Bose Noise Canceling Headphones 700 headphones Review

11 min readFeb 4, 2020

I am terribly enraged by the chosen name. There is a line of QuietComfort, and Bose connoisseurs remember the old, wired headphones. Yes, I had a few different KUs. Loved them all. And what now to call these headphones? Bought a Bose Noise Canceling Headphones 700 — are you serious? It sounds disgusting in any language. Why not a QC45? After all, continuity and all that. A little strained reviews on the official page . And in general, with a heavy heart, I took up the review: QC35 updates waited a year, what did we get? Let’s figure it out together.

Design

The kit comes with a large case, it has a cool groove for the USB Type-C cable and audio cable, about using the latter there will be a chapter near the end of the article. Headphones do not add up now — as for me, the difference is small.

Plastic cups, without aluminum “armor”, like the Bose QC35, metal headband, rubber at the bottom and top. Compared to QC35, the combination of materials is not so rich. On the head, the headphones look cool, futuristic. Futurism is the design of fastening the headband and cups.

We have already disassembled Blue headphones with a suspension copied from sports cars, here the scheme is different. The thin leg of the headband in one place has a protrusion, it slides along the groove in the cup.

At the same time, the possibility of movement not only in the horizontal, but also in the vertical plane is preserved. Bottom line: the cups are tightly pressed to the skull, so much so that in a room with the air conditioning turned off, the ears get hot. A thin bow of glasses does not interfere, but if the bow is healthy, then it will not be very cool.

Many thanks I want to say for USB Type-C: I charged the headphones with a cable for the MacBook. A full charge takes about 2.5 hours, there is a quick charge when in 15 minutes you get 3.5 hours of listening to music. Just eat on the plane, chop up to an external battery, then watch the movie. The remaining operating time can be checked by pressing and holding the sensor on the right, looking into the application or directly in the iPhone menu. The stated operating time of about 20 hours with a working ANC, that’s fine. The Bose QC35 has the same operating time, about 20 hours with a Bluetooth connection and the noise reduction system turned on.

There are no questions to the assembly. You can only come to terms with materials. Both the Bose QC35 and Bowers & Wilkins PX are felt in the hands and look generally more interesting. But the simplicity of the Bose Noise Canceling Headphones 700 has more to do with current trends — it’s a modern design. Here is the main feature of the headphones. Everything is like with cars: GLS 2019 and GLS 2017 seem to be similar from afar, and the latter may even seem more luxurious in some way, but the point, of course, is in the nuances.

The indicator lights are well made, the buttons have a nice move. If you are a perfectionist, this is important information — a clumsy indicator can make you nervous all day, especially if you find out about it after the purchase.

In addition to black there are headphones in gray, probably worth the wait and pink. In a year.

Convenience

Let me remind you that the Bose QC35 were unique headphones in terms of landing and comfort, only with them it was possible to safely fly from Los Angeles to Moscow and remove them only while eating. Huge cups were not felt at all, the headband was light and correct, the weight distribution was perfect.

Everything you loved about the Bose QC35 is here. The cups are huge! Headband — Fluff! Now it does not add up, but, honestly, I almost never folded the Bose QC35 and dragged it as it is. It was just the idea that you folded the QC35 to put it in a case, the “seven hundred” cases have a little more, but now there are no hinges. They clearly sought to achieve several goals: savings in production, fewer creaks, fewer opportunities for the user to break something.

While I carried the headphones for a maximum of two hours without taking off, I guess that it would be possible to fly from LA to Moscow with comfort and buzz. I’m not waiting for another.

The Bose QC35 over time could replace ear pads, here it is also possible. The serial number is under the right cup. The designations of the cups are traditionally healthy; you won’t confuse left-right.

Features

I really wanted Bose to bring to mind all sorts of additional chips found in other models. And, thank God, the company’s engineers once again showed the class.

Firstly, there is a perfectly working Conversation Mode: press and hold the button for selecting the noise reduction level for a second — the microphones start working as locators, everything is heard, everyone is heard, you can talk to someone without removing the headphones. Apparently, they tried to make the option perfect, they succeeded. I use the office all the time.

Second moment. Headphone manufacturers usually forget what people are talking on the phone. It would not be desirable if you lead an active life, you have to do this all the time. The voice quality of the Bose Noise Canceling Headphones 700 is close to perfect, and for greater toughness, a Self Voice feature has been added. When you transfer the stream from iPhone to headphones, the noise reduction level remains at the same level, but you seem to hear your voice a little, the audibility level can be adjusted in the program. In some other models you speak like cotton wool, but here is a completely natural conversation. You can hear perfectly.

The third chip. If you are going to sleep sweetly on the plane, then press the Bluetooth / Power button and hold until you hear the Bluetooth Off command. In this mode, communication with the phone is interrupted, but noise reduction continues to work, the level can be selected from the button. The function is good for public transport, and for the office, and for working in a cafe.

Sound

Using the “seven hundred” model as an example, one can clearly see how different people have different preferences: Sasha Pobyvanets did not like the sound, Ilya Kazakov was also dissatisfied. Well, as for me, I’m just in awe. I like that the same Bose drive, proprietary, energetic sound is preserved, plus there are many opportunities for maneuver.

