Bose QuietComfort 45 Headphone Review

[Bam!]

Congrats, you've made my very short ignore list. Please feel free to add me to yours.

Have a good day!

Yawn! Any other things you want to tell me that will help me sleep?

 

[IAtaman]

I think the text and the graph do not match very well. 5db at 1.5K and 6db at 2.5K would most certainly be audible but the written reviews say it is not so it is indeed a bit confusing. Maybe a clerical error somewhere?

Another hypothesis : these cans correct FR based on what their mics hear I beleive, so maybe the channel imbalance is caused by DSP correcting for different seating between L and R cups and is not present when placed on an actual head?

 

[Zensō]

Another hypothesis : these cans correct FR based on what their mics hear I beleive, so maybe the channel imbalance is caused by DSP correcting for different seating between L and R cups and is not present when placed on an actual head?

Though you’d expect different seating on actual heads as well…

 

[IAtaman]

Battery life is 20-24h like advertised. Not on the insane levels of the Momentum 4 but ok.


Measurements:
Amir on Master Thread: Are measurements Everything or Nothing?

"Headphones: 50 to 80% (measurements too variable)"

I think he is right.

God, you are boring and obtuse. Your recommendation must then also apply to Amir. I trust him more than I trust you.

And for what feels like the thousandth time: it's not a serious problem for him, I don't have a problem with it either with my 35, 45 and 700.

Maybe you should learn to read and apply simple logic?

6db difference means one channel is at double the volume of the other one. And it seems to be at the frequency range where human hearing is very sensitive. We got it, you really like your headphones, but that differenec really requires an explanation.

 

[usern]

1) There probably does not exist active noise cancelling headphone that does not hiss
2) Does this one really hiss more than XM4 and QC35II that has been reviewed before? They do not have noise measurements.

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This 45C noise measurement is using relative units? It's probably measuring noise floor of the mics for the most part.

 

[heraldo_jones]

Really great sounding headphones. For those who want to save a extra bunch of $$$ Bose QuietComfort S are the same but with soft travel bag instead of the hard case.

 

[Bam!]

6db difference means one channel is at double the volume of the other one. And it seems to be at the frequency range where human hearing is very sensitive. We got it, you really like your headphones, but that differenec really requires an explanation.

Yawn again. Me liking the hp is not the point. Amir liking the hp is the point. I wish "we" would get that. And my point is that I cannot imagine that trained listener Amir is not able to spot "double" the volume. Would be nice if "we" would get that too.

 

[ocinn]

Any studio/live mix/mastering engineer reading this thread must be cracking up. The deltas in channel imbalance at those frequencies are huge. It would actually be easier to ace an ABX test due to simply paying attention to if center-panned instruments or vocals become diffuse, and/or fly off to one side. These are very critical areas and would be immediately apparent.

If I have time tonight once I get home from work, I will apply a differential parametric EQ profile mimicking the deltas in Pro Tools/Ableton, LUFS match it, and Foobar ABX. If I can't score a 16/16 then I might need to consider a career path change.

Edit: I should say these are likely a non-issue in plain non-comparative listening which is why amir didn't comment on audibility. Unless you were the mix engineer on the song and knew exactly what it should sound/pan like, it would be really hard to tell, except for situations like a vocalist does portamento or similar and listening to movement in the panning as it passes over the problematic frequency ranges.

 

[amirm]

Folks let's calm down.

My definition of channel imbalance is broad, mostly linear difference in level between the two channels. With the headphone on, we only have variation in tonality in one channel vs the other in rather narrow range:

In my experience, in stereo listening, these variations get lost in the overall experience. Plenty of people (including myself!) have asymmetrical speaker placements that cause variations between speakers. But tonality is fine. To wit, I have tested two completely different speakers for left and right in stereo listening and it is amazing how they still manage to blend in!

My suspicion is that during EOL (end of the line) testing they are measuring and uploading a profile into the headphone to get that kind of perfect matching. This way they can get non-matching, lower cost drivers and perform compensation during manufacturing test. Seems that the matching is only performed up to 1 kHz.

Note how the drivers match again by 3 kHz.

So while I am sure you could find content that would show this as some kind of imbalance, it would be very hard to hear it in stereo as the channels don't play the same thing anyway.

 

[amirm]

If I have time tonight once I get home from work, I will apply a differential parametric EQ profile mimicking the deltas in Pro Tools/Ableton, LUFS match it, and Foobar ABX. If I can't score a 16/16 then I might need to consider a career path change.

I am pretty sure you can do that to just about any headphone. None have perfect matching and even if they did, once you wear them with anything but a fixture, it will cause them to have differing response.

The right test would be a preference test to see if the variations specific to this narrow range cause that to change. My bet is that it won't.

