Wireless Active Noise Cancelling Headphones: Bose QuietComfort 35 (QC35) vs Sony MDR-1000X

Discussion in 'Headphones' started by music_4321, Dec 19, 2016.

  1. music_4321

    music_4321 Acquaintance

    Banned
    Joined:
    Jun 7, 2016
    Likes Received:
    62
    Trophy Points:
    18
    (EDIT on 30 Dec 2016): Scroll down to post #16 for a revised take on both headphones plus brief comments on Sennheiser's PXC-550 and Bang & Olufsen's H9, both also wireless ANC phones.

    (EDIT 2 on 9 Jan 2017): Scroll down to post #19 for impressions and comparisons to 2015's Sennheiser Momentum over-ear BT ANC phones.

    (EDIT 3 on 25 January): Go to post # 25.


    No idea how many people in this forum are interested in wireless ANC phones, so for now I’ll keep it very brief, but will go into more detail if there's any interest.

    Have spent 10 days with the QC35 and the last 5 days with the 1000Xs, and have done some extensive A/b’ing. For those who don’t know me that well, I have the HD800, HD600, the pretty impressive Andromeda (IEM) and several other excellent IEMs.

    — I prefer the Bose’s SQ & comfort.
    — The Sonys have a slightly nicer design—though, IMO, not necessarily better build quality as many seem to suggest—and slightly better ANC, particularly in higher freqs, but have several shortcomings compared to the QC35s (pretty awful/recessed midrange, audible white noise [when ANC is on] when music’s not playing, plus a couple of essential gimmicky features that can, at times, be a pain).

    I suppose that just like with several Apple products, many seem to just love to hate Bose. The QC35 is actually an outstanding product, certainly not perfect, but really quite impressive for its intended purpose, nonetheless — hey, I’ll admit I’ve been enjoying my QC35s more than my HD600s in the last few days.
     
    Last edited: Jan 25, 2017
  2. Warrior

    Warrior RIP 2021

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Mar 8, 2016
    Likes Received:
    746
    Trophy Points:
    113
    What's the difference between them in regards to the sound? (besides the aforementioned midrange issues)
     
  3. gixxerwimp

    gixxerwimp Professional tricycle rider

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Sep 30, 2015
    Likes Received:
    5,773
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    small island claimed by China
    I had a very brief listen to the Bose in a mall recently and the NC was pretty good but the upper-mids and highs were a bit grainy sounding. There was also something else about the upper-bass/mids that didn't seem quite right. Should probably give them another listen ad they were quite comfortable and would be better for a long flight than my ER4Ps. It's a pain having to take one ear dildo out every time the FA comes by.
     
  4. Bigferret

    Bigferret Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2015
    Likes Received:
    200
    Trophy Points:
    43
    Location:
    Idaho
    I have both and find the Sony to have a bit more bass than the Bose. Also, whatever DSP voodoo is going on in the MDR-1000X isn't as obvious as the QC35. Bose actively changes the sound in the QC35 depending on volume and I think the Sony sounds a bit more natural. There is way too much audible hiss when NC is on with the Sony however (but NC can be turned of on the 1000X, unlike the Bose.) Also, I think the Sony sounds better wired than the Bose.
     
  5. mscott58

    mscott58 Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Oct 13, 2015
    Likes Received:
    2,028
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Philly - Yo
    I've heard good things about the QC35's as well, but personally I go 100% of the time for noise isolation versus noise cancelling. IEMs are my personal poison for flights. For years it was my Noble K10 customs, although have in the last few months swapped over to the ALO Vega universal IEMs. With either of these in I've never had any issues with sound around me - in fact I put them on as soon as I board the flight and take my seat, apologizing to my seatmates for being functionally deaf with them in, and then turn on the music and turn off the world of stress in the cabin around me. I do understand how some people don't like IEMs, but I don't have to sacrifice SQ at all and get the isolation I need from crying babies, droning engines, drunk business people, etc. Have a 16 hour flight ahead of me soon and my only issue will be having to charge my stack to last that long! Cheers

    PS - Totally agree on the PITA it is to take CIEMs in and out whenever someone wants to talk to you. I actually prefer the Vega's universal fit for that reason.
     
  6. mscott58

    mscott58 Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Oct 13, 2015
    Likes Received:
    2,028
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Philly - Yo
    Dang double posts! I swear the system has it against me recently.
     
  7. DigMe

    DigMe Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Aug 25, 2016
    Likes Received:
    8,802
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Tejas
    Seems like most international flights have outlets at the seats these days, or at least USB outlets if you have something that can plug into USB.
     
