Unboxing and Packaging
The Bose QuietControl QC30 active noise canceling bluetooth headphones comes in the usual premium Bose packaging. The box folds open left and right revealing the headphones in a molded plastic tray. The headphones come with three sized ear tips, USB charging cable, and a largish semi hard plastic zip case. The zip case reminds me of my old Sony Discman. The lid part of the zip case has a elastic pocket that is perfect to store the charging cable.
Build Quality
Remember that this is a US $299 pair of headphones and I expect nothing but top build quality. The QC30 feels premium. The cable is round, thick and soft. It comes out of the neck band into the ear piece without any sign of possible areas for breakage. The neck band has a matte rubber finish that is pleasant to touch. The back part of the neck band is much thinner than the front and sides. It feels good riding on my neck directly. The cables are quiet short so there are not a lot of slack when wearing the headphones.
Comfort
The StayHear+ QC ear tips, at least for me, are some of the most comfortable ear tips. There is absolutely no pressure in my ear canal, yet it provides a good seal so that the noise cancelation works extremely well. The neck band is light enough that I forgets it is there after a while.
Controls
The neckband has one button, recessed into the band material, on the right side. It is the power button, and also serves as the bluetooth control button. The button is small and somewhat difficult to click. There are two very small, almost pin hole like, color LEDs next to the button. One is for power/charging. The other one is for bluetooth status.
The power LED shows green when on, and yellow then flashing red as the battery level decreases. During charging, the LED will flash amber, and go to solid green when fully charged.
If you hold down the power button for a few seconds, it will enter bluetooth pairing mode, and the LED will blink white. Solid white means the headphones is paired to at least one source.
The right hand side wire also has an inline control. The inline control provide volume up and down, and a center button for play/pause. On the side of the control there are two buttons for stepping the noise cancelation level up or down. I counted 12 steps of control. I wish there is a key press that will immediately take the noise cancelation down to zero. This is available on the Bose QC20i wired noise cancelation headphones.
Bluetooth
The bluetooth implementation is one of the best feature of all newer Bose bluetooth headphones, including the soundSport Wireless. The QC30 will stay connected to two devices at the same time. When one of them output audio, the QC30 will switch to that device. I normally have the QC30 paired to both my Macbook Pro and my iPhone7 at the same time.
The impressive feature is that the QC30 actually stores pairing information on up to eight different devices. If the last top two devices are not available, it will go down the list until it finds devices that are available. This means that I can have the QC30 connect automatically to my work laptop plus my iPhone 7 when I am in the office, then automatically switch to my home laptop plus the same iPhone when I get home.
If the QC30 takes too long in looking for a device, you can press the power button with 3 seconds of powering on to force it to go to the next device.
At home, the bluetooth connection holds for about 20 feet in my semi-open house. In the office, the connection holds for over 40 feet in a open plan office. I would expect more interference in the office but that is not the case.
Battery Life
The QuietControl QC30 took just under 2 hours to be fully charged. The battery ran out after one day of hard use, with about 3 hours of conference call and music listening inbetween. I estimated the battery life is around the claimed 6 hours total.
Sound Quality
A lot of people, myself included, use to think a bit less of the Bose sound signature. However I find that the QC30 sounds good. With Eric’s Song by Vienna Tang, her calm detailed vocals shine through clearly. On Exit Music (For a Film) by Radiohead, the deep vocals is clear without being over bearing. Yorke’s voice is haunting and you can hear all the details over the simple guitar.
Sting’s A Thousand Years is my go to track for testing out deep electronic base at the beginning of the track. The QC30 performs well for a pair of earbuds style headphones. Listening to Viva La Vida by Coldplay, where Chris Martin add layers upon layers of tracks as the song build up, each instrument tracks can be heard clearly. Sound stage is wide. The sound stage is even better when playing Happy Theme Song by Grace Kelly. Her sax is punchy and warm up front as the rest of her ensemble plays in the back around her. Finally, a fun track to listen to is Black Horse and the Cherry Tree by KT Tunstall. It’s simply enjoyable through the QC30.
Not to forget, the active noise cancelation works extremely well both in a simulated test environment, playing white/brown/pink noise in the background, as well as in my office. The QC30, just like the QC20, completely cuts out ambient noise from the AC and other lower frequency hums. The ear tips have enough passive isolation that I can barely hear regular volume talking 10 feet away.
The one area that the QC30 seems to fall down is the microphone quality. I assume that it is using the noise canceling mics on both ear piece to capture sound. On my conference calls, the receiver on the other end tells me the audio is just ok, and is definitely assuming I am using so sort of bad mic.
