WinSea

The reason a lot people do not use BT on wired headphones is the concerning of quality, by using BT headphones, the sound quality is not as good and it loses quality during the transmission, so if you prefer BT, you should have bought BT headphones originally.

WinSea

What city you at?

I bought my QC15 4 months before the new QC25 came out, and the Bose store trade in my old one with a brand new QC 25 without asking a single question, the trade-in program with Bose has been established for a long time, if you purchased your QC15 too long ago, they could at least give you a 50% off on the new headphone, bose has been doing this for a long time, so I don't think your local bose store was being honest.

z28lt1

For me, it was my broken QC15s and $119 for a brand new set of QC15s. They did ask about the purchase date of my 15s, and I was honest with them, I bought them shortly after release, which we estimated to be about 4 years ago.

This was at the Leesburg, VA store.

It's not impossible that they weren't being honest, but I don't see why they wouldn't be, they sent me away without purchase and are supposed to call me this week to see what they can do for me. Don't see why they would like and lose any kind of sale. They looked up the official trade in programs in some hard-copy book, and then on their internal Bose corporate intranet site. Salesman checked with 2 managers. There was a program to trade in the 15s for the 20s, that I wasn't interested in. My 15s are old (see above), so it makes sense that my offer would be different than your 4 month offer.

I'll post an update, if/when I hear from them.

chx1975

Also mid-October the Portland, OR store said they don't do old QC15->QC25 trade-ins yet.

cyclogenesis

Ok.. No love for QC3 -> QC 25

BUT!

My QC3s were badly damaged by the UA 787 BF seat (well switch popped out).. Full exchange value (100) toward any unit EXCEPT the QC15s..

Happy owner of the QC20i now.. my first in-ear.. liking it so far..

gobluetwo

So after using the headphones on a couple flights, a conference call in the LGA amid massive delays* and several calls from home, my impressions are:

It's great in filtering out the hum of engine noise or voices in the terminal. Individual voices come through, but the cacophony in the terminal was largely filtered out.

The mic is quite clear and does a good job of filtering out background noise, according to the folks on the other end.

Speaking of the mic, I kinda wish there was a clip on the cord, but that's a minor quibble. The cord is pretty thick and has a soft-touch rubber feel. Remains to be seen if it is prone to tangles.

The ear drum pressure thing gets some getting used to, but it wasn't bad. As for fit, it sits very snugly on my head and the ear pads are super soft. Very comfortable and good seal, even with my glasses. Can't say the same about my BIL's QC15s.

The case is ok, but thought it would be more compact. Given the shape (rectangular), it's not necessarily any more compact that my BIL's QC15 case (circular). If memory serves, it actually feels a little thicker.

As for sound quality, calls sounded very clear with NC on, but pretty horrible with NC off. Ditto for movies and the like. With NC off, you get a distinct seashell sound. Oddly, in a completely quiet room, it's actually louder with the headphones on. So yes, it works without battery, but pretty poorly. I'd almost rather just put my old noise isolating earbuds back on in that case, although it is better in flight at isolating noise with NC off than my earbuds.

Maybe it's just me, but I was assuming I'd be able to play my music/movies at a lower volume while in-flight, but it doesn't seem to have helped as much as I was hoping in that respect. Is it just me? I'll have to check again on my flight next week compared to my earbuds.

Definitely get a bit of a popping noise in the NC function when landing and the engines are blasting. A little unsettling, but pretty short-lived. Is this normal?

*It was 5pm and the 12pm, 3pm, 4pm, 5pm, and 6pm LGA-ORD flights were all delayed until 6:30pm or later, making for insanely packed gate areas; the 1pm, 2pm, and 7pm flights were canceled, which didn't help matters any

beckoa

Thanks for the review gobluetwo. I'm still on the fence about trying to get new QC25's or QC15's to replace my current set.

For an extra $100, one can customize the colours but too rich for me.

TheMadBrewer

I bought a pair of QC2's when they came out. Got a free replacement a couple of years later when the headband had problems. But the case too up too much room in my carry on.

Then I bought a pair of custom Ultimate Ears -- no noise canceling but the ultimate in isolation. So much, I stopped wearing them when riding the local bus -- I'd get so into the music I'd miss my stop

But they had issues when traveling. I couldn't hear announcements or the FA's -- at because they twist into your ear cancel it takes a few seconds to get them out.

When the QC-20s came out I bought a pair -- they were decent but I never could get a good fit (spoiled by the UEs I guess).

After reading this thread (and others) I sprang for a pair of the QC-25s before my last TATL trip. The only ones I could get on sort notice were the white ones -- at least I don't look like all the Bose wearers on the plane

After the two flights (plus a bunch of train rides in Europe) I am pretty happy with them. I'm not sure the case takes any less cubic space but the shape fits better in my carry on and I was able to wear them for a long time without discomfort. I also used them on a couple of Skype calls and they worked perfectly.

jaimelannister

Was the volume on them set to low or high? I assume they work similar to QC15s, where there is a switch on the piece that plugs into the earphone for "hi" and "low" sound. Depending on the source, I sometimes have to switch it to "hi" on my QC15s. From my iPhone or iPad, the low setting is plenty loud, but if I use IFE on a plane, I usually need to switch the headset to the hi setting.

gobluetwo

There is no such switch on my QC25's, and that was actually one thing I noted in other reviews as a drawback from the QC15's. The in-line remote has 3 buttons - volume up, down, and a middle one for other stuff.

z28lt1

As an update to my quest to trade in my broken QC15s for QC25s, I called the store who initially said they would do something for me even if Bose didn't have anything official. Disappointingly, they said there was nothing they could do on a QC15/QC25 exchange. I went to another store a few days later (today) and they said they were recently told that any official upgrade program will be in 6-12 months from what they've been recently told, so I think it will be a while. I took that opportunity to exchange my broken 15s and $100 for new 15s, because they said they will take my old QC2's (now the wifes) in exchange for the QC25s whenever a program is announced, so I'll eventually end up with QC25s, and the wife with our new 15s.

Interestingly enough, my new QC15s came with two cables, the standard one, and one with the remote/mic as pictured in the post above. It is not the QC25 cable though, as the shape between them is different, and it does have the High/Low switch. It is a QC15 cable, so I'm happy I got that. For all I know, QC15s have been coming with that cable for a while, not sure, but my old ones did not.

frogster

I replaced my damaged QC3s (they were 6 years old) with the QC25.

After ten flights with them I'm happy with the the noise cancelling and the fit remains comfortable despite me wearing glasses. The sound is good, much better than the standard in ear headphones you get with the phone although they don't reach the quality of the B&Ws I use at home. With an empty battery it's ok - perhaps slightly lower quality than the standard Apple in-ears.

The only strange thing always happens during take off: as soon as the engines are at their loudest a clicking noise as if the NC somehow gets overloaded. I can't remember this happening with the 3s. Do you experience the same thing or am I the only one?

gobluetwo

I mentioned this very phenomenon in my review few posts up. Must be normal. Doesn't happen every time though.

advocate99

This happened with my older QC15s, but only when the battery was nearing the low point. Try a fresh battery and it'll probably stop happening.

gobluetwo

It happened for me on my 3rd flight, and the headphones had been used for probably 10 hours at that point! Will make sure I have a fresh battery just in case.