  8. mscott58

    mscott58 Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Oct 13, 2015
    Likes Received:
    2,028
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Philly - Yo
    Exactly. That's the saving grace. Also I'll hope to sleep as much as I can! Cheers
     
  9. music_4321

    music_4321 Acquaintance

    Banned
    Joined:
    Jun 7, 2016
    Likes Received:
    62
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Both models have excellent bass that reaches very low, can hit reasonably hard and be fairly ‘physical’, so sub-bass extension is excellent. Both have elevated bass, but I find the Bose’s more tastefully and naturally/convincingly done as the elevation starts lower down the spectrum — the Bose’s perform better than the Sonys on faster tracks with bass notes being slightly better delineated. The 1000Xs have more midbass making the midrange thicker-sounding, which could be pleasant enough if it wasn’t for the fact that the mids are recessed and not very resolving — on some tracks, after direct A/B’ing, the Sonys even seem to miss some critical information in this most critical part of the spectrum. WTF??!

    The Bose’s treble isn’t that bad, actually, particularly compared to treble I've heard over the years in these type of ANC phones, but it does sound slightly off/digital, though not so bad as to ruin the whole listening experience. In fact, taken as a whole, I’ve been finding myself enjoying more the QC35s than the HD600s, particularly from 10hz-5/6khz.

    While the Sonys have better treble performance, where timbrally they edge out the Boses, the critical midrange ruins the whole tonal balance on the former for me. The 1000X is not exactly V-shaped, since the treble isn’t boosted, and it does have a more open-can type sound, but the QC35, in the end, really does sound more natural.

    Now, there’s some very interesting new tech on the Boses that allows the phone to alter/adapt the sound according to the volume one is listening to — this is something I’ve come to value a great deal now as I sometimes listen at low to very low volumes, and I must say the QC35s do very well here, except in the high registers, which become somewhat subdued, thus making it a warmer-sounding phone, but low and mid freqs are rendered very, very well

    As an aside, and perhaps not very important to most, but apart from being a more comfortable phone—actually, comfort is second to none—the earpads, along with plenty of room inside the cups to accommodate the ears on the QC35s, (the area around) my ears did not get very hot or sweaty after several hours of use. The Sonys are actually very, very comfortable, too, but after just 30 minutes, I felt (the area around) my ears were a bit too hot and/or sweaty and I just needed to take the phones off for a while.
     
    Last edited: Dec 19, 2016
  10. music_4321

    music_4321 Acquaintance

    Banned
    Joined:
    Jun 7, 2016
    Likes Received:
    62
    Trophy Points:
    18
    I agree. That said, most, if not all, ANC phones sound (much) better when ANC is activated — at least with the QC35s you get 40 hrs' playtime when wired as opposed to 22 hrs with the Sonys (according to both manufacturers' specs, anyway).
     
  11. Warrior

    Warrior RIP 2021

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Mar 8, 2016
    Likes Received:
    746
    Trophy Points:
    113
    22 hours of playing time is pretty good, 40 is just ridiculous. 22 hours is more than sufficient for me. Even with your 16 hour flight, that should leave you plenty of time, I'm sure you won't have them on for the entire time. You could take a portable charger with you, but that's another thing to carry (obviously).
     
  12. music_4321

    music_4321 Acquaintance

    Banned
    Joined:
    Jun 7, 2016
    Likes Received:
    62
    Trophy Points:
    18
    My point was that, although the Sonys do sound better wired, the QC35s give you an incredible 40 hrs of playing time. Many people don't limit their use of ANC phones to plane trips alone, and the Boses, in that sense, pretty much give you virtually unlimited wired playing time without having to worry about charging and carrying extra cables. And then you also get the Bose app that allows you to know how much battery life you have left, along with the possibility of turning off all those annoying voice prompts (something you can't do with the Sonys, BTW).
     
  13. Drifterxny

    Drifterxny Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Feb 4, 2016
    Likes Received:
    84
    Trophy Points:
    28
    Location:
    NYC
    Does anyone with QC35 still have a pair of QC15s to compare to? any idea if the ANC is much better on the 35s? Audible white noise from SONY would be kind of a deal breaker when you just want to relax and chill and not listen to anything.
     
  14. music_4321

    music_4321 Acquaintance

    Banned
    Joined:
    Jun 7, 2016
    Likes Received:
    62
    Trophy Points:
    18
    I heard the QC15s ages ago so can't comment on how they compare, but pretty much every comment/review I've read seems to point to the fact the QC25 was already a marked improvement in that respect — seems the QC35s are just as good as the 25s ANC-wise, if not slightly better.

    I personally sometimes use the QC35s with no music playing at all, hence my comment above that the Sonys had very noticeable white noise when not playing music, or when listening at very low volumes, for that matter.
     
