Noise Cancelling Headphones

[whatmeworry]

In theory you could spread it over 4 cards.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

In theory you could spread it over 4 cards.

How? Simply by phone (if so, why only 4), or is there a secret handshake?

 

[whatmeworry]

How? Simply by phone (if so, why only 4), or is there a secret handshake?

The AMEX deal, $30 back for $100 spent.

https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/252728

 

[Foreigner]

I used 4 cards at the Bose store, the last one was co-branded one which I'm very sure will not be subject of $30 cash back.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

The AMEX deal, $30 back for $100 spent.

https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/252728

Yes I have that one already registered, but........

*Excludes transactions where you do not spend directly at a participating Merchant location, including purchases made through a third party such as a department store (e.g. David Jones or Myer)
*Spend $100 or more on that card, in one transaction in-store only.....Online transactions and phone orders are excluded.

Where are the Bose retail stores? EDIT - Found the search facility with Bose.....3 in Brisbane.

 

[marki]

I used 4 cards at the Bose store, the last one was co-branded one which I'm very sure will not be subject of $30 cash back.

I am very surprised they allow that.

 

[Pleb Status]

I take it this can only be done over the phone? (paying with multiple cards?) Did you just ask them to drop the AMEX surcharge or did you use some compelling logic?

I just read the Guardian review (cough reviewer, no mention of what the controls do, how well the phone interaction works, what codec is used, whether there is a "talk through" function or theatre sound effects etc) but I must admit that the only reason I've shunned Bose has been due to the lack of Bluetooth noise cancelling sets. I guess that excuse is now shot through the heart, so my curiosity is absolutely hammering me right now. I must say, I'm impressed by the espoused battery life (although I'm a tad disbelieving of it ) and they do look like genuine over ear rather than a surrogate over/on ear hybrid.

EDIT: Not only was that Guardian review cough, it appears it may also be wrong. The review suggested the headphones couldn't initiate track control, however I've just been reading the Bose site, and they seem to suggest they can.....
I'll correct myself here......the review complained about the lack of dedicated track control buttons, not a lack of track control entirely....my mistake!

There is also another little bit on the Bose site, which states the current 35's will be superseded this "fall" by a new edition which can be customised. I believe by "customise", they just refer to the colour?? If so, that's not a big issue for me, but I'd half suspect the new "customisable" version will also have other tweaks. The question is, do we wait and see, or just run with them now?

I purchased in store as I think the AMEX deal is in store only. I was able to get them to drop the AMEX surcharge by using 'confusion'. If they were not going to drop the fee, I was going to use the two AMEX along with three $100 Coles GC MC to maximise points earn. It all got too hard for the salesman to calculate, so he dropped the fee to put the entire purchase on the two AMEX only.

The look and on head feel of the QC35 are very similar to the QC25, just without the cable. My kitchen scales have the QC35 weighing in at 234g (alone) vs 224g for the QC25 and 212g for the QC15 (both including cable and battery). I note the Guardian article states 310g for the QC35 weight which must include 'accessories'. If you like/hate the previous Bose QC, you will like/hate the QC35 the same way. Being my first completely wireless headphones, the freedom that no wires (at all) provides is amazing.

Pairing to devices was very easy via the on/off switch and you can connect to two devices at the same time. I have my Samsung phone and Samsung tablet paired at the moment and I can now play media from either device without any setup changes at all on the QC35. When you turn on the QC35, a 'voice' tells you what devices that are currently connected/being connected and the battery percentage. The Bose Connect App allows you to manage connections if you want to hot swap between more than two active devices. I am going to try adding my Samsung TV into the mix to see how that goes.

Bluetooth range appears to be adequate (for me), as I get coverage in all areas of my apartment. I will test the range a bit more today. Bose state a ~10m range which I think I was able to exceed slightly without issue. I have not experienced any signal drop outs or skipping at all at this stage.

There are three buttons on the rear of the right headphone. The outer two control the volume but I note that the graduation of the volume steps is a bit 'chunky' and fine volume control would need to be done on the device itself. During media playback, the central button is one press for play/pause, two presses for skip forward and three presses for skip back. I have had no issues with these controls so far with the Android apps I have installed on my devices (everything has worked as it should). If you go skip back alot, the three button presses might get a bit annoying (or just use the device).

