For those that care and since there is a lack of reviews/comparisons of these two phones in general, I thought I'd post my comments.
I have the two side-by-side now and am still evaluating. But already within the first couple hours, I'm pretty disappointed with the Senns
and had high hopes for them. As unpopular as it may be to say this, my initial impressions are quite honestly the Bose are superior in almost every way and it didn't take long to reach that conclusion based on the following things I'm looking for in order of importance. Both are being tested with fresh batteries.
Noise isolation/cancelling - With the NC switched off, they both seem to have about the same amount of isolation. I don't have any fancy meters to measure with, just my own ears. But when you switch on the NC, the Bose does a better job although not substantially so which was surprising since the Senn is much newer and supposedly more developed. The Senns overall isolation is good but no way is it a 90% reduction in ambient noise as they claim. My noise sources are a window AC unit and sitting next to a computer tower with lots fans running, the usual drone type sounds these things are designed to filter out.
Sound quality - Again I was quite surprised. I was never knocked out by the sound quality of the Bose (I would describe it as decent), but the Senns don't sound as good to me. Maybe they need to be broken in and more wear time is certainly warranted before making a final judgement. But initial impressions are the highs sound tinny and cheap, and the lows take a big hit when switching on the NC (mentioned in another thread). Without NC the sound quality is improved and they do have tighter bass than the QC2 here. Mids are comparable between the two. But neither of them jump out and make you say wow!
Comfort - Bose wins again here IMO. The Senns are heavier although they seem to have better build quality than the Bose. The problems with the Senns is that there is some kind of rubber or flex plastic molding inside the earcups with cloth stretched over it that covers the drivers. It sticks out too far and presses against my ear. It's annoying even after wearing them for a few minutes, let alone hours. The materials used for the earpads and the headband are excellent on both phones, very plush and soft.
Features - Here's where the Senns wins hands down. The QC2 doesn't really have any features to speak of, you just turn them on. I like the controls on the Senns for volume which is convenient and it's nice to have the pass through feature in case you don't have a battery. The talk through is nice too so you don't have to take them off to speak with someone. The Senns have a better warranty, 2 years as opposed to 1 for the QC2. The cord is beefier on the Senns compared to the rather anemic cord on the Bose which seems like it wouldn't take much of yanking. Battery life on the Bose is nearly double the Senns though (based on mfg claims anyway).
So there it is. I still feeling wanting for something better than either of the two. Noise isolation is my top priority and it looks like IEMs are going to be the way to go there and I think I'm going to order a pair of Shure E500s and see how I like them.
Regards,
NP
Bose QC2 vs. Senn PXC 450
