Bose Quiet Comfort 35 headphones

Seve OB wrote: »

Also, anyone interested in knowing, the Airline plug doesn't come with the mark 2 set, only in the original set. I'm not really sure though if planes use them that much anymore though.

Some do, some don't. Aer Lingus A330 Dublin/Chicago/Dublin uses the double connector type. I also flew United Airlines between Chicago/Vegas/Chicago and they had standard 3.5mm stereo single plug type. I think that was B737 in one direction and B757 in the other. But also, in the return direction, in flight entertainment was via their app on my own phone, so I could have used Bluetooth wireless if I wanted to.

Bob24 wrote: »

Pretty strange decision from Bose IMO.

Strange OK, but I bought one from Bose direct for €2.95 with free postage

Bob24 wrote: »

Do they still have a slot for it in the mark 2 carrying case?

no, but there is a little sleve in the case you could pop it in.

I have an aul cheap one knocking about somewhere. I'm not planning to take a lot of flights, but there will be a couple of long ones later in the year. Would you reckon I should stick with the pound shop version or pick up a Bose one. Ie will there be a sound quality difference?

I bought the QC35 II and they are brilliant... if they are comfortable for you, which unfortunately, they are not for me.

I ordered them during Black Friday weekend (!) from amazon.it for €285 (€295 with VAT recalculated and delivery to Ireland) which was of course a brilliant price. I flew out of DUB T2 the same day and Dixons there had them at €335 and wouldn't price match, so I ordered from amazon.it

Sound quality is brilliant and Bluetooth can be connected to two devices simultaneously (e.g. my Android phone and my Macbook) which I have now realised is a great feature, having been unaware of it beforehand.

But, for me, they are simply uncomfortable. Working at home, I want to use these all day for Skype-type meetings, answering the phone, listening to music and blocking out some of the background noise of the family home. However, after only an hour or even half an hour, they are already feeling uncomfortable, feeling like they are squeezing my head/jaw too much. Not squeezing hard, but enough to nag at me. I've tried stretching them out overnight, and even over a weekend, but to no noticeable improvement.

So, I am sending them back. It's a real shame, as I wanted them to work for me, but they are not up to it.

Instead I have bought the Sony WI-1000X which is a neckband-type pair of wireless noise cancelling in ear earphones, similar to the Bose QC30. These also have excellent sound quality but, frustratingly, a number of flaws, including:
- I cannot get them to connect to my Android phone and Macbook simultaneously, despite claims that they can be connected to two devices at once (with different Bluetooth connection types)
- They cannot be used when they are charging. (I believe the Bose QC30 have this limitation too.) This is a pain when the battery runs out, as you can imagine.

One good feature of the Sony is that they *can* be used with a wire, meaning you can use them with devices that aren't Bluetooth, notably including the fact that you can connect them to the headphone jack on a plane to watch an in flight move for example. But this uses a special, supplied 3.5mm cable which connects to the micro USB port on the neckband, meaning you still can't listen and charge at same time.

Due to not being able to connect the Sony to my phone and laptop at same time, I am now thinking about sending these Sony ones back too and getting the Bose QC30. I would lose the ability to use a wired connection, e.g. to in flight entertainment, but as I'll mainly be using them at home, every day, that might not be too much of a sacrifice.

Seve OB wrote: »

no offence but you must have a really big head!

No offence taken! But the thing is, I don't think I do! I know a colleague who has the first generation QC35 and he looks like he has a sizeable head (and to be fair, a brain to match!) but he says he doesn't find them uncomfortable in the slightest. So it's clearly a very personal thing.

I agree with you on the weight - they are very light. But for me they squeeze too much and it's a definite deal breaker.

Bob24 wrote: »

I also have the QC30 which I can see you are considering and they are a pretty nice alternative (but not suitable for long flights or non Bluetooth devices, and while they sound good they are not quite as good as the 25/35).

When you say not suitable for long flights do you mean due to limited battery life?

JungleMartin wrote: »

When you say not suitable for long flights do you mean due to limited battery life?

Yes this and also because they can’t be used with a plane entertainment system which personally I’m likely to use on a long flight but not so much on a short one (most of the time flights within Europe won’t have it anyway).

In terms of comfort I think they’d be very good though.

Also I guess it depends what is meant by long. When I go outside Europe it’s usually Asia, but if we are talking Dublin to New-York and people don’t care about the plane’s entertainment system, then I actually think they’d be pretty nice.

