[Dubstep Girl]

i haven't heard the QC15 in a while, so i can't speak for them. but yes the on-ear version isn't very good (smaller than the QC-15, non-noise cancelling).
 
they had ok bass, but at other times it sounded weak. anyways the bass was the bloaty and one-note kind. the mids weren't too bad, they weren't recessed, but rather dark and heavily colored, even more than the hd 650. the highs where non-existant. the headphones just sounded congested and very colored, lacking detail and definition.

 

[GiacomoHoldini]

i haven't heard the QC15 in a while, so i can't speak for them. but yes the on-ear version isn't very good (smaller than the QC-15, non-noise cancelling).

Thanks for clarifying. I think it's safe to say, though, that the properties of a non-noise cancelling, on-ear Bose headphone model of older vintage don't provide much insight into the characteristics of the QC15.

 

[telkinvaga]

I thought the sound quality of the Sennheiser PXC 350 was pretty good for a noise cancelling headphone but there was noticeable "white noise" in a quiet environment.  The QC15 had far superior noise cancelling ability but the PXC 350 with a small amp had much better sound and tighter bass.  Also the PXC 350's didn't fit my smaller head so well.  It's big compared to the QC15

 

[GiacomoHoldini]

I've never heard them, but in a few minutes there will be posts saying Bose are overpriced. Generally they aren't liked around here.

I would have thought my invitation for people to slag off the QC15s in specific terms would have been met with more enthusiasm, but so far, we've only had a couple of takers. Where is everyone?

 

[jude]

 
Quote:

I would have thought my invitation for people to slag off the QC15s in specific terms would have been met with more enthusiasm, but so far, we've only had a couple of takers. Where is everyone?

Well, GiacomoHoldini, I know you were being tongue-in-cheek, but I won't be one of the takers either. 

 
My experience with the Bose QC15 is similar to Steve Guttenberg's experience with it. I wouldn't choose the QC15 for a primary at-home or at-work listening headphone (unless I had an exceptionally loud HVAC system and/or industrial noise to deal with). And though I usually travel with custom in-ear monitors, there are some days I don't feel like putting things in my ears.  (The bass emphasis of the JH Audio JH16 Pro makes it my main travel in-ear, as I tend to prefer well-executed bass emphasis from my travel headphones to overcome the low-frequency din of travel.) On those days I want to use an over-ear (whether around-the-ear or on-the-ear), I like active noise cancelers.
 
My main travel over-ear is currently the on-ear (supra-aural) Sennheiser MM 450 Travel. It has good active noise cancellation, and a lot of very cool, useful features, like Bluetooth, talk-through, iDevice controls, headset functionality, ability to be used passively, etc. But, still, no other active noise-canceler I've used can match the Bose QC15's active noise canceling ability. I prefer the MM 450 Travel's performance with music, but the QC15's ability to blunt ambient noise actively is, again, unmatched by any other consumer active noise-cancelers I've used, and I can completely understand why people are impressed with it. It's also more comfortable than the MM 450 Travel, as it's an around-the-ear (circumaural) design.
 
Like Steve said, "where you listen to headphones changes their sound." And in its element (loud travel environments), it's hard to fault the Bose QC15. In my opinion, though, its not in its element in an at-home/office, low ambient noise environment. Again, it depends on where and when you're using it that it'll shine or not.

 

[Canadian411]

Bose QC15 is excellent for cancelling noise but that's about it, seriously.

 

[GiacomoHoldini]

Bose QC15 is excellent for cancelling noise but that's about it, seriously.

This is the kind of comment I'm trying to get away from, and that has prompted me to make an issue in this thread. The vast majority of negative comments here don't explain what it is, specifically, that the QC15 does poorly; they just resort to a general put-down, saying it's "terrible," or "overpriced," or just generally isn't good. There also seems to be a sentiment here that people who like the headphone just don't know any better, and must be swayed by Bose's marketing. Frankly, the general epithets here don't show any real insights either, and suggest the comments are based on nothing more than bias, which is no better, or any more useful, than the effusing of Bose fanboys. If there's more at play than bias, let us see what it is.

