Bose is the leader in noise cancelling and this is a feature that takes centre stage in its new range of three wireless headphones.
Sitting pretty as the king of the hill is the all new over-ear Bose QuietComfort 35, taking the mantle from the QuietComfort 25. These feature the quality, lightness and comfort we’ve become accustomed to from Bose, but pairs those with more advanced active noise-cancelling. I tried them out and was impressed by how isolating they are.
These are meant to be used as wireless headphones, but there is a headphone jack (and cable provided) to let you plug into a 3.5mm phone or plane socket.
According to Bose the in built Lithium-ion battery lasts 20 hours with noise-cancelling and Bluetooth turned on, or an even more impressive 40 hours if you don’t care about blocking out external noise.
One charged leveled at previous QuietComfort headphones is that they don’t sound quite as good as similarly priced headphones that aren’t noise cancelling. Bose is attempting to put this right with a new equalizer aimed improving sound quality at all volume levels. In the brief time I had with it the Quietcomfort 35 sounds well balanced.
Next up are the Bose QuietControl 30 headphones – a new design for Bose. These feature small earbuds connected to a neckband and 10-hour battery life. Once again they are light and comfortable, but they also come with a headline feature – you can tweak the level of noise-cancelling provided.
Bose see the QuietControl 30s as the headphones you’ll wear out and about all day. While walking you might want to have some aural awareness so you can turn noise-cancelling down, but if you want to do some work in a crowded cafe you can whack it up. There’s an app, as well as buttons on the headphones that let you tweak this.
Both the QuietComfort 35 and QuietControl 30 headphones come with a dual-mic system that reduces background noise when you’re on a call, making it easier for the person on the other end to hear you.
Watch: What type of headphones should you buy?
Finally Bose introduced us to the SoundSport and SoundSport Pulse that come in four colours – two very similar pairs of running headphones.
These come with tips Bose call StayHear+ and they’re some of the most comfortable I’ve ever tried – if only for 15 minutes.
The SoundSport Pulse is identical to the SoundSport but boasts a heart rate monitor built into the earbud and comes with a slight reduction in stamina – five hours as opposed to six on the basic version. Bose are planning to sell a battery pack case for £39.95 too.
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The QuietComfort 35 and SoundSport are available for preorder from today and cost £289.95 and £139.95 respectively.
The QuietControl 30 (£229.95) and Soundsport Plus (£169.95) will be available from September 2016.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
