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Headphones · Bose QuietComfort

Bose QuietComfort QC35

54owners with an opinion
87%of verdicts positive
8/2positive/negative since 2024
5 yrslongest happy owner
4happy after 3+ years

Praised for sound and reliability; criticized for durability and software.

What owners wrote

Likes itOwned 4 yearsStill going
Considering how many hours per day/week most of us spend with our headphones and how many years they last, I think the price difference is marginal over its lifespan . My Bose QC35s are almost 4 years old. My initial thought was to upgrade to the Bose 700 ($340), but the Airpods Max are $210 more expensive. If I assume 3 years before my next upgrade, this equates to $6 more per month. The in-ear segment was a slam dunk for the AirPods Pro - no exciting options competing there (Sennheiser's True Wireless were a huge disappointment). In the wireless over-ear segment on the other hand, it is very competitive and there are great options. The H1 chip isn't that much of a leg up, compared to how well Sony, Bose and the others handle connectivity to multiple devices. It'll boil down to the basics for me: audio quality and noise cancellation - if Apple can nail those, the price increase would be worth it in my book.
Likes itOwned 4 yearsStill going
Did you question those people what their lifestyle is like. Does it correlate to why their headphones broke so easily? I use them in the office and on flights only. The only thing I did was replace the foam cups in 2019 due to [expected] wear. No problems with them at all ever. I've had mine since 2016. Same story for a colleague I've known for 8 years.
Likes itOwned 3 yearsStill going
Yeah I'm the same. I understand there is a pressure equalization type of affect, like taking off in a plane, but you get used to that after a week or two. Maybe if people have bad sinus issues then that can cause headaches, in which case they already have serious issues and the headphones 'pressure' effect triggers pain. But that's reaching IMO. I've been using them between 4 and 6 hours a day at work for 3 years now. The only other thing I can think of is loudness causing a problem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war Loud (in terms of dynamic range) can easily cause headaches after prolonged listening even without headphones. If these people are listening to loud music at high volume with these headphones that could cause headaches easily. In fact, compared to my other headphones I found myself lowering the volume on my QC35's quite a lot. My comfortable listening volume is now ridiculously low, you don't need it loud with the noise cancellation. So for example, on 'normal' headphones, I might listen to the music at 60/100 to 100/100, depending on the situation, with the QC35's I rarely go above 10/100, usually lower in fact. So I think these people either have sinus issues or are listening to dynamically loud music at medium to high volume, or both. The fact the author states he was getting a headache and the noise cancelling wasn't even on suggests listening to loud music at high volume, in which case you'll get a headache no matter what headphones you
Recommends itOwned 1 year
Came here to say this. I'm not normally a fan of Bose but I wear my QC35 maybe 12 hours a day and have for almost a year. Excellent build quality, sound, battery life, and above all noise cancelling. I've owned maybe 30 sets of headphones over the years and never had anything like them. Little known fact is that they make aviation headsets and the QC35 looks by all accounts to be a consumer version of that. Might explain the chasm between their quality vs competitors.
Recommends itOwned 0.04 years
I bought Bose QC35 2 weeks ago and I am absolutely thrilled about them. The noise cancelling is almost perfect and when I have them on and somebody speaks to me I really don’t hear anything. Unlike many other headphones I have tried they are also very comfortable. I tried Sony MDR-1000x and to be frank their noise canceling is maybe even better than the Boses, however they are so tight on my head I know I wouldn’t be able to wear them for more than an hour.
Doesn’t like it
AirPod Pro v1 seems to always work, but they favor connecting to Apple branded devices and move seamlessly between them. What doesn't work so well is that iPad Pro M4 doesn't play nice with Bose QC35 multi-point connections because it appears to "play silence" to the headphones even when there is no audio, preventing the other connected device from switching over to play audio. When I turn my iPhone on and open iMessage, it will sit at a black screen and won't open for several minutes and usually crashes. I want sync to happen on a background thread and be able to access existing content immediately. Sometimes it happens with the phone app too. There really ought to be a universal gesture or trick (that's not pull to refresh) to force iCloud sync in any app that has iCloud sync functionality. Also, Universal Clipboard works half of the time. Learn Spelling was removed from most/all non-Pages apps, which is extremely inconvenient because the Apple US English dictionary has tons of missing adverb forms. iOS/iPadOS selection of text in a web browser (Brave or Mobile Safari) doesn't work as reliably as it did in earlier OS versions. Often, text is selected but refuses to show the text selection popup. And I refuse to use iOS and macOS 26 because liquid glass is slow and unusable.
