So if you have been watching me for awhile now, you have repedetily heard me say that
the Bose QC45’s are my favorite headphones to recommend for traveling cause they are
super comfortable and they have a very small case.
But more importantly, they block out a ton of noise.
They block out almost as much noise as the Sony 1000XM5’s, with less cabin pressure…
And surprisingly, they currently block out noise than the more premium Bose NC 700’s.
Now right now I am doing a little bit of traveling, but I do have some real world airplane ANC
tests for you…
Cause ANC performance does change due to the reduced atmospheric pressure when at cruising
altitude in an airplane.
That’s why some headphones like the Sony XM5’s and XM4’s have atmospheric pressure
sensors.
Where as Bose’s headphones don’t.
But nonetheless, we’re going to jump into the ANC test right now.
So for starters, the Bose NC 700’s block out an adequate amount of noise for a pair
of premium ANC headphones…
however, when compared to these other two headphones, the NC 700’s are simply letting
in the most amount of engine noise.
Now the Bose QC45’s block out more engine noise that the NC 700’s… however, there
is a high pitched hum in the background.
Where as with the Sony 1000XM5’s, simply put, they block out the most the amount of
noise here, and they don’t have a high pitched hum in the background like with Bose’s headphones.
So if you’re looking for a pair of headphones to fly with, and if you want to block out
the absolute most amount of noise, then you do want to to go with the Sony XM5’s cause
they easily block out noticeably more noise than both of Bose’s headphones.
However, if you are thinking about picking up the XM5’s, just be warned that they aren’t
my favorite headphones to fly with cause of their large case.
Flying with this case is just a little inconvenient.
Also, the XM5’s aren’t the most comfortable things out there for long use sessions cause
of their shallow ear pads, and very thing headband which can cause hotspots after wearing
them for an hour or so.
Personally, I still prefer and highly recommend the Bose QC45’s for flying cause they block
out a ton of noise… but they also have a much smaller case than the Sony’s making
them better for traveling… and they are also much more comfortable cause of their
super spacious ear pads, and very well padded headbands.
But now, I want to enter a little bit into the speculation teretority.
The QC45’s came out in the fall of 2021… and admittedly, I wasn’t all that impressed
by them, initially.
But after some missteps from other companies… and after a firmware update that drastically
improved the ANC performance on these headphones…
so much so that they now block out more noise than the NC 700’s… the QC45’s are currently
my daily drivers.
But now, there’s the question of when the successors of the NC 700’s will come out.
Now the NC 700’s came out in the summer of 2019… and just given their overall performance
and feature set… the NC 700’s are really due for an upgrade, and in general, I would
recommend that if you’re considering between getting either of these two Bose Headphones,
you’re going to want to go with the QC45’s.
Now personally, I would like to see better active noise cancellation, better battery
life, a larger and more accurate touch pad, wear sensors that I will never use, and better
sound with more bass and better detail in the mids.
And if and when the successors for the NC 700’s come out… we are going to have to
keep a close eye on the ANC performance of the QC45’s… cause with the QC35’s…
when the NC 700’s came out…
many people, including myself were able to measure a noticeable ANC performance decrease
on the QC35’s.
Bose denies it, but Bose probably did it so that they could make their NC 700’s look
more impressive.
But regardless, I do feel that the successors to the NC 700’s will drop sometime in 2023…
but until then, I still highly recommend and prefer the QC45’s for flyers… but technically,
if you want to block out the absolute most amount of noise…
you do want to go with the Sony 1000XM5’s… albeit, I do feel that there are some drawbacks