QuietComfort 20 Acoustic Noise Cancelling Headphones – Apple Devices

I bought the Bose quiet comfort 20 few months ago at £178, so I had time to tested it properly before writing this review. The first question that I had was “is it worth buying wired earphones in the wireless era”? The answer is definitely yes. I use those with my iPhone XR together with the apple adapter (I tried a non apple one and it did not work properly): the sounds quality is perfect and the noise cancelling is great. I also bought a Bluetooth adapter to link these earphones to my Kindle Oasis, and the noise cancelling works perfectly (the sounds as well but it is referred to audiobooks only). These earphones are very comfortable to wear, and adapter with different sizes are present in the package. I tested the sound quality on classic music and pop music, and the quality is very high. In terms of noise cancelling, I was pleasantly surprised. I run a test together with a friend of mine in a pub: we listened to the same music by using the Bose quiet comfort 20 and another high quality over ear headphones (cannot declare the brand here, but trust me, they are worth around £400). The noise cancelling of the earphones was far superior to the over ear headphones. As a frequent flyer, I used it on the airplane to shut down the noise around, including loud chatting and crying babies. On the bus, instead, you can still hear the engine down; this does not affect significantly the experience, as I can clearly listen to music and audiobooks without problems. The same does not apply to regular earphones. The material is quiet robust, even though I read other reviews where customers were complaining about the poor quality. I disagree with those, as I found them solid. Of course, you need to look after them properly and not simply dropping them in the bag. If you use the case provided and you do not stretch the wires abruptly and extensively (as for any wired earphone or headphone), then they will last without displaying any sign of use. Battery life is declared to be16 hours, which seems correct. The battery for the noise cancelling is external and can be a bit tricky to deal with while walking. No great fuss honestly, as you can put it inside the pocket of a jeans or a jacket. In summary, I strongly recommend this product for all frequent travellers and commuters, for music enthusiasts and for audiobook listeners. It is cheap compared to other wireless options, and the fuss of the wire is, in my opinion, minimum compared to the advantages of the noise cancelling earphones (great during summer either, in contrast with over ear headphones, for isntance).

I bought these having left my Sony active noise isolating headphones in the lounge of an airport much to my wallets dismay. However, looking upon the bright side I figured this was a good excuse to look for new - and therefore hopefully better - solutions. Previously I've had two pairs of the Sony digital headphones which were excellent to be honest. The main disadvantage being that being over ear they are larger and therefore bigger to carry around in limited cabin baggage as well as being in the way if I nodded off during the flight. However, given previous in ear solutions which had always been a bit of a let down I stuck with them. But, as ever technology moves on and needing a replacement for my stupidly lost pair I decided to check out the reviews for in ear active noise cancelling earphones and by a country mile these Bose ones came out on top in most top ten lists. And, whilst I'm a bit sceptical of so called professional reviewers - and a slight bias against Bose which I associate with roll neck jumper wearing cobblers - the volume of positive reviews swayed me. So, here I am in possession of a swanky pair of Bose active noise cancelling headphones that in comparison to anything I've used before blows them all into the weeds. Really. Firstly, they are really comfortable to wear even on a long flight. They fit perfectly despite the ear buds being odd shaped. Clearly a well researched and considered design for the human ear. When you first push them in think that they are not secure because the pressure is so low compared to a more conventional pair of ear buds but, in fact they are very solidly in place despite the initial feeling. Sound quality is superb. Really superb for in ear items. Deep base and a great soundstage to use the poncey kind of gobbledygook used in What HiFi. Simply put I haven't heard a pair of in ear speakers sound so good full stop. Then when you switch on the noise cancelling the reason you've just shelled out 250 quid becomes clear. I tried these without any sound input when I first used them on an Airbus 321, sat behind the wings and therefore in cattle class on a budget aircraft in the noise line of the engines. Clearly it was pretty noisy where I was sat and yet as soon as I switched these on it felt as if I'd gone deaf. Honestly, almost all of the ambient sound vanished instantly. It was so startling I tried the effect three times for laughs. Once you then put on the sound from whichever thing you are using as the source the final tiny bit of external sound vanishes into the background. Its frankly, startling. So without a doubt these are fully worth the 250 quid if you travel by air regularly, because they make the whole experience slightly less miserable. Now, like all things in life there are a couple of niggles. Especially given that these are not actually resident at the cheap end of the market. Firstly, if you buy these chances are you are looking at the noise cancelling for the hell that is flying and as such if you buy these you would expect them to be geared to working with aircraft systems, In other words the weird twin plug fittings that are still in place on most aircraft. But, Bose don't supply the adaptor which means that you might buy these unknowingly and then find that once ensconced on board you can't use them. This is a bit penny pinching when you consider the upfront cost when far cheaper items come with everything you need. So factor in another fiver for the adaptor. Most of all, make sure you get one. The other slight irritation is that the carrying pouch is a bit low rent, but most of all quite small. And I can see this being a bit of a long term problem because the USB charged power supply has the cables fitted into each end of the unit and when in the pouch they are bent over quite hard which I'm sure is putting strain on the wires. I can imagine that if you regularly take them in and out of the carrying pouch and do so without being careful the long term effect could be broken wires. Overall though, for what these are made for they are superb. Best noise cancelling earphones I've ever come across.

