As the weather has cooled off, I have started walking a couple of miles to the office from home. I typically lug Zune 30GB, but recently, I purchased a Zune 4GB model which is much more practical to carry. Unfortunately, the Zune came with a really lousy pair of ear buds. When they weren't falling out of my ears, they hurt. And the sound quality of the low and midrange sound was absent.

When I went shopping I considered Sennheiser, Zune Premium V2, and Bose. I bought a Bose Wave radio awhile back and loved the full range of sound it offered. The highs were crisp, and the midrange sounds had great punch. So, I thought I would buy from the sound experts. I plucked down $100 + tax at the Bose store in Sunrise, Florida and gave them a whirl.

The Bose ear buds have a unique shape. At first glance they looked pretty big but they fit without extending too far out of my ears. These buds do not fit into the ear canal like earplugs. Instead, they gently rest at the front of it. There are three soft pairs of silicone adapters so users can adjust for better fitment in the ear. While these earphones were pretty comfortable, they would not stay very secure regardless of what combination of adapters I tried.

What really surprised me was the relatively low volume that was produced in comparison to the Zune earphones. When shifting back and forth between the crappy Zune earphone and the Bose, I found that the volume on the Bose had to be increased to 14 or 15 on a 20 number scale in order to achieve the same amount of sound that I could get at about 8 or 9 on the Zune earphones

The Bose also had really poor high frequency range. When I played a few of my favorite songs (The Zephyr Song by the Red Hot Chili Peppers), the Bose sounded downright muddled. The high sounds from the solo guitar lacked crispness. No matter what adjustments I made to the ear fitment, I could not hear the highs that I could get out of the stock Zune's.

Fortunately, Bose came with a 30-day money back satisfaction guarantee. These are going back.



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