Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700

amazon Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 reviews

The Bose Wireless Noise Canceling Headphones 700 offer great audio performance, hands-free voice assistant access, and the best active noise cancellation you can buy.

Bose dominated the active noise canceling (ANC) market with its QuietComfort line of headphones for years. The Massachusetts-based manufacturer wrote the book on noise cancellation and always seems to be one step ahead of the competition. The new $399.95 Bose Noise Canceling Headphones are the first model from the company to exist outside of the QuietComfort/QuietControl lineup. They offer a more streamlined, modern interface, built-in support for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, an improved microphone system for clearer communication on calls, and the best noise cancellation we’ve tested.

Design

Available in black or silver, the stylish, minimalistic Noise Canceling Headphones 700 features a graceful headband that connects to over-ear cushioned earcups. The fit is quite comfortable even during long listening sessions, and the leatherette earpads passively block out a lot of background noise even when ANC is not on. The outer surface of the earcups and headband is as sleek as an eggshell.

The right earcup’s outer panel has a touchpad, power/pairing buttons, a voice assistant button, and status LEDs. Double-tapping the joystick plays and pauses music, swiping your finger up or down to change the volume, and swiping forward or backward skips tracks. Long-pressing on the panel will give you a battery life reminder, or you can customize this action to enable or disable wake-up for the voice assistant. For calls, single tap answer, tap and hold decline, and press the voice assistant button during a call to mute the microphone. It’s one of the more intuitive and useful controls we’ve used on wireless headphones, and it’s easy to learn and operate.

The left earcup houses the ANC button, as well as the connection for the included headphone cable. The audio cable can be used with headphones for passive listening when the power is off. When the headset is on, and the cable is connected, the Bluetooth functions are automatically turned off. The difference between audio performance in passive and active wired modes is dramatic, and some users may prefer the lighter emphasis of the passive audio signature on the bass. Unplugging the cable when powered on will trigger automatic pairing with your mobile device. The cable lacks a microphone or inline remote, a no-brainer, as wired mode disables on-ear controls.

The included charging cable connects to the USB-C port at the bottom of the right earcup, and the other end of the cable is a standard USB-A plug for use with any compatible port or charger (though not charger included). The Noise Canceling Headphones 700 also ships with an impressive flat zip-up travel case that the headphones fold flat in, with an interior compartment for the included cables.

Bose estimates up to 20 hours of battery life, but your results will vary significantly based on volume levels and your use of ANC and other extras.

Apps and Voice Assistant

The Bose Music app (for Android and iOS) guides you through pairing your headphones, giving them a name, and choosing the music services you want to access through the app (Amazon, Deezer, and Pandora are some options). Once done, you can set up the voice assistant of your choice.

Setting up Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant is a simple process. Still, you need the corresponding app for each service (Amazon Alexa or Google Home) on your phone for it to work. The voice assistant button on the right earcup defaults to Siri on iPhone but will call up the voice assistant of your choice once the in-app setup is complete. What’s more, you can set Alexa to always listen for its wake word if you want, so you don’t even need to press a button (Google Assistant doesn’t work with alarms yet, though Bose says this functionality is coming soon). The microphones are particularly sensitive, and you can control Amazon Music hands-free with voice commands, just like with a smart speaker.

The app also offers ANC control, allowing you to dial the level of noise cancellation from 0 (none) to 10 (maximum). The ANC button on the left earcup can cycle through your “favorite” ANC settings — defaults are 0, 5, and 10 out of the box, but you can assign any three values ​​in the app to the cycle through button is pressed. Pressing and holding the ANC button on the left earcup puts the headset in conversation mode, automatically switching the level to zero, allowing you to hear your surroundings.

You can turn off voice prompts, change the language of the prompts, and set some more granular variables like adjusting how much of your voice you can hear when you make calls through the app. Detailed battery life status is also listed on the home screen.

Bose plans to introduce augmented reality apps that work with its products, so there’s a Bose AR button in the app. This feature is a bit underpowered for now, limited to apps that are essentially interactive maps or discovery tools for things to do near your location. It’s potentially very exciting, but we’re still in the early stages of this feature.

What’s missing in the app? EQ. Bose says this will be included in a future update, but it’s not there for now.

Noise cancellation and mic

Bose avoids a common mistake with wireless ANC headphones: There is very little difference in audio performance in different noise cancellation modes. ANC has little or no effect on how the headphones sound, which is not usually the case. There’s also no extra squeak, which isn’t true of many competing ANC models.

