[QUOTE=venk]I don't understand the criticsm of Bose for the three applications their philosophy of sound is actually relevant - NC headsets in public places [QUOTE]

Exactly what innovation did Bose introduce to NC headsets (other than their marketing coup in getting AA to use them thus making most of us aware of this product category)? Their key innovation from the 70s is to process the sound to compensate for the speakers and environment, but their NC headsets don't include any such technology.

In fact the trouble is that most Bose systems are now component systems, that inherently are incapable of compensating for speakers and environment since the complete system is not fixed.

I do wonder why Bose gave up on building complete systems that you can automatically tune to your room by placing a pair of mikes in the exact location of the listeners ears and then press an "automatic equalization" button. But wait : all NC headphones have built in mikes at the exact location of the listeners ears, so all it should take is some software in the amplifier to implement this function!