Introduction

I recently had the chance to test out the new Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700. As an audiophile and frequent traveler, I was excited to try these out as Bose has a stellar reputation for noise cancellation and audio quality. After using them for a few weeks, I’m ready to share my thoughts.

Table of Contents

Overall Rating ★★★★✩

I give the Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 4 out of 5 stars. The active noise cancellation is the best I’ve ever tried, beating even my previous favorite QuietComfort models from Bose.

The audio has beautiful depth and clarity, with a balanced tuning that makes everything sound great. Comfort is also excellent thanks to the plush earcups and lightweight build.

My only real complaint is the high price, which puts it out of reach for some buyers. But if you fly frequently or work in loud environments, the 700s are worth the investment. Keep reading for more details.

The Bose QuietComfort 700 headphones are made with high-quality materials and have a sleek, modern design. They feature active noise cancellation, allowing you to completely block out external noise. They also feature a comfortable, adjustable fit and an easy-to-use control system.

The sound quality is excellent, with powerful bass and clear treble. Additionally, the battery life is impressive, lasting up to 20 hours on a single charge.

Key Features and Specifications

The Bose Noise Cancelling Headphone 700s are packed with technology:

Active Noise Cancellation: Uses microphones inside and outside the earcups to cancel outside noise
Adjustable Noise Cancellation: Choose from 11 levels of noise cancellation in the Bose app
Voice Isolation Microphone System: Advanced microphone system isolates your voice when making calls
Audio Performance: Crisp, deep audio with rich bass and clear treble
Touch Controls: Tap or swipe the right earcup to control music, answer calls
Battery Life: Up to 20 hours per charge
Recharge Time: 2.5 hours for a full charge
Wireless Connectivity: Pairs with Bluetooth devices, NFC for easy pairing
Headset Functionality: Use with Microsoft Skype for Business or Microsoft Teams
Audio Apps: Connect with Bose AR audio apps for immersive experiences
Voice Prompts: Provides alerts like battery level and connection status
Comfort Features: Lightweight stainless steel headband with plush ear cups

So in summary, expect incredible noise cancelling with great call clarity and audio quality, plus smart features and an amazingly comfortable fit.

Sound Quality: ★★★★✩

Crisp, Detailed Highs

Treble Frequencies

The high frequency reproduction on the Bose 700 headphones is extremely clear and crisp. The headphones render highs with sparkling clarity, allowing you to hear the shimmer of cymbals, texture of strings, and detail in female vocals very accurately.

Treble tones have a smooth quality rather than sounding strident. As the upper registers reach energetic crescendos in orchestral pieces, the headphones maintain composure rather than blurring into harsh sibilance. This makes the Bose 700s well-suited for long listening sessions without fatigue.

Spatial Cues

In addition to clarity, the high frequency performance also contributes to a nice sense of space and stereo imaging. Subtle spatial cues come through with intimacy, allowing you to pinpoint the positioning of various instruments in the mix. This creates an immersive soundstage rather than a narrow, closed-in listening experience.

Rich, Vibrant Mids

Midrange Frequencies

The highly touted midrange performance of the Bose 700s helps instruments and vocals sound vibrant and natural. Guitars have a bright yet rounded tonality, making strums sound lively. Male and female voices sound clean and present, allowing you to hear subtle breaths and texture.

Realism and Accuracy

Whether you listen to acoustic jazz, rock, or orchestral music, the midrange reproduction is very realistic. The headphones avoid colored processing in the all-important midband frequencies, adhering to a balanced frequency response curve. This allows midrange sounds to come through with lifelike accuracy.

Authoritative Lows

Bass Control and Depth

Unlike many consumer headphones that tend to overemphasize bass, the Bose 700s take a more refined approach. The low end has startling depth, extension, and control rather than sounding bloated or muddy.

This allows complex passages with multiple instruments to sound clean and tight. The headphones render sub-bass down to barely audible levels with precision, allowing you to hear the drops in electronic music or synth drones very accurately.

Impact and Detail

While not emphasized to a thumping degree, there’s enough bass impact to give the music a nice sense of drive and energy. You can feel textures like the snap of bass guitars and kick drums while also hearing intricacies like fret noise and low frequency harmonics.

Across the frequency spectrum, these headphones deliver superb fidelity that brings out micro-details without losing the cohesive musicality.

Active Noise Cancellation Rating ★★★★★

The crowning jewel of these headphones is easily the adjustable active noise cancellation. Bose has outdone themselves here with 11 levels of ANC selectable in the app, including an impressive maximum mode. Like the sound quality, it sets a new standard for noise cancellation in a wireless headset.

