Design and features:The headphones work with or without the noise-canceling feature being turned on. You can use the noise-canceling feature without listening to music. These headphones can be used wirelessly with Bluetooth devices or can be cord connected. When cord connected have medium sensitivity regardless of whether the noise canceling feature is turned on or off, so they can provide satisfying volume levels when used with home audio equipment and all but the lowest powered portable audio devices. The QuietComfort 35 has an integrated microphone and volume, music player function, and call connect/disconnect controls that work with paired Bluetooth devices. Additional features include support for Google Assistant and Siri digital voice assistants, NFC Bluetooth pairing, and earcups swivel to flat for ease of carrying and storage. This model comes with a detachable 44-inch long standard audio cable, a USB charging cable, and a carrying case. The free Bose Connect app download for Apple and Android mobile devices can be used for setting up the headphones.
Sound quality: We found the QuietComfort 35 Series II provides excellent active noise reduction and that the sound quality was pretty much the same when the noise cancelling feature was turned on or off in the Bluetooth or turned on in the wire connected mode. When used in either of those modes it delivers sound quality that falls in the excellent range; while no headphone is perfect, the shortcomings of this model are minor. The overall sound can best be summarized as clear but a touch etched and slightly bassy. Bass (as in bass drums, bass guitars, stand-up bass, etc.) has good impact and goes deep, but is slightly prominent and boomy. The midrange (voices, guitars, horns, etc.) is fairly even, but a bit grainy and etched (a bit more sharply outlined then it should be). The treble (cymbals, the upper range of violins, etc.) is fairly extended, but a bit dry and prominent. The sound has a good sense of liveliness and is somewhat open--sound-wise it almost seems like you don't have anything covering your ears. In the wire connected mode with the noise canceling feature turned off the Quiet Comfort 35 Series II has a noticeable plastic resonance (something like what you would hear if you talked into a semi-rigid plastic cup) and is less bassy, and the sound quality declines to good. These headphone provide excellent noise reduction overall. When the noise is coming from the front noise reduction is fairly even across the entire frequency range with the low frequencies reduced the most, when the noise comes from the sides or rear the low frequencies are reduced somewhat more than the high frequencies. When the noise canceling feature is turned on there is a faint hiss that can be heard in quiet environments when there is no audio program material to mask it; in some situations the noise reduction feature might make some users feel like their ears are a little stuffed up, and if these headphones are connected to AC powered audio equipment there may be an increase in background hiss. There was no difference in sound quality or noise cancelling performance between the QuietComfort 35 Series II and the QuietComfort 35 that it supersedes.
Comfort: We found that these headphones produce a light sense of pressure around ears. As typical of over-ear models the ear pads might feel hot and/or sticky after prolonged use. Users with smaller heads might find that the headphones feel unstable and shift forward a bit when they lean far forward, but they don't fall off, and they may find they can't get a good earpad seal (the earpads gap at the top) and that the less-than-optimal fit affects the sound quality by causing the bass to be a bit subdued. When wearing this model while walking the vibrations from each foot step can be heard through the headphones.