BTW, Jude, thanks for the link to Guttenberg's review. I had seen CNET's general review of the QC15, but I hadn't seen Guttenberg's comparison of other NC headphones.

 

[nylan8301]

To OP: Obvious troll is obvious...

 

[GiacomoHoldini]

Not trolling - just looking for a discussion the rises above the level of generalizations and epithets.

Edit: Unless you meant the OP was a troll. If so, his post didn't seem troll-like to me, just an honest question from the "experts."

 

[TrueFunkSolider]

Quote:

This is the kind of comment I'm trying to get away from, and that has prompted me to make an issue in this thread.

 
You are asking users who have first hand experience with the QC15 to explain their opinions, and that is a reasonable request. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but people need to be able to explain how they formed their opinion so you know where they are coming from. Hopefully I can help you out to some degree with what you may need to know. I'll do my best to be thorough. I have been wanting to talk about this since December when I received them as a Christmas gift, but I needed more exposure to other headphones so that I don't give one-sided information.
 
First I'll start off by saying that they are well designed, and have great convenience, protective, and aesthetic features. They are very light weight and don't take a lot of storage space for traveling. They collapse for storage in a firm case, and comes with an airplane adapter, and a replacement cable.
 
For most listeners, these headphones will be the only pair they will ever want to own, since it has almost everything listeners need. A nice bonus is that they don't draw attention to you since they do not look enormous on your head when in public.
 
For such small drivers, and minimal passive insulation, they really are a miracle of engineering for delivering a pretty good array of frequency ranges in the bass, middle, and treble. That is just my perception. I can't back that up with charts because Bose is one of the only mainstream electronics companies that does not publish that kind of information.
 
As far as the active (battery powered) noise canceling is concerned, they are good at cutting down high frequencies. They are close to the equivalent of cutting the environmental treble that a thickly padded full sized, over-the-ear, passive-insulated headphone would be able to handle.
 
They have marketing kiosk booths at most authorized retailers that you can test them out at which is important. The kiosk has a giant fan that blows at you to simulate the sound of the wind resistance creating noise friction against the passenger compartment of an airplane. The algorithm you can assume is tailored to counteract the wind rushing frequency since there are many frequencies it doesn't filter out. Examples of what you may still hear are someone dropping a book on a hard floor, or a dog barking outside you house. It filters most sounds quite well, but it really filters wind the best which is what you want really.
 
The draw backs are not enough to deter most listeners from buying them, but they instantly turned me off at the first listening. I had a very clear target of what I was looking for in a headphone, which is the ability to replicate musical recordings the closest to how they might be heard in the studio that they are mixed in.
 
I would not say that I was completely set in my ways. I was actually willing to meet somewhere halfway to my purchasing goal, but the QC15 lacked some essentials. It was gift, I'm keeping them, and they are ideal for the purpose they are designed for which is to listen to music in public places, or while traveling.
 
So the first and most important issue to me is that you cannot listen to your music or movies unless the active noise cancellation is turned on. You must have a battery available at all times. If you do not have a battery, and do not  have the noise canceling feature switched on, you will hear nothing. The manual says the quality of the sound reproduction may diminish as the battery wears out. This is a major issue for me because most of the time I am not traveling. Most of the time I am listening to the headphones in a very quiet room. The quieter the environment, the more hiss, white noise, digital artifacts, ie. active cancellation, you will hear. Even after all the years of research, they still have not been able to completely eliminate the degraded sound quality. For the $300 to $400 MSRP that is disappointing.
 
A safety concern is that if you are walking on a road in public, you can't turn the noise canceling off and risk being hit by a vehicle, or having someone sneak up from behind you and rob you.
 
The headphones sound good, but in a quiet room with all the artifacts introduced in to the sound, it leaves me wondering hypothetically, "how much better would these headphones sound if I could just turn off this noise canceling feature?"
 
The ability to turn the noise canceling feature off would have been enough for me to have this as my one and only headphone for all purposes.
 
The second issue is that it does not come with a 1/4" jack adapter for using on high end equipment like mixers, and a/v receivers. Not a big deal, you can buy them anywhere if you need one, but even low end headphones usually come with one, and you would expect Bose would go over and above the bargain brand offerings out there.
 
