Who Makes the Best Wireless Headphones? Bose QC35 vs Sennheiser PXC550
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2017-05-06
·
1,640 words · ~8 min read
0:00
who makes the best premium Wireless
0:03
active noise cancelling headphones for your premium dollar Bose or
0:10
Sennheiser let's find out shall
0:22
we Intel skull canion Nook features a sixth generation core i7 processor and
0:27
Thunderbolt 3 you can learn more at the link in the the video
0:31
description okay so there's a lot to cover here we're going to jump right
0:34
into this both headphones folded into an included carrying case but Bose wins
0:40
quite decisively here the qc35s case is
0:43
both smaller and more durable feeling
0:47
than sennheiser's offering on to the contents being headphones and ones
0:52
designed to fit on the heads of humans the qc35 and pxc 550 are pretty darn
0:58
similar in many respects headband ear cups laser guided artillery
1:03
launcher Etc so I'll try and dial in
1:07
mostly then on the differences here Bo's
1:10
Alcantara covered headband features noticeably better padding devoid of
1:15
internal bumps that can dig into your head eventually but their sizing
1:20
adjustment mechanism fits perfectly on my medium motorcycle helmet sized head
1:26
at its smallest size and feels more
1:30
plasticky compared to sennheisers both of them offer about 3
1:34
and 1 12 CM of total adjustment though so if your head is on the smaller side I
1:40
expect you'll get a better fit out of the pxc
1:43
550 the ear cups themselves aside from
1:46
both being closed back designs with faux leather covered memory foam for optimal
1:51
noise isolation are about as different as they could be Bose has gone with a
1:56
more traditional oval shape for the cups and Ang drivers inside to direct sound
2:02
into your ear canals while Sennheiser has done a couple of more unusual things
2:08
here so the transducer has this Grill
2:11
over the top of it that looks kind of like an apple slicer perhaps there's a
2:15
noise isolation or other acoustic reason for this and they've gone with a more
2:20
ear-like shapee that fits well but in my
2:23
opinion along with the boring black color Choice makes the pxc 550 look
2:28
considerably less sty is though some will find sex appeal in the user
2:32
interface I suppose both headphones
2:36
thankfully have the ability to operate with a wire if you're out of battery or
2:40
even with active noise cancellation enabled with a wire if you just don't
2:44
want to use the wireless to make it last longer but inexplicably they both rely
2:49
on a 2 and 1/2 mil to 3 and 1/2 mm cable
2:53
so order an extra or two now in case you
2:56
lose the included one since you probably don't have a ton of those lines flying
3:00
around with that said Wireless is sort of the point here isn't it so let's move
3:04
on to that both of them will pair with an Android phone using NFC but while
3:10
Bose has stuck with a traditional
3:13
button-based interface power on pairing mode here with volume adjustments and a
3:18
multi-function button that handles media playback and phone calls over here
3:22
senheiser is using a fancy touchpad on
3:26
the right ear cup that allows play and pause track skipping and volume
3:31
adjustments with gestures fancy though
3:35
it does still have some hardware buttons one to toggle the Bluetooth radio for
3:39
battery savings during wired operation with noise cancelling enabled one for
3:43
toggling movie and speech optimized EQ
3:46
profiles and a three position slider that lets you pick zero active noise
3:52
cancellation fully enabled active noise cancellation with the four included
3:56
microphones or an Adaptive mode that
3:59
adjusts the level of noise cancellation depending on ambient noise levels
4:04
conspicuously absent though is a power switch with Sennheiser opting to build
4:10
it into the hinge a design choice that I
4:13
personally do not
4:17
prefer let's get back to noise cancellation though the qc35 specs are
4:22
less impressive looking than the pxc 550s and I really like sennheiser's easy
4:29
access to mix and match combinations of Bluetooth noise cancellation and wired
4:35
or Wireless interfaces but Bose's ANC is
4:39
noticeably better in the real world this is particularly true of unpredictable
4:44
sound like uh nearby conversation both
4:48
of our competitors will cover consistent background noise like the low Rumble of
4:52
an engine almost completely at even a quite moderate listening volume like two
4:57
to three bars on an iPhone and both of them managed to avoid that traditional
5:03
problem with A&C products of a painful
5:06
pressure sensation on the eardrums so thumbs up there though with that said a
5:12
pair of construction ear protectors with a white noise generator inside would