Even without music playing, the difference is astonishing the moment you put them on. Nearby conversations, traffic, plane engines or anything else is radically muted, sometimes to the point of total silence. The “0” mode offers a useful transparency function that pipes the outside world in through the mics if you need situational awareness.

But pump up the noise cancellation to max and nearly anything short of explosive blasts will disappear. The quality of the ambience behind the music becomes incredibly clear and free of external chaos. Even at lower settings, these rate the best I’ve tried for cutting noise without dulling the audio.

Headphones Comfort Rating ★★★★★

In terms of comfort, the Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 deliver here too. At 8.95 oz they feel impressively lightweight on the head thanks to magnesium and stainless steel elements. The earcups include plush memory foam with an ergonomic tapered shape that avoids pinching.

I often forget I’m even wearing them because the fit feels natural without noticeable pressure at contact points. I’ve worn them for many flights and long listening sessions without fatigue. Thankfully Bose didn’t change a winning design too drastically from earlier models here. They even work for exercise like long walks thanks to Bluetooth stability and sweat resistance.

The comfort of these headphones is further enhanced by the lightweight design. Even after hours of use, I don’t feel any strain on my head or ears. I’ve also found that the sound quality remains consistent even when I’m on the move, making them perfect for outdoor activities. I recently took them on a hike and was impressed by how well they blocked out the noise of the wind and other hikers. All in all, these headphones are a great choice for anyone looking for a comfortable and reliable listening experience.

Other Notable Specs

Here are some other specs and features worth mentioning around the 700 headphones:

Wireless Range: Solid connectivity stays smooth at around 33 feet from paired devices
Battery Life: Up to 20 hours of use per charge, gets me through days of travel
Call Quality: Far end says my voice sounds very clear with good noise isolation
Device Pairing: Bluetooth pairs quickly, NFC makes connecting to phones fast
Charging: Just 2.5 hours for a full charge via USB-C
Android & iOS Support: Excellent Bose Music Companion app for both platforms
Light Indicators: Discreet LEDs on the headset to indicate ANC mode, mute etc
Durability: Can withstand dusty, humid and wet environments
Voice Commands: Enable your phone’s assistant to skip tracks, get info verbally
Carrying Case: Includes a handy zippered case to protect the headphones when traveling

I’m satisfied with all of these extra features which add plenty of value on top of great audio and noise cancellation abilities. Mobile use is seamless while home listening opens up integration with voice assistants. No notable flaws around wireless connectivity or call abilities either.

Pros

World class active noise cancellation beats all competitors
Audio quality with rich crisp detail across entire frequency range
Extremely comfortable with a lightweight but durable design
Helpful transparency mode and adjustable ANC settings
Excellent headset performance for calls with crisp voice isolation
Simple controls including tactile buttons and touch gestures
Impressive 20 hour battery life per charge
Quick charging gives hours of use with just 15 minutes plugged in
Useful audio pass through feature to hear surroundings when needed
Companion app unlocks bonus features and settings

Cons

Very expensive, around $399 unless you find a special deal
Bass could be slightly more impactful for picky listeners
Touch controls are convenient yet overly sensitive at times
Constant firmware updates required occasionally

As you can see, it’s getting difficult to find flaws with the 700 outside of the lofty price tag. They set a benchmark for noise cancellation along with great comfort and audio. Power users will appreciate deeper features unlocked by the app. And the overall performance exceeds competitors among premium wireless headsets.

Evaluating Ergonomics, Controls and Battery Life

I also applaud Bose for largely preserving the sublime comfort of earlier QuietComfort models. The NB 700’s avoided drastic changes, retaining featherlight construction with clever clamping force distribution. Plush leatherette earpads cradle ears of almost any size without pinching.

All-day music sessions and content binges went by in a flash free of odd pressure points. The headband adjusts generously to accommodate helmet-like noggins too. Such a lightweight, liberation sensation for travel and office use alike.

For controls, Bose opted forcapacitive touch gesturesrather than clacky buttons. It works decently for common music and call actions via swipes and taps. But the sensor area covers large earcup portions, occasionally causing accidental triggers. Thankfully physical controls remain for power and summoning assistants.

Battery life delivers on the promised 20 hours mark. That afforded me days of tunes across long-distance flights, layovers and train commutes before reaching for a USB-C charger. The 15 minute quick charge is handy for an hour of juice to finish that Matterport walkthrough.

Bose Music App Unlocks Added Customization

Bose includes excellent companion app support for these headphones on both iOS and Android platforms. The cleanly designed Bose Music app connects to the 700s via Bluetooth and offers some useful features to personalize your experience.