The third issue is that they have no customer contact at the Bose website for after-sale feedback. I really wanted to voice my opinion to them, but apparently they don't want to hear it. They do however provide a pouch in the travel case for you to store referral cards to give away to people who may ask you about the headphones.
 
As a closing remark, someone I know was at the airport with a person they were traveling with. They both walked in to the electronics store to buy active noise canceling headphones. One walked out wit the Bose QC15, the traveling companion walked out with a Sony model at a fraction of the price. The Sony purchaser regretted spending any money at all on them and wished they spent the extra money and bought the Bose while comparing them on the flight. 
 
To summarize, they are a great noise canceling headphone with some non-related aspects that are lacking. If you are in a room with one other person who is shuffling in their seat, or a fan is running, or the TV is on in the room next to you, or the dog won't stop scratching their collar, then this is the right headphone for the situation. If you are always riding around in planes, trains, and automobiles, than this is a pretty good headphone to go with. If you want to hear full, verbatim, unbastardized sound, then this is not the right choice.
 
Happy listening!

 

[TrueFunkSolider]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jude /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
My experience with the Bose QC15 is similar to Steve Guttenberg's experience with it.

Same here.
 
Quote:

Granted, the Bose 'phones can be bettered by some high-end models, but they strike me as a very long way from "horrible".
 

 
Agreed.
 
Quote:

I also am happy I didn't go the bose route. I got the audio technica ath-m50 instead. listening to my dad's bose qc compared to my half priced audio techinca's, I would never buy bose ever.
 
now, if I did happen to win a pair of qc15, I wouldn't turn them down. I would just sell them on CL or ebay.

I have both, but I got the QC15 first as a gift, so I had no choice and would have been happy to just have the ATH-M50...but..... however; have you looked in the mirror while wearing the ATH-M50? The last time I wore a big set at an airport people kept trying to awkwardly look away like I had a uni-brow.
 
Quote:

No highs...no lows...must be Bose.

 
This is a very good example of what they do to provide for the broadest target market. Not so much in the headphone department, but in the speaker department this is very much how they made their mark on the world. They tend to use tiny cube systems that are hidden out of the way, and sound good. Lots of "smoke and mirrors" is how we used to talk about them twenty years ago. They sound suitable to everyone's palate at the show room because they slant their presentation with demo sound material that sounds the best on their equipment, but does not necessarily reflect what you may be listening to at home.
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by GiacomoHoldini /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
The sheer presence of the QC15's bass curve doesn't mean the bass quality is good, but to say it's nonexistent doesn't make sense to me, nor does it match what I hear when I listen to the headphones myself. Also, the highs seem to be pretty present on the curve, which again matches my own listening experience.

 
The sound example played at the kiosk demos at the authorized retailers play a music sample. The music sample was an instrumental with percussion and some treble instruments. If anyone doesn't have a set they can hear for themselves, a demo booth should be able to clear up any questions they may have.
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Dubstep Girl /img/forum/go_quote.gif
they had ok bass, but at other times it sounded weak.

Maybe I'm looking too far in to this but, it may be worth checking that the battery in the headphones have a full charge. Not saying that they may sound drastically better, or that you are wrong or anything like that, but when you mention the bass was okay but other times weak that might be a battery issue since the bass should sound the same throughout a song and not fluctuate if that is what you are trying to say. Most new musical recordings use synthetic percussion so it would always be the same sound looped through the song, so it shouldn't sound different at any given point... just a thought.
 

 

[GiacomoHoldini]

TrueFunk (you wouldn't be a Prince fan by any chance, would you?), I appreciate your comments. I have the QC15s, and had the QC2s before it. I find the QC15s to be generally pleasing. My chief complaint regarding their sound signature is the spiky upper-mids, which I feel do give certain recordings (but not all) a harsh edge. That said, the prominent bass and lower mids help to balance out the overall sound. I know they're not the best headphones in the world, but I do find it generally enjoyable in their own right. When I hear people say they are "horrible," I have to wonder where they're coming from, which is why I've been asking people to offer up some descriptions.

