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gigashadowwolf
20
May 29, 2018
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I have the Bose QuiteComfort 35s and have tried the Sony WH-1000XmII a few times. These are the top two choices here. Given the choice again I would go for the Sonys. But I will give you a bit of a break down.
For reference though, I am one of those rare audiophiles who actually like Bose for a lot of uses. My home entertainment system is made of of mostly Bose speakers, (4 satellite speakers from a Bose lifestyle 12 system, and two 301 series iv paired with a Klipsh RC-25 center channel and a Polk PSW 10 subwoofer) despite the fact that they are not really designed to be used outside of their proprietary systems. I have owned the QC 2s for like 15 years and the QC 20s are my daily driver for in ear headphones.
THE MAIN BREAKDOWN In terms of the noise canceling and audio quality which are the primary two features on these, they are actually REALLY quite comparable. Like, really almost identical. The Sony has a slight edge in terms of audio quality, and the Bose has a slight edge in terms of noise canceling. You probably wont notice the difference enough in either regard enough to be worth choosing one or the other. I would call it a non issue.
Where these really differ is in features.
BOSE PROS 1. You can connect Bluetooth to two devices at once. This is a REALLY nice feature, especially if you use it like I do. I keep my phone constantly connected to the headphones and use the app to select whatever other device I want to use. It will automatically favor phone calls over everything else. So I can be watching something on my tablet or playing a game and when a phone call comes in it will automatically pause my movie and switch to my cellphone seamlessly.
SONY PROS 1. The first one here is the deal breaker and the reason I would chose the Sonys. It's more of a serious problem Bose. The Sonys feature APTX Bluetooth audio compression which is both better for sound quality and for sound consistency than the older A2DP the Bose uses. Now this wouldn't that be a big deal to me the Bose sounds fine most of the time. But some days, especially if I am in an area with a lot of signals in the air, the Bose renders itself virtually unusable. THE BOSE WILL STUTTER AND DROP SOUND. I mean so bad that you will miss everything. WHAT IS THE POINT OF EXPENSIVE WIRELESS HEADPHONES IF YOU CANT HEAR THE SIGNAL? You will notice on the Bose forums there are pages and pages of complaints about this, and Bose seems mostly uninterested in helping. It doesn't happen all the time, but it happens often enough to make you feel like they are complete garbage sometimes. 2. The Sony's have some really nice gesture features. One that is particularly useful is that you can place your hand over one side and it will turn off noise canceling and lower the volume significantly. This is really cool if someone is trying to talk with you. On the whole I feel like this pro more or less is on par with the two device feature Bose has. 3. The Bose do not allow their microphone to be used for anything other than phone calls and talking to your phones assistant for some reason. They can not be used as gaming headphones for this reason. The Sonys can.
If you guys want a good wireless noise canceling experience, I'd suggest going with the Sonys. Until Bose fixes their Bluetooth connection it's really not even worth $200.
May 29, 2018
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