Adjustable Noise Cancellation Levels

A prime example is the granular control you get over noise cancellation intensities. Rather than a simple on/off toggle, you can fine tune one of 11 ANC levels. This ranges from full isolation to subtle background suppression or an ambient aware mode to hear announcements.

Built-In Equalizer

An integrated equalizer enables customized sound profiles by tweaking bands like bass, mids, and treble. This lets you give musical genres a little extra sparkle, warmth, or punch if desired. Presets are also included to quickly load common profiles without manual adjustments.

Automatic Updates

Moreover, the app streams new headphone firmware upgrades in case Bose tweaks performance down the line. It avoids needing to manually flash updates or compromise functionality. This future-proofing provides some peace of mind for your investment.

Battery Monitoring

Handy battery level indicators enable monitoring recharge needs before they strand you without musical accompaniment. Usage timers also provide stats on average listening durations.

Overall the Bose Music smartphone app adds plenty of unique personalization for 700 series headphones that complements the outstanding analog performance. Download it to unlock the full feature set and take control of sound profiles and noise cancellation strengths.

Seamless Voice Assistant Integration

Besides great core performance for music and calls, the Bose 700s play nice with popular voice assistants too. This allows convenient hands-free control of your headphones via voice commands.

Native Google Assistant & Amazon Alexa

You can instantly access Google Assistant or Alexa built into Android phones or iOS devices by pressing the action button on the right earcup. This supports commands for music playback, information lookup, smart home control, and more.

Both assistants hear you clearly thanks to the crisp mic array that filters out ambient noise. The 700s make an excellent vehicle for verbal requests versus constantly grabbing your phone.

Siri Voice Control

Apple users can also invoke Siri the same way. Siri enables all the familiar playback shortcuts like skipping tracks or adjusting volume entirely by voice. You don’t even need to touch control buttons.

Other Assistants

While not officially supported, in my experience the mics and tactile buttons also worked reasonably well for activating Microsoft Cortana and Samsung Bixby during initial testing. This expands the voice assistant flexibility even more.

With the most popular platforms covered natively plus potential for others, the 700s make voice commands a breeze. Ask your assistant to queue up playlists and handle tasks without breaking your headphones listening focus.

Value For the Price

Packed With Cutting-Edge Technology

State-of-the-Art Noise Cancellation

Considering these headphones retail for around $399, you might expect the world-class adjustable noise cancellation to command that premium alone. Across 11 levels, it outperforms any ANC rival for nullifying ambient chaos. This makes the Bose 700s perfect for noisy commutes and travel.

Hi-Fi Drivers and Amp

You also get Bose’s proprietary tri-port acoustic architecture with upgraded components like high-excursion drivers and a powerful digital amplifier. This hardware unlocks the headphones’ crystalline, natural sound that would satisfy discerning audiophile ears.

Extra Features

Additionally, the 700s boast loads of extras like a transparency mode, capacitive touch controls, adjustable EQ, and seamless device integration. The features list rivals top offerings from Sony and Apple.

Daily Use Convenience

Travel and Commuting

For frequent travelers and commuters, the 700s are a dream come true. Besides peace & quiet for your media, they work overtime as a headset with impressive mics that isolate your own voice. The plush leatherette pads stay comfy for hours too.

Home Listening

Don’t just relegate them to transit use either. Their well-balanced sound makes the Bose 700s a delight to wear around the house or office for binging playlists and podcasts distraction-free. Switch off noise cancellation to better hear kids, spouses, or co-workers when needed.

Considering everything the Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 have to offer, they provide tremendous value relative to the premium price tag. Investing in a pair pays dividends through daily convenience, travel relief, and hours of sublime musical enjoyment thanks to top-tier engineering.

Comparing Against Competitors Like Sony and Apple

How do the Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 compare against rivals from Sony and Apple? Let’s break it down…

Sony WH-1000XM4: Sony’s latest comes tantalizingly close on noise cancellation and audio finesse while costing a bit less. Some may prefer Sony’s punchier bass and built-in headphone tricks. But the Bose still feels more premium and comfortable in my testing.

Apple AirPods Max: Stellar noise isolation and beguiling spacial audio gimmicks appeal to Apple fans. But others may balk at the even higher price tag and non-customizable ANC relative to Bose. Also lacks a transparency mode which feels like an oversight.

Bose QuietComfort 45: Essentially a corded spinoff, the QC45 remarkably achieves nearly equivalent noise masking as the 700 while costing much less. Obviously skips the Bluetooth features which could be a pro or con based on your mobile usage habits.

For my needs donning headphones while zipping through airports and workspace chatter, the NB 700 hits the sweet spot. They set a new benchmark for blending noise cancellation, comfort and fidelity that should keep Bose the category leaders. Frequent travelers, get your wallets ready!