I was able to pick up a pair of Bose QC35-II today, and the comparison between them and the Sony WH-1000XM3 is far from being as clear cut as I thought.
If you wear glasses and care about noise cancelling performance it is
no contest. The WH-1000XM3 kicks the QC35-II's ass.
If you do not wear glasses, it's much closer between them. The overall "noise floor" is higher on the XM3 vs the QC35, but the XM3 is filtering out more noise. I have a variable speed fan here that makes a high-pitched noise at certain speeds. You don't hear that at all with the XM3, while you do still hear it with the QC35.
The QC35 does a better job of filtering out low rumbling noises if you have a tight seal with the headphones. For me, that means not wearing glasses and either having to play with the headphone position to get them just right, or pressing on the headphones. The padding is less pliable, so if I move, that can break the seal and let in some low frequency noise.
The XM3 is not quite as good at filtering out this noise, but what remains is quiet and unobtrusive, and does not vary when I adjust the headphones or press on them, as the padding is softer. So while the QC35 may technically have the better noise cancellation, the XM3 wins for me in real-world usage.
Device management is much better on the QC35 than the XM3, as it can be paired to two devices at once, and the app stores your history of connected devices so that you can swap them in/out quicker rather than having to go through the pairing process again.
There is no audio mixing/auto-switching sources when you are connected to two devices (except maybe for calls - I have not tested that yet). If you are playing audio from one device and then start playback on the other, it will "play" to the headphones in silence. You can tap the Bluetooth switch twice to switch between paired devices - though it issues a pause command to both devices and takes about 10 seconds to switch, so it's not seamless.
You have the option to disable the voice assistant with the QC35, but doing this also seems to disable the quick switch capability for some reason. The voice does not shout at you like the XM3 assistant, but it's still louder than I would prefer, and sounds far more robotic.
Analog audio with the QC35 uses a 2.5mm cable rather than 3.5mm which is a hassle. It also kills Bluetooth functionality just like the XM3 - so you won't be able to answer calls while playing a game on your Switch for example.
Though the included cable only supports stereo audio, the QC35
does support a microphone when using the 2.5mm > 3.5mm cable from my QC25.
While analog audio kills the Bluetooth connection, disconnecting it does not turn the headphones off like the XM3 (so NC remains active) and they reconnect to your Bluetooth devices automatically. So it is not a perfect implementation, but a good one.
Comfort was a surprise. The XM3 are noticeably larger headphones than either of the Bose headphones, and weigh more:
- 207g - QC25 Triple-Black with fully-charged 900mAh AAA Eneloop.
- 235g - QC35-II at ~60% charge.
- 252g - WH-1000XM3 at ~60% charge.
But I would rank them as QC25 > XM3 > QC35 for comfort.
The QC25 wins for being the lightest of the headphones and having a fit that I find comfortable, but the QC35 design has changed in ways that I don't like.
The arm and gimbal design has been changed such that the QC35 only have about 20° of movement, while the QC25 had about 45° of movement.
The arm adjustments are much looser and prone to slipping rather than locking in place, and for my head, I need to have them set one or two notches larger than the QC25.
These design changes mean that it feels like the QC35 are putting a lot more pressure on my head.
I'm not sure how RTINGS are measuring clamping force, but my subjective assessment of the XM3 vs the QC35 does not match their results. They say that the XM3 has 0.11lb more clamping force than the QC35, but I'd say that the XM3 is maybe slightly higher than the QC25, but the QC35 is noticeably tighter than both and uncomfortable for me as a result.
The assistant button on the QC35 can be assigned to Google, Alexa, or NC hi/lo/off, and while it cannot be assigned to Siri, you can hold the play/pause button to activate Siri. I wish that it could be assigned to an "Aware mode" like the QC20 had, which kept NC active but passed through vocal frequencies. As I mentioned in my post on the XM3, Sony's implementation of that is not very good. If they update the XM3 so that you can set the strength and enable the voice-only mode for that, it would be far more useful.
Having a sliding on/off switch with a momentary position for Bluetooth works extremely well. I hate having to hold the XM3's power button to switch them on/off or to switch into pairing mode. Just like the QC25, you flick a switch on the QC35 and they're off so you can put them away immediately.
The play and volume controls are awful and mushy compared to the buttons on the XM3, but at least they are real buttons for these functions rather than gesture control.
Overall, the general materials don't feel as good as the QC25 Triple-Black. They still claim that it's glass reinforced nylon, but it looks and feels a lot more plasticky. It just looks like matte black plastic rather than having the texture of the triple-black.
I'm not sure how noticeable it will be, but here's a photos showing the QC25 Triple-Black:
And the QC35-II:
You might notice that there are subtle silvery flecks in the QC25, while the QC35-II just has a matte black finish.
You can see the difference in the headband shape, and both gimbals are adjusted as far as they can go to show the difference in the range of movement between them.
If the QC35-II was just the QC25 with Bluetooth (and USB-C) they would be a clear winner, but I dislike many of the changes Bose have made between the QC25 and QC35.
I'd still prefer that they had a model which let you use AAA batteries, because they're so much easier to deal with.
Well that's why I said: "The only reason you need an amp for them is if you find them too quiet. Otherwise, you don't need one."