Bose QuietComfort 20 Acoustic Noise Cancelling Headphones for Apple Devices (Black)

Product Information

The sound level when riding and using the Bose system seems about equivalent to a pair of good-quality soft disposable ear plugs. In fact, for some reason, helmet wind noise seems more noticeable when wearing the Bose QC20 headphones than when wearing the Moldex PuraFit 6800 ear plugs. As with other Bose headphones, the sound is quite good but not great. The Bose sound signature tends to be safe. By that I mean it's designed to take everything you throw at it -- all types of music, well recorded and not so well recorded -- and make it sound decent. So the sound you get is nice and smooth but not highly detailed. And while you get plenty of bass, it's not necessarily the tightest bass. It’s timed 180 degrees out of phase, such that the highest peaks of the ambient sound waves coincide with the lowest valleys of the processor-produced “cancelling” sound waves. I’ve seen plots of the sound-dampening capabilities of a handful of various models, measured across the audible frequency spectrum.

I’m assuming that the Bose noise cancelling headphones of both the over-the-ear and in-ear type will be used mostly by airplane passengers. I see Bose headphones quite often on flights. The good news is that the earbuds — excuse me, in-ear headphones — will still play without the battery. These things work. It’s amazing actually. You throw the switch and the world simply quiets down by about a factor of 10. Literally.The system takes about 1 second to switch on and off, and I don’t know if this is correct or if it’s the switch that isn’t quite engaging fast enough. So, the cancelling wave might not perfectly cancel the offending wave even if it makes it there in time. But they don’t reduce the types of motorcycle noise as well as I’d hoped, including wind noise and exhaust noise.

And while the QuietComfort headphones don't offer the same the granular ANC adjustments of the Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700, they're better at tamping down both powerful low frequencies as well as restaurant-like mids and highs. So if you want the best noise cancellation from a pair of Bose headphones, you just have to accept less control over the ability to tweak it. There’s no doubt that the Bose QuietComfort 20 Acoustic Noise Cancelling Headphones have amazing performance under certain conditions — the conditions that they were designed for. It's worth noting that the circuitry, at times, seems to produce the slightest high frequency hiss. This is common in cheaper noise cancellation circuitry, and it is usually louder and more obvious. Even then, on those pairs, it's rarely a deal-breaker. Here, not only is it barely noticeable, but the trade-off—the true elimination of chatty co-worker voices, construction sounds out on the street, car alarms—makes it hardly worth mentioning.My point is only that a perfect motorcycle earphone could possibly be made, but I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for it. Their design is very similar to Bose's MIE2i headphones, which you don't jam into your ear like many in-ear models. Rather, they rest more loosely in your ears, which is what makes them so comfortable to wear. You will note this when I get to the part about riding with the Bose QuietComfort 20 system on a motorcycle, where the external sounds are reduced, but not as much as we’d hoped. There are very high amplitudes or SPLs of the wind and road noise present in the helmet of a motorcyclist.

Bose QuietComfort® Earbuds should be cleaned after every use by gently wiping the buds dry. Be careful not to allow any moisture to enter the earbuds through the ports. In addition, be certain not to force any dirt or debris into the ports. Do not blow air into or vacuum the ports or nozzle. We fired up the Editor’s Suzuki DR650 (blog) to go for a ride, as the ultimate Bose QuietComfort 20 evaluation. The Bose Music app also contains many useful features. You can set your preferred noise cancelling levels, monitor power usage, customize your VPA preferences, and create a custom Shortcut. Combine the sort of passive noise-isolating effects of a good set of foam earplugs with the superior low frequency active noise-cancellation technology Bose has.

Because of this, it seems that this sort of technology will only ever be able to cancel out consistent, repetitive sound waves that the sound-cancellation algorithm assumes will continue, unchanged, into the future. Both of these sorts of sound waves are going to be difficult for active noise cancellation technology to deal with, as they’re unpredictable.

I tried ‘noise cancelling’ earbud headphones while riding 5 years ago and experienced the incomplete cancellation myself. And they do it much, much better by a big margin than any other noise reducing earbud systems we have tried.

During testing, we get mixed results. When it works well, the sound does appear to raise itself out of your head, so to speak. It feels like there is a greater sense of spaciousness, and it does feel like the music is coming at you from a slightly different, more immersive angle. As with their predecessors, you can preset different levels of noise-cancelling for different situations and you can cycle through them using the touch controls on the earbud stems. Again, the Bose’s ‘Aware’ mode impresses as it balances out your music with surrounding noise so you can hear just enough of both worlds and not be completely sealed off in your own sonic bubble.