Bose Quietcomfort 3 Acoustic Noise Cancelling Headphones Review
Our Verdict
The Bose QuietComfort 3 headphones offering excellent active noise-counterfoil in a compact frame with a rechargeable battery.
For
- Attractive, lightweight pattern
- Fantabulous active noise-cancellation
- Comfortable fit
- Loud, accurate sound
Against
- Expensive
- Music dies when the battery dies
Tom's Guide Verdict
The Bose QuietComfort 3 headphones offer excellent active racket-cancellation in a compact frame with a rechargeable battery.
Pros
- +
Attractive, lightweight blueprint
- +
Excellent active dissonance-cancellation
- +
Comfortable fit
- +
Loud, authentic audio
Cons
- -
Expensive
- -
Music dies when the battery dies
Bose has long been the rex of active noise-cancelling headphones, and the company looks to extend its reign with the QuietComfort 3. These on-ear headphones deliver loud audio with accurate detail. Best of all, Bose'southward active racket-cancelling technology effectively blocks outside racket, creating a peaceful bubble in loud settings. Unlike Bose'southward over-ear QC15s, which require a AAA bombardment, the QC3s use a more cost-constructive rechargeable solution. Merely quality doesn't come cheap, as evidenced by the cans' $349 price tag. Are they worth it?
Pattern
Similar to its big QC15 brother, the QuietComfort 3 has a rather austere design. The majority of the frame is fabricated of black and gray plastic. The very top of the headband is wrapped in soft black genuine leather, and a plushy black mesh secures the memory foam on the underside.
The QC3s take a bit more than bling than the QC15s, thanks to the thick strip of argent plastic chrome lining the earplates. The centers of the plates consist of matte grayness plastic with a prominent Bose logo above the rectangular air ports.
The power switch to enable the active noise-cancelling circuitry is located on the correct plate. The top portion of the right earplate can exist removed, revealing a lithium-ion battery that can be replenished with the included charger.
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The earcups consist of more memory foam covered by black leather, with a small mesh opening in the center. The earcups can rotate ninety degrees to fold flat in the included conveying case. We wish the cans could fold inward for an even more compact shape.
We're disappointed that Bose doesn't offer the ability to fob out its cans with custom paint jobs like consumers can do with the QC15s.
Condolement
The supra-aural (on-ear) QC3s are very comfy; they needed very little adjustment before gently settling onto our ears. We wore the headphones in relative comfort for more than than two hours. By dissimilarity, the AKG K495 NC headphones exerted pressure level on our ears for the kickoff week nosotros wore them. (Those headphones needed to be broken in.)
Thanks to the mostly plastic frame, the QC3 headphones counterbalance only four.8 ounces, compared to the K495'south metal and leather-clad chassis, which weighs 8.3 ounces. The larger QC15s weigh vi.4 ounces.
Audio Cables
Bose ships the QuietComfort iii headphones with two audio cables measuring 65 inches each. I cablevision lacks whatsoever mics or remotes and is simply for kicking back and enjoying your trip, while the other is decked out with a three-push button remote complete with born microphone.
Unfortunately, the remote is iOS-specific, which translates to no functionality on our Nokia Lumia 928 (Windows Phone) and semi-functionality on Android phones such as our Samsung Galaxy S5 and HTC One M8. With our Android devices, we could stop and play music and answer and ignore calls, just we couldn't suit the volume.
Noise-Cancelling
When it comes to active dissonance-counterfoil technology, Bose continues to dominion the roost. Like to the QuietComfort 15 headphones, the QC3s use microphones strategically placed on the earcups. This enables the accompanying technology to create a cancellation signal opposing ambient sound, creating a quiet oasis in even the noisiest of settings.
Despite their smaller size, the QC3s cancel noise just as powerfully every bit the QC15s. The consequence sounds and feels like stepping into a audio vacuum. While effective, the agile noise cancelling provided by the rival $349 AKG K495 NC headphones delivers a subtle white hiss that can exist distracting.
We wore the QC3 headphones on our noisy rush-hour subway commute to piece of work. They blocked near of the ambient noise on the railroad train, including a loud conversation taking place across from us. When we switched over to the K495s, we heard virtually of the discussion, but information technology sounded distant.
Nosotros couldn't hear any chatter after we started playing music on the QC3s. When we paused the tunes, we could hear a few muzzled musings. We experienced similar results with the K495s, but nosotros detected a faint underlying hiss on each track.
Functioning
When they're not insulating yous from the exterior world with electronically generated silence, Bose's headphones tin kick up a joyful corporeality of (good) noise. The QC3s provided counterbalanced highs and mids that were loud and crisp. Withal, the lows could have been more than defined.
As we listened to Michael Jackson'due south "Love Never Felt So Practiced," the QC3s gave the states good separation. We could easily focus on different elements of the rail, such as the strum of the bass guitars, the swelling strings and the clean piano. The King of Popular's phonation was vivid, but not so much so that information technology became grating at loftier volumes.
The K495s are much louder than the QC3s and lack definition on the mids and highs. However, lows on the K495s are more refined than on the QC3s, which is good since the K495s evangelize some sizeable thump. We had some trouble focusing on dissimilar sections of the Justin Timberlake-assisted track, nevertheless, peculiarly the bass guitar.
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To further test the lows, we switched to The Roots' "The Seed (2.0)." The QC3s were respectably loud but were overshadowed by the sheer volume of the K495s. Withal, the QC3s gave a cleaner operation, assuasive some space amidst Black Thoughts' rap, the bass guitar and the kick drum. On the K495s, the instrumentals fought for infinite, creating an overly crowded soundscape.
Bombardment Life
According to Bose, the QuietComfort 3 headphones tin last upwardly to 25 hours on their rechargeable, lithium-ion battery. The AKG K495 NC headphones, which too accept a rechargeable battery, last up to twoscore hours.
Nosotros wore the QC3s for more than three hours, and the headphones were still going strong, alternating between playing music and acting equally $349 noise-cancelling earmuffs.
Unfortunately, in one case the battery dies, then practice both the wonderful noise cancelling effects and the music. The K495s tin can play music subsequently the batteries die; you just lose out on the ANC.
Phone Calls
Using the built-in microphone on the QuietComfort three'southward in-line remote, phone calls sounded crystal clear on both ends. Our caller sounded like he was walking right next to u.s., thanks to the agile racket-cancelling technology that eliminated street racket. On his end, our caller reported loud, clear audio with no groundwork noise, despite our walking upward and downwards a busy New York Metropolis street.
Verdict
For such a small pair of headphones, the Bose QuietComfort 3s pack a potent punch. The cans have the same excellent active noise-cancelling engineering science as the QC15s. In addition, the headphones deliver loud, authentic audio with 25 hours of bombardment life. However, the $349 price tag might be prohibitive for some shoppers.
Jet setters looking for a warmer, fuller sound with longer endurance and a stylish, premium frame should check out the similarly priced AKG K495 NC. Overall, though, the QC3 headphones are the all-time option for travelers who demand good sound quality forth with a heaping helping of peace and quiet.
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Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/us/bose-quietcomfort-3,review-2178.html
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