- [Mr. Mobile] Losing a pair of bluetooth headphones
is nothing unusual, especially if you're
as scatterbrained as I am.
What is unusual is finding yourself
back at the store a few days later
buying the same headphones again,
because you just can't live without 'em.
I'm Michael Fisher and this is the
QuietComfort 35 from Bose,
the headset so nice, I bought it twice.
(energetic electronic music)
(relaxing electronic music)
Let's get something straight.
I'm not an audiophile, okay?
I can't speak to bass response or treble values
or things like that.
This is also my first ever wireless headset
with active noise cancellation.
And I'm coming off a year using a pair of $60 headphones.
So what I'm saying is, yeah,
take my conclusions with a grain of salt.
It would've been pretty hard
for the QC 35 not to impress me.
That said, I dare you to put these on
and not fall at least a little bit in love.
The Alcantara headband
and synthetic leather ear cushions are super comfy.
And even powered off, the cups offer
a fair amount of passive muffling.
But when you flip the switch on the right side,
well, you might wanna sit down.
When the acoustic noise cancelling kicks in,
background noise instantly drops so low
that it's actually a little disorienting.
Like you might literally want to be seated
when you first power it up.
Of course, it's not perfect.
If you're not playing any music,
you'll still be able to make out
nearby conversations and other transients.
But any constant sound, like the thrum
of an air handler or a roar of an engine
is almost totally eliminated.
That makes the 35 perfect for planes, buses, and trains.
That's why if you pay attention,
you'll probably see a lot of people
in business class wearing them on your next flight.
It's tough to illustrate the effect on video,
but let's give it a go.
The Wall Street Journal measured
this headset's average sound reduction at 20.5 decibels.
So, here's a coffee shop recorded at normal volume.
(chatter and soft music)
And here it is at minus 20 decibels.
(low muffled chatter)
Now that noise cancellation requires power,
but I'm understating it
when I call the battery life here excellent.
I bought my first pair
at San Francisco International Airport
and flew six hours to Boston,
streaming audio the whole way,
and I didn't even use up half a charge.
You get even more endurance if you use
the bundled cable instead of bluetooth.
If the battery completely dies,
you can still use the cable to listen to music,
just without the noise cancellation.
Oh, and speaking of cables, along with the 3.5
and micro USB for charging,
good guy, Bose also throws in an airplane adapter.
And you can carry all these together
in the included travel case.
As for the sound itself,
my untrained ear makes it really simple to sum up.
It's loud, it's warm, and it's beautiful.
And the computer voice that tells you
what phones it's connected to
and how much battery you have left
is a really nice touch, too.
- [Computer Voice] Battery 100%.
Connected to Galaxy Note 7.
(energetic dance music)
- [Mr. Mobile] That's not to say these cans
are all ace and no trouble.
For one thing, I find the industrial design pretty dull.
The glass reinforced nylon is durable,
but not flashy in the least.
Also, the noise cancelling technology
relies on microphones in the outer shell,
and those microphones are very sensitive to breeze.
So if it's a windy day, you're gonna hear
an intermittent, faint static on some gusts.
An annoying problem that's hard to overlook
on headphones this expensive.
Voice calls over bluetooth are fine,
but because Bose pipes in some side tone
to help you hear your own voice,
I can be disorienting to talk on these
in a noisy environment.
And finally, like most over-ear headphones,
the 35 is uncomfortably hot in the summer.
But then, of course, that means they should be
might fine earmuffs come winter.
If you're an audio purist, there are plenty of alternatives
that might be better for you,
headsets designed for authentic sound above all else.
The thing is many of those sets
are even more expensive than the 35,
and as a non-audiophile,
I have a hard time even spending this much.
But from what I can see and hear,
the QC 35 deserves all the praise it's gotten,
and it earns its high price point.
I'm very happy to have it back.
And even if my second purchase wasn't a business expense,
I'd probably still have bought it again
because, like they say, once you go Bose,
it's tough to go back to one of those.
Waka waka.
Subscribe for more videos just like this one, folks.
Mr. Mobile drops new science twice a week.
'Till next time, thanks for watching.
Keep your noise cancelling active
and stay mobile, my friends.
(energetic dance music)