Hey guys. Pardon me for newbisms that might be present since this is my first post. But this is what I want to talk about!
Recently my old 120 buck bose earphones gave out after like 5 solid years of good service. I went to a local best buy and got a hold of some decent bose headphones, not quietcomfort. 180 buck decent ones. I liked them but after realizing what some money got me, I realized it would be worth it to me to upgrade even more. So I went back to best buy and traded those in for quietcontrol 30’s, the in-ear active noise cancelling earphones. I have the feeling most of you might consider these things gimmicky and unprofessional. However, I’m not a professional. That said sound is still important to me. So is noise-cancelling.
The quietcontrols seem fine so far, though I wish I could walk further away from my computer (and still hear my music or whatever) and although I do like it that they’re wireless, the downside is that I have to take them off in order to charge them. I use my earphones almost all day long every single day.
Of course after actually doing my research, people say that the quietcontrols are not very durable. That does worry me a bit but given my experience with my old ones, maybe I shouldn’t worry too much. I mean they did fall apart a bit but not in a way that made them unusable…until the very end where one of the buds stopped working because the wire had finally given out.
My problem with headphones is that I wear glasses and I tend to have a pretty greasy ear region and it tends to make the headphones gross pretty fast. At least with earbuds I don’t have to worry about either of those things.
Even though I wear them all day it’s only around the house, so the actual physical wear should be pretty minimal. Plus these seem to be better than the 120 dollar sport ones or whatever they were. And the sound cancelling is pretty good on them, though probably not as much as the quietcomforts.
I’m still well within my return window with these quietcontrol 30’s. Does it sound like I should keep them or am I better off with the quietcomforts despite their downsides? Or should I just take them back, get all my money back, and buy a totally different brand? I like best buy for buying headphones/earphones because I can just bring them back if I don’t like them. And I get them immediately instead of waiting for them to come in the mail.
First, Welcome. Second, we’re pretty non-judgemental here. If you’re not an audio professional, why would you want “professional” stuff? (Although I do like my Sennheiser IE-40 Pro IEMs).
I don’t see this as an either/or choice. The Quietcontrol 30 is very different than the Quietcomfort 35. If you can stand earbuds/IEMS for extended periods, and the Quietcontrol 30 feels good, then it sounds like it makes sense. I wear glasses too, but my light wire frames don’t seem to interfere with headphone earpads. If I wore Buddy Holly frames, maybe I’d try Lasik.
I started a post Is it a GIMMICK? a long time ago on just the subject if ANC is a gimmick or not. I guess it really doesn’t matter. If it works for you. I’ve moved away to using IEMs when I have to and sticking my fingers in my ears and shouting WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP on noisy airplanes when I could no longer stand the IEMs.
While this response isn’t very helpful, someone else will come along to answer your question soon enough.
I guess I appreciate it. Lol. ANC is definitely not a gimmick in my experience! I may not know everything about headphones but I at least know that I can turn the ANC on this thing up and down and it makes a pretty big difference! Besides the quietcontrols rely on ANC more. With the comforts, I’d have the passive noise reduction from the big old pads on that thing.
Some things I’ve noticed about the quietcontrols…they aren’t even that comfortable. For some reason even the smallest earbud still feels too big even though I am a regular sized man. Lol. That part of my ear must be a bit small, or just not quite the right shape for the buds. Second of all, they’re wireless only. They last about all day but I find my nights are being cut short a little. (Probably for my own good though.) Still not exactly how I want to end the day.
The next thing is that I’m trying to use these things for gaming. It’s not much, but I’m able to notice a very slight lag to the earphones. It’s getting to the point now where I’m just getting too used to it to notice, but at first it was rather noticeable. Honestly at this point I feel I’d be better off with the comforts. With those I can wire in, have no lag, and if it isn’t that comfortable I won’t be losing much. Plus more noise reduction.
The fun part is that when I returned the first 180 buck headphones, the guy gave me that reciept back. Not the one that has the quiet controls on it. Just the old receipt for the 180 buck sound links. So to some extent, best buy might decide this for me! I’ll probably go back (wasn’t able to talk to a human on the phone…) and try to switch to the comforts. If they can do it I’ll have the comforts. If not I’ll be stuck with the controls.
Comply and Spinfit. Comply are aftermarket foam tips, and Spinfit are silly-cone ones. Many times you can find a better fit than the manufacturer supplies. Some of the folks here have fishing tackle boxes filled with different size tips, where any sane person would have dry flies.
I don’t think those will work with quietcontrols though.
Anyways tomorrow we should have our answer. I’m gonna go back to best buy and see if I can’t turn in the quietcontrols. I think the comforts are more for me.
Well turns out you don’t even really need a receipt at best buy. The old one still helped the process though. Kinda interesting. Anyways you know what that means. I got the quietcomforts 35 ii. I gotta say they’re quite a bit better, though to be fair they are 50 dollars more. I haven’t tested it extensively yet but when I went around my corner, the headphones didn’t cut out whereas the soundlinks and the quietcontrols did. So this thing seems to have a pretty good edge on reception for whatever reason.
