What a stupid name. At least these headphones have more to offer than their naming scheme. Actually, it’s much easier to find headphones when you only care about one or two features.
For example, if all you’re trying to find is sound quality and calling features, you’ll be able to find a good pair of headphones in about ten seconds. But what happens if you want more than one or two features done well?
Contrary to their name, the Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 are not only noise cancelling headphones. Though their ANC is probably their single most important feature, there are actually a number of other things that help set these things apart.
In a lot of ways, the Bose Noise Cancelling 700 are the spiritual successor of the QC35. Bose knows their customers tend to want cutting edge technologies, so even though the QC35 probably doesn’t need replacement at this point, we nonetheless have one.
| Construction Quality & ANC |
Even though these are over-ear headphones, they don’t have the bland everyday look of ordinary headphones. Large, well-defined shapes help make a solid impression on the viewer.
Since these headphones were designed to replace their previous noise cancelling headphones, the 700 series are constructed with a number of improvements. First and foremost, it’s possible to create more situationally based environmental awareness.
Because you can use 11 levels of ANC. Where most headphones are still only offering one type of ANC, on or off, Bose is already reaching out to nearly a dozen different gradients. That’s because other developers have ANC that tends to compare to Bose’s ANC when it’s played down on the 5th level or lower.
The Bose 700 allows you to control them using touch panels, which are large, and take-up basically the entire outside area of each ear-cup. Since this is a touch panel, you’re actually able to do more than just tap on it. You can draw lines, for instance. That adds a little more complexity to controlling your headphones, but it also means you have more control over them once you get the hang of using them.
Interestingly, Bose made a new companion app, and it’s only being used by a couple of their latest releases. The app is called Bose Music. It actually does much more than the previous app did. It’s able to serve as a far more comprehensive equalizer, which lets you to make a series of different sound profiles, or move between some presets that have been established by Bose.
| Thoughts About Comfort |
When it comes to establishing lasting comfort, over-ear headphones are almost unequivocally the best type. You don’t end up with padding squeezed against your ears, so you can generally get away with wearing them for an entire day.
In this instance, you’ll find Bose did a reasonably good job of picking a high-quality cloth materiel to cover the outer earbuds. It’s both resilient and soft.
Basically every pair of over-ear headphones tend to suffer from one shared problem. That problem is they eventually get hot. Though this is really only a big issue in areas that were already kind of warm to begin with.
It’s becoming more common to see portable headphones given some kind of design that allows you to literally bend them in half. On one hand, that’s great for making some headphones that are virtually indestructible. On the other hand, it doesn’t really do anything for your portability. It also means the ears won’t clamp against the side of your head with any real degree of tension because you don’t have a metallic core inside of the headband.
In this case, you’ll find the Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 Series do not make use of any special flexible design. Instead, they’re constructed around an American steel headband.
| Wireless Connections & Battery Lifespan |
As you probably would expect, Bose went with Bluetooth 5.0 for their 700 series. It’s the newest version of Bluetooth. But you really don’t have to obsess here because virtually any pair of decent Bluetooth headphones should be able to provide you with a stable connection. Unless you actually need to look for the capacity to send your signal past 30ft, or connect with something besides Bluetooth, you generally don’t even have to think twice about your wireless connection.
Can the 700 series hang in there for the long haul? Well, the answer is mostly yes. But it does somewhat depend on how you end up using the headphones. For instance, if you decide to keep your volume at lower, moderate levels, then you’ll be able to end up with several hours of more battery lifespan. If you take many calls, you’ll probably see longer battery lifespans, too.
Since these headphones have ANC, and strong ANC, it’s likely you’re going to end up running that ANC all the time. And you may or may not be aware, but ANC goes through a considerable amount of battery. The higher ANC settings actually take a tad more than the lower settings, but the difference isn’t that big. In either case, using ANC draws about as much power as using Bluetooth.
Still,l you can expect around twenty hours of power from these headphones. You might be able to get out towards 25-hours with certain types of use. In some kind of worse case scenario, you would probably still expect to be able to get at least sixteen hours. Certainly not bad.
| Sound Quality Lifespan |
Like there are different ways to make a car, there are different ways to make a pair of headphones. Some audio developers make things sound better by fine-tuning their hardware. Bose goes another route, they tend to get audio quality by taking run-of-the-mill hardware, and then using software tricks to make your ears think it sounds good.
Here, Bose has done an excellent job with smooth bass,which is something they tend to do a pretty good job of in all their headphones. However, there are still the kind of common sense limitations you might expect imposed on over-ear headphones. Since there isn’t a subwoofer involved with their design, you probably won’t be busting your eardrums with those bass notes. But the smooth bass section can be boosted with an equalizer if you think it needs a bump.
If you really cared about sound quality above all else, at this price, you’d really be better off moving to a headset like the Sennheiser 600HD. But some people aren’t going to be able to deal without solid ANC. When you can actually listen to your music, it’s much easier to appreciate.
And the 700’s ANC delivers fantastically. It’s everything the QC35 could ever offer, except expanded upon in almost every way. The idea was to let you hear your music even when there’s some ambient noises around you, and they’ve succeed at least in that much.
| Additional Features |
Have you ever taken a close look at an Amazon Echo? Inside, you’ll find four microphones. Some voice assistant devices actually use more than four. But multiple microphones is really essential for helping the voice assistant to hear your voice while ignoring other sounds in the environment.
Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 are built with full voice assistant support, including support for both Google Assistant and Amazon’s Alexa.
Additionally, these headphones include a carrying case, audio cable, and a USB charging cable. The carrying case is just a zip case, it’s nothing to get carried away about. But it’s a nice little addition for people who want to take care of their headphone while traveling with them.
Verdict – Bose Noise Canceling Headphones 700
Going with Bose isn’t always a good call. When you’re picking headphones without noise cancelling, you’re generally better off skipping Bose. But they’ve still got the best ANC on the market, and the Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 series is just more proof of it.
These headphones deliver on multiple fronts. They come through with voice assistant support. They come through on noise canceling. They come through on comfort. If you’re willing to pay for the best, the 700-series are worth a go.
But if you wanted to save a couple bucks and keep similar-quality ANC, you would probably be better off running the Denon AH-GC30. They’re almost just as good — and since it’s last generation technology, you can grab them for a small fraction of the price.