Bose Quietcomfort 2 Headphones

It is difficult to catch a flight without seeing at least a few of them molded to the skulls of other passengers. Even though they've been there for a few years, we still receive frequent requests for our comments on them, so we did the only thing that made sense: we gave them the treatment of a thorough review.

The QuietComfort 2 (QC2) headphones from Bose are part of a category of headphones known as "travel" or "noise-isolation" headphones. These models are designed to reduce the amount of external noise you hear, allowing you to relax and enjoy your music even when you are in a noisy environment such as an airplane, a train, a busy city street, or even a buzzing office. Canalphones are another type of headphones that seal off your ear canals like earplugs and completely enclose your ears to achieve passive noise isolation.

In The Ranks

In their packaging, the Bose Quiet Comfort 2 headphones are in no way isolated from one another. Along with the headphones and their wire, you will receive an extension cable 5 feet long, an adapter with two prongs for use on airplanes, an adapter with a 1/4-inch socket, a single AAA battery, and a case. Inside the case is a bag with a Velcro backing that may be used to store the different adapters and a wallet-like structure with a Velcro backing that stores Bose Courtesy Cards.

Durability

The QC2s has a solid build quality and give an impression of being long-lasting. The cable is of high quality, and the cable protectors that it has seen to be of sufficient durability ensure that the junction where the cable terminates is secure enough. The cable protector closer to the plug is the weaker of the two since it is more solid and doesn't have as much give as the other one.

There are two small flaws with the item's durability and one fault that has the potential to be significant. Even though the metal on the inside makes it more durable, it is still possible for it to shatter if it is bent. Additionally, the material that is supposed to cover the sound components is hardly tied to them, providing protection only against the dust that is least likely to stick around. The rotation of the cup is where the most significant issue with durability may be seen.

Aesthetics

Even the most ardent Bose hater would have a hard time denying that the business can produce headphones that are attractive to the eye. The QuietComfort2 headphones have an appearance that is both subtle and sophisticated. They are not the most stylish headphones available, so wearing them will not give the impression that you are an antisocial teenager or a traveling DJ. However, when used as on-ear headphones, they are far larger and more noticeable than earbuds are. On the other hand, the QuietComfort2s are reserved on-ear headphones designed for use in professional settings.

Distortion

If the sound is clipped or distorted in any other way, you won't hear it the way the original creators of the sound intended you to hear it. Distortion is an issue. Although the QuietComfort two headphones did not display a significant distortion, some research suggests they do display some slight distortion. The line depicting the left ear cup in the following graph is colored green, while the line depicting the right ear cup is colored red.

Although the QuietComfort 2 has a rather low level of distortion in general, we were able to identify a few peaks in the graph that suggest distortion at certain frequencies, most notably at a frequency of around 2 kHz in the left channel. There is also some distortion in the low frequencies, but the same thing might be happening since the function that cancels out noise is always turned on.

Tracking

Because headphones only have one channel for each ear, both halves of the device must generate an identical sound. In this test, we check how well the headphones' left and right sides are balanced against one another. The QuietComfort 2s suffers from a few little flaws in this regard; the soundstage does not remain uniformly balanced from one ear to the other.

Maximum Usable Volume

The QC2s were able to achieve an ear-splitting 118 dB SPL before our testing system put an end to the test; that is loud enough that even the most devoted loud music listeners may enjoy melodies that are free of distortion (unless you prefer metal or punk, in which case it's required). It would help if you remembered that even though our testing equipment has replacement ears, you do not. If you turn the volume up to that level, there is a good chance that you may irreparably harm them.

Isolation

Isolation is one of the primary selling aspects of the QuietComfort two headphones. Bose claims that its active noise canceling technology finds and eliminates noise. The results of our testing indicate that these headphones performed a very excellent job of doing this task.