Bose Quiet Comfort 35 Bluetooth Headphones

I came into the office a few weeks ago and Nick was sitting at his desk working with over the ear wireless headphones on. I started talking to him and got no reaction. I spoke a bit louder and eventually he heard me and took off the headphones. I said “what are those headphones you have on?”  He said “the new Bose wireless headphones, they are great.” Joel heard us talking about them and chimed in. He had just gotten a pair and seconded Nick’s recommendation. So I went to my desk and ordered a pair on Amazon.

A few days later I was watching The Circus and my friend John Heilemann walks into an arena where a big campaign event was happening wearing these headphones. I tweeted at him:

He replied:

As I tweeted back to John, the thing I love most is that the bluetooth implementation on these headphones is fantastic. You can pair with multiple devices at the same time and the headphones manage the interrupts. When I am paired with my desktop and my smartphone and listening to music or a podcast or a video on my computer and my phone rings, the headphones pause the computer connection and my phone rings on my headset. The mic on the headset is great and I use it for conference calls all the time.

If you are in the market for a new wireless headphone, check out the Bose Quiet Comfort 35s. You won’t regret it.

#wearables

Comments (Archived):

  1. William Mougayar

    I’ve had the Bose Soundlink Headphones (comparable to the Quiet Comfort but on-ear), and I love them bigly as well! Sound quality is great, and I like how they easily pair with multiple devices.

    1. Girish Mehta

      Is it too late to be hoping bigly that bigly does not become a word ?

      1. Vasudev Ram

        Trumply speaking, I think so …

  2. LE

    Great suggestion. I am going to buy it and will take a tax deduction as well for the usage that I have.

    1. JimHirshfield

      Smarter than Trump?

      1. LE

        Thanks for taking the bait since I had something to say about that. First, interesting that it wasn’t front page print edition story. [1] Second the web story has “exclusive” on it. I can’t remember the last time I saw NYT say that.Anyway it proves out at least one of my theories regarding audits. That is that the IRS has built into it’s discriminate function a) who does your tax return and b) how long they have been doing it and c) who else they do work for and d) if they ever have gotten audited and e) what the results are. Tax profiling. As such Trump’s somewhat small “NY Real Estate Family” tax accountant added to the probability (among other things) that he would get audited based on what would appear on his return in a particular year. It’s actually one of the reasons I use a larger accounting firm than I need and stick with them forever. Another flag might be switching from one firm with x success audit rate to another firm with a higher successful audit rate as another potential flag (once again, among other factors).That said the loss issue and carry forward is a non issue and whining on the part of the press. All legal, all scrutinized and so on. They are preying on the small people’s (or wage earners) lack of knowledge of business and taxes and what is intrinsically fair etc.[1] They were worried about being scooped and the print edition deadline had already passed so they decided not to hold off.

        1. Salt Shaker

          I’ll take the bait. Not an issue of whether Trump is doing anything illegal or not. He obv isn’t. It’s about deception, obfuscation and lack of transparency. Take your pick. Instead of releasing his returns months ago and saying how fucked up the system is and how desperately it needs revising he hides behind a veil of a non-relevant audit. He could have controlled the narrative to his benefit and now he can’t. He’s toast.

          1. LE

            We will have to disagree on this one. I see it as the opposite. The reason is that people are not in a position to handle the “truth”.NYT is making hay on this one (and all other media is following citiing the story) and it’s obvious that his haters will as well. Do you really think that there is a way to get out in front of legal tax avoidance to the common man and have him say “ok I understand business is business”. I don’t.People have a predictable and peculiar way of seeing something that they are not in a position to do themselves. They will state that they are angels or “not as bad” in terms of what they do in paying taxes. This shows that.Showing his tax returns would open him up to every tom dick and harriet poking around and finding fault real or imagined. It’s a big return. Other people who were running for President had returns that were no where near his size. Who cares how much he gave to charity?He is lacking in many areas and I think a Trump presidency would be problematic and has me really worried. [1] But on this he did the smart thing in not “opening up his mouth to bring on more scrutiny”. No question about that.[1] I also think it’s possible that he had a part in it getting out there.