Bought these headphones on Black/Cyber weekend 2015 for £150(!) for flying long haul, mostly Joburg, 10-11 hours overnight. Wife bought Bose over ear noise cancelling a couple of years back, and recommended them, but these were on offer, and I find over ear a bit bulky, esp. for overnight/sleeping. Three sizes of swapable plug for ear. Middle size is fine for 6ft male (how that determines ear size I have no idea), unusual design keeps them in place and sound sealed. Cuts out white noise very well. Lets in a little more deep engine rumble than I would like. You can also just about hear cabin announcements (if listening to own device) which is probably a good thing, on balance, however frustrating they might be. Certainly good enough to make conversation with cabin crew impossible, mercifully have not managed the crying baby test yet. Have also used successfully on inflight systems with twin plug converter. Sound quality is very good, but obviously dependent on source. Haven't tried with HD audio sources. Designed to work with Samsung - I have Tab S2 8in for movies and TV - but not all apps respond to full set of commands from the in-line controller. Google music and Amazon video are good, BBC iPlayer appears less responsive - volume up/down OK, but no pause/play. Having said that, I can never remember all the combinations of how many taps, whether to release or hold, etc. My (android) Google Nexus 5x also works pretty much as well as Tab S2, in terms of the controls. Without testing all android phones, I suspect it should/could be marketed as Android rather than just Samsung. On overnight flights, I tend to flip to my old iPod nano 3, and put on an album of classical piano music, to fall asleep to. The ear phones continue to shut out the (white) noise after music finishes, which I find leads to more restful sleep. The ear pieces are more than comfortable enough to sleep with for 6-8 hours. Battery life more than adequate for 11 hour flight. Recharges in a couple of hours. BTW I am still trying to work out why sometimes the Tab S2 doesn't recognise the headphones, and plays thru the speakers, a bit annoying on a plane, or train. Restarting the Tab2 without moving the headphones seems to fix the problem, so I suspect the problem may be more with the Tab2 than the Bose.

