Bose QC25 lets nothing between you and your beats

Take a look around any airport lounge and you’ll see a set of Bose noise-cancelling headphones. They’re iconic, and it’s because they’re good. With the new QuietComfort 25, the fi rst refresh in fi ve years, everything gets just a little bit better.

The new QC25 is a pretty conservative play and it’s more of a refinement than an overhaul. Primarily, the headband now collapses at hinges above each earcup for more compact storage.

The new headband is also a smooth arc whereas before there was a subtle bend. You can still wear them for hours and hours. The luxurious puffy leather pad at the crest of the headband has been replaced with a slimmer synthetic cushion, but it’s still plenty cozy.

Finally, the QC25s ditch the proprietary cable Bose used on the QC15s for a simple 3.5mm-2.5mm cable you can buy from Bose or anyone else.

To use the QC25s, you can simply take them out of the box, plug them into a source of your choice, press play and let the good times roll.

That’s actually a pretty big deal: For the very first time, Bose’s noise-canceling headphones work without batteries. Sure, the QC25s don't actually cancel noise that way, but when your QC15s were dead they didn’t work at all.

The noise-cancellation on the headphones is really excellent because it has so little effect on your music. Whereas the sound quality of headphones could be adversely affected by the noise-cancelling electronics, Bose manages to make a solid sound set of cans that a lot of people find appealing

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