Question Bose QuietComfort 35 headphones have poor sound quality ?

[jefrey195762]

i bought a used pair of bose qc35 headphones a few months ago, and while the noise cancelling is fantastic, the sound quality seems very poor. the treble is very shrill and there's very poor detail rendering. i can't use the bose app because i'm using them on a windows 10 laptop (android emulator doesn't work and don't have access to an android smartphone to run in between like some owners do). i have however tried to use fx sound app, which works great on other headphones, without much success. i'm worried somehow i got knock offs, especially since the headphones show up as 'nautilus' in the bluetooth section, not bose.

has anyone had a similar experience, and have i just thrown about $125, or is there some solution? thanks

 

[kerberos_20]

the thing is, you will need to get audio oriented bluetooth dongle with AAC or aptX codec support, regular bluetooth dongles arent usable, atleast drivers for them arent usable as they rely on windows support, and microsoft is really behind (only SBC)

but there are out there audio oriented bluetooth dongles which can support proper audio codec streaming, which improves audio quality by quite abit
here example of such bt dongle
https://www.google.com/url?q=https:...Transmitter-Indicator-Selection/dp/B089PYFLBN

 

[jefrey195762]

wow, that's alot to take in. didn't have any idea that could be the issue, nor did i see on any forums on this issue this possible solution. these adapters, if you don't live in the u.s., are pretty expensive-60 or 70 dollars. maybe i'll just save it and use it towards sennheiser 450bt's, even though noise cancelling is said to be inferior to bose, or will i have the same issue with them?

 

[kerberos_20]

senheier is bluetooth 5.0...most integrated bt adapters are bt4.x...but ye youll get similar issue as this one will want aptX HD

cant you use 3.5mm trs analog cable? integrated soundcard isnt really top quality dac/dsp unit, but still should have better audio quality then common bluetooth over SBC

 

[jefrey195762]

senheier is bluetooth 5.0...most integrated bt adapters are bt4.x...but ye youll get similar issue as this one will want aptX HD

cant you use 3.5mm trs analog cable? integrated soundcard isnt really top quality dac/dsp unit, but still should have better audio quality then common bluetooth over SBC

that's part of why i'm confused. even using non bluetooth--directly to computer--sound is very mediocre wih no noticeable improvement. bass is pretty good but mids and trebles just cheap sounding. my samson sr850s and sennheiser mx375 earbuds sound much better, to the point where if i need noise cancelling i use the sennheisers and put the bose on top of them for the noise cancelling! how can the anc headphone suppliers--bose, sony, anker, sennheiser et al--just ignore the millions of people who use windows laptops and cater just to android smartphones, as big as the market is? i don't get it. also, i mentioned that my bose show up as 'nautilus' in bluetooth device list; isn't this an indication that these aren't authentic?

 

[hang-the-9]

that's part of why i'm confused. even using non bluetooth--directly to computer--sound is very mediocre wih no noticeable improvement. bass is pretty good but mids and trebles just cheap sounding. my samson sr850s and sennheiser mx375 earbuds sound much better, to the point where if i need noise cancelling i use the sennheisers and put the bose on top of them for the noise cancelling! how can the anc headphone suppliers--bose, sony, anker, sennheiser et al--just ignore the millions of people who use windows laptops and cater just to android smartphones, as big as the market is? i don't get it. also, i mentioned that my bose show up as 'nautilus' in bluetooth device list; isn't this an indication that these aren't authentic?

Bose sound is pretty much exactly what you describe, especially the earlier noise canceling models. It is probably exactly how they were built to sound, you just don't like how they sound. The Sony ones should be better if you want to swap to those and sell yours. And keep in mind when you turn on noise cancelling that is going to affect how they sound since the headphones are adding in extra work and sound information in negative waves to the noise they are trying to cancel out.

The bluetooth name is just a custom name someone set up for them. I bought a set from a friend of mine and it comes up as "blackdiamond" in bluetooth.

For the bluetooth audio quality, you want to have a minimum of rev 4.2 on both sides to get the better audio quality.

 

[jefrey195762]

Bose sound is pretty much exactly what you describe, especially the earlier noise canceling models. It is probably exactly how they were built to sound, you just don't like how they sound. The Sony ones should be better if you want to swap to those and sell yours. And keep in mind when you turn on noise cancelling that is going to affect how they sound since the headphones are adding in extra work and sound information in negative waves to the noise they are trying to cancel out.

The bluetooth name is just a custom name someone set up for them. I bought a set from a friend of mine and it comes up as "blackdiamond" in bluetooth.

For the bluetooth audio quality, you want to have a minimum of rev 4.2 on both sides to get the better audio quality.

thank

 

[jefrey195762]

thanks for your comments, especially regarding 'nautilus' device name. a strange phenomenon is that even when plugged in to laptop, sounds worse (!) without anc on. i think i'll buy a bluetooth 5.0 adapter for 20 bucks or so to see if it improves sound quality to tolerable, since the anc is phenomenal. i just still can't fathom that the sound is this mediocre and all the reviews i read and watched were raving about it, and that there's no app for windows users.

 

[jefrey195762]

is there any chance the sound is poor because they were set on the bose connect app to certain equalizer settings and now since i can't access the app they just stayed on those settings and they're not good for my laptop and listening taste?

 

[hang-the-9]

is there any chance the sound is poor because they were set on the bose connect app to certain equalizer settings and now since i can't access the app they just stayed on those settings and they're not good for my laptop and listening taste?

Maybe, no way to know aside from guessing. You can check to see if there is some factory reset you can do on them. There is no Bose app for the phone you use? I'm guessing if not Android must be Apple, unless you don't have a cell phone at all which would be very odd these days.

 

[jefrey195762]

Maybe, no way to know aside from guessing. You can check to see if there is some factory reset you can do on them. There is no Bose app for the phone you use? I'm guessing if not Android must be Apple, unless you don't have a cell phone at all which would be very odd these days.

sorry to respond so late. tried bluetooth adapter without luck on my old laptop-yeah i'm using them on a asus budget windows laptop so no bose app (absurd)--and for this and other reasons bought a new laptop and they sound much better plugged in and a bit better with bluetooth and anc. just good enough that i can't justify spending hundreds of dollars on new versions of bose, sony or sennheiser anc, but still a bit disappointing...thanks to all of you for trying to help...