Also it has the option to plug directly into your pc via regular old audio jack, which I greatly appreciate. That’s something the controls were sorely lacking. Also twice the battery power. 20 hours instead of 10. And more comfortable. So yeah I think these are the ones for me.
The question is, what should I try next? Hopefully these things will last a few years for me. Seems like headphone enthusiasts such as yourselves think Sennheiser is where it’s at.
All audio is a journey. Many of us respect Sennheiser and own one or two of them. There are lots of other choices, in any price range, depending on your tastes. The QC35ii is a very nice headphone for what it is and what it does. It’s a purposeful choice.
You should take some time to get to know its sound, both with and without ANC. You can also use them in a wired mode, and you should listen to the difference when you are not in need of wireless.
Take some time to poke around here, ask questions, introduce yourself. Think about how you listen to music, what your tastes are, and that will help guide you. You have wireless and ANC covered with the Bose.
Next, do you want IEMs or headphones? If you don’t need to worry about disturbing others, then some open back headphones may be a good choice. Many sources like phones do not drive some headphones well. Also phones and tablets have some inherent limitations as to sound quality. You overcome these problems by throwing money at them.
By money, I mean a DAC/AMP combination or separate DAC and Amp. This also can severely affect portability. Maybe it’s a better idea to run now!!!
Happy New Year. Warning! This site contains links to may rabbit holes, including photography, speakers, vinyl records, and making posts about opening boxes. Somebody else, please add things and help the poor soul.
I’m in agreement with @pennstac. Poke around and read through different threads. You’ll have a better idea of what people lean towards, and what’s popular and why.
What I also do is search on Amazon for specific types of headphones, and based on what’s popular there I will cross reference here.
Concur, poke around the forum and see what sticks =)
Sennheiser 6XX are a great start and priced well. Another option is the Sennheiser 58x.
I’m basing this off assumed price point of the $180. I think if you aren’t wanting a dedicated amp/DAC the 58x is the better option.
Or if looking at all in ones without ANC I like the Audeze Mobius, which can be wireless or wired but needs to be charged no matter what, unless using the USB cable into a PC.
If I keep going back to best buy for bose will I be looked at like a total savage? Lol. Right now that seems to be my modus operandi but I won’t be going back for a while anyways. I’m really liking the quietcomfort 35ii’s. They’re awesome!
Just a little about myself, I was a musician for quite a while. And I knew a true audiophile once! I think I fall short of a true audiophile since I am an mp3 heathen after all! Anyways me and sound definitely have a connection. Heck I even went to school for speech/language pathology and trust me, you learn a lot about sound getting into that.
Besides now I find myself at my computer all day, headphones always on! So once I upgraded to the bose soundlinks, I realized what a few dollars could do for me! It’s so central to my life…not the place to skimp at all!
Also part of my loyalty to bose is that my old bose earphones, don’t even know what they were, really kicked hard for such a long time! Like 4 years of constant use. And they were good. 0 noise cancelling though. And I hate noise! And they only quit because the wire eventually started breaking apart where it met the bud…I literally lifted it up so many times that the wire pulled apart. It wasn’t even the earbud itself. So I’m happy to upgrade to the qc 35ii’s if it means I can block out noise and be happier with my headphones in general!
Welcome @Dhruv_blessedblogger. I used to work in a company that had facilities in New Delhi, and Pune, At that time my office had an old Bose “waveradio” in it. When people visited, they always got distracted and had to visit the radio, which was one of my favorite Bose products.
The Bose company has a very polarized reputation. They made a lot of innovative products, some of which were highly successful, and some of which people either love or hate. Currently, the Soundwear collar may be one of those.
I was in college when they came out with their famous 901 “Direct/Reflecting” speakers. These speakers sound good if placed very carefully in the right room, or are stuck to the ceiling of a bar, where patrons never listen critically. They always fail in audio comparison tests because the have the effect of smearing the placement of instruments, and the bass comes at the expense of high distortion overdriving the multiple 5 inch speakers. I suspect that if they were redesigned today, modern materials could improve on them significantly.
They don’t make the best, but in most categories they also don’t make the worst products.
We have one of their more recent Soundbars connected to our television and it’s performance is definitely better than the tv’s built-in speakers, which isn’t saying much. But it’s an enjoyable experience none the less.
I think brands like Bose receive a lot of flack more so for their large-ish presence in audio rather than their lack of quality. “Audiophiles” tend to be snobbish.
Bose is often a leader. It’s just that sometimes there are no followers. The QuietComfort ANR headphones were for years the best and entirely dominated the field. The Soundcollar was the first of it’s type of setup, and is still the best if you like it. I tried it in the store, and it’s decidedly wierd, but might be great for mowing the lawn with my electric mower.
The 901’s were the first to try that direct/reflecting, bouncing treble off the wall, and trying it in what was purported to be an audiophile speaker. (Not counting Leslie, and it’s awesome organ speakers).
Being first means you’ll get a lot of criticism for being different. It also means making mistakes. The waveradio was really groundbreaking sound, putting a transmission like in a small desktop box.
