Am I the only one that find the sound signature lacking? I got them for free, and I prefer them during plane rides due to the ANC and the ANC completely blows my B&O BeoPlay H9 and it's excuse for ANC out of the water. But man, there is just something really off with the audio on these and the app doesn't allow any kind of customisation in regards to EQ, normalisation, loudness or anything. First I thought it had something to do with the really aggressive ANC as ANC will always have an effect on sound signature and overall sound quality and the Bose QC35 gives you this really noticeable "cabin pressure" feeling so they clearly scarifies something to achieve this level of active noise cancellation. But as we are able to reduce and even disable ANC within the Bose Connect-app using the latest firmware's I can say it has nothing to do with ANC as the sound signature feels just as awkward with ANC disabled.
I have a lot of headphones and IEM's. I currently own Shure SE846, Westone UM3X, Apple AirPods, B&O BeoPlay H7 (rev1), H7 (rev2), H9, Bose QC35, Sennheiser HD650 and HD800. And previously I owned Westone 4R and Beats Studio2 Wireless. Yeah, my list is getting rather long.... And I have to admit that the Bose QC35 has the most awkward sound signature out of the bunch. It's not isolated to my specific ones either as I own two pairs, one for my girlfriend as well and it sounds just the same. I describe it as "awkward" as the audio quality isn't bad per say, but there is just something off with it sound signature. Listening to vocals in music, podcasts and audiobooks and voices just doesn't sound right to me. They sound different on the Bose QC35 compared to pretty much everything else I own and it's not in a good way. I could get used to it if it wasn't for the fact that I use other headphones all the time, so the awkwardness is so abundantly clear to me every time I use the QC35.
It's really sad as the ANC is stellar, they are really light and comfortable (even though I don't like their design/look) and the multi-point/multi-device is leaps and beyond everyone else. They don't work as seamless as units with Apple's W1 chip, but they do have a seamless integration and can move between devices like no other (besides the ones with W1) can. All the BeoPlay's I own have to be re-paired in order to move from device to device, even though they claim they support multi-point, something they clearly doesn't. So the Bose QC35 are so darn close to being "perfect", especially now as you can tune-down that somewhat overly aggressive ANC when you prefer comfort over noise cancellation as having it on full creates this cabin pressure feeling. But the sound signature just puts me off, it makes me not want to use them unless I really want the ANC.
I have a lot of headphones and IEM's. I currently own Shure SE846, Westone UM3X, Apple AirPods, B&O BeoPlay H7 (rev1), H7 (rev2), H9, Bose QC35, Sennheiser HD650 and HD800. And previously I owned Westone 4R and Beats Studio2 Wireless. Yeah, my list is getting rather long.... And I have to admit that the Bose QC35 has the most awkward sound signature out of the bunch. It's not isolated to my specific ones either as I own two pairs, one for my girlfriend as well and it sounds just the same. I describe it as "awkward" as the audio quality isn't bad per say, but there is just something off with it sound signature. Listening to vocals in music, podcasts and audiobooks and voices just doesn't sound right to me. They sound different on the Bose QC35 compared to pretty much everything else I own and it's not in a good way. I could get used to it if it wasn't for the fact that I use other headphones all the time, so the awkwardness is so abundantly clear to me every time I use the QC35.
It's really sad as the ANC is stellar, they are really light and comfortable (even though I don't like their design/look) and the multi-point/multi-device is leaps and beyond everyone else. They don't work as seamless as units with Apple's W1 chip, but they do have a seamless integration and can move between devices like no other (besides the ones with W1) can. All the BeoPlay's I own have to be re-paired in order to move from device to device, even though they claim they support multi-point, something they clearly doesn't. So the Bose QC35 are so darn close to being "perfect", especially now as you can tune-down that somewhat overly aggressive ANC when you prefer comfort over noise cancellation as having it on full creates this cabin pressure feeling. But the sound signature just puts me off, it makes me not want to use them unless I really want the ANC.