American Airlines Dropping Bose Headphones In Favor Of Bang & Olufsen

B&O. Ooh..fancy.

I agree that Delta headphones are god-awful. I don't know why they upgraded everything else (bedding, food, etc.) EXCEPT the headphones. I just wind up using my cheap $50 noise cancelling ear buds instead.

I always carry my own Bose HeadPhones.... so no challenge for me on my AA flights..

Agree with the Delta headphones. I just don't know what they're thinking. I got a couple of other LSTN products in a free promo once and those were awful too, so it's not like Delta tried some other great LSTN products and then something went wrong with the model they selected for onboard.

Let Endre pay for these headphones as he always does.

Must be following trump economics.

Make a lot of noise about buying American made but actually buying something foreign made. Trump and his supporters are assholes like that.

Don't you hate hypocrites.

Get ready for some actual quality. Not American bling, but real quality from Scandinavia.

I guarantee you won't like their high-end, minimal, top notch design, though. Given that's it's pretty much everything EK F isn't (B&O is the opposite of tacky).

Good move, American Airlines.

B&O are as good as they are beautiful.

Picking style over substance with B&O. Headphones will be perfectly good but wouldn't consider this a major upgrade.

any company can put their name on cheep imported crap

As long as I can use my own headphones it doesn't matter but sometimes the connection is non-standard and I can't use my own head phones. I'm not sure how common that is, or if there are workarounds in those cases (FWIW, I have a pair of the Bose QC25s).

I bring my own Bose and couldn't care less what brand of headphones are being offered by the airline.

remember the days with the tube stethoscope type headsets ?

Not sure what headphones have to do with President Trump but.... Bose headphones are mostly made in Mexico, Malaysia and China. I think the B&O stuff is mostly made in China now. Keep in mind that China and other countries can make good products it's usually about the specs that the parent company wants. I would have thought that Sony would pony up the marketing money for this product placement. Matters little to me personally as I usually bring my own.

@Debit... do you always interject politics into your comments or is this just a one off? This is a headphones discussion for gosh sakes.

Are the new headphones also noise cancelling headphones, or are they just quality headphones for entertainment?

I use earplugs to block out the voices of people nearby complaining about my body odour.

Bang and Olufsen is definetly a quality brand. My B&O speakers was purschased by my grandmother's sister back in 1968 and I'm using them daily and they are still going strong with arguably better sound quality than by Bose Quitecomfort headphones. As noted in the comments, true Scandinavian quality and a great move by both American and B&O.

@Daniel - I'd hope noise cancelling. Sadly, Doug Parker ran away before I could ask that question.

Let's face it. The last orders for Bose headphones went in LAST YEAR, and the industry is doing make do and mend currently, or burning through existing stock.

There's going to a lot of airlines switching out headphone brands soon when they can't support them any more.

Kevin (who broke the news with John, Seth and others)

@Daniel - I’ve used these before and they do have noise cancellation but it isn’t as good as Bose IMO.

B&O headphones are excellent at reproducing every sound. They’re going to highlight every hiss, crackle, and pop the mediocre audio system will utter. They really need to be matched with a high end audio system. American doesn’t have one.

Never understand why FFs don't carry their own NC headphones or in-ears. It's one less potential annoyance on a plane and I know my QC25s work. Even better since I bought the clever bespoke adaptor that makes them Bluetooth without having to shell out another $350 to Bose.

So will they pick these up 45 mins early also or not?

I personally have no problem with the small (AVIS ad branded) earphones they handout to premium class passengers, once they have taken back the Bose headphones. Just saying!

For those that use their Bose QC35s, how do you connect them to the airplane audio system? Usually the port entry is different and wont allow the Bose to connect...

B&O is veeeeery fancy, Great choice AA

@Schar you have to use a cable and Bose provide a 2 pin adapter. The third pin on most IFE systems is to power the headphone.

Bose has the industry leading noise cancelling product. Period. Decades of refinement. The B&O will not be as good. (Not that I care, I never fly AA.)

@Kacee

so good that Bose doesn't publish technical specs. Why do you think that is? It's decent but way overpriced and marketed towards people that don't know any better. no audiophile would buy bose.

Far superior audio, but a downgrade in Noise Canceling. I do wonder which model they will provide. The H9i versus the H8i are far different in terms of comfort.

@tim:

I’m no audiophile but like a nice set of headphones. What would you recommend that is in the same price range as Bose QC35s?

I would say Bang & Olufsen would be a more superior brand, generally speaking. One of my old college roommates once said to me that Bose make pretty good headphones, but they are better at marketing. Basically, the Bose headphones are just okay, but they charge people so much for them, because of their marketing superiority. B&O was featured in The Devil Wears Prada. Not sure does it mean that they are even better at marketing or Hollywood agrees that Bang and Olufsen is better. At least, their stores look much nicer compared to Bose, in general.

B&O! They read my mind. ( https://passportbydesign.com/2018/09/%E2%80%8Btravel-items-im-lusting-over/) I've really wanted to try these out. I never fly American though.

@Kacee
Bose no longer has the industry leading noise cancelling tech. Sony's 1000XM3 took the crown (I've yet to see a single reviewer who doesn't agree with that assessment) as of 2 weeks ago.

@Stanley
Bang & Olufsen's main brand is superior, but the Beoplay is much less so. It's still quality headphones, but it's definitely not the marquee stuff.

I have shure se846 in-ear headphones. Not as comfy as the over ear bose but haven’t compared shure to b&o before

@David would you say that Sony is a better choice?

if only american airlines now were to sell these off at auction then we can all have our own. dont dump them it would be a waste.

Since I'm sensing that "a special place in hell " could become your new "color me this or that" .....please don't, It ruins the whole post.

Really Lucky people that fly first or business class can’t afford their own headphones!

I use Bose and always bring my own ( and NEVER use the IFE system, always my own stuff).

B&O's are just Philips in a fancy dress.

Brand new Bang & Olufsen headphones today on the JFK-LAX trans con. Went to JFK with Bose, returned with still in the wrapper Bang & Olufsen. if you are sitting on the A/C side in J, the cord is simply too short, to put the headphones on correctly, without having them pulled out off the socket. While noise canceling, they do not cup over the ear, lay flat.

They donated them to goodwill . They are for sale on shopgoodwill.com . I just bought a lot of 3 for 13.00

The B & O are terrific. Good move, American.