Gadgetory

I'm David Carnot and I'm here with the Bose QuietComfort 20 the company's first in-ear headphone with active noise cancellation which retails for two hundred ninety nine ninety five why would you want to spend that kind of dough on a headphone like this well for starters they fit securely in your ear and are very comfortable to wear they weigh a mere 1.5 ounces and come with a zippered cloth carrying case that's a fraction of the size of the case that comes with the over the year QC 15s their design is similar to boses mi e2i headphones which don't Jam into your ear like many in ear models but rather rest more loosely in your ears which is why they're so comfortable to wear the headphones themselves follow the company's triport design carving out some extra space to maximize boses proprietary acoustic voodoo and adding two microphones to monitor external noise as with all such active noise-cancelling phones that external din is countered by a mere sound wave allowing you to enjoy your music in relative peace the processing chip used in the QC 20 is a new model that's exclusive to Bose the quiet cover 20s come with three sizes of flexible stay here plus ear tips each of which has wings to brace itself against the cup of the outer ear I went with the largest ear tip which offered me a little bit tighter seal which helps with the noise cancellation the lithium-ion battery pack is embedded in a control pod on the cord it's rechargeable via standard micro USB cable and Bose pledges 16 hour battery life at the joint of the wide cable leading up to the left and right earbuds is a smaller second remote for a controlling volume that one also has a microphone for making cell phone calls and a switch for toggling what Bose calls a wear mode once engaged it significantly ramps down the noise cancellation so you can hear the outside world to chat with a flight attendant for instance noise cancellation is quite impressive you don't think that a more loose fitting here but like this which lets in as much sound as it does would work well as an active noise-cancelling headphone but it does the bose sound signature tends to be safe by that I mean it's designed to take everything you throw at it all types of music well recorded not so well recorded and make it sound decent in other words you're going to find plenty of other 300 hour headphones that sound better than the QC 20 but I still found myself grabbed toward using it as an everyday headphone because it was as comfortable as it was and managed to Buffalo a lot of that New York Street noise I also tested it on a plane ride to Seattle and while I thought the overall noise reduction on that QC 15 was slightly better the QC 20 was more comfortable and a small size is good for sleeping biz you can rest your head against a pillow or headrest without having your headphones get in the way okay now for the downsides and they all involve the battery pack and control pod on the cord first off it's a little awkward to have the battery pack dangling from your phone it's also worth noting that the battery isn't replaceable so once it Peters out and someday it will you're basically left with an mi e2i headphone with a dongle attached to it and lastly if you forget to turn off the noise cancellation which I did a few times you'll end up with a dead battery overnight anyway despite their drawbacks I like these headphones a lot their sound may not measure up to competing $300 in your headphones they sound good are very comfortable to wear and offer excellent noise cancellation if I was a frequent traveler I definitely be tempted to pick up a pair of wishing they cost less as I pulled out my credit card I'm David Carr Noi thanks for watching