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Bose QuietComfort 45: Great expectations, strong competition
Photo: Bose
A high-tech product that after three years is still one of the best in its class is an exception - especially in a competitive and correspondingly dynamic market.
The QuietComfort 35 II Bluetooth headphones from Bose are such a case.
Except for the price, it has been on the market unchanged since 2018, and it is still recommendable.
But the competition has more than caught up, and the QC 35 II lacks today's standards such as Bluetooth 5.1, USB-C and a quick charge function. That is why Bose has now presented a direct and outwardly almost unchanged successor, the QuietComfort 45, or QC 45 for short. The expectations and the footsteps in which it is following are correspondingly high.
The model currently costs 350 euros. In this league of over-ear headphones without cables but with active noise canceling (ANC), the aim is to get as close as possible to the egg-laying woolly milk pig: These headphones should be light and comfortable, last as long as possible without charging and block out external noise as effectively as possible to make traveling by plane or train more comfortable. At the same time, the sound quality should be so good that listening to music or watching movies is really fun. In the best case scenario, they also enable phone calls or video conferencing without any problems.
The competition is great.
I would primarily include Sony's WH-1000XM4 (around 280 euros), Apple's AirPod Max (currently around 450 euros), the Sennheiser Momentum Wireless M3 (around 300 euros) and Bose's own 700 model (currently from 230 euros). .
For some, Microsoft's Surface Headphones II or the Shure AONIC 50 may also belong in this league, or, or, or.
So much in advance: Bose's new model can keep up well here.
Bose offers extremely good noise cancellation
For example, it is outstanding how light and comfortable the QC 45 is with its 240 grams.
Both were true of the previous model, which weighed just a touch less.
Bose's 700 model is slightly heavier, but due to its construction, it cannot be folded up quite as compactly.
The Momentum 3, on the other hand, already weighs 305 grams and the AirPods Max even 385 grams. None of them are really uncomfortable, and I like the fabric cover of the AirPods better than the artificial leather of the others, but in the long run the extra weight is made by Apple and Sennheiser simply noticeable.
In addition, the QC 45s are comparatively flat, and the Momentum 3 in particular looks much more bulky thanks to its thick cushions and temple construction.
This is particularly noticeable on heads with little hair.
On mine, for example.
The QC 45's active noise cancellation is also extremely good. I've been using ANC headphones for years when I've been out, but it's still shocking how noisy the city is when I leave the house with the QC 45 on and then it decrease two crossings further for the first time.
During the test outdoors, in the Berlin subway and at home with this initially somewhat strange, but still suitable test noise video (Dear Neighborhood, I apologize), it was above all far ahead of Momentum 3. However, it is also known that Sennheiser's model does not shine in this discipline. More exciting is the question of whether Bose is beating Apple too, and the answer is out loud: I think so. The difference is small, but it seems to me that the QC 45 takes away a little more in the mid-frequency range.
In the in-house duel with the 700, other testers also see the QC 45 slightly ahead. The biggest difference between the two in this discipline, however, lies in the operation. The 700 has eleven levels of fine-tuning the noise suppression, the QC 45 only two: the quiet and the aware mode, the latter recording ambient noise via the microphones and then reproducing them, which sounds quite artificial. The ANC cannot be switched off completely without switching off all the headphones. In addition, like its predecessor, the QC 45 can only be operated using buttons (and the app); unlike the 700, it does not have a touch-sensitive sensor field.
The ranking list looks different during the sound test. Of course, something like this is always a matter of the application scenario, taste and genre. Personally, headphones convince me when I think I can hear the bass drum skin being depressed at the beginning of Deftones' song "Digital Bath". When the bass in Pearl Jam's "Immortality" goes so deep into the stomach that it feels like a hot water bottle. When the album »Black Earth« by the slow-motion jazz combo Bohren & der Club of Gore sounds as dark as it looks. The Momentum 3 can do it all, even in its neutral default setting. The QC 45 is less good at it. The deepest lows are not his specialty. Because there is no manually adjustable equalizer in the Bose Music app, nothing can be changed.Maybe this will come some time in the future after a firmware update, but I'm not holding my breath on it yet.
Overall, the sound is still pleasant for me.
In the mid and high range, I have nothing to complain about, everything sounds airy and clear.
And to be fair, it should be said that the AirPods Max don't sound as powerful, full and warm as the Sennheiser headphones.
In the other sound check - how does the phone call using the headphones - the Bose headphones show certain peculiarities.
In the video call from a quiet room everything was fine, except perhaps that my "s" sounded a bit sharp, as my interlocutor thought.
I was also easy to understand when making a phone call from the street.
However, the QC 45 seems to be quite sensitive to wind, and passing cars sounded more like “a pod race in Star Wars”, as my colleague stated.
What might bother some headphone buyers is the lack of functions that are taken for granted elsewhere.
As mentioned, this includes a customizable sound and various ANC levels.
The QC 45 does not automatically pause audio playback, for example, when you pull it off your ears.
And worth a side note is the lack of support for the aptX and LDAC audio encoding formats.
Finally, the battery life, here Bose is making up ground again and promises 24 hours for the QC 45, four more than the 700 and the AirPods Max. Sennheiser is well behind with 17 hours.
Sony, however, depends on them all and promises 30 hours for the XM4.
According to Bose, the QC 45 is fully charged after around two and a half hours.
15 minutes on the socket should provide enough juice for three hours.
Conclusion
Bose has launched a worthy successor to the QC 35 II.
But the QC 45 doesn't suddenly outperform all of the competition in all respects - not even the company's own.
It is recommended for everyone who, especially when traveling, wants to have comfortable wireless headphones with them that block out as much ambient noise as possible for as long as possible.
They have to do without a powerful sound and some practical functions.
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