          2. Salt Shaker

            It was inevitable his return would be released, even by illicit means as was the case here. Surprised it took this long, frankly. Always best to get out in front of the story rather than let the story ultimately dictate the narrative. He’ll sue the crap out of the NYT and rightly so.

          3. LE

            This is not “his return”. It is a few pages from a return circa 1995.The documents consisted of three pages from what appeared to be Mr. Trump’s 1995 tax returns.The NYT story has gems of comments that show how common people think. Below is one of them with 4467 recommendations. The other top ones are equally juvenile and show a lack of basic understanding of why tax laws are the way they are (incentives for one thing)..As far as why it took so long because information release (in negotiation or otherwise) is always strategic. You don’t want to (for lack of a better way to put it) shoot your load to early. Look what happened with Obama and his drug use. That was out early and was a non issue. Very likely if it was released weeks before the election it would have tipped it…. https://uploads.disquscdn.c

          4. Salt Shaker

            With the huge carry forward they’re all linked back to 1995. More relevant (and damaging) than likely a reveal of his 2015 return would ever be. Whoever mailed the NYT his return, top sheets or otherwise, was smart enough to know that’s where the huge capital loss emanated from. It is pretty disgusting, legal or otherwise.

          5. LE

            What’s disgusting? That the tax laws are written like that? Or that losses in one area can offset losses in another area (or time period)?He could have also figured out a way I’m sure to sell the loss to someone else possibly which he didn’t do. And had he had other entities at the time that earned profit the loss would have offset that profit. I do that with real estate as well as do many people. Is that disqusting? If one of Warren Buffets companies is operating at a loss don’t you think he uses that loss to offset income in his profitable companies?http://www.hawleytroxell.co…Honestly I wouldn’t be surprised that the fact that the loss had value might have actually given him leverage in borrowing going forward.After consecutive unprofitable years, a corporation may find itself with substantial net operating losses (“NOLs”). The corporation with the NOLs, which is commonly called a “loss corporation,” will generally be permitted to carryback each NOL as far as the 2 years preceding the year of the loss, or carryover the NOL as far forward as 20 years following the year of the loss. Internal Revenue Code (“I.R.C.”) § 172(b)(1)(A). These NOLs provide a dollar for-dollar reduction of future or past taxable income and are valuable assets in the hands of a profitable corporation. The Internal Revenue Code, however, imposes a number of limitations on a corporation’s ability to buy or sell NOLs. Below is a brief overview of some of these limitations.

          6. Salt Shaker

            The laws need to change. No one should be rewarded to this extent for poor biz decisions. There needs to be a cap and/or limit on number of carry forward years.

          7. LE

            Why do you see it as a reward for bad business decisions? It’s also a reward for making investment and taking risk.As an example I bought real estate and improved it quickly by the year end in order to use the loss to offset other income that year. It was not a “poor biz decision”. The property is profitable now and w/o the incentive I would have put off the improvements and perhaps not even done them. The timing was key.Tax laws are (in part) about incentives to encourage or change behavior. Just like there is a federal tax credit (up to $7500) for buying certain electric cars. A direct reduction in taxes assuming your tax bill is at least that amount.We can go on an on about this. We can talk about developers in NYC using foreigner money to build high rises or other incentives:http://gothamist.com/2015/0

          8. Salt Shaker

            The deduction covers an investor’s downside risk but why should the tax paying public share the risk to this extent? They shouldn’t and if a change in tax law disincentivizes an investor like Trump, who is far more outlier than not, so be it. I’m sure a carry forward loss of $900M+ on a personal return is unprecedented.

          9. LE

            As far as the “tax paying public” they are shouldering the burden of many things that a) aren’t important to them personally b) have no say in c) benefit all sorts of people places or things that they don’t agree with. We can talk about taxes that are paid in NJ because of all of the separate school districts each with their own lard.An example is all of that money spent on the 911 memorial which could have went for a better use with more benefit. What a waste including that train station (from what I have read).Anyway to your point:I remember NYC from the shitty 70’s. No question that the developers (including Trump) who took those risks (whatever the incentives, motivations etc.) have made it a better and safer place for a certain group of people. Partly because they pushed all of the poor people out of course which wasn’t fair either.

