Reviews for Bose® AE2i Mobile Headset (with Remote and Mic)

The Bose AE2i are my third pair of "hi-fi" headphones that I do not regret purchasing, but feel could have improvements on.
The headphones themselves are sleek, and dare I say, "classy." The flexibility of the headband is impressive and I feel that they go where the rival(?) Beats Solo HD's (which were discounted to match the AE2i's price in-store, might I add) would have broken. The comfort is extremely amazing as even after long hours of usage, it doesn't make me feel any less comfortable than I did putting them on.
I must note, however, that these headphones, however good they are, MUST HAVE a burn-in period. I recommend about 100 hours of it just to feel the true power of the drivers.

Now for the one thing that peeves me quite a bit...I also can't help but notice that the left side of the headphones are more bass-heavy and louder than the right. It may just be me, but a few other people seem to notice this.
The 'phones, unfortunately, are also "cheap-feeling," even with its classy look. How? You can feel the headphone speakers underneath the thin foam screen.

All in all, the headphones are great for the price they have and I would definitely recommend them to anyone who is looking for a good pair of 'phones.

I have tried beats by dre, soul, klipsch, skull candy, and monster but non of them have sounded good as this. I went and bought these at my local apple store and asked one of the sales people which was best and they said the beats were popular and sound great so I got the studio's. The build quality was bad and weren't that comfortable and had to much bass. I went in and out several times trying to find the perfect ones because I am very picky about sound and what works for me. I then went back and thought I will try the bose and I was blown away the build quality was very good must comfortable pair of headphones worn. The best part was the sound. Very clear audio and just the right amount of bass. I would recommend these out of any other brand. My only con. is that the cord is a bit to long, but you wont care because of the fantastic quality of the music.

I've always wanted a Bose headphones and finally was able to afford one. After all the hype and positive reviews on the internet, I decided to get the AE2. What a big disappointment. The first thing I noticed was the shrilling highs that becomes tiring after a few minutes of listening. Some alto vocals sounds metallic and annoying. Yet the sharp cutoff after 9 Khz made the high hats/cymbals sound weird. Absolutely no extensions in higher frequency. Mid bass was also lacking which made bass guitars sound weak and overly recessed. I kept the headphones for a couple of weeks to allow enough burn-in time but that didn't help. I compared the AE2's sound to my Shure E2C and a Sennheiser HD439. The E2C is an IEM that sounded neutral and natural sounding phones. While the HD439 sounded too warm to me. Though I've read that they require a longer burn-in time. I bought the AE2 and the HD439 at the same time and returned both. The AE2's are just too bright and the HD439s are just too warm.

I gave the AE2 three stars because they are the most comfortable headphones I've ever used and they are also quite portable. They fit in my backpack nicely. They also have removable cable, an added bonus as headphones wires usually are the first things that will break. Overall, if you don't mind a bright sounding headphone, which some people associate to "Clarity", go ahead and buy the AE2. But to me, I'd rather keep my hearing until I my senior years.

While the comfort, fit, and build quality of these headphones is SUPERB, unfortunately they're not only lacking in the "warm" mid-bass frequency range, but in pursuing the goal of improving the "clarity" and "definition" of these, the engineers have shaped the 5K-6K range to be too loud, which causes unnatural sibilance on many vocals.

The bottom line is that these are okay for wearing all day at your desk in a very quiet environment where you won't miss the lack of any real bass in the mix, but if you have to deal with any background noise whatsoever, the small amount of bass that you can detect is utterly drowned out and you feel like you're listening to an old transistor radio. Plus the sibiliance is hard to ignore.

I can see how some people might enjoy these phones because they are extremely comfortable to wear for long periods of time and they do have very nice shaping for "clarity" in the frequency range where you hear some of the most interesting harmonics for acoustic instruments (and some electronica sounds), but overall they just don't have the warmth and bottom end that most styles of popular music call for.

This earphones deliver true and clear sound without any "enhancements". Bass is very deep but light enough not to disturb (like in Beats by DrDre). Im enjoying those earphones every day and think this is best money spent.

I purchased these headphones to use with my iPhone and my Mac for Skype conversations. The audio portion of the headphones works great. I thought the sound was fantastic, and although the headphones are not noise cancelling, they do a great job of eliminating noise.

In fact, that noise elimination causes the main problem that I have with the microphone. When you speak in the microphone, it does not provide the sound back to the earphones for you to hear yourself speak like a normal phone does, or how you can hear yourself speak out load with ear bud headphones. Since the headphones block sound so effectively, you can only hear yourself speak through your own jaw more or less. This is incredibly annoying. It's like you are speaking into a glass clamped to your mouth.

When you combine this problem with the fact that my wife claimed that I sounded somewhat muffled on the microphone, it really makes the microphone portion of these headphones unusable.

I'm going to return the headphones, but I would love to purchase them again if Bose can somehow address this problem.

I got these headphones yesterday so I can't comment on their long term durability, however the build quality is very high as you would expect from bose. The sound quality is outstanding, deep powerful bass, but not overpowered, strong mids, and crystal clear highs.they are very lightweight with plush earcups, making them extremely comfortable to wear while giving a nice seal around the ears for better sound isolation. I have had them on for the last two and a half hours and I have no fatigue from wearing them, your ears do get a little warm being as they are surrounded by the leather earcups but it's not that noticeable.I would recommend these headphones to anyone and everyone. Definitely worth the money.

I have had these headphones for a year now and am in love with them. I have owned beats, sennhesiers, and sony headphoens, and these are by far my favorites. They have clean, crisp highs (not painful to the ears), crystal clear mids, and present but not overwhelming bass/lows. These headphones give an accurate sound, and is balanced very well. If you are into heavy bass, these headphones are not lacking in bass, but they are not booming either. These are also the most comfortable headphones I have ever worn. I could wear these 8 hours a day and feel little discomfort. Build quality looks cheap, but is anything but. The chord is thin, but i have sent the cable through torture, even got wrapped up in a bike tire, and snagged on door handles, but still has held up

So I just picked these up yesterday at the Apple store in NC. Let me tell you that you can not go wrong with these headphones extremley comfortable, portable, and awesome looking. Sure a little high on price but worth every penny.

They are super comfortable and make you rediscover songs. You will hear sounds you never heard before in songs you already heard, and the on-ear pads work perfectly.