Today I bring to you what many of us already have broken down and picked up at our local Best Buy… the tried-and-true Bose Triport over-the-ear style headphones. If you already have a pair of these, you probably already recognize that Bose designed these headphones from the ground-up with ergonomics prioritized above sound quality, but more on the latter later.

Do you remember the first time you saw these headphones? If you’re like me, you saw them at a local Apple store, hooked up to an iPod. Being particularly drawn to the Bose label on a pair of headphones, you immediately slipped these on your head. Bliss… before the music even starts, you know you love the headphones. That’s because the most outstanding quality of the Triports is the comfort of the skin-soft, leathery cushion-molding around your ears.

The pressure exerted on your head by the headphones is exquisitely balanced – these headphones are snugly attached to your head while not causing any pressure points that would otherwise lead to headaches. The shape and placement of the cushions can fit large and small ears equally well (disclaimer, we had no seven foot tall test subjects to test this claim) and provides for a nicely quieted soundstage.

Enough with the fluff, let’s get to the weaknesses. In a side-by-side comparison with a comparable Sennheiser set, Bose’s ergonomic focus comes into light – while these headphones offer superior “wearability” over great lengths of time, they simply do not compete on the soundstage. The drivers in the Triports provide for an almost tin-can like experience, and the distortion levels at high volume is noticeable even to my ears. Yet, in comparison to Altec Lansing boomsets, the Triports are incredibly superior. Altec’s focus on ear-rattling bass easily drowns out any mid-frequency details that the Triports can offer in spades. The Triports do manage to pull ahead in the level of ambient noise they knock out when you put them on. While the noise-filtering capability is impressive, it’s still “just passive,” so active-noise canceling fans (I’m looking at you, Benn) might want to upgrade to the Triports with this capability.

Build Quality

At first glance, you may think the Triports would be flimsy and prone to falling apart even under moderate usage. This is, in fact, partially true. What I can’t understand about the engineering of the headphones is the flimsiness of the headphone cord – it is so thin in diameter that it wreaks “cheap!” I’ve been rather careful with my ‘ports for over a year now, and the cord hasn’t sheered or frayed yet, but barring actually sitting on the headphones, I just know that the first thing to go out on the Triports will be the headphone cord.

Beyond the weaknesses of the headphone cord, the set is held together by rather durable plastic and a strong steel band that lends tension to keep the phones tight around your ears. The construction is simplistic in nature and thus quite lightweight.

The skinny

These headphones almost lend themselves to LAN’in. You can sit in one place for hours on end with these on your head and you won’t get a headache (at least, not one caused by the ‘phones). And while the sound quality leaves something to be desired and you have to be careful with the headphone cord, you will probably enjoy these headphones enough to justify the cost.