Transcript
Best Buys Audio & AV Issue 2016-#1
SYSTEMS & SOLUTIONS BLUETOOTH HEADPHONES
BOSE SOUNDLINK AROUND-EAR
B
ose has developed a near-untouchable reputation for its noise-cancelling headphones, the most recent success (including a Sound+Image Award) being the QuietComfort 25, which combines top-notch noise cancellation with a usefully lightweight design and a musical sound balance that works beautifully over the semi-silence delivered by that rumble-banishing feedback system. So what happens to those headphones if the noise cancelling is removed? Can that musical sound balance go it alone in a world of background noise? Bose has recently released these SoundLink around-ear wireless headphones II — that’s what they’re called on the box, even though there was really no version I, the first SoundLink headphones, released last year, having been on-ear designs. With these new designs it’s not hard to see their similarity to the noise-cancelling QuietComfort 25s, but the new SoundLinks come without that noise cancellation, instead allowing you to listen wirelessly via Bluetooth — no cable. How do these two variations affect their performance?
EQUIPMENT
We were able to examine the SoundLinks next to a pair of QC25s. If they are not quite two peas in a pod, they are at least similar enough to carry off the parts of twins in a Shakespearean comedy of errors. They share the soft leatherette earpads, but there are differences inside the cups. In the QC25s Bose created perhaps our favourite ever L/R markings — giant woven letters on the acoustically-transparent lining that covers the innards. These are retained, here with a darker fabric, but more interestingly when you run a finger inside the SoundLinks, the surface is quite flat, and you can feel the oval outline of the driver. Whereas inside the QC25s a big lump of a bracket sticks out, which we’d guess houses some of the noise-cancellation microphony. The headbands and velour cushions are also shared, except that the SoundLinks have a matte plastic top where the QC25 has a fabric wrap. While both have a swivelling hinge between
earcup and headband, the SoundLinks fold flat to fit in their carrycase, while the QC25s have an extra metal pivot so they can curl up foetal-like in a slightly smaller (and harder) carrycase. Both headphones are powered — the QC25s have active noise-cancellation while the SoundLink requires power for its Bluetooth receiver, DAC and amplification circuits. But the delivery of this power is different between the two. The QC25s take a AAA battery in the curve of the right earcup — this was a change for Bose, whose earlier noisecancellers had neat bespoke batteries that slid into the headphones and required charging (a spare was provided as standard). For most users the AAA battery solution will be the easier option, an even smaller thing to carry as a spare and widely available if you need another. But the SoundLink is different again, having a non-removable (at least in normal use) internal battery, which is charged via a miniUSB socket on the headphones themselves; again bonus points for using a common socket with charging cables readily available. Bose quotes the battery as good for around 15 hours of juice, and notes that just 15 minutes of charging will add two hours of play
time, a handy quick charge if they’re low. While there’s no resource to keep Bluetooth going if your tank runs utterly dry, there’s still a fallback position, since these are Bluetooth headphones which can alternatively be used with a cable. Keep this in the carrycase and you can use them like ordinary headphones. When cabled, the power switch does nothing at all to the sound. Oh, and that power switch on the headshell is vertical on the new headphone, horizontal on the QC25 noise-cancellers, which we think a nice clear differentiator for those lucky enough to have both lying around. Being Bluetooth, the SoundLink needs controls on the headphones, not on a cable, and a three-part rocker/switch does excellent work for this — highly intuitive when the headphones are worn, and versatile enough with double/triple presses and holds to allow play/pause, next/last track, and answer/ignore/hang up for taking calls. One obvious anatomical side-effect of this last functionality is a small grille and inset on the right earcup for the SoundLink’s “advanced microphone system, HD voice and adaptive audio adjustment technology for wind or noise”.
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Best Buys Audio & AV Issue 2016-#1
SYSTEMS & SOLUTIONS There’s not much between them in weight, either — 209g for the QC25s (with their battery installed), 201g for the SoundLink II.
PERFORMANCE
There are voice prompts! We are generally no fans of hi-fi talking to us, but this is a soft voice and it does genuinely help to know when the headphones are powering off by mistake, when they’re in pairing mode and so on. (Not so much the ‘toot toot toot’ telling us when the volume is maxed out; we could notice that on our own.) You can turn these off by pressing ‘+’ and ‘-’ together — you get one last voice prompt saying, perhaps sadly, “voice prompts off ”. Bluetooth pairing was quick and simple even if not using the NFC pairing ability; it was clear from the power button markings that it would go into pairing mode by holding the button up. So it did, and on later power-ups connected straight to the pre-paired iPod touch. It’ll remember eight devices and usefully it can actively connect with two devices at the same time — you can’t play from both at once, but the SoundLinks switch to the second device when the first stops playing. We did a lot of listening both at home and on the commute. If you think using Bluetooth headphones in the home seems odd, think again — any chore around the home is improved by having a smart device in your pocket and the convenience of comfortable wireless headphones, playing music, entertaining you with a podcast or an audio book, educating you with an online course. There’s enough passive noise rejection from those comfy leatherette earpads that we were able to doing some garden shredding while catching up on community radio podcasts. This activity doubled as a sweat-test when the temperature hit 35oC; the Bose earpad material proved impressively resistant (a recent rival had soaked up sweat in abundance, though seemed to dry out fine). Out on the road for the bus commute, the robustness of the Bluetooth connection proved
faultless — never a drop-out, unaffected by road vibration, smooth delivery of the stream was assured. But we did miss that noise-cancelling. Where the QC25s create a private silence above which music can sit with its detail evident and its volume relatively low, the SoundLinks were soon toot-toot-tooting that their level was maxed out. We could often have wanted a little more headroom against ambient noise, especially as the sound seemed to flatten out slightly as it reached its limit, losing its dynamics and effortlessness. But a few weeks later, we were on another bus, music cranked, and realised that we were enjoying a big loud open and very nice presentation even against the usual traffic rumble. Its presentation of ‘Burning Love’ from the new album of Elvis with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra darn-near blew us away, rich and powerful, retaining its warmth and depth into those higher levels. Same headphones, same iPod touch, so what was different? The answer was that we were cabled. The handy red blink of the battery indicator had warned us we’d drained the SoundLinks the previous day, so we’d pulled the cable out of the carrycase and slotted it into the left earcup. The result is extra level — you might say it goes up to eleven — and additional confidence and clarity as it goes there. We love the sound of these headphones on their cable and could happily settle with these for our daily commute, keeping their Bluetooth abilities for the home, where there isn’t the noise to force usage up to those higher levels.
Of course, unless you need the telephony side of the SoundLinks, you have the alternative of sticking with a cable and getting the noise-cancelling QC25s. They are, after all, only $20 more.
CONCLUSION
It might sounds a bit back-to-front to suggest Bluetooth use at home and wired use on the road, but that’s what got the best results from the SoundLink overear wireless headphones II. Both scenarios delivered impeccable and enjoyable performance, along with the high comfort of these designs, a rock-solid Bluetooth link, and on-earcup controls as intuitive as we’ve come to expect from Bose.
Bose SoundLink around-ear wireless headphones II • Good sound from Bluetooth • Solid Bluetooth connection • Best sound when using cable • More headroom with Bluetooth would be handy in noisy environments Price: $379 Design: Closed-back circumaural, Bluetooth (cable also provided) Quoted battery life: 15 hours (or cable), three hours full charge, 15 minutes for 2 hours Contact: Bose Australia Telephone: 1800 023 367 Web: www.bose.com.au
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