Opinion: Bose Quiet Comfort 35 (QC35) active noise cancelling (ANC) Bluetooth headphones

It was with a sense of anxiety , of impending buyers remorse that I plonked my card down and put my pin to the purchase of these, in my opinion, expensive, headphones.

I’d spent a good 3 weeks researching, watching YouTube reviews, reading articles and industry news, working myself up towards finding a stockist to have an audition of the Bose QC35 Bluetooth noise cancelling headphones.

Each time I committed to digging deeper my intentions changed. 

• Was there going to be enough bass?  
• Will the EQ some people had written about make a mess of the variety of music I enjoy (an eclectic mix spanning pretty much every genre)?
• Will the battery REALLY last the stated 20 hours in wireless mode?
• And perhaps…
• Are these things worth the £289 asking price???
• Does my use case warrant such an expensive pair of cans?

I guess the question with the most meat on the bones was that of my use case; when do I use my current (wired) Sony headphones at home, and when do I use my other (wired) Sennheiser headphones at work, most importantly, how would my experience in each condition be improved by the “Bose experience”.

At home, I mostly use my ‘phones to listen to films in bed at night, whether the film is playing on a tablet or phone, the device is either in-hand or propped up somewhere, often when I move around, the cable tethering my Sony’s snags on the device, toppling it from its perch or worse, knocking it to the floor.. That could be an expensive mishap in itself. Granted, this is a bit “first world problems” but it is what it is, and convenience comes at a premium.

At work I mostly use headphones when I’m locked in on a task and need to focus. More often than not I’ll have music on, sometimes though I’ll just wear headphones so people get the hint that I’m not open to distraction which, with my over-ear headphones results in a very hot head (they are a very budget conscious pair of Sennheisers)

In both situations though I find the trailing cable the biggest frustration, move in bed, yank ‘phones or phone off, reach to get a printout at work, same thing. Cables are a pain.

So when I was looking around for my next set of cans, Bluetooth was top of my list.

Comfort is another huge factor, the on-ear headphones I have at home twinned with my fairly wide head make for quite a bit of discomfort after an hour of use – not ideal when you’re watching a film!

The faux leather (it makes very little effort to try to be leather I should add) on the padding of my over-ear headphones at work make for uncomfortable heat on the ears after just 20 minutes – again, not great when you need to focus on a project that could run into hours of work and very distracting too.

Then there’s the matter of design, with current trends seeming to tip from high-gloss White to an entire rainbow’s worth  of day-glo luminescent shouty plastics, I was looking for something a bit more reserved.

ANC (active noise cancelling) wasn’t really a point of consideration on my first pass at looking for a new set of headphones, it was only when researching brands and models with characteristics that ticked the boxes on the above that Bose started standing out, and specifically the recent launch of the Bluetooth enabled update to the well regarded QC25’s – the QC35.

So after a while I committed to finding a shop that was carrying stock and arranged for a demo, the in-store audition blew me away, the hum of air-con and chatter in the shop was completely suppressed, the TV’s on demo in the area faded into oblivion, I was left with just the thoughts in my head as I switched a freshly unboxed set on my head, sans audio feed, I had found a perfectly still paradise. 

In disbelief I asked if I could stand outside the shop to get a gauge for how well they would deal with traffic, placing my mobile and wallet on the side as a gesture that I wouldnt be running off down the road with them, I stepped out into the pavement and was equally perplexed at how the idling bus just 10 feet away seemed to accelerate away from the traffic lights with as much fanfare as a Tesla reverse parking. It was moving by magic.

But then a light gust came my way and instantly my silent paradise was shattered by the noise equivalent of someone scrunching up a newspaper right next to your head, these cans are not designed for use outside in poor weather, they amplify wind noise, it’s a very important point as it makes very real the limitations of ANC, even at this level, on a set of headphones made by the company that practically invented the market. 

But I don’t tend to listen to headphones whilst out and about (either in car or with my children, neither a time where it’s appropriate to shut the world out)

ANC is most effective on low tone noises, constant rumblings and such like, no doubt then why these headphones are favoured by jet-setting long haul high-flyers the world over, I suspect on a long haul flight these headphones become worth their weight (albeit they don’t weigh much!) in gold. 

For blocking the traffic noise outside your window, or the air-con unit doing its best to keep you comfortable on one the 8 days a year that it’s hot in the UK they do what they say they will with aplomb and will be comfortable for long durations of use.

So we’re back to comfort, these QC35’s are by far and away the most comfortable things to take up residence on my noggin,  the headband is firm enough to keep things in place yet malleable enough to contort to degrees that I suspect any lesser headphone would just snap at, the padding is soft and the dome encapsulates even my genetically extreme (read: massive) ears , that alone, my friends, is enough to justify a premium. 

These headphones are not created for the audiophile, I have no doubt that an audio purist would blast it for technical reasons I’m simply not qualified to have even heard of, let alone advise on, but for the lay-ear they are great and I have no doubt that when you switch these on and play your favourite track there will be elements you’ll hear that you’ve not picked up on before. 

• Bose QC35: £289
• Hearing your favourite song like it was the first time again: Priceless