  3. Justin Fyles

    The Bose Connect app is awesome too, and really simplifies the pairing process across devices.

    1. William Mougayar

      does it come in purple?

      1. Richard

        162 game season boiled down to one game.

    2. Vasudev Ram

      Fred’s Tawkon handset looked like that too.

    3. ShanaC

      I love that

  4. pointsnfigures

    interoperability is key. I have the LG headphones, and they are hard to pair. I wind up using earbuds.

  5. Richard

    Why are ear phones (strange name isn’t it) one size fits all?

    1. LE

      Good question. Greek root ‘phon’ means sound. So we have “ear sound”.

  6. Ana Milicevic

    Big fan of the entire Bose noise-cancelling line – was happiest with the Q3. Thinking of grabbing these but concerned that they’re uncomfortable for longer & more regular wear – e.g. 5+ hrs. Do you have that issue? My Q3s would hit that wall on flights right around that mark so I’ve been favoring in-ears instead (which are only marginally better comfort-wise).

  7. Richard

    Noise cancellation is so yesterday. I’m working an an ear retains https://uploads.disquscdn.c… to avoid the dreaded dumbo ears.

    1. Vasudev Ram

      Make sure to dogfood it.

  8. kenberger

    They are great… BUT… The Sony h.ear has better sound, if slightly less perfect noise cancellation, at same price, features, and specs: http://www.sony.com/electro…Uncanny timing: I just spent an hour comparing them side by side and the Sony’s won for the 11-hour flight I just took. For music, Bose sound is a bit brittle and the active EQ is a bit contrived. Sony has richer sound.For either, the magic trick is that on a noisy jet, turn on noise cancellation and the jet disappears! I kept flicking the NC button on and off for fun.

    1. Vasudev Ram

      Bose vs. Sony – britle / richer – intéressant.Bose (Sr.) an audio guru, Sony a much bigger company …

      1. Vasudev Ram

        > britleOne t broke and fell off – it was brittle …

        1. kenberger

          Cute.

      2. kenberger

        The criticism re Bose being super innovative but often falling short in audio fidelity is a common one across their products. You don’t tend to see Bose mentioned in audiophile-centric reviews. For what that’s worth.

        1. Vasudev Ram

          Interesting, didn’t know that.

  9. Craig Cramer

    I switched to Bose in ear noise cancelling. Much more comfortable and less bulky than over ear. But, except for airplanes ive been using BT wireless jaybird. No cord is much better. BT pairing much smoother on ios10/watchos3. Looking forward to the airpods.

  10. Dennis Noel

    Love the headphones. I use them in airport lounges, on the plane and at night when I need quiet time to focus while on my laptop. Hands down one of the best investments in audio equipment in 2016. My wife can be chatting away and I can barely hear her….I fly a lot of transcontinental flights (4 in last 4 weeks alone), at first the duration bothered me but I believe they needed a little breaking in. IMHO I don’t think you s/b wearing them longer than 8+ hours so if you’re planning a 12-15 hour flight from NY to Dubai or Narita you may want to give your ears a rest.

  11. jason wright

    These work with Android and iOS?

    1. fredwilson

      Yes

  12. Robert Heiblim

    Fantastic work by the team at Bose. You go #BerniceCramer show them what can be done. Wireless is on fire these days.

  13. LE

    Interesting about Bose, that I did not know:The late founder Amar Bose was the company chairman and the primary stockholder until he donated the majority of the firm’s shares to his former employer and alma mater, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in 2011. An annual cash dividend will be used when it is paid out to “advance the research and education mission of MIT”. However, the conditions of receiving the shares state that MIT is not allowed to sell its shares in Bose Corporation. It will also be prohibited from participating in the management and governance of the company

    1. Alex Murphy

      That is really cool! The gift that keeps on giving!

    2. Vasudev Ram

      Yes interesting. Also, I read and blogged awhile ago, that his son (IIRC) Vanu Bose was doing something with Software (Defined) Radio. I find that area interesting, for some reason, though I don’t have the hardware / electronics background for it. There is also a GNU project for it from some time – GNU Radio.

        1. Vasudev Ram

          Thanks, will check that out.

