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Comment by e40 | Hacker News Reader

I have had my QC35's now for....2 years, with I would average at 6-8h of use every day at work. They don't have a single iota of visible wear on them, and the battery life is still 24-32 hours on a single charge. I imagine that, barring any accidents with them, they will probably last another 2+ years for me.

Same here, but I use them walking 1+ hour a day. With all that sweat over the years, still look and perform like new.

Yes, they were expensive, but I consider them the best value of any purchase in the last few years.

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I've had a little less luck with wear on my QC25s, but repair was easy. I've just had to replace the earpads and the cord, both were easy and inexpensive repairs. And I'm happy with the noise cancellation.

The OP talks about the QC20 - which are "Acoustic" noise cancelling in-ears. That is, there is no active noise cancelling, it's just "plugging" the holes around the earcups.

What he really needed was the QC25, which is an in-ear with active noise cancelling much like the QC35 has.

EDIT: The author said QC20 but then he talks about ear-muffs - so seems he misquoted the model number I guess.

Sorry, but you're wrong about the QC20s. They do, in fact, have "active" noise cancelling. I have been using a pair for at least a year, and they are great.

I actually prefer the QC20 noise cancelling to that of the over-ear versions I tried (which were either QC25 or QC35, I don't remember).

You are right. Terms are so confusing.

Agreed!

I've had my QC35's for a bit over a year. Initially I was amazed by them but after a while I started to hear sharp noise when in complete silence (and not using the QC's), e.g. when going to sleep. So while I still use them I don't use the noise cancellation, which kind of defeats the purpose of having them...

Sharp noises? You mean you have developed tinnitus after using the Bose headphone and you think it was related?

Do you know if other people experienced the same?

This the same reason I stopped using my QC25’s i’ve often wondered if any other people may have had the same result.

My logic was that they are creating opposing frequencies at the same level of sound pressure as the ambient you are trying to override meaning it’s still loud, just not in a perceptible way. So especially on airplanes, I now use earplugs instead.

Active noise cancelling does mean that the headphones create a sound wave which has the same frequency but is out of phase by a single wave length. This causes destructive interference which causes the total energy of the waves to equal zero. You are partially correct but active noise cancelling has the same effect as putting earplugs in due to wave mechanics.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_interference

I believe that should read "has the same frequency but is out of phase by HALF A wave length".

> active noise cancelling has the same effect as putting earplugs in due to wave mechanics.

Simply from experience, I would disagree with this. Every time I have ever enabled active noise cancelling, I have experienced an increase in eardrum-pressure, volume, or both (both with and without music playing).

I understand that wave mechanics would theoretically work as you state, but in practice, does not.

I have to report the same experience, and I used to turn the volume right down when using noise cancelling too

Same here, have tried QC25s and didn't keep them because it made me feel like I had a cold, gave me headaches, and felt like my ears were not equalized pressure wise.

I use concert earplugs now, they are invisible unless someone really looks in my ears, and they attenuate all frequencies equally. This way I can also use them at concerts and they won't ruin the music, just make it much quieter across every frequency.

The open office can't die soon enough, what an absurd fad this is.

I developed tinnitus during a time when I was using noise-cancelling Audio-Technica ATH-ANC7b over-ears for 5+ hours a day. I did have other things going on though, so can't specifically say that was the cause.

I'm not sure I would go so far as to say that I developed tinnitus after using them. I occasionally experienced it from time to time even before I started using my QC35's. But it has definitely made it worse and more frequent.

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