    Last edited: Dec 20, 2016
  15. Warrior

    Warrior RIP 2021

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Mar 8, 2016
    Likes Received:
    746
    Trophy Points:
    113
    That would drive me insane, hearing noise when not playing music.
     
  16. music_4321

    music_4321 Acquaintance

    Banned
    Joined:
    Jun 7, 2016
    Likes Received:
    62
    Trophy Points:
    18
    UPDATE: Seems I’ll have to eat my words regarding the Sonys.

    The Sony pair I’d tried initially was an ‘in very good condition’ second-hand pair from Amazon. A couple of days ago I managed to get a very good deal on a brand new sealed unit for £279/$342 (everywhere else being sold for £329/$404) from a brick and mortar shop for just £10 more than I paid for the used pair. I decided to try a brand new set because I kept reading mostly very good comments and reviews re: the Sony’s sound quality.

    Well, the new pair I’ve had for 2 days does sound better than the first pair I had. The very recessed midrange I heard before was not present on the new pair, and some details missing or deeply buried in the mix in the midrange on the first pair are most certainly there on the second pair.

    So, now I’m hearing an excellent phone, with very good treble that extends quite nicely but is never grating, harsh or tizzy, with a midrange that is liquid, perhaps just a tad recessed but definitely nothing like the quasi empty and hollow mids I’d heard on the first pair I had. Bass, as noted already, is excellent, reaching very low, similar to the low end on the QC35s. However, when low and mid frequencies blend, I hear the Sonys as a more natural phone, the Bose’s upper mids and timbre can be a bit problematic, particularly noticeable on brighter or more lean-sounding tracks.

    The Sonys are not a warm phone, they have a more liquid midrange which is very pleasant and just more natural sounding, while the Boses are brighter, more in your face and closed in. The 1000Xs, surprisingly, have quite a nice open sound, much more like an open-back than a closed-back phone, so there’s more space between the instruments, and there's indeed air.

    Now, when wired the 1000X sounds excellent as long as the power is on on the unit itself (with ANC turned on or off), otherwise SQ takes a noticeable hit, much like the Boses in that regard, except that with the QC35s you can’t turn off ANC. Haven’t directly compared both wired and powered off to determine which sounds better/worse. The supplied 5 ft Sony cable, btw, is of much better quality than the QC35 cable, and with an L-shaped plug, which I prefer, as opposed to the rather flimsy straight plug on the Boses.

    The QC35s are indeed slightly more comfortable, but the 1000Xs are very close to the Boses in that respect. The Sonys do tend to warm up my ears faster than the Boses, but I’ve noticed that with the improved SQ I’m hearing now on the latter I can actually wear them for much longer stretches (previously I kept fiddling with the phone trying to ‘make them sound better’, and this, I reckon, may have accounted for how soon my ears got hot). Now all I have to do is use the touch-pad controls which, once you get used to them, are very responsive and quite handy. Every now and again, though, I still skip a track inadvertently but that rarely happens now.

    ANC white noise, when music is not playing, is still more audible on the Sonys, but I’m not finding it as bothersome as I did before. On the first pair I had I remember being bothered by how loud it was.

    I must mention something that is quite important to me — the Sonys, using both my 128 GB 6G iPod Touch and MacBook Pro, have 30 volume steps, while the QC35s and Sennheiser PXC 550s (see below brief comments on the Senns) only have 16.

    There are a couple of ANC features that I like a lot on the Sonys, but perhaps not worth going into here.

    I will be returning the Boses and will be keeping the Sonys.

    On a side note and relevant to this thread, I had a chance to have a 45-minute audition of the latest ‘over the ear’ wireless ANC phone by Sennheiser, the PXC 550 (£329/$404). If the QC35s’ treble can be a bit problematic, the 550s’ treble was an almost immediate deal breaker, a big surprise, tbh, and a shame because the Senns had a few good things going for them (pretty good ANC being one of them); simply put, though, the 550’s treble was way too hot, at least with the QC35s there are many tracks where the treble is not (so) bothersome, but not so with the Senns. I kept trying to like them as I liked a few aspects, but in the end the hot treble was just too much too often.

    Also got a chance to briefly try the latest Bang & Olufsen ‘over the ear’ wireless ANC model, the H9 (£449/$550) — very nice design and solid construction, but with very poor ANC performance and terrible ergonomics (I have average-sized ears, and for an ‘over the ear’ phone they didn’t manage to cover all of my ears (!); on top of that, the headband was not adequately padded — a terrible oversight. Didn’t even get to see what they sounded like. And then the touch-pad controls, similar to those found on the Sonys and Senns, were not implemented well at all, yet another deal-breaker.