 

[IAtaman]

Though you’d expect different seating on actual heads as well…

True. But the correction is non linear maybe. I thought there might be some "profiles" loaded to the headphone according to which DSP is correcting in an effort to create a certain tuning that might be measured differently by the rig compared to what is heard. Or it might be me just confusing myself which is equally if not more likely.

 

[ocinn]

I am pretty sure you can do that to just about any headphone. None have perfect matching and even if they did, once you wear them with anything but a fixture, it will cause them to have differing response.

Yes, I am adding additional imbalance in these areas to whatever my headphones happen to have on my head, to disprove some members' earlier statements that the deltas would not be audible in an ABX.

The right test would be a preference test to see if the variations specific to this narrow range cause that to change. My bet is that it won't.

I agree, except as I mentioned portamento on vocals or string instruments would make it clearly audible as the image would wander more than ususal, to people (like me) with really picky ears. But to the average Bose quiet comfort owner? Absolutely not.

 

[IAtaman]

I am pretty sure you can do that to just about any headphone. None have perfect matching and even if they did, once you wear them with anything but a fixture, it will cause them to have differing response.

The right test would be a preference test to see if the variations specific to this narrow range cause that to change. My bet is that it won't.

Sorry, I am not very knowledgeable in acoustics and a bit confused. There seems to be a deviation of up to 6db between channels from 800Hz to 3K. Is that what you are referring to?

You put a filter of Q=6 at 8K and that made a difference but 6db at 1.5K with a Q of probably 1.4 does not?

 

[perdido34]

Any feedback from users on real world battery life? Also are there any after market cancellation solutions? I assume you can't do after market solutions because you don't know the transfer function of outside noise to the ear through the headphone as it would be headphone specific.

I haven't checked battery life on my set of QC45s, but there are a number of YouTube posts showing about 21 hours for continuous operations (a few hours less than Bose claimed. Of note, this set of measurements at rtings.com also found a volume imbalance between left and right drivers:
https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/bose/quietcomfort-45-qc45-wireless

 

[amirm]

You put a filter of Q=6 at 8K and that made a difference but 6db at 1.5K with a Q of probably 1.4 does not?

The filter is for the shared dip in both channels around 8 kHz. That is very different than one channel having more energy at some frequencies and less at others in the 1 to 3 kHz region. As I mentioned, we are likely hearing the average of the two channels as far as tonality there so the difference won't be like it seems on the graph.

 

[amirm]

I should report that spatial effects were quite good with the addition of the one filter. It was surprisingly good for such a small headphone.

 

[Zensō]

Of note, this set of measurements at rtings.com also found a volume imbalance between left and right drivers:
https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/bose/quietcomfort-45-qc45-wireless

Rtings + ASR:

 

[peniku8]

Lol what?
From Amirs review:

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:

"Nicely fixed that" but for you it is "6db easy to hear" and obviously therefore a serious flawed headphone. And again: the only relevant mode is "on"...

It's very easy to accept something as "part of the song" if you don't have a direct (and immediate) comparison (keep in mind that sonic memory retention is quite bad). Like you could put 5% distortion on a full mix and people would not care much (unless it's HHD I guess), but if you played the undistorted version of the same song, they'd easily pick up on the differences.
It's also a big difference if you point something out to someone, so they'll start focusing on said aspect. It's easy to miss one thing, if you're focusing on something else.

That being said, my HE6se had a somewhat similar channel imbalance in the same region and comparing it directly to an EQ that fixed the channel imbalance noticably panned the vocals to the middle, while it was panned to the left without the corrective EQ. The differences are immediately obvious if you compare them directly. Not so much if you just put on a pair of headphones that you've never even heard before (like Amir in this review for example).

Heres the channel imbalance my HE6se had (I sent them back for a refund because of that):

 

[Zensō]

That being said, my HE6se had a somewhat similar channel imbalance in the same region and comparing it directly to an EQ that fixed the channel imbalance noticably panned the vocals to the middle, while it was panned to the left without the corrective EQ. The differences are immediately obvious if you compare them directly. Not so much if you just put on a pair of headphones that you've never even heard before (like Amir in this review for example).

This was my exact experience. It was most obvious with lead vocals which are often panned dead center. If there is an imbalance in the lower frequencies, the kick drum can be a giveaway since they are also usually panned dead center.

 

[ocinn]

The differences are immediately obvious if you compare them directly. Not so much if you just put on a pair of headphones that you've never even heard before (like Amir in this review for example).

Yeah, this was precisely my point earlier. Not an issue for people who aren't correcting and comparing, which is 99.999...% of QC45 purchasers, but still an audible (with comparison) fault. Not sure how people are saying it isn't...