As mentioned, the ANC comes in varying intensity levels, paired with an ambient microphone that picks up the outside world so you can hear your surroundings when you want. We’ll discuss level 0 in a moment, but first, let’s talk about maximum ANC, level 10: This is probably the most effective noise cancellation I’ve heard so far. It blocks most of my typing as I write this, along with almost any hint of the relatively loud AC hum in my office. It also eliminates the wide bands of low-frequency rumble you hear on planes and trains and significantly reduces ambient chatter.

Going back to level 5 is quite helpful — you still block out a lot of noise, but you can now hear some of your surroundings without distracting them. I guess that people will use these headphones on levels of 5 to 10 because max ANC can sometimes be almost too quiet, especially if you’re not playing music.

Level 0 is what other ANC manufacturers often refer to as ambient or hear-through mode, but here it’s much more natural than any other ambient mode we’ve tested. The mics pick up on your surroundings pretty well, and the levels are adjusted to match reality to an impressive degree. There is very little difference between sounds around you when the headphones are on and at ANC level 0 and what they sound like without the headphones. Another impressive feat here is the absence of lag — most ambient modes include a very subtle delay that’s noticeable as you’re typing (clicks come later than they’re happening) or chats with someone. So level 0 is an impressive new height for ambient hearing.

However, this means that there is never any true ANC off for the Noise Canceling Headphones 700. Mode 0 uses ambient microphones, and modes 1-9 are different ANC levels specified mixed with those mics. At level 10, the ambient microphone is not mixed. Regardless of whether ambient or ANC microphones are active, the only way to completely turn them off is to turn off the headphones and use them in passive mode, which significantly affects audio performance.

Bose has developed a mic array system that focuses on your voice and cancels out nearby background noise, making phone calls clearer and offering voice communication with more effective digital assistants. It also provides excellent intelligibility for calls — using the Voice Memos app on iPhone 8, we understood every word we recorded clearly and crisply. There are still hints of Bluetooth audio artifacts blurring the edges, but the background noise is no longer an issue, even in windy or noisy environments.

Sound performance

On tracks with intense bass content, such as The Knife’s “Silent Shout,” the Noise Canceling Headphones 700 deliver powerful low-frequency depth while tuning the highs to balance everything out. At the highest level, listening is not good; the bass is not distorted. That is not a sound notation for purists, but bass lovers will be pleased.

Bill Callahan’s “Drover,” a track with less deep bass in the mix, gives us a better sense of the general sound characteristics of the Noise Canceling Headphones 700. The drums on this track sound almost thunderous lightning — they’re not super buoyant, but they have more bass than they’re accurate. Thankfully, the bass is balanced with the presence of clear highs-mids and highs, keeping things clear rather than disturbed by the richness of the lows and lows.

In Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “No Church in the Wild,” the kick drum gets a lot of high-mid presence, allowing its attack to retain its punch, while the hiss and The vinyl hiss that is usually brought down to the background will lose the next step in the mix. But the loop’s sound also rises in the lows, and the sub-bass synths that break the beat are provided with plenty of additional depth. The vocal performances on this track are delivered crisp and clear but with a bit of extra sound at times.

Like the opening scene of John Adams’ The Gospel According to the Other Mary, orchestral tracks tend to pack in too much bass. It doesn’t sound absurd, but the lows are noticeably pushed forward in the mix; strings and vocals retain their clear, bright presence despite enhancing the bass.

Conclusion

For $399.95, the Bose Noise Canceling Headphones 700 live up to the expectations set by the QuietComfort line and add to the experience with superb microphone clarity, enhanced voice assistant functionality, and ANC controls more detail.

For $50 less, the Bose QuietComfort 35 II is still one of the best ANC headphones on the market and your top pick next to the 700. Beyond the price, the basic difference between the QC 35s II and the Noise Canceling Headphones 700 are completely different physical constructions, lacking an adjustable ANC, a different microphone system, and the need to press a button to use the phone’s voice assistant.

Suppose your primary concern is audio performance, with momentarily powerful noise cancellation. In that case, Sony’s $348 WH-1000XM3 headphones are a great option with plenty of basses and High-frequency clarity, along with an EQ function to please audiophiles looking for a more balanced notation. Meanwhile, if these prices are out of your budget, the more affordable Marshall Mid ANC headphones offer solid sound for $279.99, though their noise cancellation doesn’t mean the same class as other headset models.

Advantages

Ambient listening mode and best-in-class noise cancellation.

The microphone is great.

Powerful bass depth.

Comfortable to wear.

Disadvantage

Expensive.

Sound sculpting is not for purists.

No EQ.

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Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 — Over Ear, Wireless Bluetooth Headphones with Built-In Microphone for Clear Calls & Alexa Voice Control, Black: Buy it now

Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 UC, with Alexa Voice Control, Black: Buy it now