rating the `sound of silence'
Special Correspondent
Bangalore: It must be one of the rare ironies of audio technology: The
flagship product of arguably the most elite brand in the headphones business is
valued
for the sound it cuts out, rather than what it conveys.
The Bose Quiet Comfort headphones whose third iteration in seven years has
just been launched in India was co-developed by Amar G. Bose, the founder
(and at 78, still a very active Chairman) of the U.S.-based Bose Corporation.
When he was still Professor of Electrical Engineering at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT), Dr. Bose was inspired to exploit the technology
of `noise cancelling' that is analysing the surrounding noise and
neutralising it by creating an `equal and opposite' noise when he found it
difficult
to listen to his music player in aircraft.
The first award-winning Bose headphones, which fought noise with noise, were
made for civilian and military pilots in 1989. Two years later, Dr. Bose
launched
the first consumer version of QuietComfort for lay users who sometimes needed
to shut out the annoying noises of everyday life. Even while driving ambient
sounds especially the bass notes to almost zero, the phones also provided
superior audio quality when coupled with good music players.
The latest QuietComfort 3 headphones that The Hindu was enabled to try out
provide a better fit than earlier versions which tended to be rather heavy on
the head.
The `active' noise cancelling has been improved by developments on the
micro-chip that sits inside and the `passive' noise cancelling has been beefed
up
by better selection for the ear cups.
The TriPort on-ear headphones which cost Rs. 8,200 also cut out some, but not
all the ambient noise but they have no special electronics to do this. The
in-ear headphones (Rs. 5,000) seem like a lot of money to listen to your MP3
player or iPod.
Dr. Bose has just been named for the Distinguished Service Citation 2007 by
the (U.S) Automobile Hall of Fame for a generation of audio systems for cars.
,
Prof Dattu Agarwal
President Bharatiya Welfare Association For The Blind Gulbarga
Personal e-mail Id [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Mobile +919886678744
Ph.no.08472223044
Msn id [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Skype id dattu.agarwal57
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