Bose QuietComfort Headphones - Wireless Bluetooth Headphones, Active Over Ear Noise Cancelling and Mic, USB-C Charging, Deep Bass, Up to 24 Hours of Playtime, Twilight Blue - Limited Edition Color

frankfrankUnited States

Really amazing: leagues above other NC headsets I have owned

I have had lots of $40-60 headphones in my life and a few that did noise cancelling, and these blow them all out of the water by a huge margin. I have never experienced music like this before, I was a cheapskate, have never been to a concert in my life, don't have other speakers, have never had non-computer type speakers etc. These are a new world for me. The sound is so true and the bass so good I am now a speaker snob I think, I don't know the audio details of that but everytime I listen to our JBL 3 on a good loud song I turn it off and use the headphones now and can't go back. If you have some music on and noise cancelling enabled you will absolutely not hear your kids/wife in the same room unless they yell very loudly or happen to speak sharp/loud/quick at a perfect break in the music. These should be more heavily marketed to fathers everywhere to allow them to get 30 minutes of peace after work. Even without the music on it still blocks out as much noise as an average set of shooting earmuffs. I just can't speak well enough of the headphones for the above purposes and I should note that my wife sometimes hates when I put them on while she is complaining about something to me, but I believe that that is a feature of these headphones as opposed to a bug. In the "aware" mode you'll hear everything in your life just as good as you would with a single headset off your ear and the other one on, playing music. The bluetooth works great, connecting to multiple devices (phone and PC etc) at once with no foolish rules/policies that make it annoying. The other reviewers saying you have to have an app to use these are definitely wrong. You can install the app if you want extra features but you can also just pair it to your phone/tablet/pc like any other device and use it as-is. Just manual bluetooth connect it and don't install the dumb app it is that simple. That's exactly what I did and it works great with all the standard features you would expect. Haven't noticed an issue in any way in a full year of daily use. Excellent hardware/buttons etc: - L side button switches between NC and "aware" mode, great feature to have in an easy to hit button - R side main button: single tap pauses whatever is playing, double tap jumps to next song, triple tap goes back - R side volume up and separate volume down buttons intuitively located - On button is also slide-and-hold for pairing: great feature that is impossible to do accidentally - USB-C charging - port to use hardwire cable to connect directly if you cannot understand the blueteeth thing or want to play something from a device that has no bluetooth or won't pair. Favorite feature: plug in the 2' hardwire cable (which has a tiny but good inline mic on it) and let it dangle or tuck in a shirt pocket: you now have a top quality, silent, noise cancelling headset with a good mic (without changing any mode, hitting buttons etc) that allows you to talk on the phone in bliss. Now instead of yelling at my kids to be quiet every 5 minutes that I'm on the phone, I just put these on and have a great phone call. In the small house that we live in these have made my life a lot better and allow me to let my kids run around loudly having fun at times when I just want some quiet, and when I would have otherwise made them tone it down. The only downside to know about is that these are effective enough to where you need to be careful not to use the noise cancelling when you have much going on that you need to pay attention to. For example: you would not hear your sink overflowing or a pot boiling over, I didn't hear my woodstove fire getting too hot the other day, you won't hear early warnings of kids having trouble (probably wouldn't hear choking etc but would still notice actual screaming nearby). You would still hear something break or a loud whack etc, but probably wouldn't hear a vehicle pull up in your driveway. It does to some extent take away a major "sense" so you can't use it as often as you might like. For those other times, like if your wife is cooking and can hear the kids for you if there is trouble, and you just want to relax, I feel like I would almost pay the purchase price of these per week that I got to use them it is so awesome.

S WerleyUnited States

Bose Has Done it Again!