Likes it
Bose continues to be an extremely consumer-friendly company (especially by today's standards). I remember back when the QC35s were THE noise cancelling headphones, the bridge* snapped on mine, I contacted Bose support asking if it could be fixed and they offered me a free replacement, no questions asked, a year after my warranty ended. * Is that what it's called? The top part that goes over your head...
Likes it
Typical so called audiophile stance here. I have numerous headphones (including high ends ones) and always been happy with my Bose. Sound is great and gently enhanced for listening enjoyment, whatever snobs could say about it, and the hardware is really nice. My Bose SoundSport earbuds are the best fit I ever had in 30+ years of wearing earbuds and my QC35 never failed on me. That move from adds to all the great things I can say about this brand. Sure it's not flat perfection for the so called happy fews but it's great gear.
Likes it
All I know is that decent noise cancelling over-ear headphones (Bose QC35 in my case) are really good at cancelling exactly that sort of noise - the hum plus whoosh of a box fan. Given that they are ineffective for high frequencies but very effective for the low frequency part of the spectrum where most of the fan noise (or airplane roar, or bus engine) is, I also always assumed that they played the least-possible-delayed anti-wave to cancel out the wave. Doesn't work for speech, sadly, since that has enough high-frequency energy to be intelligible even through these phones.
Likes it
I use Zoom rather than Teams, but have no problems playing background music with Spotify. Just have to make sure that “share computer audio” is not enabled when sharing your screen. Also, when I was using the mic of my bluetooth headphones, any music played would be mono and lower quality due to bluetooth bandwidth. Since moving to using a dedicated mic on my desk, the bluetooth headphones are output only and back to good quality stereo (MacOSX and Bose QC35).
Doesn’t like it
My problems were very varied, depending on the specific model. Trying not to make it a full rant. While I have many types of music on my player, primarily I listen to rock/metal. Common problem: ANC changes the music too. It messes with the mids and highs, regardless of the model. Some are better than the others... but of course ANC can be turned off, which I did frequently in the past years. Oh, and the low battery warning: "ATTENTION - battery will be empty in 4 hours, let me disrupt your music every 60-120 seconds till the end of time!". Bose QC35, QC45: They are pretty much the same, both inside and outside. Very comfortable, can't argue with that. They randomly they cut off the first/last 2 seconds of the tracks (how did they even release them like that is a mystery for me). Also, no bass, no highs, just a pile of mids. Almost 0 dynamics - you will never hear any other instruments else during a bass-guitar heavy track... Sennheiser PCX-550 ii: It sometimes sounded fairly decent, even with ANC, however rather uncomfortable. The touch interface is catastrophic (in humid weather all the controls activate at the same time. Literally: volume up-down, play-forward-pause-call, all at the once). It had the worst bug I saw so far: about once every 2 weeks it made some extra loud shrilling noise that made me shit my pants (I'd guess the ANC got into some self-amplifying feedback loop). After it came back from "warranty-repair", it did it again within 3 days. Marshall Monitor II
Neutral
Out of curiosity, what issues have you had with them? (I'm not at all involved with their development, just a fellow user of them). I had the Bose and Sony ones. They were OK, just uncomfortable. Been using the in-ear Airpods Pro for a few years now, for everything from work to flights to trains to exercising, and I love them soooo much... they're probably my favorite tech purchase ever (and I don't even have an iPhone). Pairing is always a pain in the ass (I just manually pair again with every device I want to switch to) but other than that, they've been so nice. Personally, I'm not an audiophile, but I find the audio quality incredible (vs my Sonos speakers, wired Koss PortaPros, generic soundbars, Sony XM3 and Bose QC35s, etc.) and the comfort unbeatable. But some people hate the in-ear kind. Anyway, not trying to convince you of anything, just wondering what made your experiences so different and bad?
Likes it
Because the value the item brought you was worth more than the money you exchanged for it. My Bose QC35s were one of the best investments I've ever made, lasting many years and very many loud plane rides. Or would you consider groceries a "pure financial loss" as well?
Neutral