Bob24 wrote: »

Yes this and also because they can’t be used with a plane entertainment system which personally I’m likely to use on a long flight but not so much on a short one (most of the time flights within Europe won’t have it anyway).

I've seen suggestions of using a headphone-jack-to-Bluetooth transmitter, which sounds like it would work. I guess there might be a slight sound/picture sync issue (but there often is on in flight entertainment anyway!) and if one really wanted to use the in flight entertainment, it might be acceptable.

If airlines move to BYOD like that United Airlines one I mentioned earlier, wired capability will become less important anyway, at least for that scenario anyway.

JungleMartin wrote: »

I've seen suggestions of using a headphone-jack-to-Bluetooth transmitter, which sounds like it would work. I guess there might be a slight sound/picture sync issue (but there often is on in flight entertainment anyway!) and if one really wanted to use the in flight entertainment, it might be acceptable.

Yes I think that would work fine. But yet another device not to forget and which needs to be charged :-)

And yes I would actually prefer if I could stream content from the plane’s system onto my iPad (in economy anyway, business might be a different story as they can fit better/larger displays than an iPad).

Jcarver wrote: »

Sorry to Hijack the thread but looking to invest in a good pair of Bose Wireless Headphones. I'm off to NYC in March would I be best to wait and buy it over in the US?

When I was there at end of November '17 the price of the QC35/II was not really any better than you can get here. Like here, I think you need to buy online to get the absolute best prices, and may need to wait a while for the right price, both of which are not ideal if it's only a relatively short trip to the US.

Personally I would recommend the following.
- Try, try, try before you buy.
- But even then, research your return options/rights in case you find them uncomfortable/unsuitable after you've used them for a while.
- Get them before you fly, either before your trip or in the airport. That way, you can see whether the fabled noise cancelling is as worth the money as you expected/wanted it to be.
- Regarding the above point, if thinking of buying from Dixons in Dublin airport, phone them a few days before your trip to find out the prices. I think you can even reserve them and they will honour the price as it was when you reserved.

Being able to try them (e.g. in Dixons in Dublin airport) is definitely worth paying a bit extra for, but for me, an extra 40 or 50 Euro was too much. But you might find prices are better when you travel, or you might be ok with the price.

sweetie wrote: »

You mean sorry to be lazy and not read the thread. You won't save much unless you get to a Bose outlet.

I went to the Bose store in Las Vegas North Premium Outlets (or whatever the name was) and the price for the QC35 II was $349.99 which seemed to be pretty much the same price as anywhere in the US at the time. And then there would have been sales tax on top of that, so they would actually have cost me more than I paid from amazon.it

Got a present of these for Christmas and I have to stay they are without doubt, THE best headphones I have ever had.

Just an FYI, I was out in the Bose shop in Dundrum this evening and they offered me 10% off the 35 II's, so 379 - 37.9 = 341. Not a bad deal for a bricks and mortar. I mentioned the Limerick price to him and he reckoned it was an error price, said Bose had been in touch with them to ask them to check the pricing and he wasn't sure they would honour any online purchases. Sure enough they are up to 341 now ( https://www.savins.ie/home-entertainment-ireland/headphones-portable-audio-ireland/headphones-ireland/noise-cancelling-headphones-ireland/bose-quietcomfort-35-ii/6292?search_query=bose&results=61 ), which is possibly what he was price matching when he was offering me 10% off (though he didn't explicitly say that).

I got the mark 1 QC35's from amazon yesterday for £279 - couldn't justify £50 more for the extra button, seeing as the multifunction button on the mk1's is supposed to do close to the same thing with google assistant.

However maybe I made a mistake with this, as I am finding pulling up google assistant very very unreliable with my OnePlus 3. It worked fine the very first time I paired the headphones, then at some point in my playing around with pairing it to other devices etc. it stopped working. Turning on and off bluetooth on the phone and headphones didn't sort it. Eventually it did work again, think I had to reboot the phone entirely. It started and stopped working a number of times over a few hours. Was working again then before going to bed, however trying again today having charged the headphones overnight it's not working again. A short beep occurs after holding down the button but nothing happens on the phone with the assistant.

Wondering is this a common issue people are finding with android phones? Not much online about it. Maybe it's just a gammy issue with my OnePlus 3...

Can they not be powered on while used with a wire? It should achieve similar sound quality than when used wirelessly.