A few comments on your comments:

It seems what you dislike about the QC15s has less to do with their general sound signature and sound reproducing abilities, and more with certain non-sound-reproducing aspects. I actually don't hear much in the way of artifacting related to the NC technology. I do hear a very low-level white noise, but it doesn't bother me. I don't find it alters the sound; rather, it is in addition to it. Moreover, it is so low-level that I don't even hear it when the music plays; the only time I notice it is when there is no music playing. Generally, I find the shortcomings of the NC circuitry to be outweighed by its advantages. Although I live in a stand-alone house in a quiet neighborhood, just the normal sounds of domestic life (HVAC, appliances, etc.) are more intrusive than whatever artifacts I hear from the NC circuitry. The NC circuitry does an outstanding job of shutting out these types of noises, and provides a quiet listening environment in all places in my house. The noise allowed in by open headphones is worse than anything the NC circuitry in the QC15 introduces. As such, I find the minimal NC artifacting to be a worthy tradeoff. In order to get a purer sound out of open cans, I have to listen in an isolated environment, which limits my listening opportunities considerably.

I have noticed that when the battery is on its last legs, the sound will cut out and/or distort pretty badly on peaks. However, this is well past the point when the battery indicator light begins flashing, and a quick battery change solves the problem. I've switched to recyclable batteries, so I don't mind changing them as soon as the light starts flashing, rather than trying to squeeze out every last bit of juice. I haven't noticed any other battery-related sound degradation.

The QC2 did come with the 1/4 inch adapter, and as such, I'm still able to use it. I would be annoyed, though, at Bose's choice not to include it with the QC15, if I didn't already have it. Evidently Bose is aiming squarely at the iPod-user market, since in place of the adapter, the QC15 comes with an additional cable that has a remote control for later-gen iPods and iPhones.

On the whole, I find the QC15s to be very good for what they are. They are compact, very comfortable to wear, and moderately attractive. (I know what you're saying about wearing the M50 in public; I have a Sennheiser HD570 that makes it look like I've got ostrich eggs strapped to my head.) The QC15s are also very easy to drive. They sound equally good on an iPod, Discman, CD deck headphone jack, laptop jack, or through my home theater receiver. They don't seem to require a dedicated amp; in fact, I have a Denon stereo amp that overdrives them, whereas it makes the higher-impedance Senns sound great. All that said, it is clear they are aimed squarely at the mid-fi market, and not to discerning audiophiles. The lack of documentation makes this pretty obvious, as well.

Your comments regarding Bose speakers were interesting. I just recently did a comparison of all the speakers in my house, including a pair of floor-standing 3-way JBLs, bookshelf JBLs, bookshelf Klipsch, and Bose 301s, which are also a bookshelf model (not cubes). I listened to them individually, and in tandem with a subwoofer. The floor-standing JBLs won easily, as might be expected, but I actually liked the Bose best among the bookshelf models. I don't consider myself a Bose fanboy, but I have actually had pretty good experiences with their products. I can see how some people are annoyed that Bose markets its products as high-end, when they are pretty obviously mid-fi. If I get past that, though, and accept their products for what they are, I find a number of them to be worthy of consideration.

Regarding Dubstep Girl's comments, I don't want to make too big a deal out of this, but she was referring to an older, on-ear, non-NC Bose model. Her comments don't relate at all to the QC15, and your recommendation regarding batteries won't have any effect on her experience.

 

[GiacomoHoldini]

Double post - sorry. (Is there no way to delete posts?)

 

[TrueFunkSolider]

Thanks for sharing your observations GiacomoHoldini. I haven't run out of my first battery yet, so I'll watch for the warning light you are talking about.
 
You have a good eye if you are asking about my user name.... Bonus points! Yes I'm a Prince fan and was a member of the NPG Music Club before it shut down. As you probably know, true funk solider is part of the lyrics from his song Musicology. It stuck with me over the years because as apart of the fan club, and going to see him on tour, you could buy all sorts of Prince apparel that says True Funk Soldier all over it.

 

[surflien]

Overprices, businessnized, sound quality slightly beats the monster but just slightly. (Noise Canceling will give u an illusion of the deep dark background and pure bottom noise. )
 
all in all, has no business with Hi-fi.