Aside from the obvious good desk, chair and monitor(s). I like a laptop, so a good dock is really nice to move between desk with full desktop experience and couch for more relaxed work. Good headset or speakers+mic. Make sure the audio on calls is good. Especially if there’s noise around you really good headphones help so much. Sets with a good mic are harder to find. My QC35s were amazing but the mic picked up noise across the room. Noise cancellation meant I couldn’t hear the TV or family next door, but others on the call heard it very clearly. A good office headset like a Jabra works well here. A separate desk speakerphone unit can work really well here too. Monitor mounts make a pretty big difference in terms of desk space and being able to reposition when sitting or standing. I love my standing desk, but I found both the foot hammock and balance board to be amazing additions at relatively low cost for how much I love them. A good webcam at a nice angle can be great compared to the laptop ones. It’s a lot more flattering and adjustable. Get a mix of room lighting. A good room uplighter, ceiling dimmer, desk lamp, etc. having a mix allows you to feel a lot brighter and more active, or dimmed with a spot and focused, or generally dimmer and relaxed. Basically the opposite of very standard flat bright office tube lighting. I really like my iPad Pro in addition to my laptop. It feels far more mobile, and is easier to task switch on for things like Slack, email, etc. with an M
Recommends itStill going
Yes. I've used my QC35 for several years now on a daily basis, and they've been one of the few tech game-changers for me personally. I generally use them to lower the volume I can play the actual environmental-noise blocking audio, which is normally a combination (ie at the same time) of white noise (specifically RainyMood) and whatever rythmic soundtrack will help me stay in flow. I mean by that I don't use them alone, but they enable me to play stuff for extended periods so the risk to my hearing is considerably lower than playing it without noise cancelling.
Likes it
If I'd hazard a guess, I'd say the OP is referring to Bose. They tend to get shit on by audiophiles for... Reasons? I don't really know why, I'm not an audiophile. I've personally had 3 different Bose noise canceling headphones, 2 over ear and one on ear, and I've been happy with all of them. I still use the in ear ones routinely (QC35, IIRC), usually without the noise canceling on, even. The in ear noise canceling is quite good. Good enough I wouldn't recommend walking down the street with it on - you will be audibly oblivious to your surroundings.
Likes it
I feel Bluetooth is the ever-unstable technology we have been beta testing for 2 decades. I own Quietbose QuietComfort 35 which I paid 350 USD. They are top of the line headphones and yet the bluetooth still sucks. This is not a blame on Quietbose which in fact might be one of the best product ever. After few months of use I just decided it's just less annoying to use them with the cable. BLUETOOTH STILL SUCKS!
Doesn’t like it
Full disclosure: My primary set is Sennheiser HD600, which I use a lot and love. Excellent sound objectively and subjectively. Worth every cent, despite being available since 1997. They benefit a lot from a headphone amp but still do a decent job without. They are made to last, and should an accident ever break a piece, all parts are replaceable individually without the need for tools. I've had them for several years and they're as good as new. I have tested QC35 before, on a loan from a coworker. The FR is very good, but the distortion is horrendous. Measurements made on the set confirm by reviewers do confirm my impressions were spot on. Apparently the reason the FR is good is because they have a builtin DSP doing EQ. When I heard the price, for such bad sounding headphones, I thought about them as a scam. Later, I learned they don't just distort a lot, but are also not made to last. Brand loyalty is high, and the money BOSE spends in marketing plays no small role on this. BOSE devices are expensive and those who buy them get associate the price with quality. When they break, they just buy BOSE again.
Doesn’t like it
I have tried quite a few different as I value th sound quality as high as the noise cancelling. I originally had Sennheiser Momentum Wireless 2. They had amazing sound, connected quickly and quite good battery life. They were however not that comfortable for long durations as the headband lacks padding. I then bought B&O H9 which was almost as good sound quality wise but a lot more comfortable. They however ended up having problems with bluetooth and I had to switch them. Both Sony MX3 and Bose QC35 have a way too synthetic sound to them for my taste. I then tried the third gen H9 but they did not sound as good as my old ones for some reason. I then tried the new Sennheiser Momentum 3 which sounded quite good, with really good deep bass, but it lacked some control at places and was just a very large headset. Then finally B&W came out with the PX7 recently and once I tried those I just had to have them. Their sound is almost bar none - at least to my taste, and their noise cancelling is exceptional on par with MX3 to my ears and finally they have extremely long battery life. So 4 weeks in or something like that, I am really loving my PX7's and would recommend giving them a listen.