Fantastic noise cancellation especially in the lower frequencies. I have worn these in the car, at work (industry) and use them for sleeping. They cancel out near 70-90% of Low loud droning. Perfect for travel. The sound quality is good and the noise reduction means you don’t need to have them turned right up in a noise environment. The buds are comfortable and can be worn for 10 hours + with no discomfort caused. They stay in the ear well and don’t feel intrusive. I manage to sleep with them in on my side but I do lay on my hand as they extrude from the ear moderately. The battery pack can be a little annoying but when you are used to it it’s less of a problem. You get around 20 hours + of charge time which I think is very competitive and they recharge in 2 hours. The only issues I have found is that the charge cable could be longer, it’s small to fit in the carry case but it doesn’t give you much spare length for awkward charging. The headphones can squelch when adjusting in the ear when first wearing and they can squelch very loudly on sudden large pressure change (shutting a car door with all windows closed) this can be uncomfortable and I initially thought they had been damaged. The quality seems ok but I expected slightly higher of plastic parts for the price. I wasn’t surprised as other reviews had already hinted at this. I’ve tried them for running, which they are not designed for and they do an ok job. In summary, great for travel. Noise cancellation is impressive even compared to Bose over ear QC25s. Size is small and comfortable. Wiring fiddly with extra battery pack. Battery impressive. Battery and charge: 10/10 Build quality: 6.5/10 Sound quality: 7.5/10 Noice cancel: 9.5/10 Ease of use: 7/10 Price for product: 8/10 Over all: 8/10

Short Summary: Worth Every Penny!!!!! Ive now had two pairs of these headphones and i feel i can give a simple but thorough review on them, first lets start with the positives and negatives! Pros -Deep and Perfect Bass -One of The best noise cancelling devices around -Light -Comfy for long hour listening -Amazing sound quality -Battery is very strong Pros Overview This earphone is truly amazing, i have had serveral types of headphones, earphones, speakers etc. And i can trll you right now that they are amazing and have been eorth every penny. However i do want to mention that sound quality is 100 times better with noise cancelling on. As soon as you switch the noise canceeling on, the music takes you to some place, and the intensity of the bass a long with the music is just kind blowing, you will literally feel as if you have a mi i subwoofer inside you, words can not describe! The noise cancelling itself is also amazing, whether you want to sleep on a plane or on a train, it cancels out around 85% of the stable noises in my opinion, great for bad sleepers! I do admit the earpiece will take you a while to get used to it (it comes with different sizes) but as soon as you do it becomes super comfy, and you wont want to put those hard plastic ones on ever again. Cons -The battery pack can get annoying to put in pockets etc... -Takes a while tomget used to the earpiece -Very Weak Audiojack Cons Overview Your probably wondering why i am on my second pair, for such a price you should expect these to last for a few years at least. The whole earphone is very strong and rugged, but i do feel that if there is anything that is poor in the build, its the audio jack (not for sound quality issues). With my first pair i only dropped it a few times and with turnulence in planes and what not i noticed it started to bend untill eventually the sound stopped working on the right ear. And so i took it to the bose store and unfortunately since it was my fault, all they managed to offer was 50% off on a new pair, which i believe was quite generous, so thanks for that Bose! There is really only lne annoying thing in this earphone - the battery pack. Dont let the pictures fool you, although it might be slim you will have trouble fitting it into tight pockets and it will be the most annoying thing when transporting it around. Overall this has been one of the best purchases i have made in a while, it is just so effective at it's job that it has been worth every penny for me, dont hesitate to ask any questions! I hope this review has been helpful. P.S i bought this at a bose store not on amazon, picture is attached below!

After trying quiet a few in ear headphones for my daily commute on the train, which either where super uncomfortable, or simply not good enough to let me listen to Netflix while the trains rattle along, I decided that it was time to get a decent set and went for the Bose QuietComfort 20. I had them for a week now, and I have to say, that these headphones are by far the most comfortable ones to wear that I ever owned. You can barely feel them once they are fitted and I can see why some reviewers say that they can wear them all day long. When it comes to sound quality, I am surely not an expert, but to my untrained ear they sound excellent. The active sound cancellation is also working very well, nearly all of the rolling and wind noises of the train are removed, also I can still hear my fellow passengers to a small extend. The only issue with the noise cancellation that I have experienced so far is that whenever a train passes my train at high speed, the control algorithm overcompensates, which leads to some rather unconformable popping in the ears (hence the 4 stars for sound). With regards to battery life I have not really pushed them to their limits, but there was no issue with them lasting all week long for my commute (about 5h in total). The Bose QuietComfort 20 are great, and I can finally enjoy music and movies without having to push the sound level from my phone to the maximum, so I can highly recommend them to everyone that is willing to invest in a good set of in-ear headphones.

