Next to those gadgets which, for no earthly reason, beep whenever you press any of their buttons, headphones remain a technological pet peeve for many.
Assuming you go for a wired model, you’re bound to find something that tries to strangle you, and, most likely, one side of your $200 purchase will stop working when a $0.20 cable fails.
Going wireless brings about its own set of frustrations: shaky connections, battery worries, and (usually) inferior sound quality and volume. For all the hype surrounding products like Apple’s AirPods, using them is often just not all that satisfying.
This product from sound specialist Bose is slightly more expensive but still in the same ballpark, making it a good buy as far as we’re concerned. Unlike cheap earbuds, it features sophisticated electronics that result in clearer music at any pitch and volume – the improvement in sound quality is most definitely noticeable.
Another feature worth taking note of is that it can connect to two devices simultaneously, meaning that you can switch from watching TV to answering your phone with the touch of a button – a little voice actually whispers in your ear when you have a call, what the current battery level is and so one.
Like any piece of technology more complicated than a hammer, it’s not perfect. Though there’s little bad to say about the Bluetooth performance and sound quality, these are not noise-canceling headphones. The microphone, too, is supposedly configured to eliminate ambient noise, but don’t expect this to work perfectly in the middle of a thunderstorm or even near traffic.
These drawbacks do limit the Soundlink 2’s usefulness in outdoor environments. A bigger concern is that Bose seems to have opted for light weight over durability in this case, the build quality is just not what you’d expect at this price. The same concept may also explain the 15-hour battery life – not terrible, but not as good as the figures even some cheaper products claim.
So, if you’re prone to abusing or forgetting to charge your electronics, you might want to look for another option. If, however, what is most important to you is stellar sound in a package comfortable enough to wear all day, the lack of active sound dampening won’t bother you too much.
