Wondering if anyone can help me finalize a noise-cancelling headphone purchase. I have Apple's generic earbuds for working out, a pair of HD555s and Grado SR80e's for at-home casual listening and a speaker set up for movies and music.
I'm looking at the following:
Bose QC35ii - $250
Bose 700 - $350
Sony WH1000XM3 - $350
These would be used for Switch gaming on the go/at home, podcast/audiobook/music listening on trains and planes. Occasional home use.
From everything I've read, the Sony sounds best, and I've never been a huge fan of the boomy Bose sound, but I tried the QC35ii in store and they sounded fine. They're also significantly cheaper than the others right now. I know that there's a slight trade-off in sound with noise cancelling headphones, but everything I have is open ear and I don't really want to blast everyone around me with sound.
I have both. Qc35iis and Sonys. Here's my subjective opinion:
battery life - Sony - in real life conditions about one and a half to two times longer but...
battery charging... I've never actually gotten to zero on either unless I leave them in the office and forget to turn off or disconnect- but the Bose charge waaaaay faster- manual says an hour but I swear I've had them go from 10-100% in 15 minutes when I am panicking to get to a flight. I appreciate that more frequently but again- it's not like I ever ran out of juice in any real situation and I'm doing 12 hour flights on the regular.
Audio fidelity - not enough in it for me to care but I found the Sony's a hair better for movies. Some of that's subjective and probably a wee bit of confirmation bias. Ymmv - games oddly enough I thought that would be more stark but I can't meaningfully tell them apart.
usb c vs micro: Sony, fit and I'd much prefer usb c ... but because you ALWAYS have the case- the distinction is moot because the right (short) cable is always with your headphones in real life- and because I am years from having all usb c devices when I travel. Bose has no excuse for the next revision though.
case - this doesn't get talked about enough but the Bose case and the headphone folding mechanism are GREAT.Everything fits without fiddling and you have an internal pouch for 3.5-2.5mm - usb cable and plenty of space for related junk like lightning adapter (eff you apple) and usb c headphone adapter (eff you Samsung) the awful airline adapter thing (two prongs) and a usb brick- and in my case most of my travel item usb or adapter cables. But even better- there's an elastic neoprene pouch on the exterior of the case that lets you organize all your shit for deplaning without having to do last minute fumbling with overheads. It's genius and everyone should copy it - fits your phone, tickets, passport etc and has a stout nylon loop for carabiner or other connection to your bags. This means I'm never going to lose or forget headphones again- and also why I pick silver for dark cabins etc. the Sony case is way too big and lacks utility but the Sony's are bigger phones which means better noise isolation so it's a sort of trade off.
Telephony- no contest and I use this a lot - Qc35iis win handily for mic pick up and call quality (iPhone and laptop for teams/Skype) and more importantly the other participants seem to notice more noise when I'm using the Sony's. Partially related is the app behavior- Bose app is better at recovering, detecting and switching devices on iOS and surprisingly the android app is a horror show (also a farce on the Sony wm nc earbuds but I think that's more to do with earbud firmware and chaining and I don't use Android that much - Samsung galaxy tab not phone)
App - I don't use the apps a lot but the Bose app is far more stable and frankly if I could avoid it I'd only ever use naked Bluetooth on the Sony's. I had a terrible experience with iOS and Android apps and a nightmarish experience with the app - specifically for the buds. Not relevant here but some folks will have both. I only use them for initial setup, firmware- Assistant choice (I believe the qc35iis support one more than the Sony's but I only use Alexa of the three.
range - pretty unscientific but I can get farther from my desk with the Bose but forgetting to take them off and going to the restroom is hardly a bonus. In my house both work everywhere except the root cellar regardless of the source device.
So my winner is Bose by a sort of practical margin— but hopefully my use case scenarios are clear enough to show my biases. Oh and I just realized that I don't know (I assume they DO) if the Sony's also work without power via cable. I have a set of Polk noise canceling phones that infuriatingly don't work without batteries- period. Not just noise canceling but audio period.
oh and with all that said you can't go wrong with either if they're reasonably priced. And the last gen Sony's can be picked up super cheap and aren't far behind the new ones.