The central button also answers/ends calls which appears to have worked well on the one call I have made so far (pausing media for the call and resuming once call has finished). The person I called did not note any real difference in quality when I was talking using the QC35 or using the phone directly. Their only comment was my voice may have sounded 'a little bit robotic' when using the QC35 but was very clear and consistent (the 'robotic' nature may have been due to the external noise cancellation). You are supposed to be able to use Google Now etc which I will need to follow up.

Bose allows some customisation in the US of the QC25 so I assume it will be similar for the QC35. I doubt they will make any functional changes however as that would be a bit insulting to the initial QC35 customers.

I cannot comment on battery life just yet as I charged them fully last night. Bose state 2hr 15min to fully charge and usage of 20hrs wireless/40hrs wired. I am travelling PER-SYD-PER next weekend which should give the new purchase a good test in the real world environment (for AFF contributors at least) for battery life and noise cancellation.

Finally, on the sound quality.... They are very 'Bose'. Having had Bose QCs for many years now, I find the QC35 another good step in the progression from QC2/QC15/QC25 and if you like 'the Bose way' of doing things you will love the QC35. Noise cancellation is excellent (but so far on used in a relatively quiet environment) and the bass response is good but is certainly not going to make your head implode. They may do this deliberately to reduce power consumption and therefore increase battery life.

Very happy so far with the purchase (only a few hours use at this stage) but the real test will be the trip next weekend. I will report from the Harbour City (or the 'only' city as far as QF is concerned...).

 

[Princess Fiona]

Finding myself glued to this thread and with a flight across the ditch on Thursday I am sorely tempted !!!

 

[get me outta here]

I rego'd my NAB AMEX for the BP offer spend $40 and get $10 back and got that $10 back on the card x 2 so far - the next will be toward the end date. So, it may work for you.

I used 4 cards at the Bose store, the last one was co-branded one which I'm very sure will not be subject of $30 cash back.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

I purchased in store as I think the AMEX deal is in store only.

I'll be in BNE in a couple of weeks, so I might try and get a pair then. I've emailed them to see if they are carrying stock. Between my +1 and I, we have 3 AMEX with the offer, so I'll see how we go with multi cards.

Thanks very much for such a detailed review. They sound good and if I buy a pair, I'll be able to give a review between the Sennheiser MM 550-X, the QC 35s and the Parrot Zik 2's.

I am curious about the common reference to the "Bose" sound. Is it like a hall/stadium effect or something? I like the fact the Guardian review claims there is no different in sound quality with NC on. With my MM 550-x, there is a noticeable difference between NC off and NC on, but I've always thought that when you need NC, you aren't going to be hearing audiophile quality in any case, but I do look forward to hearing the difference of the QC35s.

 

[ksthommo]

Meanwhile over on Ozbargain https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/254584
$424

 

[Foreigner]

I rego'd my NAB AMEX for the BP offer spend $40 and get $10 back and got that $10 back on the card x 2 so far - the next will be toward the end date. So, it may work for you.

I'll certainly try to call Amex to see if they will give extra $30 ex gratia

 

[Deleted member 29185]

I rego'd my NAB AMEX for the BP offer spend $40 and get $10 back and got that $10 back on the card x 2 so far - the next will be toward the end date. So, it may work for you.

How do you register the NAB AMEX?

I just had a look on the NAB account for my NAB Velocity AMEX and the "offers" section was just about upgrading the card (or something) and I tried to register it straight with AMEX but they wouldn't/couldn't, so how does one register for these NAB/AMEX offers?

 

[Pleb Status]

How do you register the NAB AMEX?

I just had a look on the NAB account for my NAB Velocity AMEX and the "offers" section was just about upgrading the card (or something) and I tried to register it straight with AMEX but they wouldn't/couldn't, so how does one register for these NAB/AMEX offers?