    My personal ranking of these 4 ‘over the ear’ wireless ANC phones: Sony MDR1000X > Bose QC35 > Sennheiser PXC-550 >> B&O H9.
     
    Last edited: Dec 30, 2016
  17. ald0s

    ald0s Facebook Friend

    Contributor
    Joined:
    Sep 29, 2015
    Likes Received:
    110
    Trophy Points:
    43
    To add another set of cans to the list, i recently picked up the B&W P7 wireless. I would say they are a touch warm, with a mid-bass hump that can obscure the mids a little. Sub bass is there and the treble response is quite beautiful. Laid back but with plankton for days comparatively to the QC35 which to be honest i found a bit ragged and low fi sounding. I honestly don't think any of the ANC cans sound great, and while the P7 doesn't have it, the seal of the over ear cups is excellent and i find it quite sufficient on planes, trams etc. I live in a pretty loud, busy city.

    Build quality is fantastic, battery life seems to be around 22 hours and BT connection seems good to excellent.

    For reference I'm currently using a GOV2 / 650 rig and have for some time owned modded 800s /Torpedo 3 / Gungnir Multibit. While the P7 obviously isn't playing in this league I do not at all mind going from one to the other and in fact enjoy both setups for what they are.

    EDIT: Im awful with sound descriptions - apologies
     
  18. music_4321

    music_4321 Acquaintance

    Banned
    Joined:
    Jun 7, 2016
    Likes Received:
    62
    Trophy Points:
    18
    The more I use the Sonys, the more I appreciate their SQ. The tonal balance is simply excellent — kudos to Sony for not making a bassy and/or treble-happy phone. Regardless of form factor (wired can, IEM, earbud or ANC), these phones are honestly brilliant sonically. Have done a brief comparison with my HD600s and confirmed just how balanced the Sonys are, with low-end extension being clearly better than the Senns but not in the least exaggerated, no mid-bass hump, so basically quite linear. Treble is (a bit) more pronounced on the Senns, but I just find the Sony's top-end more refined and timbrally accurate.

    On a separate note, unlike the QC35s, it's quite nice to be able to use the Sonys with ANC switched off, that is, just in BT mode; and what's great about it, too, is that you still get the very useful feature of simply placing your hand on the right earcup—which nearly mutes the music and activates the external microphone(s) to allow external sounds to be heard—to hear if someone is speaking to you or just hear what's going on around you. You hear things much more clearly this way, thanks to the external microphone(s), than what you'd hear if you only had the phones on with no music playing.

    There's also a fairly irrelevant aspect I like more about the Sonys' design in contrast with Boses — the "Sony" branding is very discrete on the 1000Xs, not so with "Bose" being much more visible on the QC35s.
     
  19. music_4321

    music_4321 Acquaintance

    Banned
    Joined:
    Jun 7, 2016
    Likes Received:
    62
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Had a chance to spend a good 45 mins with the Sennheiser Momentum over-ear bluetooth ANC phones (released in 2015).

    — Nice design and better build quality than the Sonys, Boses & Senn PXC 550s, but also more expensive.
    — Quite comfortable, though people with larger ears will have issues with fit — my average-sized ears just about made it.
    — ANC is not as good as the Sonys or QC35s—noticeably so—though from memory I’d say still better than the B&O H9s, and not as good as Senn’s newer PXC 550 model.

    Sonically, the 1000X is, to these ears, clearly the better sounding phone — more linear, with better delineated bass notes. The Momentum’s bass is more elevated, a bit loose, and bleeds into the midrange.

    The Momentums’ midrange is slightly more forward, and the treble slightly more pronounced, but things in the high registers sometimes do sound a bit grainy. The Sonys, by contrast, were clearly closer to a high-end sounding headphone, with better resolution, better tonal balance and more accurate timbre.

    Interesting to note that while the Momentums’ mids and treble were a bit more pronounced, the Sonys were more detailed and resolving in those bands. The Momentums’ treble isn’t as hot as the PXC 550s (from memory), so in that respect I’d take the Momentum’s sonics over the 550s (simply because the 550’s peaky and rather harsh treble ruined quite a few more albums/tracks for me).
     
  20. blackships

    blackships Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Oct 2, 2015
    Likes Received:
    130
    Trophy Points:
    43
    This is timely for me. I've got a flight coming up in a month and would love a pair of noise canceling headphones. However, I only fly once or twice a year and am unsure if I'd use them elsewhere. It sounds like they sound better than the MDR-1A, so maybe they'd do well as a general-use closed can.

    @music_4321, have you heard the MDR-1A? I find them sublimely comfortable but am not completely thrilled with the bass quality.
     

Share This Page