          1. Vasudev Ram

            That site, CrowdSupply, looks pretty good too. Hadn’t come across it before.

          2. Lawrence Brass

            My pleasure Vasudev.They have cool projects, mainly hardware / electronics. The LimeSDR is particularly interesting for anybody interested in software defined radio, at a reasonable price.

          3. Vasudev Ram

            Excellent. Thanks again.

  14. awaldstein

    I have a present to buy and these may be it.

  15. Vitomir Jevremovic

    Now what about mic? it looks like they don’t have one. Talking about interruptions. Answering phone? Skype away from computer?

    1. fredwilson

      They must have a mic. I use them for calls all the time

      1. Vitomir Jevremovic

        Good to know. Strange there is nothing about it on Bose official site.

    2. kenberger

      They have 2 mic’s, one on each can. These are also continually used to monitor the outside noise to do the noise cancellation.

      1. Vasudev Ram

        Do you know how they do it? is it by white noise or sound masking?

  16. Supratim Dasgupta

    I never was able to sleep on flights. not even the long haul 14 hr ones to India. Bought these and I sleep like a baby even on NYC Hartford flights..Haha. The cabin crew find it annoying as they cant hear what am whispering to them when they come with the drinks tray. I dont have the wireless one but the QC15 but i rarely listen to music and for noise cancelling you dont need the wires. So you can say the wireless feature is for only those who listen music.

  17. WA

    The best.

  18. Salt Shaker

    Have Bose headphones and buds. Love the over the ear phones but have yet to find a pair of ear buds where the wires don’t fray badly at friction points after fairly limited use. Not a fan of wireless buds cause they look goofy. Open to suggestions?

    1. Donna Brewington White

      I am pretty much a power user (headhunter) and these are holding get up great. I also carry them around alot. I love these earbuds. Admittedly I use them more for calls and video than music. https://www.amazon.com/gp/a…(Purchased late April)

  19. kenberger

    And unrelated, but Project Fi has become a Rock star, as of last few months. They now include full LTE roaming in an amazing list of countries, for same price as in US. It really improved, based on this week’s NYC visit.I’m sitting here in Azerbaijan, roaming like I only went to New Jersey. And I’ll be fine in Israel, Armenia, Portugal, Mexico, China, Singapore etc, in coming months.

    1. creative group

      kenberger:We were considering Project FI with the Nexus 6P but was hesitant because to use Wi-Fi to access data and not purchase the GB that are allowed in our current plan that reaches 10GB then is is throttled would be $80 with Project Fi to duplicate identical service. What benefit is Project Fi if there service is Wi-Fi dependent? Close to cutting the chord?

      1. kenberger

        not sure i understand the “wifi dependent” part.Fi offers regular domestic and int’l roaming calls + data over LTE, 3G and 2G cell networks. There’s also a wifi component to it, although I haven’t even noticed that part of FI yet, especially since NYC has LinkNYC and transitwireless now.

  20. David Semeria

    All the staff in our office wear buds or cans whilst at their desks, and I’m the only one who doesn’t. Is this because I’m the CEO and a control freak, or something else? It’s not that I don’t like the Idea: I use my Bluetooth buds whilst traveling and my Sennheiser cans at home. Just not at work. Odd.

    1. Kirsten Lambertsen

      It’s becoming understood that music and/or ambient sound can positively effect the brain’s functioning (not just mood). I absolutely know now that if I need to focus hard and crank out a complex project, my curated music tracks for focus will make it feel almost easy.http://www.sciencealert.com…See alsohttp://syncproject.co/which is interesting and has Peter Gabriel, for one, as an advisor.

      1. David Semeria

        I know that to be true, that’s why I have never objected to my colleagues listening to music at work. When I have to work on a project at home I also listen to music. But I just can’t do so at work. I don’t know why.

        1. Kirsten Lambertsen

          Ah got it. I thought you thought it was odd that everyone else was wearing headphones 🙂 Certain environments, I prefer the natural ambient sound b/c I have asmr.

      2. PhilipSugar

        You know it’s funny but everybody is different. I need silence.

