside sound, not active sound cancellation. Most comfortable ear buds I've ever worn; the apple provided earphones that you can get with your phone are TERRIBLE and hurt after a while; these are so comfortable. Control on the cord lets you skip to the next track, return, pause, and volume up/down. Hold down to talk to Siri. Attractive ice/mint color too.