With many a rival chomping at its heels, noise-cancelling headphone inventor Bose is pushing the innovation envelope again. Meet the new, flagship wireless Bose Noise Cancelling Headphone 700, boasting improved styling, engineering, and ergonomics.
Most significantly, the 700 jump out of the crowd with two-way noise cancellation—signal processing that clamps down sonic distractions on both the listening and the speaking sides. That’s a combination punch never tried before in a consumer headset, says the maker, and one that aims to greatly reduce miscommunications, whether you’re talking on the line to a real person or to your favorite digital assistant: Siri, Alexa, or Google Assistant. Yes, these breakthrough headphones support all three.
So far, I’ve listened to the 700 for as long as seven hours straight without feeling fatigued. And these entertainers can keep at it for 20 hours between battery charges, making them ripe for an international sojourn. That number holds even with the Alexa voice-detection feature left on. A full charge with the supplied USB-C cable takes 2.5 hours; a quick charge of 15 minutes supplies 3.5 hours of playtime… Comfort contributions are also made by the surprising flex of the headphones’ metal band and its extended rim of padding, the four-way wiggle in the ear cups, and a reasonable weight of 8.96 ounces.
MacDailyNews Take: We’ve used several Bose noise cancelling headphones over the years and this model sounds like the state of the art.
I’ve used Bose noise cancelling headphones. The electronics are superb. But I twice had to return them because the plastic fell apart. Then it happened after the warranty expired. Duct-taping them to keep the units in one piece was aesthetically displeasing, so I went to another brand.
The ear cups on mine started to disintegrate after 2 years, fortunately a generic replacement was easy to buy, though annoying to install.
No highs, no lows, must be Bose.
Wow, people are still peddling that stupid slogan. Ignorance lives for ever.
That’s what’s called “natural sound” : )
(If you want over-pumped and distorted bass there are other options.)
I like Bose products generally, but for noise cancelling headphones opted for the Sony model.
The new Sony’s that have good reviews also?
Just curious how they stack up against each other.
The Sonys have more features, most of which are useless except for the ability to tap and swipe on the right-hand side to pause, adjust volume, advance a track, and let the ambient noise through temporarily to hear an in-flight announcement).
I found the Sony WH1000XM2 more comfortable (though bulkier), quieter, and with a touch better sound quality. They also have 30 hour battery life, which is great. I fly a lot and they’re always charged (and can be charged in the plane in most cases, so maybe battery life doesn’t matter as much as I like to think).
The only problem is they automatically shut off if there’s no source (if you just want to read or sleep with them on, as I like to. They’ve fixed this in the new WH1000XM3 model, but for me I must either have a headphone cord plugged in, or keep my iPhone connected via Bluetooth to keep the noise cancelling on.
I had several Bose products over the years. Some really sucked (Cinemate, 151 speakers) some pretty good (Acoustimas 3 for stereo) and my favorite, an 18 year old WaveCD player used in the master closet and a pair of regular headphones for my Mother that were both lightweight and good sounding.
I’ve used both brands. Sony’s were superior.