Bose QuietComfort 2023 - Flawed Design

Resolve takes a look at the Bose QuietComfort 2023. In this video, he identifies a problem with this wireless noise cancelling headphone's acoustic design, as well as goes over what Bose have done well and where they can still improve.

How to read the new measurements:

Measurement Index

Resolve's Headphone Ranking:

The 10 stages of headphone measurements

00:00 - Intro
00:44 - The issue
02:14 - Sound quality
07:08 - The rest of it
11:08 - Conclusion

[ResolveReviews]

Just a note - these measurement results are based on 20+ seatings for each side across two different rigs. While positional variation is also extreme with this one above 1khz, the channel balance issue remains consistent for that variation. I may post those results on the forum.

[sidesaladaudio]

That sucks. Hopefully they can fix this issue. Bose has enough of a reputation that most consumers would trust they are buying a good headphone. Having that kind of imbalance isnt acceptable

[guybuddy]

Hey, I have the same problem with a couple headphones and earphones from different manufacturers.
After a hell of a lot of testing and researching, I found this problem usually happens when the headphones and BT receiver have bad compatibility with each other,
Sometimes changing codecs fix this, but the results are inconsistent.
IMO companies have to start disclosing what codects ACTUALLY work, instead of listing options just because they connect.

[Tinnesa]

I got these a few days ago. Tried them in a completely silent room.

There was an insane white noise coming out from them. Turning on noise cancellation, it got quite ironic, because the noise cancellation tried to remove the white noise coming from the headphones itself - but it couldn't manage too completely. It only managed to remove say 80% of it.

Sent them back and got a pair of Sony WH-1000XM5.

That was my first experience with Bose and I ain't going back.

[NoHairMan]

Wow that's a bit embarrassing. Thanks for shining a light on this issue.

[Joelsfilmer]

Consumers *are* dumb. If manufacturers just present a PEQ interface, users would randomly mess with it, make it worse, and leave negative reviews.

Good UI design could fix this. Present both the dumbed down options and the advanced options, and show a pop-up text everytime the advanced options are opened that makes it blindingly obvious that you won't get good results without knowing what you're doing. The option to disable the automatic pop-up should be hidden at the bottom of the settings menu.

[jasonwrites]

I think Bose knows their audience. I think having a very simple app serves their demographic, and tbh, I imagine most people with these headphones won't even download the app at all. For my copy, I didn't sense a channel imbalance, and I suspect....maybe most people who pick these up won't either. I'm not a Bose fanboy or anything - think these headphones sound "fine". They're comfortable and decent; they're not the cans you want to put on the heads of others so you can see their reaction ;)

EDIT: But as always, super informative video :)

[reasons]

When mixing sometimes we EQ the right and left channels differently to make a sound “wider”.. its not the most common way to do it but it works. Similarly, tuning the left and right earcups differently will make this headphone have more soundstage. Is it possible they did this purposefully to make the headphone sound wider? … im not saying they are.. just thinking

[gramblor]

I have the Bose QC 45 Noise Canceling Headphones, and I was able to dial out the stupid v-shaped sound signature they have out of the box with that simple Bose EQ software. They sound almost as good as my Anker Soundcore's do after adjusting their response in Anker's more robust Soundcore EQ app. It was a GREAT RELIEF when I discovered that Bose EQ software, months after I'd purchased the headphones.

[JJ-lwrh]

Just got mine (Aug 2024) and they sound fine. Sound canceling is great. Did not find this review helpful at all.

[oDano]

Given how close the two samples are, my guess is they match the drivers, but external to the enclosures. Then, the L/R enclosure impose thier own acoustic signature. The L/R enclosures are likely different based on where the battery and electronics are.

Should be possible to remove this with a FW update, like you said. DSP FTW!

[TechOutAdam]

I think Bose has one of the best sound profiles I ever heard and it's weird how the "audiophiles" always hate Bose lol

[beaglecruz]

Thank you headphones for another video!❤ keep it up and soon you’ll reach 100k 🙌

[krazyfrog]

Looks like a software issue that can be fixed with an update. Which IMO is worse than unit variance because then it should have 100% shown up in their testing and the fact that the engineers at Bose can neither hear nor measure this imbalance is embarrassing.

[JarickL]

It's interesting you note this on the QC, but I haven't seen anything on the extremely popular Sony XM5. I've had three pairs of XM5's and all of them had a center image that was blurry and shifted well to the left. The comfort and ANC was good enough to just keep them for airplane travel, at least until I picked up the QC a couple weeks ago. Those sound way more balanced and the center image sounds pretty solid to me, but I haven't measured. I did get a pair of HD600's that had mismatched drivers this summer but the replacement pair sounded perfect to me. I wish I had a rig to measure and validate!

[dangerzone]

Channel imbalance probably caused by electronics behind the drivers.

[AAVIATOR]

Sounds like they may have sent you the same unit back lol

[MichaelSomeRandomString]

For EQ adjustment, Shure has the best with a 4-band (2 shelf, 2 center-freqency) parametric. It makes the Aonic 50 pretty decent. Oh, and how about a LIVESTREAM? =)

[beaubr]

Would love to see your take on the Bose Ultra headphones. Sound seems way better than my old QC 700s but the “immersive sound” is… questionable? (especially since I’ve now gotten into Hi-Fi headphones that have semi-decent soundstage)

[Luenthal]

I have them, and thankfully, I think they're fine. I think I like a lot more the tuning wired with the headphones on (wired with headphones off sounds awful). It sounds with less bass and clearer.