[HiphopHipHop]

Anyone have these headphones? How is it when you turn off noise cancellation? I'm wondering if these headphones sound horrible without noise cancellation.

 

[Music Alchemist]

Here you go:
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/733212/new-bose-qc25-2014

 

[TsukiNick]

  Anyone have these headphones? How is it when you turn off noise cancellation? I'm wondering if these headphones sound horrible without noise cancellation.

They sound pretty good without the noise cancellation, they definitely don't get suddenly worse with it off but that's the main reason you would use these headphones.  Although they do sound different. I need to clarify that.
 
As a former big box electronics store employee I know Bose likes to make sure all of it's displays are very easy to use and always operational (broken headphones get replaced quickly) they also don't allow used Bose headphones to be on the sales floor or sold.  They want to make sure you always get to hear the noise cancellation from these headphones, hence they use very elaborate displays that mimic cabin noise so you can see that the noise cancellation works well.  And noise cancellation is the reason why people buy the QuietComforts, if not they'd buy the SoundTrues) and if someone was listening to them with it off and the next customer picked them up and listened to them and didn't hear the noise cancellation they would think "Wow these don't isolate well." 
 
Remember lots of customers are stupid unaware of simple things like a switch on the side, not to mention you will see them wearing headphones backward costantly, even after you tell them the cable is on the left side 99% of the time which makes a huge difference for some headphones (Bowers and Wilkins on-ear headphones are notoriously angled earpads)

However I do agree it would be nice if employees could at least open a box to let the customers listen to them without the noise cancellation.  It's annoying when someone has your hands tied so you cannot help a customer less you risk being fired for going against policy.

I got to try them out because of someone wanting to hear them without the NC so they had jump through hoops of buying the headphones, then opening it in the store, listening to it (I got to listen as well because I was curious) and then if they didn't like them they'd have to go return them, thankfully they liked them.

 

[dfrez]

Bit of a necrobump here, but the display for QC25s at the Apple Store allowed you to use the on/off switch on noise cancellation. It was interesting hearing how well it worked without any music playing. The store was pretty busy, so there was quite a lot of background noise, and once I flipped the switch, it went to a dull murmur. Quite amazing.

 

[thonglor8]

Uhh yeah I bought these late 2015 in Triple Black. Honestly the difference between noise cancellation ON and OFF is like DAY and NIGHT. Trust me you don't want to be anywhere and run out of juice with the QC25s - There is no drive, bass, or anything. A Very tinny, terrible experience. Just make sure you have a spare pair of batteries with you. Problem solved.