For example, be sure to put Vox on your iPhone and try listening to FLAC tracks. A completely different matter! The quality collections purchased on BeatPort and Whatpeopleplay (use the health service, the tracks are more than accessible) sound amazing. Alas, if it comes to streaming services, then you can talk about quality only in relation to Tidal, Spotify, activated by hi-res in Deezer. Apple Music is good, too, but it all depends a lot on how the “master” was prepared — alas, preparation is often bad, and this is perfectly audible in the headphones. The sound is flat and very sad.

An example of good preparation? It doesn’t matter, find iTunes artist ford., Buy an album and listen with Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700. Great sound, details, width, volume! Cool.

Is it better than the Bose QC35? I think so. Is it better than other headphones in this price range? I think that Blue Satellite will give you more interesting emotions for the money. Another question is that modern noise-canceling headphones are not only music, but also ease of operation, ANC performance and many, many other parameters.

Noise reduction system

Bose once created an active noise canceling system, and now companies like Sony, Bowers & Wilkins and dozens of others use the patent. The principle of operation of ANC is simple: the sound from the microphones is fed to the speakers in antiphase, while the settings may vary. For example, in Bose, you can almost always hear a human voice, this is done according to the requirements of aviation security — notifications should reach passengers.

Such a scheme is good, but it affects the sound quality, so I recommend that you play with noise reduction levels. From the button on the cup, three steps, zero (ANC off), five, ten. Ten is the maximum, the surrounding sounds almost disappear or are smeared to the point where they stop interfering with work or sleep.

Fine tuning is available from the application, from zero to ten. That’s it I recommend applying it to all audiophiles, the sound quality changes significantly. In the Blue Satellite review, I talked about the ANC scheme when four speakers are used: two for music, two for noise reduction. But such headphones devour the battery with terrible force — Satellite work with ANC for about eight hours. Two and a half times less than the “seven hundredths.”

In general, there are no questions: when buying the Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700, you can be sure of your peace in public transport, in the office, at home and in other situations.

disadvantages

Headphones are paired with the Bose Music app. Let me remind you that for QC35 there was a Bose Connect program, stable, with a cool design, there are no questions to it. To Bose Music — there are, and many owners. Me too. This is the first time you plug in your headphones, set everything up there, even an update has arrived. The program allows you to choose a name, select the level of the Self Voice function, voice assistant (Siri, Amazon or Google), well, there are a bunch of all sorts of useful settings.

Disconnect the headphones — the second time you cannot connect them to the program. After forty attempts, I decided to restart the phone. Did this. The headphones reconnected to Bose Music, but the settings stopped opening. Okay, I rebooted the phone again. Settings reopened.

It is clear that such miracles are very enraging, especially when the headphones are quite expensive. I believe that Bose knows about the problem, they will fix it, finish it. BUT, damn it, WHO AND HOW TESTED HEADPHONES IN PAIR WITH THE PROGRAM !!!

I hate being a beta tester, and it really pisses me off. Incredibly enraging. Amazingly furious. But after installing the update and several reboots everything seems to be ok. By the way, I like that the program displays more or less accurate remaining work time, now it is 14 hours and 40 minutes.

Still enrage touch buttons. This is the second drawback. If the Bose QC35 were turned off by the lever, and it was instantly, ideally, simply, understandable to everyone — my wife chose QC35 for this clarity, then everything is different in the “seven hundred” model. Three physical buttons. Remember: the button on the left is the noise reduction and activation of microphones, the button on the top right is the inclusion of Bluetooth and the bottom right is the voice assistant. There is also a touch pad on the right. It works great, thanks for that: playback control, volume — everything seems to be cool.

The headphones are still clearly disconnected: I pressed the button on the top right, they passed out. It is very good. But the touchpad is a little pain. You hit her by accident. You hurt her not there on purpose. If you hit a pillow on the plane, you also press and start the music or the film. Of course, I will get used to it, but how I miss the usual physical buttons!

The third drawback: the headphones are disconnected from the phone while charging. I thought, okay, I’ll connect the headphones with a 3.5 mm cable and connect the charging. I will listen to music. Alas, it didn’t do that either: the headphones are charging, the music does not go. Disconnect — playback starts immediately.

Cable connection

Do not forget, starting with the iPhone 7 you still need a wonderful Lightning adapter — 3.5 mm. The Bose Noise Canceling Headphones 700 comes with a 3.5–2.5 mm cable, traditionally Bose uses an outdated 2.5 mm jack. Why, I can’t imagine. I remember that Nokia loved this cable, and Motorola, too. I even soldered some infernal adapter for Motorola MPx200 to use Koss headphones. As I loved this device, it was just the top one.

So here. We connect the “seven hundredth” cable, listen. Nothing works, the noise reduction is passive (excellent, by the way), it is quite possible to fly somewhere or get there. I would advise you to keep the cable on hand if you are traveling with different airlines: the rules are constantly changing. Now Aeroflot seems to have allowed Bluetooth headphones, but after all, everything can come back. Headphone manufacturers are not in a hurry to abandon the possibility of a wired connection, and rightly so.

Verdict

While the Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 are sold only in the US, the price is $ 399 without state tax. If you are planning to buy headphones, it will not be 26,000 rubles, but more expensive. As for me, the model turned out to be a cut above all competitors in terms of the already mentioned set of characteristics. The headphones fit perfectly, are perfectly controlled, remove noise, delight with sound. You can safely buy..