This is a review, listening test and detailed measurements of the Bose QuietComfort 45 wireless/wired Noise Cancelling headphone. It was kindly drop shipped to me by a member and costs US $329.
The 45 has excellent feel and the white color gives it a feeling of luxury. I like the physical buttons with their tactile feel. In use they headphones are mostly comfort but did heat up my head pretty quickly. Manual tells you to download the app which I did. I did not like all the permissions and registration it requires to work. There is supposed to be EQ function in there but in my quick use, I did not find it.
For testing I used the included cable. It eliminates the effect of the BT codec and gives me more flexibility in testing its dynamic capabilities.
Bose QuietComfort 45 Measurements
I started testing while the headphone was off and I was surprised how bad channel balance was. Turning the unit on nicely fixed that other than some disparity at higher frequencies:
With the unit/noise cancelling on, compliance with the target is very good especially in bass. There is just a dip between 7 and 10 kHz, assuming one ignores the channel mismatch. As a result, our relative frequency response looks really good:
I was impressed by how low the distortion was at 94 dBSPL:
Although something is going on between 2 and 3 kHz:
Group delay looks very messy due to noise cancelling circuit when the unit is on:
Notice the latency of about 14 milliseconds so if you are into gaming, that may matter to you.
When I turned the unit on, I noticed the general noise reduction but was bothered by what seemed to be a hiss especially in the left channel. So I measured for this:
As you see, we get noise reduction from 80 to 400 Hz but above that, the headphone electronics is injecting its own noise. Shame that we are stuck between having good frequency response and noise.
Bose QuietComfort 45 Listening Test and Equalization
With the unit off, sound is not offensive but not that hi-fi either. Turning the headphone on brings a revelation with superb bass and excellent overall response. At first I thought there would be no need for EQ but tried filling the gap around 8 kHz and it added nice spatial effects without getting bright:
I just picked the 10 dB as a starting point (measurements say 15 dB) and it worked well enough that I stayed with it. With this filter, the response was essentially reference quality. My test tracks sounded beautiful.
On loudness front, it got loud enough. If you push it you start to get static and grunginess that sets in gradually. Really, for everyday use, it is fine.
Conclusions
Bose should be commended by providing a headphone that complies with research targets when turned on with noise cancelling. If the story ended there, it would get my highest award. Alas, it produces hiss with NC on which while low level, was audible to my ears when there was silence between tracks. That takes it down a notch but otherwise still leaves a positive impression.
I am going to recommend the Bose QuietComfort 45 with or without EQ.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
The 45 has excellent feel and the white color gives it a feeling of luxury. I like the physical buttons with their tactile feel. In use they headphones are mostly comfort but did heat up my head pretty quickly. Manual tells you to download the app which I did. I did not like all the permissions and registration it requires to work. There is supposed to be EQ function in there but in my quick use, I did not find it.
For testing I used the included cable. It eliminates the effect of the BT codec and gives me more flexibility in testing its dynamic capabilities.
Bose QuietComfort 45 Measurements
I started testing while the headphone was off and I was surprised how bad channel balance was. Turning the unit on nicely fixed that other than some disparity at higher frequencies:
With the unit/noise cancelling on, compliance with the target is very good especially in bass. There is just a dip between 7 and 10 kHz, assuming one ignores the channel mismatch. As a result, our relative frequency response looks really good:
I was impressed by how low the distortion was at 94 dBSPL:
Although something is going on between 2 and 3 kHz:
Group delay looks very messy due to noise cancelling circuit when the unit is on:
Notice the latency of about 14 milliseconds so if you are into gaming, that may matter to you.
When I turned the unit on, I noticed the general noise reduction but was bothered by what seemed to be a hiss especially in the left channel. So I measured for this:
As you see, we get noise reduction from 80 to 400 Hz but above that, the headphone electronics is injecting its own noise. Shame that we are stuck between having good frequency response and noise.
Bose QuietComfort 45 Listening Test and Equalization
With the unit off, sound is not offensive but not that hi-fi either. Turning the headphone on brings a revelation with superb bass and excellent overall response. At first I thought there would be no need for EQ but tried filling the gap around 8 kHz and it added nice spatial effects without getting bright:
I just picked the 10 dB as a starting point (measurements say 15 dB) and it worked well enough that I stayed with it. With this filter, the response was essentially reference quality. My test tracks sounded beautiful.
On loudness front, it got loud enough. If you push it you start to get static and grunginess that sets in gradually. Really, for everyday use, it is fine.
Conclusions
Bose should be commended by providing a headphone that complies with research targets when turned on with noise cancelling. If the story ended there, it would get my highest award. Alas, it produces hiss with NC on which while low level, was audible to my ears when there was silence between tracks. That takes it down a notch but otherwise still leaves a positive impression.
I am going to recommend the Bose QuietComfort 45 with or without EQ.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