Conclusion
Since I bought and used the Bose SoundSports wireless as my primary running and around the house headphone, I have been waiting for the QC30 to come out. The QC20i (wired noise canceling version) has been my travel headphones for a while so I know the noise cancelation is going to be as good on the QC30. Together with the great bluetooth implementation, the QC30 is now my main headphones for everything — office, gym. I only switch to my high end setup when I am sitting down for a true music session. The convenience and the comfort of the QC30 simply is a winning combination for everyday use.
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Bose quality sound, with engineered problems makes this ultimately not a keeper unless money is not a concern to you
At $300, the most expensive around the neck bluetooth headset, there's an expectation of near perfection which this product doesn't have.The good:- Sound quality is great. Great as in lots of base which is what Bose EQ is known for...while still doing well at the the mid and high tones.- When noise cancellation is turned up, it also is doing noise cancellation on the mic for the person you're talking to...and doing it pretty well.- Once Bose went to the in-ear with extra noise baffle, it does a good job at reducing noise in addition to the extra tech that also does noise reduction.The Bad:- The around the neck is almost equally proportioned in it's design. It's counting on it's rubberized material to be sticky enough not to twist around (which it's constantly doing). Any around the neck needs to have a shape that allows gravity to help keep heavier weighted areas in the lowest position (eg LG Tone Ultra). See pic on how it's constantly spinning.- The earphones can't be attached to the neckband, which means they're constantly dangling/catching on things. Magnetic clipping to the ends would alleviate this problem, but would already increase the size of these large ear accessories.- No fast forward/reverse buttons- The primary microphone is in the right earbud, which means if you are wanting to just one-ear it, you have to do the right ear or risk having the mic constantly having scratching noise from it rubbing against shirt/chest.Long term concerns:- Since the earphones are always dangling, I'd expect with long term use I'm going to loose more than one ear mold getting caught and popping off.- Having owned 3 other Bose over-ear Quietcomfort headsets (which all have had earpad and headpad deterioration of materials after 2 years), I know they have their industrial design honed for 2-3 year material breakdown. I'm concerned that the rubber used will start becoming sticky and intolerable after 1-2 years of use (like my Bose SoundSports have become).- I have right ear hearing damage from using a Bose Bluetooth headset Series 2 for podcast/music listening at too high a volume (trying to use it in too noisy environments), so I am very careful now with volume and single ear use. When doing voice audio content (podcasts/audio books etc) I specifically always use both ears to make sure I don't turn the volume too loud and cause hearing damage. A good note is I've been able to keep the volume at a lower level than my other headsets, so I don't think I have to worry too much.Noise Cancellation Notes:I came with the expectation of similar noise cancellation as my QuietComfort headsets. You could turn it off (and hear whatever ambient noise comes thru), or you could turn it on (it does it's best to eliminate all background noise period). That is not how the noise cancellation works with these (and ultimately why the battery life of the QC30 is as short as it is). When the headset it powered on, the headphones are constantly outputting sound. Using the Bose app, what you're adjusting with more/less noise cancellation is the amount of sound that is either relayed from the mic thru the headphones, or how much external noise is cancelled by the headphones. Why I say this, is because if you turn off all noise cancellation thru the app, you can hear everything around you like you didn't have any earphones in. However if you power down the headphones, you get the natural noise reduction of having an in-ear headphone occluding external noise.I think this is a conscious engineering choice, and serves two purposes:1) It makes the "noise cancelling" feature seem more impressive as you adjust it's level up and down2) Technically I think they designed the headset to be worn 100% of the time, and adjusting the noise cancellation level using the two dedicated buttons when the situation around you is you're talking with someone, or when you want to block out as much as possible all external noise.I think this decision is flawed for several reasons:1) It's quicker/easier to just pull the earphones out rather than spend the 4-6 seconds constantly adjusting the noise cancellation amount up/down based on the situation2) Designing earphones for 8-12hr regular usage is fundamentally flawed. If you were trying to leave noise cancellation up, you are going to be affecting your hearing long-term. You also get what I'd call "ear fatigue" because having the noise cancellation enabled for 2-3hrs, then taking them off you can feel a difference, and your ears adjust/recover from the noise cancellation experience. 8+hrs of constant earphone use is not productive and ultimately fatiguing: Why I love the around the neck design is precisely that I CAN remove the earphones when not in active use quickly and easily, and put them back in when you need them. The engineering choices of this headset work against this use case.At $150, I might consider putting up with it's flaws for the sound quality or without knowing ultimately because of materials/use I'm probably only going to get 2, maybe 3 years use out of them...but ended up sending them back in the end. The search continues for the best around the neck bluetooth headset.
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Nick
Essential if you need quietness in an office setting or school
Reviewed in Canada on September 1, 2019Color: BlackVerified Purchase
Cliente Amazon
Costano, ma ne vale la pena: COMODITA' e QUALITA' insuperabili!
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Auriculares impresionantes
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