Bose Headphones 700, Noise Cancelling Bluetooth Over-Ear Wireless Headphones with Built-in Microphone for Clear Calls and Alexa Voice Control, Black

I've owned these for half a day so far and have decided to keep them around. I'm an audiophile who spends money on kickstarter earbuds, custom-made preamps, and (in general) quality hardware which reduces my audio experience as little as possible. Trying these cans in-store at BestBuy allowed me to appreciate the hardware quality of the exterior... quality matte plastic moulding, amazing comfortable faux-leather surfaces on your skin, and a synthesized voice and audible feedback to assist with your navigation of the three hardware buttons and touch controls make these headphones easy to wear during work sessions, public transit commutes, or in a crowded home with loud kids. As a brand new product, the tension on the cans over your ears and on your head can become uncomfortable within an hour of use. Subjectively, I don't consider my head to be particularly large or larger-than-average and will need to play around with adjusting the cups to sit lower or higher on the band which also release/tighten the tension respectively to see if this becomes a long term problem with use. Taking short breaks with the headphones off (10-15 minutes) helps and gives a good excuse/reminder to take a break from work to relax the body/eyes/ears.The sound quality is reasonable for the headphones. When using the headphones with noise cancellation off, ambient noise seems to lack a very strong low end frequency response (sub ~250Hz, not measured) and might reduce your meatspace experience in some cases where mixed ambient and input audio are desired. That said, direct input still seems to perform quite well with solid frequency response all around which lets the very highs and very lows to be pretty well-balanced.A test using the headset for phone conversation over bluetooth yielded very nice results. The setup involved the cans paired with my laptop streaming music and my Project Fi Pixel 3 phone on standby. Using the Google voice assistant to start the call resulted in some clumsy voice detection/understanding problems ("I'm sorry, I didn't get that, who would you like to call? I don't know that name, who would you like to call? Ok, will that be mobile or home? Ok, will that be mobile or home? Dialing..." _sigh_) which I don't believe are the fault of the cans at all. The test included loud ambient music in the room with the person wearing the headphones and found the other user to experience practically none of the ambient noise through the call with a very clear bead on the callee's voice despite close proximity to the music source playing at a moderate volume (such that the ambient music was leaking through the room walls and making it hard to isolate whether the headphones were leaking the ambient noise into the call...which it seemed _not_ to do with this casual test setup). Noticeable was the (300-700ms) delay from the user on the headphones which seemed to not be present from the non-headphone user. It was hardly a concern and either due to the latency in the network transmitting the audio (which, again, was a local wifi call between handsets.... though I am unsure if the handsets route audio locally or not) or possibly in the audio processing from the headset. This latency was par for most mobile calls and should be completely unnoticeable in a remote environment when you're not there to hear to source before the transmitted audio through the headset.A few gripes about the design and ergonomics of the device:- the button placement: very easy to accidentally active these buttons which adjusting the placement of these cans if not aware/careful.- the direction of earcup rotation: when placing the cans around the neck/shoulders, the earcups rotate up (into the air) rather than down (onto your chest). Questionable choice here as it makes the headphones somewhat uncomfortable to hold there, but perhaps Bose never expects you to remove the phones... unsure if that's a reasonable expectation or not.- the synthetic leather matte black surface inside the top of the headset and on the earcups attract oil and will certainly show for those of us with that sort of skin. This may require some extra TLC and upkeep to keep as pristine as one might like. The white set might fair better in this regard.Overall summary:A pricey purchase that I would have trouble justifying as a personal expense (these were expensed by my employer and intended for daily voice conference usage and isolation during work hours in busy coffee shops) and really comes down to the longevity of the product over time. If these headphones end up lasting me longer than 5 years, I would be VERY satisfied with the purchase. At a price point closer to $250-300, this would be a much easier personal purchase to make.As a user which "babies" their hardware, I am eager to see whether this will stand the test of time. Direct input (from a bluetooth source that is not ambient noise) has a very solid frequency response which does not noticeably detract from the music experience. Longterm use may be uncomfortable depending on your head size. The noise cancellation works wonderfully and almost too well, leaving me at a "5" setting more often than a "10" as complete cancellation feels too isolating and uncomfortable to feeling the lack of "air" around me. BLE connection to multiple devices (two) at once allows for seemless transitions between either input. This is also a first time purchase of a Bose product. Looking forward to seeing how the device matures and support is handled over time. Firmware updates are provided automatically to the headset through their app. Battery life "appears" long but I have yet to complete a full discharge cycle to be sure. I was pleasantly surprised to find the phones report +5 hours of use remaining at 20% battery charge and +20 hours at full charge (the audio assistant delivers the charge level as "hours of use" remaining, not battery level...which is still viewable in the Bose Music app. Nice touch, Bose).

I have owned/used the Jabra Evolve 75 for 4 years. I have owned and used this Bose product exclusively for ~2 months. I bought it to replace my Evolve when the boom mic stopped muting the headset.I work from home full time and use them 3-6 hours a day. I'll compare the two products a bit here for people who might be familiar with that one.In short: It's a really nice headset, albeit one with some quirks. If you want a single headset for work and music, get the Bose NC 700 (with UC if you also use a supported team meeting product, like MS Teams). If you want a headset for work only then you should also consider/compare the Jabra Evolve 75PROS:- Extremely comfortable when the room you are in is at a comfortable temperature,- Quite comfortable for people who wear glasses. The Evolve 75 was less comfortable with glasses due, I believe, because of the design: the Bose fits around your ear and the Evolve 75 sits on top of your ear, which would push it into the glasses and your head. Never a huge deal, but one thing I noticed with them after hours of use wear- With UC connector (sold separately or as a bundle with headphone), the controls work with a couple of the leading video conferencing products- Noise canceling is incredible...absolutely fantastic.- A pleasant voice and sounds telling you what is going on when you hit most of the controls. The Evolve 75 has voice feedback as well- Charges very quickly...30 minutes will get me through my work day- Music sounds wonderful on them. I would not use the Evolve 75 for music if I had other options around like thisCONS:- When your room is hot the Bose is not as comfortable as the Evolve 75. I think this is because the Bose encases your ears while the Evolve sits more on top of the ear- I find the touchpad controls much less accurate than physical button. Hold the touchpad for the right amount of time to mute/unmute means I'm wrong some amount of the time. The Evolve 75 was way more simple...move the mic boom up and you are muted, move it down and you are not- The manual is not very good. Did you know that the UC USB nub has a button to set bluetooth to discovery mode? The manual doesn't tell you that and the button is so well placed and designed that it doesn't look like a button at all- The software to update/use the Bose it is awkward at best. Jabra's software updater is much cleaner- Does not come with a stand to put it when not in use. The Evolve 75- If you want Unified Communications you need to buy a $75 USB nub, or buy the NC 700 UC package. The Evolve 75 has it all in one package/price- When paired to your phone and your computer (via UC nub) it gets confused when you get a phone call while on a work meeting. I tend to disconnect it from my phone during working hours for this reason...the Evolve 75 handled two devices better- Uses a very different cable to charge...sort of like a hollowed-out USB-C...and the supplied cable is so short you cannot charge and use the headset at the same time. The Evolve 75 can be charged and used a the same time easily...if you ever even had to do this, as the stand it comes with will charge the phone as well if its plugged into a USB portNEUTRAL:- Battery life is satisfactory...I go a couple days between charges- A bit higher price than the Evolve 75- I found the Evolve 75 to have better signal range