Bose QuietComfort Headphones

Introduction

There is a weird sense of déjà vu about the Bose QuietComfort Headphones. Despite the new name, they are, at least on the surface, remarkably similar to the discontinued QuietComfort 45.

The QuietComfort Headphones are the step down model from the QuietComfort Ultra, offering Bose’s trademark noise cancellation and comfort at a price that’s less eye-watering but still on the expensive side for most folks.

The QuietComfort Headphones’ mission statement remains the same – to make the world a quieter place and let you enjoy your music in peace. But with plenty of competition to fend off, are the Bose QuietComfort Headphones one of the best noise cancelling headphones?

Design

• Exactly the same look as QC45
• Light and comfortable
• Comes in lots of colours

Aesthetically, there’s almost no change from the QuietComfort Headphones to the QuietComfort 45. The frame, earcups, size, and weight all feel similar if not the same. The only difference is that the logo is painted in white and not grey.

The appearance of the QuietComfort Headphones makes them look like a workmanlike pair to stuff into your bag (though they come with a hard carry case for transport). The best aspect of the headphones is the lightness of the frame and the impressive comfort

The clamping force is light, and the earpads provide a soft cushion against the head. Bose didn’t need to change anything and I’m glad they didn’t.

The adjustable headband doesn’t feature a stepless slider so it can make noise when adjusting the fit. These headphones are foldable and collapsible, which really helps in the transportation department.

Controls are the same – on the left earcup is a button for switching between noise-cancelling modes, and on the right are buttons for playback and volume (the playback button doubles up for track skipping). In the middle of the headphones is a switch for turning the headphones on and off as well as putting it into Bluetooth pairing mode.

You still get a 3.5mm jack for use and a USB-C port for charging.

There are more colours here than for QuietComfort 45. You’ve got pink, white (this sample), blue, lilac, sandstone, black and twilight blue.

Battery Life

• Up to 24 hours
• Fast charge support

Bose claims up to 24 hours of battery life with the QuietComfort Headphones, which is the same as the QuietComfort 45.

A battery drain with a Spotify playlist at around 50% volume brought about a 10% drop after an hour. That would suggest 10 hours, not up to 24, but considering these headphones only record battery drops in 10% terms, it’s likely to have rounded down to 90%.

Without knowing the specific number – unless I kept the headphones running for a full day – you’d have to take Bose’s claim on faith. Considering the number of less expensive headphones that reach 50+ hours, Bose are towards the bottom of the ‘stamina’ table as it were.

Fast charging figures haven’t changed either, with a 15-minute top up providing three more hours. A full recharge is quicker, taking two hours compared to QC45’s two-and-a-half.

Noise Cancellation

• Decent enough ANC
• Odd call performance

I felt the QuietComfort 45 were excellent for the time, and the QuietComfort Headphones don’t perform too differently to my ears. Carrying out a pink noise test and hearing how much noise each one managed to cancel, both sounded the same.

It’s not the most powerful ANC performance. Walking around Waterloo and I could hear a lot of outside sounds and people chatting (but not too clearly). Cars going past aren’t too distracting as they ‘whoosh’ by, but the general ambience of places I went filtered through.

It cuts down the noisiness of a busy city. Wind noise can also create a few ripples too but it’s competitive enough, better than the Marshall Monitor III ANC, and similar to the Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless and Sonos Ace.

The Aware mode is fine too, bringing more clarity to surroundings without introducing harshness.

What’s strange about the QuietComfort Headphones, and I’ve said this about other Bose headphones, is the call quality. It is odd.

The person on the other end said they could hear and that they could barely hear what was around me (impressive considering I was at a food market filled with people), but that there was a random crash-bang noise that sounded like waves crashing.

I have no idea what this noise was but it was consistent throughout the 15-minute call, and present regardless of whether I was in a loud area or a quiet one.

Features

• SBC and AAC Bluetooth
• Bose app support

Bluetooth is version 5.1, and as you can guess, that’s the same as the QuietComfort 45. The stability of the connection was excellent with no signal break ups wherever I’ve gone.

There’s no support for higher quality Bluetooth codecs such as aptX and LDAC. Bluetooth multi-point (enabled in the app) means the headphones can be paired to two devices at once; while Bose’s SimpleSync tech allows for the headphones to connect to Bose speakers and soundbars.

In the Bose app you can’t customise the Noise Control – the settings are locked – so noise cancellation and aware modes can’t be tweaked. You can tweak the headphones EQ with a three-point adjustment for bass, mids, and treble; along with bass/treble boost and bass/treble reducer.

You can change the volume in the app and control music, customise the ‘Action’ button on the left earcup to hear battery prompts or enable Spotify Tap; as well as tweak how much of your voice you can hear during calls. And aside from carrying out firmware updates, that’s pretty much it.

Sound Quality

• Warmer, more detailed sound
• Better bass performance

The biggest change from the QuietComfort 45 to the QuietComfort Headphones is how they sound. The clean, spacious but thin tone of before has been reorganised into one that sounds warmer and conjures up more detail and bigger bass.

But that doesn’t conclusively make the QuietComfort Headphones the better-sounding of the two. There are areas where the QC Headphones sound better, and areas where the QuietComfort 45 sound better.

Neither headphone is the brightest with treble, but the QuietComfort Headphones registers some more along with extra lashings of clarity and detail. The older model has a crisper sense of tone but can sound thin at times. I personally prefer the clarity and detail of the QC Headphones.

The QuietComfort Headphones are quite easily better in terms of bass, making the older model sound flatter. With Jain’s Makeba there’s more weight to the low and a warmth that doesn’t exist on the QC 45; while with Warren G’s Regulate, there’s a better attempt to reproduce the sub-bass within that track with the QC Headphones while the QC 45 struggles to produce bass at all.

The QuietComfort Headphones have a bassier tone to them, but that’s not to say they offer huge amounts of bass. The similarly priced Sony WH-1000XM5 offer a stronger bass performance.

The warmth and smoothness of the QuietComfort Headphones bears out in the midrange. Where singers sounded crisper and thinner on the older model, these headphones make them sound warmer; though vocals is an area of the tuning I have mixed feelings about.

Amy Winehouse’s voice in Back to Black lacks emotion and sounds a little rote on the QC45, but vocals on the QuietComfort Headphones are placed further back in the soundstage to create depth but which makes them sound distant. The warmth of the sound also makes voices less clear.

The crispness of the QC45 gives certain tracks (rock) more energy and clarity but it lacks the weight and smoothness of the QuietComfort Headphones. It’s a trade off in that some tracks sound better on one headphone, and some on the other.

It’s the soundstage where the biggest change has been made. It’s not any wider, but the positioning and separation of voices and instruments is better. The QC Headphones offer more detail – especially with sounds at either end of the soundstage.

The older model was a more forward-sounding pair of headphones, vocals and instruments felt closer to the ear. The QuietComfort Headphones take a step back and present a better sense of the soundstage as a whole. The QC45 struggled in describing busy tracks and that’s less of an issue here.

Neither headphones sound dynamic but the QuietComfort Headphones achieve a better balance overall, and that brittle sound of the QC45 is replaced with a warmer, more mainstream one. It’s an improvement for sure, though it doesn’t put these Bose among the best wireless headphones for sound.

Should you buy it?

FAQs