Bose QuietComfort 15 Acoustic Noise Cancelling Headphones

Why I ever considered buying this? My office is now noisier than before, so I don’t want to crank up the volume too much with my closed phones. My office phone is now AKG K271s. While I like its balanced sound, the overall comfort is not ideal.

I demoed the QC15 at Bestbuy. The noise canceling is better than others (tip: just wait till the demo music stop), and most importantly, it is very comfortable. So, I wonder if Bose QC15 can serve in my office setting. If this plan didn’t work out, I can still use QC15 for my long cross pacific flight.

First, some quick facts:

QC15 does not play music without noise canceling. It only came with 3.5mm plug. The cord is thin and long, you better be careful with the cord.

NC and comfort:

The noise canceling is amazing in the demo setting. It is not perfect anyway. I use different noises in my place for simulation. You can still feel the active air purifier running on HI setting, hear the speaking from radio clock close to you, and hear the lawn mower and chain saw running outside the apartment.

Is this a big let down? Well, open-back phones are simply useless in this kind of environment while my closed-back phones cannot block those noises out effectively for really enjoy the music. In this setting, QC15 does its job to minimize the noise enough for you to enjoy the music. In fact, it is more efficient than my old in-flight music listening solution: Peltor H10A Professional Noise Canceling Earmuff which I found is better than the old Bose NC phones I demoed before. What actually surprises me is its efficiency in a moderate noisy environment like running air conditioning. You literally feel total tranquility. This leads to an easily enjoyable listening even compare to other closed-back phones. (You can mentally block out the noise by turn-up the volume, but you don’t have to with QC15 in such an environment. This is a big plus.)

It is very comfortable on the head. This stands out from my two other closed-back phones: Sennheiser HD-25-1-II and AKG K271s.

Sound:

So now, the key question is: how does it sound? How does it compare to the other closed-back phones I own?

The answer actually depends on the common issue of noise canceling phones: the slight pressure you can feel when NC is on.

You can always feel the pressure. Sometimes I feel OK with it, and sometimes I feel a little bit irritated by that in a quiet room. I listen to classical and especially orchestral works. If all of sudden I’m irritated by the pressure, I will have trouble finish a movement in a seriously listening mood. What happen is that the NC lets you hear the quietness of quiet part, but you will still feel the pressure in your ears. You will appreciate this under a noisy circumstance, but you will feel a little bit awkward in a quiet room. This issue is not really related to what music I’m listening to, but more like randomly depends on my where attention goes.

On the other hand, when I feel OK about the pressure issue, the sound is a good back roll seat sound in a large concert hall. It is not as detail as HD-25-1-II, and not as balanced as K271s. But QC15 has its niche to me. As for large scale orchestral work, HD-25-1-II suffers from its overall small sound stage. The sounds are clear and beautiful, but you can feel that the concert hall is smaller than it should be. QC15, just like K271s, gives you a proper back roll seat feeling. So at least you know where you are in a more realistic concert hall. However, QC15 is not as balanced as K271s in large orchestral works. It has a little bit too much mid-bass (designed for coping the air plane noise escape from NC). While the sound of K271s is recess in a more balanced way, the sound of QC15 sometimes is not equally back-roll seated. In the non-classical recordings, QC15 offers a little more fun than K271s does.

Overall, compare to the other two closed-back phones I have, QC15 is sitting in the middle. For serious listening of small scale recording, I would lean to HD-25-1-II. As for large scale recordings, I would lean to K271s. QC15 sits in the middle while it can be the second choice in either case given that I’m not irritated by the pressure.

Concluding remarks:

It is a good choice as a secondary phone. Nowadays I rely on GS-1000 as for most serious listening. As for main gear, I would prefer some specialists if it cannot deliver the overall satisfaction like GS-1000 can. The lack of overall balance and the occasionally pressure issue makes QC15 not a good choice as a main gear for serious listening.

However, for me, listening music in the office is more for relaxation. The lay back sound of Bose is not a bad thing for that purpose. The noise canceling works like a charm in moderate noisy environment. Actually, it works so well you don’t even feel the noise is there. Along with QC15’s superior comfort level on the head, the listening experience is actually difficult to beat by my other two closed-back phones. Am I going to ditch my K271s as the office phones? Probably not. But I do project myself putting up Bose QC15 more often than K271s in my office.

