ross123

I think they are for different use cases. I am putting the QC20i in the bag and taking the QC3s out. Makes the bag a smaller and its a common USB cord to charge that and my mophie and my kindle. As for much better? No, about the same, but with some advantages over the QC3/QC15:

• Working when the battery is dead in a normal earphone mode
• Small and light in the travel bag
• Charges with micro USB charger from PC or outlet
• Has microphone that works pretty well with iPhone
• Volume control that works with iPhone/iPad on phone (the model I selected)
• Aware mode is nice when you are listening and somebody comes up to bother you

sounds a little like a commercial but so far so good.

RCyyz

I'm replacing a perfectly functional QC3 with the QC20i. In no particular order, I think the advantages are:

- lightweight design of the QC20i
- QC20i work as normal earbuds even if the battery is dead
- micro USB makes charging very easy
- Aware mode works very well
- Can't sleep on side with QC3

Edit: I see ross123 beat me to many of the benefits!

xenole

Does the inline control for volume etc? work with laptops, aircraft IFE systems etc or is it just designed for Android devices and some other makes?

itchief

I agree with ross123 and RCyyz.

I am replacing my QC-15’s with the QC-20’s. I just returned from my 1st trip with them. Flights on 737, MD-80 and ERJ. The noise cancelation is as good or better that my QC-15’s and I did a comparison on each flight since I brought both on this trip. You do have to get them in your ears just right to get the most out of them, if they are off a just a little you will lose out on the NC of the set. I also tried to use a splitter on my ipad for a second set of headphones, my QC-15's, and it disabled the inline remote function on the QC-20’s.

I did not try them on an aircraft IFE.

The smaller footprint in my bag will be a big plus.

ScottC

Glad everyone loves them as much as I do. Definitely money well spent.

SFOPhD

Thanks all for the info!

Are hearing me waffle regarding your comments, my girlfriend offered to buy my old QC 15s for half price... I think having them all those times she tried talking to me is going back to haunt me

JMN57

How good are these in terms of phone calls?

BTW, Amex has them for a little less than 40k MR points.

ScottC

On par with my Bose MEI's - which means very good. Of course, no noise cancellation on the mic, so in a very loud environment the other side will still hear some of the noise.

JMN57

Thanks. I have the new AudioTechnica's with mic that are pretty good but I'll have to seriously consider these.

TheBOSman

As a side sleeper on planes, I hate spending $300 but these may well be worth it. I have the Audio-technica over-ear noise canceling headphones for <$100, which work really well for my purposes, but of course are quite big. I also get what I'd call "head fatigue" from wearing them too long. Looks like I'll go pick up a pair of these. And I might test that 16 hour battery life soon, I have the SQ 21 EWR-SIN nonstop coming up in a couple of weeks which is 17-19 hours in the air .

tsrail

Anyone know of/seen a "trade in" offer for older sets (qc2/qc3)?

I know Bose offered trade in if you purchased upgrades on headsets in the past. (Initial response from Bose rep was 'no'.)

Sitting in MSP eyeing the Bose kiosk now....

Thanks!
Tom

Denolloyd

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3G: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 6_1_2 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/536.26 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0 Mobile/10B146 Safari/8536.25)

The QC20's are not yet a part of the official overall QC 2/3/15 warranty replacement options. That being said, the stores can do it depending upon the circumstances. According to the rep I spoke with, they expect the 20's to be added to the replacement options list at some point.

TheBOSman

Went and picked up a pair today. Waited through the two hour charge. Put them on, and wow. Just wow. I have the radio going at a normal volume were I listening to it (separately, as I'm listening to my iPhone with the QC20i) and cannot hear it. Absolutely nothing. I've used the Audio-Technica over-ear ones, but these seem to be noticeably better, and obviously much smaller. These also "seem" better than the QC3s or QC15s, both of which I've sampled on AA. I felt the A-T pair I have were 90% as good as the QC3/QC15, of course I got the A-T pair at 25% of the price of the Bose! I wouldn't pay $300 for those, but these QC20i headphones seem to be much closer to that for me. Sound quality seems more than well enough, but again I'm listening to my iPhone, not some hi-fi setup. I have a flight Thursday and look forward to seeing how these QC20i headphones react then.

infinii

I hate this thread.

I hate this subforum even more.

Everytime I come in here, I'm tempted to buy something.

bhomburg

Not on the ones I've tried. This may be an issue with the headphone connector on whichever device you're connecting them to - try wriggling around with the connector or unplugging them, and when the hiss goes away you've found the culprit.