Considering that many people use earbuds for convenience rather than serious listening, £279 is far too expensive for the majority of people, especially when you can spend that much on a really good pair of over the ear headphones which would equal or better the vast majority of earbuds on the market today. No aptX support is also inexcusable at the price, especially when you can get that and excellent audio quality from the likes of the Cambridge Audio Melomania 1+ for just £49.95. Bose products are for those people with more money than sense and always have been.