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Comment by trog | Hacker News Reader

Bought my partner a pair of these (super expensive) headphones as an Xmas present and her experience is a little similar. Battery life on hers plummeted after about 18 months to the point where if they're fully charged at night, by the morning with no use they're at 20% or less.

Was super unimpressed with Bose support, both in store and online - they offered to wind back the firmware for us, or our other option was buy a new pair.

It's interesting reading about this not-turning-off bug as maybe something like that is happening which is killing the battery overnight.

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That sucks :( My QC35 are one of my favorite purchases still, something like 5+ years on. The battery life is simply astounding. I've worn them on entire journeys, from lounge to plane to plane through customs and to my destination and been shocked to find them with 40% battery life reported remaining after 16+ hours of constant use. It sounds like there's absolutely something faulty with her product, and Bose customer support should really step up and make it right.

Mine are 3.5 years old. I use them daily during all working hours and sometimes weekends.

The only thing that went thus far were the leather cups (twice) that are fortunately easily replaced. OEM are $$$, while after market alternatives I found to be just as good and are only $.

My battery is still strong. Probably around 10-12 hours of use.

> The only thing that went thus far were the leather cups (twice) that are fortunately easily replaced. OEM are $$$, while after market alternatives I found to be just as good and are only $.

The analysis in the page discussed in this thread doesn't match what you're saying: knockoff cups are inferior and degrade noise cancellation.

No, that’s not what the analysis said. It said that the one pair of aftermarket cushions were of inferior quality. No findings were made of all aftermarket cushions.

I don't have anything to sell, if you want to roll the dice on aftermarket earcups, knock yourself out :)

But you paid 300-400$ for headphones, to me it's worth paying the OEM premium just to make sure they keep delivering the quality and experience I was looking for initially when I paid the high price. Otherwise, you might as well buy the lowest priced noise canceling headphones: you'll get a commensurate experience but you won't break the bank.

Anyway, to each their own :)

An ear cup is an ear cup, hardly military precision required in manufacturing. I got a pair of aftermarket cushions for my QC35s and I found them to be more comfortable, if there's any difference to noise cancelling I certainly haven't experienced it. Why pay 3 times more for something that does the same job, doesn't matter if I paid $1000 for them.

You're right - there's no reason to pay 3 times more for something that does the right job.

The problem is aftermarket cushions may not do as good of a job at passive noise reduction.

Follow the link and check if you have the right number of clips on your aftermarket cushion. Obviously this isn't the full picture but is certainly a large piece of it.

The question isn’t whether the aftermarket cushions perform at the same level as OEM, it’s whether they have sufficient performance for ‘outoftheabyss’s needs. If they’re good enough, why pay more?

> it's worth paying the OEM premium just to make sure they keep delivering the quality and experience I was looking for initially

And I am the guy who spent 4 times a few hundred on AKG studio headphones but replaced the ear cups with some much, much cheaper but better feeling ones.

To each their own :)

Note that he report is by the seller themselves. Can you imagine them saying: "yes, we overcharge you for the cups, the off-brands work just as well"?

likewise I used mine daily up until a couple months ago without issue. my leather cups are TOAST. Where did you get your replacement cups from?

I got a pair from AliExpress. I didn't notice a significant change in noise cancelling performance (active or passive). But I'm not a picky listener anyway. YMMV.

Amazon

Yeah I've had no battery issues. I use mine daily for a couple of hours and change them about one every two weeks. They're about 2/3 years old now?

> My battery is still strong. Probably around 10-12 hours of use.

Mum bought new last year because pads were worn, I got her old set - uses a single AAA battery and lasts across the globe and back (~30 hours). Unfortunately she didn't like the new rechargable set, and neither do I..

Are these "leather cups" you're talking about these "ear cushions" (https://www.bose.com/en_us/products/headphones/headphone_acc...)? If yes, then that's only 30-40$, which does not seem unreasonable for a product you use so intensively? I replaced mine after about 2 years. I remember the sound insulation being a _lot_ better afterwards.

I have the same experience on the battery: my pair is almost 3 years old and I can go about 2 days of work (~12 hours) before I have to charge them.

I found out I could do the same with my Logitech wireless/wired headset. They also allow me to purchase a replacement battery.

I’ve had mine for four years in June. Still as good as the day I got them - I’ve just changed the foam once. YMMV, of course.

Another user elsewhere in this HN thread says it might be caused by an app keeping the microphone awake — that the hardware on/off switch might be software-controlled, which does somewhat make sense if you want to “shutdown” the headphones firmware and disconnect the headphones before powering down...

Yes, your symptoms sound like this bug. Unfortunately it is hardware and not software.

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