I assume you are looking at Amexconnect.com.au and not at the NAB website.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

I assume you are looking at Amexconnect.com.au and not at the NAB website.

No I wasn't. I've always accessed AMEX offers through the AMEX account rather than connect! Now I know it should make it easier....it also means we now have 5 cards for the offer (will have to make up the other dollar). Hopefully that will be $150 back plus TRS plus the point earn!

Tyvm for this info. I bought my QC35 just now at the same store. I wish I had 4 or even 5 amex cards. I would have bought a surge protector with 2x USB ports to get over $500 mark.

I wonder if the AMEX surcharge will count to push the purchase over $500?

 

[TonyHancock]

Meanwhile over on Ozbargain https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/254584
$424

Popped in to The Premium Store this afternoon and took up this offer. (3% charge for Amex)

Sound quality is excellent....as per usual with Bose.

 

[Foreigner]

No I wasn't. I've always accessed AMEX offers through the AMEX account rather than connect! Now I know it should make it easier....it also means we now have 5 cards for the offer (will have to make up the other dollar). Hopefully that will be $150 back plus TRS plus the point earn!


I wonder if the AMEX surcharge will count to push the purchase over $500?

There was no surcharge for my purchase

 

[Pleb Status]

I am curious about the common reference to the "Bose" sound. Is it like a hall/stadium effect or something? I like the fact the Guardian review claims there is no different in sound quality with NC on. With my MM 550-x, there is a noticeable difference between NC off and NC on, but I've always thought that when you need NC, you aren't going to be hearing audiophile quality in any case, but I do look forward to hearing the difference of the QC35s.

Some argue that Bose QC headphones generally struggle at the high end and low end of the frequency range versus other (non-noise cancelling) headphones in the same price range. This argument is true to some extent. However, if someone is an audiophile that considers this to be a primary concern, I completely agree they should not be looking at noise cancelling headphones at all.

My primary requirement is noise cancelling and even the harshest critics generally agree that Bose QC are some of the best around.

A quick back to back test in a quiet room (so noise cancelling was not so much of an issue) using the song 'Faded Restrung' by Alan Walker (an instrumental version of the radio release) found that the difference between the NC being off and on was far less pronounced with the QC35 than experienced with the QC25. Where it was quite obvious with the QC25 (a much 'flatter' sound with NC off), on the QC35 the instruments were 'flatter' but only marginally so. It should also be noted that when connected by the supplied cable and with NC on, the controls on the headphones do not appear to do anything at all.

A another test using a 'drum and bass' mix found a larger (more noticeable) difference between the NC on and off with the QC35 (mainly due to the constant noise) but they still delivered better than what the QC25 could achieve.

My range tests found that with clear line of sight between the headphones and the media device (my Samsung tablet in this test), I could get about 25m of range. The presence of a large structural concrete wall in the hallway severely limited the bluetooth range however when I tested to see if this obstruction would make a difference. Standard plasterboard walls do not appear to cause the same issue as I could not get far enough away from my tablet to lose signal within my apartment (I obviously need a bigger place to live).

 

[Deleted member 29185]

My range tests found that with clear line of sight between the headphones and the media device (my Samsung tablet in this test), I could get about 25m of range. The presence of a large structural concrete wall in the hallway severely limited the bluetooth range

Thanks for the comments. With bluetooth, I find the human body seems to cut the signal a lot as well. For example, If I'm sitting in a whY seat with my ipod (nano) in my pants pocket, my arm tends to rest on my leg and that occasionally disrupts the signal. I have no idea if that is commonplace or whether it's a limited transmit ability of the ipod or a limited receive ability of the MM 550x headphones. When I use the ipod with a Sony bluetooth speaker, I find the reliable distance is about 6m line of sight, so I'm thinking the ipod may not be the greatest transmitter (which I must admit, has never caused me any great problems and is possibly a good thing with these things being used more commonly on aircraft).

 

[glenn.im]

Guys,
I was trying to locate the 20$ cash back offer of Bose on my Amex but I failed to find it.
Nothing on amexconnect.com.au also.
I have 3 x ANZ Amex
3x Amex Direct.

Am I missing something ?