        1. Donna Brewington White

          Same here Phil. I’m a music lover but not while working. Exception is when Im trying to push through and stay awake/alert. One reason I miss turntable.fm. Except it was too fun.

        2. Anne Libby

          Me too. I grew up playing music, and when Iistening, it’s like hearing another conversation in my head.

          1. PhilipSugar

            Yes, that’s a good way of putting it.You know people really wanted me to go into music but I really didn’t want to. We all have great influences in our life and this guy was my teacher: http://www.chestnutbrass.co…He won a Grammy playing the Tuba and he always wanted me to follow in his steps. I remember the day he came back with that old civil war Tuba his is holding in his hands that he bought in Nashville. He begged my mother to let me stay for an extra two hours so he could play it along with me playing a traditional one to accompany. (I was too young to drive)He was huge on visualizing the note before you played it.

          2. Anne Libby

            He looks amazing! I feel so fortunate to have had parents who could and would give me this experience — and many wonderful teachers, too. Some of them are still giants in my eyes.

          3. PhilipSugar

            One of my fondest memories of my mother (she died over a decade ago) was her sitting in an overstuffed couch next to a wood stove with a Cheshire Cat in her lap eyes closed listening to us.She didn’t like cats (grew up on a farm) or wood stoves (she died of non smoking lung cancer she must have known her lungs were weak) but she was always happy there.One day he leaned over and said your Mom must not get much sleep she always sleeps here. She quickly corrected him (she was a very quick witted calculus teacher)He didn’t speak much his teaching style was to have a Tuba on his lap and as you played yours he would sometimes gently correct you by playing it the right way.When you got it down correctly you knew because he would then proceed to riff while you played.Even after I learned to drive my mother (of five) insisted on driving and attending my lessons.

          4. Anne Libby

            What beautiful memories, Philip.(I’m going through old photos, letters and journals and other family ephemera with my dad — I hope your family knows this story!)

        3. CJ

          I play music but not podcasts. Podcasts are distracting where music becomes background noise.

  21. Chad Dickerson

    Love Bose headphones. I’ve had the in-ear (wired) Bose QC 20s for a few years and they are the most valued thing in my travel bag. The QC 20s are compact and and fit in a case that’s a little thinner than a deck of cards so I’m not ready to trade them in for travel. . . but I’m definitely going to buy these for home.

  22. bfeld

    Two sets ordered!

  23. S.F.

    Does it work with iPhone 7?

  24. bfeld

    I’m having trouble getting it to pair with my desktop. Any magic trick?

  25. someone

    treat yourself to Grado, handmade in Brooklyn. a $100 pair of Grados blow away anything Bose sells.

  26. Kirsten Lambertsen

    I love all my Sennies.

  27. Salt Shaker

    Which model, please? They range in price from around $30-$700 (for the IE-800’s).

  28. Girish Mehta

    The Sennheiser PX100 was my favorite portable headset for nearly a decade. I had a couple of their higher end (less portable) ones as well, but the PX100 had stunning performance at a low price – used to cost sub-$60 and blew away more expensive headsets. It came out in 2002-03, and I used them many years. Discontinued now.

  29. Anne Libby

    Which model do you recommend?

  30. Rob Larson

    So true. Have not tried these wireless Bose ones, but had a wired noise cancelling Bose set that I used for about a month till I tried a pair of Grados. Much much better sound, for 1/3 the price. Can’t bring myself to put the Bose phones on my head anymore. If sound quality is important to you, you must try Grados.

  31. CJ

    Grado’s are awesome.

  32. Cam MacRae

    The SR225s are a work of art for the price.

  33. Kirsten Lambertsen

    My favorites are the ultralight oneshttps://www.amazon.com/gp/p…These are not as comfy, but boy do they cancel out noisehttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B…I use these for Skype/Zoom/Slack callshttps://www.amazon.com/gp/p…Only one of these (2nd one) is bluetooth. But they’re all the lower price range and are just great.

  34. CJ

    I still have a pair. Awesome headphones and SUPER comfy. They’re my goto work headphones. Just bought these Beyerdynamic DT 990 Premium and they’re awesome. Need a good headphone amp or soundcard to drive them though.

  35. Anne Libby

    Thanks!