Bose QuietComfort QC35 II

PERHAPS THE MOST ubiquitous pair of premium headphones on the market today, the Bose QC 35 II are undeniably good, but has the company rested on its laurels a little too long? For those that are familiar with the original QC 35, the second iteration simply adds Google Assistant support and a dedicated button to activate it. Once the king of noise cancelling, the QC 35 II has now fallen behind the Sony WH-1000XM3 by a considerable margin in this field. Although they perform similarly in a static environment, the degree of situational adaptability and in-app tweaking of the Sony cans leaves Bose in the dust whether out on the street, in a mall, or at the beach. The audio in these Bose beasts is still beautiful, with an excellent sense of clarity and space, but when compared to their closest Sony rivals, the slight skew towards the treble and upper-mid frequencies leaves some punchier music lacking and more nuanced tracks sounding relatively brittle. We’re not going to say the QC 35 II is a bad set of cans, but for the price we’d definitely recommend the Sony instead.