Bose QuietComfort 35 headphones

[richardfinegold]

From today's Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/technolo...ing-headphones

Never heard of #3&4....

[Bryn]

Best of luck finding number 3 for the quoted £120. It's not available from Amazon's European sites and the lowest price I have found is nigh on £180 (including VAT). The previous Biose model (QC25) was available recently for around £120 (new). It's not Bluetooth comparible without a £50 adator, but the sound quality is similar to the current QC35.

[Stanfordian]

I think that the Bose were unbeatable for noise cancellation and sound until recently. Sony’s newest noise cancelling are both superior in both areas to the Bose and also excellent Bluetooth phones. I got a set for my wife after she stole mine from me during a recent flight with crying babies both ahead and behind us. I don’t know the relative prices of Sony v. Bose and the U.K. prices may differ from here anyway

Hello Richard,

Which particular Sony set was it that you decided to buy please?

[richardfinegold]

Hello Richard,

Which particular Sony set was it that you decided to buy please?

The MK1000, Stan. The same phones cited in the Guardian link posted by forget it

[Stanfordian]

The MK1000, Stan. The same phones cited in the Guardian link posted by forget it

Hello Richard,

Many thanks.

[Anastasius]

.....

A friend mocked what he saw as my extravance until we traveled back from Washington, D.C. With a crying baby in front of us. Oh boy, did they earn their keep that day!

Agreed. There should be an embargo on any child under the age of 8 being allowed on any flight. I resent the attitude of parents that I should kowtow to their snivelling and drivelling and probably evacuating young offspring and all the while going coo-ee coo-ee with an inane grin on my face.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Agreed. There should be an embargo on any child under the age of 8 being allowed on any flight. I resent the attitude of parents that I should kowtow to their snivelling and drivelling and probably evacuating young offspring and all the while going coo-ee coo-ee with an inane grin on my face.

I’d prefer an embargo on bad parenting, which seems to be the issue here.

[Richard Barrett]

There should be an embargo on any child under the age of 8 being allowed on any flight. I resent the attitude of parents that I should kowtow to their snivelling and drivelling and probably evacuating young offspring and all the while going coo-ee coo-ee with an inane grin on my face.

A generous spirit, and witty with it. Thanks for sharing.

[Constantbee]

The BQC 2 has been my one desert island luxury item for ages. The tech’s holding out but the casing needed a repair about 8 years ago which Bose dealt with very efficiently at a reasonable cost. I’ve found that they handle mechanical noise quite well, which you can still hear it but it sounds further away, that’s all. Not with people noise though, so I’ve never used them in public places like on transport. The latest version has a variable feature that allows you to adjust the degree of noise cancelling. I must ask for a demo one day.

I suppose if you ever found yourself on a desert island you wouldn’t need a set, would you. Silly me Seagulls, maybe? The interminable lapping of the waves on the shore?

[johnb]

Last week I bought a pair of Sony WH-1000XM3 noise reduction, bluetooth/wired headphones and put them to the test last Saturday.

There was a live music event 200 yards down the hill from me. It ran continuously from 12:00 to approx 22:30 and the sound level in my living room was around 65dB, with very, very heavy bass (of course). The Sony headphones, used for noise cancellation, were superb and to all intents and purposes totally silenced the music. (When I took them off it only took a few minutes for me to be crawling up the wall.)

Today I compared them as a pair of "normal" headphones (wired and passive) with my Sennheiser HD600s. The two had noticeably different tonal balances - the Sony has a more pronounced bass and a rather "closed in" perspective, the Sennheiser somewhat brighter (compared to the Sony), open, more transparent, with a tight bass.

I have only experimented with the Sony's bluetooth wireless capabilities. Wireless headphones are a nice idea but seem best suited to more casual listening. Bluetooth itself seems a bit of a nightmare - its operation and audio quality depends on which codecs are supported by the sending device (the Sony headphones support SBC, AAC (250 kbps), AptX, AptX HD, LDAC codecs, going from less good to best). Some people use bluetooth headphones to play music from their smartphones, but the codecs supported by smartphones can vary greatly between phones and even between Android operating system releases for the same phone!

(Although the Sennheiser HD600s are a 20 year old design they are still very, very highly regarded and cost about the same as the Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones.)

[Dave2002]

Last week I bought a pair of Sony WH-1000XM3 noise reduction, bluetooth/wired headphones and put them to the test last Saturday.

There was a live music event 200 yards down the hill from me. It ran continuously from 12:00 to approx 22:30 and the sound level in my living room was around 65dB, with very, very heavy bass (of course). The Sony headphones, used for noise cancellation, were superb and to all intents and purposes totally silenced the music. (When I took them off it only took a few minutes for me to be crawling up the wall.)

I don't know all the circumstances, but on the face of it it seems very unreasonable that you should be subjected to high levels of unwanted sound in your own home.

Perhaps the event organisers should either offer compensation for the noise, or pay for you to go out for the day to some other expensive event, or pay towards your next very expensive set of headphones!

I don't suppose they will though. Do they do these often or regularly?

[richardfinegold]

I don't know all the circumstances, but on the face of it it seems very unreasonable that you should be subjected to high levels of unwanted sound in your own home.

Perhaps the event organisers should either offer compensation for the noise, or pay for you to go out for the day to some other expensive event, or pay towards your next very expensive set of headphones!

I don't suppose they will though. Do they do these often or regularly?

Egads, I concur.
To be clear, I would never claim that the Sonys are the best overall headphones. My Oppo PM3 are my preferred phones, and I agree that Sony has, when compared to the best phones, a bit of a bass boost, but it is much less than many other phones that I have sampled. However, as a noise reducing, bt headphone, the Sonys are very impressive, and good enough for regular listening imo that they are now the only phones that I use when traveling

[Bryn]

Has anyone here investigated the new Bose 700 headphones yet? I will stick with my QC25s for now but these new ones do look like a significant advance.

[Constantbee]

Has anyone here investigated the new Bose 700 headphones yet? I will stick with my QC25s for now but these new ones do look like a significant advance.

Very keen to try these, Bryn, this being the time of year when we suffer from a lot intrusive noise from the likes of the Briggs and Stratton brigade (we had a two hour job starting at 7:30pm the other night)

Thought Richer Sounds might be stockists but they're not. Looks as though John Lewis Audio department might have them, although it’ll only be an academic exercise for the time being. The QC700 has features I’m unlikely to use, like the iPhone interface and voice control, but I’m intrigued about the adjustable noise cancelling feature. Why, in practice, would you want that? Presumably, if you set it at the highest level you’re blocking out everything. So, what’s the virtue in the sliding scale? Is a higher setting a bigger drain on the battery? The manufacturers have obviously done their market research – which must be a fascinating read – so it’s offering users something. But what?

[Bryn]

Very keen to try these, Bryn, this being the time of year when we suffer from a lot intrusive noise from the likes of the Briggs and Stratton brigade (we had a two hour job starting at 7:30pm the other night)

Thought Richer Sounds might be stockists but they're not. Looks as though John Lewis Audio department might have them, although it’ll only be an academic exercise for the time being. The QC700 has features I’m unlikely to use, like the iPhone interface and voice control, but I’m intrigued about the adjustable noise cancelling feature. Why, in practice, would you want that? Presumably, if you set it at the highest level you’re blocking out everything. So, what’s the virtue in the sliding scale? Is a higher setting a bigger drain on the battery? The manufacturers have obviously done their market research – which must be a fascinating read – so it’s offering users something. But what?

My guess would be that the degree of tonal 'colouration' varies negatively in proportion to the degree and range of noise cancellation. You get to choose your level of compromise.