I think they are smart to invest in the AR space. Sound is incredibly important for believable AR and VR experiences.
Here’s a bump, they are now available to pre-order, it says shipping early January.
I stopped by a Bose store to try them on today. The sound is impressive. The glasses are only UV blocking, not polarized. I’ll probably ask for a set for my birthday in June to mess around with them for the summer.
Ok, back again! I got a set of the Bose Glasses in July at some point. I had also bought a set of OHO Sunshine Sunglasses off Amazon for around $70.
The Bose Glasses were $199 and by that point they also had some silver reflective lenses that are polarized, which were less than $30 and easy to pop in. Not being polarized was my biggest complaint about the sunglasses so when that became a non-issue I picked them up.
Overall, the Bose are ok in the high and mids, and there is a very tiny bit of bass there, but not much. The OVOs remind me of how an old radio sounds, and there’s no bass at all, just a bit of buzzing.
In a completely unscientific test I recorded each of the glasses into my lav mic at my desk. At the start the mic is right up against one bow, and then I move to the middle (an impossible listening case, but gives you and idea of the weird effect that while the Bose sound better and louder on, they are actually harder for the people around you to hear than the OVOs that don’t sound as good.)
While it’s very inaccurate I think it does give an accurate picture of how much more sound you get when you pay a little more than twice the price.
OVO Sound versus Bose Sound
Other observations: The OVOs are good for taking a call or listening to a podcast in a crunch but I couldn’t really take listening to music on them. The Bose actually bring a smile to my face, especially when listening to Francis and the Lights, or other electronica/ambient.
They are great when you want to enjoy some music without inflicting it on others, and you don’t want the isolation of earbuds. I wore them at our town pool a number of times during the summer and had them running all day.
The other thing that can’t be ignored is that no matter what you think of the audio, if the glasses don’t fit right or look dopey on you they might be a no-go no matter how they sound. The OVOs made me look like a professional wrestler from the 80’s, the Bose make me look like a kid in a John Hughes flick from the 80s. Not thrilled about either of them but the Bose sound good enough for me to not care that much.
Looks ok, they could update the style a little… Topgun is kinda outdated