Bose QuietComfort 25
Before there was Beats, there was Bose. The QuietComfort line is
the original über-popular headphone line, even if it's aimed more at
business travelers than teenagers and celebrities. The latest addition
to Bose's lineup looks similar to previous models, but the QuietComfort
25 has some new design flourishes here and there. At $xxx, it offers
notable improvements—namely, the ability to use the headphones in
passive mode. The QC 25's sound signature is heavily sculpted, with a
focus on bright highs and rich lows, so it's probably not for purists
seeking flat response. But if it's top-shelf noise cancellation you're
after, it's hard to beat this over-ear headphone pair. The QuietComfort
25 easily earns our Editors' Choice award for noise-canceling
headphones.
Design
While the incredibly comfortable QC 25 retains the overall look and
feel of it predecessors, there are design updates that seem to
acknowledge that a simple black-and-metallic design no longer cuts it in
the current headphone market. There's now a white-and-tan color option
in addition to the more standard black-and-gray model. If that's not
enough for you, you can customize your headphones for $xxx extra and
give them a variety of wild color combinations. It's a decidedly un-Bose
move, and speaks to the influence Beats has had on headphone design.
The headband is covered by canvas-like cloth on the top, with ample
padding on the underside. The circumaural (over-ear) earcups are, as
always, exceedingly plush. Aqua blue grilles line the insides of the
earcups, with large L and R letters identifying each cup's respective
ear.
A detachable cable connects to the left earcup, and the Power switch
(which light ups green and activates the noise cancellation circuitry)
is located on the right ear. Bose has made a significant design
improvement in the QC 25 and given it an ability previous QuietComfort
models lacked: It can be used as passive headphones without power. In
other words, you can still listen to audio when the battery is dead, or
simply when you don't really need the noise cancellation feature
running. There's no auto-off function, so it's pretty easy to mistakenly
leave the Power on and kill your battery quickly, leaving you with no
noise cancellation feature (but at least with a pair of still-functional
headphones).
The included cable features an inline remote control and microphone.
Many headphone pairs these days ship with a second replacement cable,
and it would have been a nice inclusion with the QC 25 for this price.
Bose occasionally takes something as mundane as the zip-up protective
case and makes it worth talking about, and that's the deal with the QC
25's included case. There's an etched diagram inside displaying how the
headphones fold down to perfectly fit the case's slim contours,
something other headphone companies would benefit from copying. A small
compartment houses an extra AAA battery and the airplane jack adapter,
handy things to keep on-hand. It isn't fancy, but it makes more
efficient use of a small amount of space than most headphone cases do,
allowing the QC 25 to be a better travel companion.
Performance
Bose's noise cancellation circuitry continues to be the best in the
business. Although the in-ear blocks out more ambient noise, the new QC
25 does an amazing job of shutting down the drones, whirs, and hums of
modern life. You can still hear someone talking to you fairly easily
when the QC25 is engaged; with the in-ear pair, someone could be trying
to talk to you and you might not even notice. However, the entire QC
lineup including this pair manages to simply be the best at reducing the
constant clamor of work environments, planes, trains, and machines.
In passive mode, the treble and bass are both dialed back
dramatically, along with the overall volume level. Switch to active mode
to enable the noise-canceling feature and things get brighter, deeper,
and louder. If there was ever a knock on the QC series, it was
that the headphones didn't sound particularly amazing. Over time,
however, the line has introduced more balanced sound signatures.
On tracks like The Knife's "Silent Shout," which has a tremendous
level of sub-bass content, the QC 25 delivers quite a bit of low-end.
The QC 25 doesn't distort even at top, unsafe listening levels, and the
bass is intense. More moderate listening levels still feature plenty of
bass response, but it's not quite as boosted as a Beats headphone pair.
Bill Callahan's baritone vocals have a richness to them that needs
little help in "Drover," but the QC 25 boosts the lows and low-mids a
bit, anyway. The drums get heavier than they need to, but again the bass
boosting doesn't approach ridiculous levels.
On Jay-Z and Kanye West's "No Church in the Wild," the kick drum
loop's attack gets enough high-mid presence to retain its sharpness and
slice through this dense mix. The sub-bass synth hits that punctuate the
beat don't get nearly as much low-frequency boost as they would on a
heavier-bass set, but they still sound quite powerful.
Classical tracks, like the opening scene in John Adams' "The Gospel
According to the Other Mary," get a nice low and low-mid boost that
allows the lower register strings to stand out a bit more than they
normally would. The high-mids and highs, meanwhile, stand out enough to
allow the vocal parts and the higher-register strings to retain the
spotlight. This is a crisp, clear response, with some flashes of added
richness in the bass realm. It's the Bose sound: Brightness with bass,
but not too much bass.
If the mega-bass experience is what you're looking for, the is a
powerful option with decent noise cancellation, and the is one of the
best-sounding pairs with noise cancellation (but not the best noise
cancellation itself) we've tested. If you're looking for the best noise
cancellation available, that honor still belongs to the Bose QC 20
earphones. And if you're on a budget, but still want some decent noise
cancellation, the in-ear offers a reasonably effective experience.
At $xxx, the Bose QuietComfort 25 is still a noise-canceling
headphone pair first and a music lover's headphone pair second. But Bose
introduces new improvements (like passive listening mode) with every
model that keep QuietComfort on top of the noise cancellation market,
and the over-ear Quiet Comfort 25 easily earns our Editors' Choice.
