Personally, I dread every single time there’s a new firmware update for my Bose NC 700’s
cause unfortunately Bose’s software department hasn’t been all that great recently. The
last few updates that I had to do on my NC 700’s either took a long time, took a few
tries, or I noticed some bugs where my headphones would randomly pause my music.
But the biggest reason why Bose’s software department has gotten a poor reputation over
the last few years is cause when the Bose NC 700’s were first released they put out
a firmware update for the Bose QC35 series 2’s which reduced the effectiveness of their
Active Noise Cancellation. Now bose denies that that firmware update did anything to
the ANC on the Bose QC35 series 2… But I and a few other channels did see a notice
drop in performance on the Bose QC35 2 after they received the new firmware update.
But also when the Bose NC 700’s were first released… some NC 700’s just wouldn’t
connect to Bose’s new Bose Music app. I actually had to swap out my first NC 700’s
for another pair of NC 700’s which are these cause I was having that issue. So I really
hope you understand by now why Bose’s software department reputation has taken a hit over
the last few months in the bose user community.
So ive decided to try out this new series where I update my Bose NC 700’s to the latest
firmware update and make sure its safe for you. Cause personally I am worried that everytime
that I update these headphones the active noise cancellation on these headphones is
going to get affected some how. Now thankfully this firmware update did go rather smooth
this time around and only took about 10 minutes. And more importantly the active noise cancellation
on these headphones hasn’t been affected. But so that you can see for yourself we’re
going to jump into an ANC test.
So like you may have just seen, thankfully the active noise cancellation on these headphones
hasn’t been changed. But something that has been changed is their app. And clearly
bose took a lot of inspiration from Apple’s control center. Now they changed the lay out
of their app and made the volume rocker more pronounced and compared the Active Noise cancelation
slider. But something that Bose did bring to the front is their new EQ settings. Cause
before if you wanted to adjust the EQ on these headphones you would have to go looking for
them in their settings menu. But now they are one tap away. Now even though you can
now raise the bass on these headphones… I still maintain that these headphones are
better suited for people who like a neutral or vocals focused EQ cause no matter how much
you raise the bass on these headphones they aren’t going to physically rattle your head
like Sony’s headphones do. The bass on Bose’s headphones is strictly just resonates. And
I’ve found that if you raise the bass on these headphones too much then they just start
to sound shallow.
But something that bose has completely gotten
rid of is their Bose AR app. Now bose quietly removed the Bose AR app even in their previous
app, but a few weeks ago bose did officially come out and said that they were ending their
development of Bose AR. Which really does lead me to wonder what is going to become
of Bose’s sunglasses who’s main selling point was Bose AR.
But with all that being said, or me it looks like Bose's latest 1.5.1 firmware update for
the Bose NC 700 is safe. This firmware update took about 10 minutes to completely and it
only took one try. Which I do think it is important to point out cause the last few
updates did take much longer and they did take a few tries. Bose’s new app layout
looks very similar to Apple’s control center but the biggest change here is that their
EQ settings are now front and center. But most improtnalty with Any bose firmware update,
the active noise cancelation on these headphones hasn’t been changed.