Bose QuietComfort QC35 II

I have a pair of QC35's (v2, I think). They're OK. I'm in the Apple ecosystem and decided to try them with the idea of returning them if I didn't like them. The NC isn't hugely better, but the transparent mode is kickass. I use it all the time. I think they are overpriced, but after more than a year with them I'm happy I have them. Note that they were really tight when I got them and I saw a post on reddit about bending the top bar to make them looser. Before doing it I couldn't wear them more than an hour at a time. Now I can wear them all day. I have a bias against Sony, for many reasons (over the years), though I have no doubt their headphones are really good, too.

Everyone gets to feel their own feelings, but there's just so much that doesn't resonate with me here... > I can’t use my Bluetooth earbuds while they’re charging. Many bluetooth headphones have battery life measuring in tens of hours. And every set I've used, long life or otherwise, recharge to 80% in a handful of minutes. I agree that an airpod's miniscule battery life is appalling, but you can stand to pull them out of your ears for five minutes every four hours, and you can charge them one at a time so you never need to stop listening, and my Bose QC35IIs still get more than an entire day of playtime after multiple years of recharge cycles. > In a critical-care facility, it’s hard enough to find one free mains socket to connect a charger to, let alone two. I haven't used a single-port USB charger in a decade. All of my chargers have multiple ports on them. GaN tech makes them very compact even at high power output. > Sound quality is better. Maybe in the abstract, but for most people this isn't meaningfully true in any way that actually matters to them. And if you're listening to "comedy shows and audiobooks" it definitely doesn't matter. Speech has an extremely limited useful frequency range, and those tracks are typically extremely compressed without any ill effect. > The headphone jack is a “just works” kind of technology... Nothing is ever fully a "just works" kind of technology. Things only just work until they stop working. The 3.5mm jack wore out after a ye…

I used to have these complaints but the past 4-5 years have been smooth sailing for me. Perhaps I'm lucky. I use BT devices all day long (Bose QC35 II with Macbook, Pixel Buds Pro with Google Pixel 4 and more recently 7 Pro). Have to confess I rarely use BT in combination with Microsoft Windows though.

My Bose QC35 headphones II were a big upgrade to my setup. Super comfortable, great battery life, great sound quality.

Noise-canceling headphones. I recommend Bose QC35 IIs. You don’t realize how loud the world normally is until you take them off.

I have both the Bose QC-35 ii and the Airpod pros. The Bose have better noise reduction. Plus, if you really want total quiet, you can wear earplugs underneath the Bose. The Airpod Pros are good but the physical noise isolation isn't that great. The rubber tips in Etymotics are far superior. Even my Jabras had better physical noise isolation than the Airpod Pros. My friend has the Sony WH1000XM3, so I got to play around with those. They have slightly better noise cancelation than the Bose. However, the Bose are more comfortable to me because they rest around your ear instead of on your ear like the Sony's.

The noise cancelling is very good, but not better according to rtings.com [1]. I think that the comfort while sleeping/resting is a valid concern. I really like how comfortable the QC-35 II are, but you can’t rest your head against them. The Bose 700 headphones appear to have better mics as the main advantage over the QC-35 II. Personally I like the sound of the Bose headphones better than Sony’s, but judging from online comments I think that most people prefer the more bass heavy Sony sound. My advice to OP for over ear headphones would be the QC-35 II. Physical buttons, decent sound quality (although you can get better sound quality if you don’t need noise cancelling) and very comfortable. I can’t speak for the Apple AirPod Pros, as I’ve never used them. [1] https://www.rtings.com/headphones/tools/compare/bose-quietco...

Bose QC35ii. They're probably my most used electronic device after my phone. I love them.