whsbuss
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Nov 26, 2014
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Had the opportunity to try these out at BestBuy and spent almost an hour with the two pair they had on demo.
These are easily the best headphones Bose has made.
Pros:
Exceptional noise cancelling. I always get a weird feeling with NFC, it's like your ears went through depressurization. Though I got that feeling, it wasn't unsettling, actually was kinda cool - you feel like you've been immersed in a protective audio bubble.
Highly dynamic sound - there is something very unique about the digital signal processing they are using. It is both a positive and a negative. The sound is balanced at all volume levels - they advertised this as a feature and is one of the cool things about built-in amplification and tuned DSP. It is a juicy sound, both exciting yet easy to listen too (that's pretty much the Bose house sound right there). For the majority of commercial music, pop, EDM, practically anything that goes through the radio the QC35 makes you 'feel' like you are listening to it right off the mixing desk.
The bass is prominent, north of neutral but it works well.
Very comfortable, a bit of heft but still light.
Easy pairing with Bluetooth
Cons:
Over processed sound - while this is Bose best implementation, they have still opted for a more artificial commercial sound. This is especially apparent in the higher registers. A good test is listening to sounds that produce essentially natural pink noise such as environmental sounds of rain, thunder, wind. These are familiar sounds and are easy to hear if something sounds unrealistic.
To me this is where the QC35 lose out. They are unable to produce a realistic reproduction of these upper mid-range transients. As punchy and dynamic as they sound, these harmonic registers almost sound blurred. Rain sounds, for instance, seem like they are missing transients or at the very least are very attenuated.
Now just for comparison, even at BestBuy there were a few headphones that could at least get some of this upper range right and produce a sense of soundfield. Of course some of Sennheisers offerings were able to, one such performer were the cheap $30 HD201s, the HD280 and Bose Soundlink to name a few (though all had sonic flaws of there own).
Now is this a big deal? Well if you are expecting audiophile sound out of the QC35, a headphone whose technology heavily relies on DSP to balance out its Noise Cancelling is likely expecting too much.
I'm not sure if it is by design or a limitation of the combined technology of the QC35, but it doesn't sound natural. It almost sounds a bit 'hot' - an engineering and mixing term - when something is being pushed too high through an analog mixer. It still comes across as clear, but it isn't portraying the whole story in a neutral or audiophile way - in part due to its EQ curve and also in part to the DSP. Now I only tested it with Bluetooth via an IPhone 6 so perhaps t sound different otherwise, but I do feel this is its intended sound and what most would experience.
Compared to an HD650 for instance - if you wanted one purely for sonics you would get the HD650. It's is all-round more balanced and detailed. They are comparable being practically in the same price bracket.
Couple small things - on both pair they had on display, the right cup has a horizontal line where two component pieces come together. On both, there was a small uneven gap where these pieces met. Otherwise the finish was good but nothing too premium considering the price.
I also had issues streaming Bluetooth to one of the headphones from my iPhone 6. It would cut out a bit and I got some drops and I had to contually get my iPhone to 'forget' the device to reconnect. I'm thinking this may have been due to interference from the Bose display setup.
Final impressions: get these if you need wireless, best-in-class noise cancellation, comfort and a fun headphone that you can take anywhere. I would recommend having a more neutral open headphone either planar or dynamic as a main though (HD650, LCD2, Fidelio X2, HE560 etc). They are pretty pricey, and if you want the best sonics, at a similar price new or used, there are better overall sonic performers. However, if you like the sound of the QC35 then it may matter little to you. Like I said in my pros above, it is very unique and interesting DSP effect, one that really hits you immediately but may wear it's welcome. I don't think the vast majority of the target audience for this headphone would notice or care though.
Last time I visited Bestbuy their wireless Bose headphones had connected wire (like in your photo above). How did you get to pair/use Bluetooth?
It was the same in the second pair that I tested, but on all possible photos and videos I can see that they are wrapped completely around...
