Dampen the Din: Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 vs. QuietComfort 35 II

With the release of the new Editors' Choice-winning Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 ($399.95), you might think the Massachusetts-based manufacturer would discontinue its storied QuietComfort lineup and branding. But the Bose QuietComfort 35 II ($349.95) headphones are still on sale, and still offer top-notch active noise cancellation (ANC). If you're thinking about buying one of these pairs, there's more to consider than simply the $50 price difference.

Before we get granular here, let's make one thing clear: There are other ANC headphones that we like—Bose doesn't make the only great options. Sony's $350 WH-1000XM3 headphones arguably deliver better audio performance (with adjustable EQ), with exceptionally strong ANC, while the Marshall Mid ANC headphones offer solid noise cancellation and quality audio at a much more budget-friendly price.

But if we are naming the two pairs of headphones that offer the most effective noise cancellation on the market, regardless of audio performance or extra features (which Bose is also quite good at), the Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 and the QuietComfort 35 II are the top two horses in the race. Read on to help decide which pair is right for you.

Active Noise Cancellation and App

Both models knock it out of the park here, but the QC 35 II offers three noise cancellation modes, while the NCH 700 offers 11. The high ANC mode for the QC 35 II is fantastic, and similar to the noise cancellation you can expect from the highest level on the NCH 70, level 10. But we give a very slight edge to the NCH 700 here in terms of how much outside noise it tamps down.

The real difference is between the various other modes, however. The low ANC mode for the QC 35 II is useful, allowing you to still hear some of your surroundings while dialing back ambient noise to a noticeable degree, while the QC 35 II Off mode seems to be, well, simply an off setting.

On the NCH 700, levels 1-9 mix varying degrees of ambient room noise with the ANC—so levels 6-9 are very effective at tamping down noise, but allow you to hear your surroundings to a degree, while levels 1-5 are more focused on letting in outside noise and adding only a small amount of ANC. Level 0—the NCH 700's answer to Off mode—is actually a listen-through mode. Plenty of headphones can give you a similar experience to this—some refer to it as Hear Through or Ambient Aware mode—but the NCH 700's implementation is the best we've heard. There's no delay here, whereas many competing models offer ambient awareness modes that have a slight slapback. Also, the levels are nearly perfectly matched to reality. Listening to a room with headphones on and set to level 0 is quite similar to listening without the headphones on your head at all.

The NCH 700 headphones use the Bose Music app, and this is where you can make the granular ANC adjustments, as well as assign favorite settings to one of the buttons on the headphones. The QC 35 II headphones use Bose Connect, a slightly more limited app. And of course, its in-app ANC adjustments are limited to three settings, as just discussed. Ultimately, both models offer great ANC, but the NCH 700 offers far more user-adjustable variations on it.

Physical Design and Operation

Both headphone pairs are comfortable, but the design edge has to go to the more stylish-looking NCH 700. The sleek, modern NCH 700 headphones look cooler, while the QC 35 II are more corporate. Bose did liven up the QC 35 II's looks with some new color options a while back (one is reminiscent of the rose gold iPhone), but the NCH 700 models, available in black or silver, simply look more trendy.

They both feel great over long listening sessions, but the NCH 700 beats the QC 35 II in terms of operability. The QC 35 II use an array of physical buttons, while the NCH 700 integrates an intuitive touch-sensitive control surface on the right ear's outer panel, with dedicated buttons for ANC and voice assistant activation. The panel controls playback, call management, track navigation, and volume, and is quite easy to operate.

Voice Assistants

Both headphones have Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant support built-in, but the way in which they're implemented is different. On the QC 35 II, you have an Action button that must be pressed in order to summon Alexa or Google Assistant (you determine this in the Bose Connect app). If you don't use a voice assistant, you can assign the Action button to control noise cancellation (switching between off, low, or high levels). In fact, that's how the QC 35 II is set by default—if you never add Alexa or Google Assistant, the Action button is the ANC button.

The NCH 700 headphones get the win here by adding a dedicated voice assistant button and building in wake-word functionality, which lets you trigger your voice assistant of choice simply by saying its wake word, as if you were using a smart speaker (you can disable this feature if you don't want the mic to always be listening). Currently, the NCH 700 can only use wake words with Alexa, but Bose claims this functionality is coming for Google Assistant. Regardless, there are dedicated ANC and voice assistant buttons as well, so you don't have to choose which function you'd like to assign to a single button.

Microphone

While the QC 35 II delivers relatively clear mic audio, it still suffers from some typical Bluetooth headphone mic distortion—nothing overwhelming, but there's some fuzziness around the edges of words. The NCH 700 mic delivers a more crisp recording with less distortion. The NCH 700 also uses a mic array that also tamps down surrounding noise, so if you're in a loud coffee shop, or walking around on a windy day, these background noises are quieted to a noticeable degree. The people you call, as well as your voice assistant, will be able to hear you more clearly with the NCH 700.

Audio Performance

We'll be blunt here—Bose has always been a leader in the audio innovation field. Its headsets are used by pilots and NFL coaches. You won't find its headphones on the desk of many sound engineers, however, and that's because Bose favors a heavily sculpted sound signature, often boosted in the bass and treble departments.

So what you get with the QC 35 II is a very sculpted sound with rich bass depth, crisp highs, and plenty of digital signal processing (DSP) at higher volumes to prevent distortion. The NCH 700 also has a DSP-loaded, heavily sculpted sound signature, with plenty of bass-boosting as well. Between the two, neither is terribly accurate, but most popular music sounds full, rich, and bright through either pair.

Both headphones are quite good at conveying bass depth at low volume levels—not something all headphones do well, but something the Bose DSP really excels at. Kick drums and bass guitars sound heavy and thick even when listening to music at relatively low volumes. Right now, for instance, I'm listening to a Queens of the Stone Age track on the QC 35 II at very low levels while I type, and the kick drum has some serious thump to it despite volume being lower than the mid-level setting.

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Battery Life

This one's a draw. Both headphones claim battery lives of "up to 20 hours." The wording here should prepare you for actual results that are somewhat lower. The factors will be volume levels, use of wireless versus wired playback (both can be used in wired mode and ship with audio cables), and of course, use of noise cancellation.

Which Pair Should You Buy?

It's pretty simple when you break it down, right? If the NCH 700 headphones didn't exist, the QC 35 II would be the top noise-cancelling headphones on the market, as they have been for some time. But the NCH 700 takes Bose's stellar noise cancellation to a new level—literally—by allowing granular user adjustment of ANC levels.

Add in the more intuitive control panel, wake-word voice assistant control, and comparable audio performance with the QC 35 II, and the NCH 700's higher price seems justified. Bose essentially took its excellent ANC and built a more modern shell around it, with some useful new features and a better app. Both the QuietComfort 35 II and the Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 are worthy of high praise, but we feel it's worth spending $50 extra on the latter to get upgrades in several key areas.