My experience. If, like me, you are buying them mainly for sound canceling, then they are the best I have tried for the in ear style of headphones. I believe the very best experience is with the over the head headphones, but I don't like them for every day use, so I haven't got them. These earbuds will not eliminate all sounds, car tires, seagulls and people talking loudly, can still be heard, but there faint and will definitely soften them, this is with just sound canceling on and no music playing. Put music on and then they can not be heard. Loud sounds like a car horn or similar levels you would still hear, which is good for safety. Speaking of safety, theres a button on the side of the volume control that lets you turn sound canceling on or off and then enhance the surrounding area sounds. This nice, mainly use it for when I am going to cross the road so I can hear better. But for the majority, there great and all continual background noises will be gone. But, there is some downsides to them. So much so that I would wonder about recommending them. That is the price, for the cost I don't know if there worth it, still unsure. On one hand, I bought them for sound canceling, and for that there great, very happy. But on the over hand, the price is high and my main problem with the headphones is the cable rub you get when walking. It drives me insane. Seriously, it is sometimes quieter for me to take the headphones out and listen to the would around me. If you are not listen to music and have the sound canceling on please be aware the loudest thing you are going to be hearing is the cable as it rubs on your clothes, hate it. If you have music on, no problems. Also, they are useless in the wind. But to be fair most earbuds are bad in the wind. My other downside would be the sound quality, it's fine. That's the problem. For high end, high cost earbuds, I expected better. I have some £40 earbuds that sound better. But like I said, there fine, just don't expect to have them sound like your in the room with the band when they play. If you are mainly after sound quality, I wouldn't recommend them. If you are mainly after sound canceling, I would. But just take into consideration the previously mentioned points. Pros • best sound canceling I have tried for earbud style of headphones. • Good build quality. Cons • High price • Sound quality is fine, but nothing special • No good in the wind • OMG! The cable rubbing sounding, I hate it.

I ordered these, thinking they may just get returned as soon as they arrived, the reason I am a real fan of the Bowers & Wilkins Brand, so when these arrived, along came my second pair of C5 Series 2 ( I originally had the C5 ) at the same time as a comparison. The professional Audiophile Shop I sometimes buy from said "Bose where overrated, over priced and the C5 Series 2 still the best for the price and sound quality". Well in all honesty I put the B & W phones on first, oh yes rich, warm sound and improved bass came across. I was almost tempted not to even open the Bose box. Well I did and I am so pleased that I made a comparison, these fit the ear, so comfortable I forget they are in, the sound quality is rich enough and the bass seems well balanced with no distortion. They certainly sound better with the noise cancelling switched on, when you turn it off there appears to be a significant drop in the volume, or is the back ground noise creeping in. I am not sure I could enough them with it switched off. The battery, this is the subject of many magazine reviews and some go as far as saying they never got used to it. My first test was two 30 min gym bike sessions, the first time I left the battery and ipod on the console, the long cable very sufficient to sit upright when required I am 6ft 6". The second test I left the ipod and battery in my shorts pocket while exercising. I never noticed the weight, it never caused a problem, happy in a shirt pocket etc. One real plus with these, is that I fly a lot, my wife cannot here these even on full volume with me sat next to her, something worth thinking about if your considerate or have ever suffered someone else tunes when you just wanted to close your eyes. Which take me to another plus, you want to close your eyes, some one near you is non-stop chatting, someone else's tunes, just pop them in and turn on the noise cancelling. I am converted and surprised, these cam out I believe in 2012/2013 so the fact they are still be manufactured and sold is a statement.