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What Steven says:

Back with another noise cancelling headphone review. For those who are unaware, I purchase my first NC headset around this time last year, the Sony MDR-1RNC MK2. Prior to buying the Sony the foe that I compare it with was the Bose QC15. I must say the Sony was definitely a good kill. I am not one audiophile however I could hear the rich quality in sound re-production when the NC feature was enabled, absolute premium.

If you have read my review on the Sony I did mentioned that the NC feature has no capacity to cancel all of the noise produced by any aircraft engine nor did it silence all the noisy fans when I worked in a data centre. With my research I have always known that the Bose QC was the better unit in NC however noise re-production wasn’t the best. Therefore at the back of my mind I always wondered if the Bose QC would do a better join in cancelling noise.

Approximately 3 weeks ago I bought the new Bose QC25. Brand new 2014 model which some feature upgrades. The only new feature that I cared about was that the headphone were still operational when the battery is flat. The QC25 still uses a single AAA battery for power compare to the recharge-able NON interchange-able battery of the Sony.


My previous post pointed out that 2 key points which I made a decision to buy the Sony was:

I recently got a new job and at this new place they have an active data centre with a few racks of EMC storage, Cisco 6K and 4K and Dell servers. What I am trying to say here is there are a lot of noisy fan for me to test how well Bose noise cancelling feature is.

In a nut shell I would like to answer the same questions that I posted previously from the Sony review:

Did my purchase meet my requirements? SAME RESULT! EPIC FAIL.
Did my purchase helped? SAME ANSWER
Would purchasing another brand of noise cancelling meet my requirements? After testing two quality brand sadly the answer is NO!



The one thing I noticed about wearing the Sony NC headphone was that no matter how comfortable the cushion over the ear was; I wouldn't be able to wear the headphone over extended hours (2-3 hours). I could feel that the weight of the Sony was heavy therefore I need to take a break intermittently.

--note\\: this is just my personal experience. The sony weigh in at 330 grams where as the Bose QC25 comes in less than 200 grams. The weigh between the two units are noticeably different!.

In conclusion the main reason which made me decide to make this purchase was the WEIGH difference!

SONY MDR-1RNC MK2 vs BOSE QC25

The Bose QC25 only comes with 1 cable with audio control and microphone; I believe that this cable is a proprietary Bose cable that only plugs into the QC25 at the headset end. Where as the Sony comes with a few different quality 3.5mm audio cable and length selection. Both headphone comes with aircraft jack adaptor as standard.

I hope that this review have assisted or provided you with more information prior to making your purchase.

if you are in the market for a great noise cancelling headset but do not want to splurge out $400AUD, go for the QC15 and carry a spare battery with you.

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I cannot compare this product with another noise cancelling headset as this is the only one I own and I have never had a good reason to try another. The only annoyance with using the Bose noise cancelling feature in a quiet office is, it creates a vacuum like suction sensation on my ear, not painful however can be annoying. In a train or in a plane, this annoyance starts to dissipate. 

Again, I have to reiterate, I am not a audiophile and these opinions are my own. Below I shall go through some of the points which I feel are important when looking for a NC headset.

• Comfort, comfortable enough for me to wear the whole day however, I do not wear glasses. People with glasses may think otherwise because it is afterall a overhead headphone.
• Sound quality: I know alot of people beat up Bose with their sound quality but I can honestly find no fault with it. I am almost certain this is partly due to all the marketing placebo or BEAT fanclub brainwashing effect because Bose are very reputable and have been specializing in audio equipment since 1964 unlike many others who branch into making game console, TV, radio etc. Yes SONY and BEATS, talking about you. If BOSE cannot produce great sound, I do not know who else can.
• Weight, heavy enough to feel sturdy and light enough to not be annoyed. Just nice for me.
• Noise cancelling, probably the best according to reviews. I use this mainly for travelling in planes and find the noise cancelling superb. It does not cancel out the noise completely but it does reduce it to a low humming white noise. Singapore airline uses Bose headset for their first/suite class customer as well and that says a lot about this product.
• Battery, AAA and this beats rechargeable li battery anytime. The new battery can easily last over 30 hours. I always carry a spare battery in my carry pouch.
• Looks: QC25 wins handdown compared to the QC15. However the design is definitely not one of the biggest selling point for Bose.