Testing setup:
Portable: Cowon D2
Office: Aune mini USB DAC/AMP MK2 with its 3.5mm-6.3mm adapter.
Home: Grace m902 with Grado 3.5mm-6.3mm adapter.

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Previous review focus most on the music quality, now I have some updates after my cross pacific flights....

QC15 delivers!

The noise canceling really works as it is designed for.

The engine noise is reduce to a slightly strong blow from someone next you, not annoying anymore.

In terms of volume reduction, I have to admit that it is not as good as ear muffs plus ear plug.

But QC15 is way more comfortable.

With ear muffs and ear plugs, I need to take off ear muffs every couple hours otherwise my skin around ears would be irritated.

On the contrary, I simply wear QC15 almost all the way (4hrs + 13hrs + 3hrs including toilet time!).

The battery life is as promised (40hrs), one spare in the carrying case should be enough for most people.

Overall, I have to say Bose really delivers "Quiet" and "Comfort" with this QC15.  If you're a frequent flyer, I would say as for the noise canceling it worth every penny even without playing the music.

I purchased these because my Sennheiser PXC450 were getting too big to carry around once I purchased a larger netbook.  So this review is more a comparison of it and the QC15.

The striking difference is the size - the PXC450 are just massive.  The QC15 on the other hand have cups that just fit around the ears, and are lighter.  The sound quality on both are excellent, but my personal opinion is the QC15 produce a much more natural sound.  I have also tried a friends Goldring NS1000 (which is a lot cheaper) and while its noise cancelling is good, the sound is a lot more punchy than that of the PXC450 and the QC15.

The PXC450 and QC15 both come in a carry case which does its job, and have a handful of helpful accessoires - airline plug adapter, compartments to put extra batteries).  One thing I do not like is that Bose puts in 'business cards'.  Not only do I find this smug, but I'd rather they dont do this and reduce the price of the headphones.  I ended up taking the Bose cards out and putting my own cards in.

I only use the QC15 during my frequent travels, so my review emphasizes more on the noise cancelling aspect.  As a frequent traveller in Europe and Asia, I get to fly on a variety of aircraft types, and here is a list (of the most common types) of what I think:

Boeing 777-200ER (rolls royce trent engine - and old one so rather loud):

PXC450 - whilst it does cancel out a lot of noise, the low freq engine rumble is still noticeable - although in a very reduced manner.  The large cups makes them very comfortable over long haul.

QC15 - similar to above, it does cancel out a lot of background noise, but engine noise is still noticeable.  The sound seems to be more natural than the PXC450.

Panasonic RP-HC55E-S - I have a pair of these in-ear noise cancelling earphones, and they do cancel out more engine noise than the other two.  However, there is a design flaw on these earphones that I really would not recommend you buying these.

Boeing 747-400 (P & W engines - old and loud, even on newer models of the 747)

PXC-450 & QC15 - the background noise is determined by seat position.  The closer you are to the nose/tail of the aircraft, the less background noise is present (in my opinion).  Both headphones perform at similar levels in terms of noise cancelling with QC15 having an edge in natural sounds.  Over extended (10+ hours) flights I prefer the comfort of the QC15 over the PXC450.

Boeing 737-700 (CFM engines)

PXC-450 & QC15 - both do a decent job of cancelling out noise.

Airbus A312 and A320 (CFM engines)

These newer types of aircraft use 'quieter' engines (according to brochures etc).  While this may be true, this does not seem to matter much when it comes to the PXC450 or the QC15.  Both do an excellent job of cancelling out noise, but you can still hear (low frequency) engine rumblings in the background.

I think these are the most common aircraft types.  I've flown with many more (such as small regional carriers Embraer series aircraft) if anyone is interested in what I think of them.

To compare the PXC450 and the QC15, they both do a good job of noise cancelling.  I'd give the edge on the QC15's in terms of sound quality.

This product is totally awesome. It's comfortable and very easy to use.

Decent sound, Great Comfort, one of the best noise cancelling headphones out there. I think it's not worth the $299 price tag tho.