UPDATE 02/09/26: it’s been nearly 1 1/2 years since I bought them and I still love them. I have bought many new pairs since my review (I’m obsessed with headphones), and I’ll put the QuietComfort up against just about anything in the $500 price range. The QuietComfort are one of my all-time favorite headphone purchases. First, let may say that I bought them during Prime Days, when they were only $199.99, which was a discount of $150! So, they are an incredible value. I own many pair of headphones, including AirPod Max, Sonos Ace, Bose QC 45, and the Sony XM5’s. I also owned and sold the QuietComfort Ultra, which are way overpriced, and the main selling point (their spatial sound or whatever they call it) is a joke. I don’t think it enhances the sound at all. In fact, music has a hollow quality when using it. Additionally, I prefer the QuietComfort’s buttons to the Ultra’s touch controls, which seemed awkward. Additionally, the Ultra utilize a 35mm driver, while the QuietComfort use a 40mm driver. While the Ultra may be more efficient, I think the low end frequencies suffer compared to the QuietComfort. The Bose QuietComfort are quickly becoming my favorite. The sound quality is second to none. It is noticeably better than the QC 45. The bass is definitely deeper and punchier. The highs and mids are also discernibly better. The highs are brighter and more crisp, though the highs are never harsh on my ears. The 45’s require a lot of equalizer use (+6, 0, -3), while the QuietComfort still require some tinkering, they require a lot less of it to achieve optimum sound (+1, +2, +1). Even at -3 on the EQ for the highs on the 45’s, the higher frequencies feel like they need to be reined in. Indeed, the QuietComfort just sound more refined. The noise cancelling has also improved, though I would say both the Sony XM5’s and the Sonos Aces are a touch better at cancelling most noise. I run an air purifier at arm’s length away from my chair, and a window a/c to supplement the central air, which is directly behind my head. With the XM5’s I can completely eliminate the noise from both while they’re simultaneously running. With the new QuietComfort I can just barely detect the a/c, while with the 45’s I can easily pick up the a/c. The difference here between the Sonys and the new QuietComfort is marginal at best. I should mention that part of Bose’s way to cancel noise is to pump low-volume white noise into the headphones, which seems counterintuitive, but I don’t mind it. Others may mind it, however. The QuietComfort are the most-comfortable to wear, though they are no different than the 45’s in that regard. They are extremely lightweight (though sturdy), and clamp down perfectly tight. I can shake my head back and forth without them shifting, yet they’re not so tight as to prevent wearing them for an extended period of time. I don’t work out, but I would imagine they’d maintain their fit during exercise. They also offer multi-point connectivity, and they (and the 45’s) are the only two pair to switch seamlessly between my LG TV and my iPhone. The XM5’s require using the app, the Sonos don’t do it as easily as advertised while using my tv for some reason and the AirPods Max don’t even offer multipoint functionality. Bose states that you get 24 hour battery life on a full charge, and I’ve found that to be accurate. While that’s less than the Sonos and Sony’s battery life (30 hours), it’s more than the Apple’s (20 hour). I have found the battery life to be sufficient. If you own a pair of 45’s and are looking for an upgrade, then I would say there’s not quite enough of a performance gap to justify the $349 price tag, however, if you catch them on sale for $199 like I did, then I would definitely recommend upgrading. If you’re looking for your first pair, then I would definitely recommend the QuietComfort over all the others I mentioned, even at $349. I hope that helps. Happy Listening!

JonCanada

So good, it was worth the price.

The most I ever paid for headphones was $250. But they all had the same problems. Sub par or weak noise cancelling, annoying battery life and were uncomfortable to wear for long periods of time. I decided to take the plunge after watching a couple Youtube reviews. They all had positive things to say about these Bose headphones and said I wouldn't be disappointed. Oh Em Gee they WEREN'T KIDDING! You most definitely get what you pay for! The noise cancelling feature is awesome! It blocks so much noise and muffles out annoying high pitch or loud noises. For example: they completely block out my neighbors who talk loud, TV sounds, light stomping. It completely blocks out all outdoor car sounds. For louder noises such as power tools, hammer banging or very loud bass booming sounds, the headphones actually make them a lot more tolerable. They sound a lot more muffled and when listening to music, if I raise the volume it actually makes those loud sounds almost gone. I love it! The battery life for these things also blew me away. I still can't believe I was able to listen to game audio, TV shows, movies and music for 15+ hours straight from the moment I wake up in the morning to the second I take them off to go to sleep and still have another 8-10 hours for the next day all on a single charge! These things are so comfortable. My ears fit perfectly inside the headphones and it never feels like they're pressing against the legs of my glasses which other headphones create discomfort. Lastly, to those that say they had problems pairing these in Windows 11, they weren't detected at first, but all I did was reboot my PC, re-attempted the pairing and it found them immediately. I also made sure to update my motherboard Bluetooth drivers before the headset was delivered. I'm sure that helped too.

LCBUnited States

Great for classical music in very loud environments.

Well balanced sound for classical music, and great ANC. I bought these from Amazon's "used like new" at a steep discount. The headset arrived two days early and in the original factory-sealed Bose box. The cables were in the original packages. No sign of use. I like to listen to classical music everywhere, even at the gym. To do a real environment test I took them to my gym, which can get pretty noisy with apparatus, people talking, weights clanging, etc. So, while on the treadmill, I played the entire 7th Symphony by Dmitri Shostakovich (80 minutes). This work covers every range and instrument group, from melodic wind solos to percussion solos, to bombastic marches and every dynamic range in between. In other words, this was da pretty good test medium. The sound was well balanced tonally, and captured every nuance. No shrill highs or over-dominating lows. Even very soft passages, like the beginning of the snare drum solo, were clear and distinct. The ANC was amazing (You can switch between ambient and ANC with the push of a button). I had forgotten how loud the gym's environment really was until I took them off. A few comments: 1. Setup has you download the Bose app and work from there. I found logging into the Bose account a bit tricky. 2. Pairing was a bit frustrating at first, but after I checked a few YouTube videos I got it working. After that, no problem. 3. The printed guide that comes with it is hard to read and does not have good illustrations. So I googled Images for this model and found a clearer schematic. 4. The headset was a bit tight at first, but eased up after an hour. That said These are great headphones for classical music buffs.