5:16
probably do the trick if all you wanted was to ignore the crying kid in the seat
5:20
behind you how do they sound well
5:24
there's no doubt in my mind on this one if you're an audio file the pxc 550 is
5:29
the better choice Bose's sound signature
5:33
is much less veiled running off of a
5:36
cable with the active noise cancellation disabled but while both products are
5:41
operating as intended wirelessly with a andc and it should be noted with bows
5:46
you cannot turn the ANC off if it's powered and running wirelessly the
5:51
qc35s have a very one-dimensional sound
5:55
to their base reproduction and such strongly veiled mids that I found it
6:00
hard to enjoy my favorite vocalists to be clear the pxc 550s aren't exactly on
6:07
par with sennheiser's open-backed audio file products but they're well balanced
6:12
with tight Punchy bass fun vocals and the good old Sennheiser Veil on the high
6:17
end that made them less fatiguing to listen to for long
6:21
periods at least that would be entirely true if the pxc 550s were as comfortable
6:27
as the qc35s I have got to give Bose though this is a
6:32
narrow Victory to be very clear here the nod when it comes to long-term Comfort
6:37
both of them are lightweight and stay in place very well but putting on Bose's
6:42
offering it feels like your head is getting a hug from a friend while
6:46
Sennheiser needs another few millimeters of padding on the headband to draw even
6:51
here which isn't to say then that the
6:55
back and forth trading of winds here is over Bluetooth time
7:00
Sennheiser only manages to identify your devices by numbers like phone one
7:05
connected while Bose manages to inform me that it's connected to Linus's iPhone
7:10
when I turn it on with that said I can probably accept
7:14
remembering which of my devices is phone one connected for the sake of superior
7:19
range while I was working on writing this I had to run downstairs to hit the
7:23
bathroom and I left my phone on my desk and it wasn't until I'd been in there
7:26
for well actually okay never mind how long I was in there but the point is the
7:31
pxc 550s never missed a
7:35
beat right while my attempt to repeat my
7:39
test with the qc35s resulted in stuttering the moment I closed the door
7:44
on to battery life then I'm going to call this one a win for Bose though it
7:49
is a very narrow Victory partly because
7:53
Bose advertises about 20 hours of battery life and delivered 24 and
7:58
Sennheiser puts 30 hours on their website though that's based on a more
8:03
ideal operating scenario and running more apples to apples against Bose it
8:08
actually ended up being very similar but both of them can handle a full day of
8:14
music playback without recharging the battery which is damn
8:18
impressive so who is the winner then
8:21
this is not an easy question to answer today Sennheiser is charging more and
8:27
offering up more consistent Bluetooth connectivity and Superior sound quality
8:32
while Bose basts boasts better noise
8:37
cancellation a better carrying case and a more comfortable design at a lower
8:44
price so I know this is a bit of a cop
8:47
out but frankly the conclusion is this you'd have a very hard time going wrong
8:52
with either of these so go ahead and flip a coin I am sure that you will be
8:57
happy with your new wireless headphones
9:00
and you know what else you'd have a hard time going wrong with tunnel bear tunnel
9:05
bear is the simple VPN app that makes it easy to browse privately and enjoy a
9:10
more open internet you download tunnel bear you start it up with 500 Megs of
9:15
data for free with no credit card required you press the switch and that's
9:20
it your bear tunnels your internet through a different country up to 20
9:24
different countries I think it is your connection gets encrypted and the sites
9:28
and services you use will think that you are browsing from somewhere else
9:33
entirely and they've got a great privacy policy as well if all this sounds good
9:38
you try tunnel bear you like it well you can save 10% on your unlimited data plan
9:43
by heading over to Tunnel bear.com we're going to have that Linked In the
9:47
video description so thanks for watching guys
9:51
if this video sucked you know what to do but if it was awesome hit that like
9:54
button get subscribed and maybe even check out the link to where to buy the
9:59
stuff that we featured today at Amazon in the video description also linked in
10:03
the description is our merch store which has cool shirts like this one and our
10:07
community Forum which you should totally join now that you're done doing all that
10:10
stuff you're probably wondering what to watch next so check out our latest video
10:13
over on Channel Super Fun and make sure you get subscribed over there too