Bose launched the new QuietComfort 45 wireless noise-cancelling headphones (hereinafter referred to as QC45 ) last month. In addition to inheriting the classic design of QuietComfort in the past, of course, it is also optimized for noise reduction, sound quality and wearing comfort. In the test article report of Bose QC45, I believe you already have a complete understanding of this wireless noise-cancelling headset. And this article is to answer the questions raised by many friends: "I don't know how it compares with the Sony WH-1000XM4 wireless noise-cancelling headphones? ” to answer, I will analyze the actual experience from the appearance, wearing comfort, operability, noise reduction, call quality, sound quality, battery life and Bluetooth connection stability of the two wireless noise-cancelling headphones. Friends who are interested in these two products can have a more complete reference.

The headphone body weight of Bose QC45 is 235g, and the headphone body weight of Sony WH-1000XM4 is 253g. The difference between the two headphones is about 18g. With the weight of the charging box), and the storage box with the same hard box design, basically there is not much difference in the actual experience of portability. Headphones are still fundamentally different.

Both the Bose QC45 and Sony WH-1000XM4 are designed to be worn in the form of earmuffs. Under the small weight difference between the two headphones, both have adjustable length headbands and joint mechanisms that can be rotated and adjusted inside and outside. Wearing it will not cause obvious pressure on the top of the head or both sides of the ears, and it can also be adapted to users of different head shapes. The most obvious difference between the two earphones in terms of wearing comfort is in the thickness and internal space of the earmuffs and earpads. In terms of the ear-covering experience, the Bose QC45 can completely cover the ears in the earmuffs. The Sony WH-1000XM4 will feel more actual contact between the earpads and the ears.

As for the more complete covering of the ears, what effect will it have on wearing comfort? I think it is still the stuffy feeling that is the most headache for users in earmuff headphones. Also, when wearing it for 2 hours, the stuffy feeling of WH-1000XM4 will be more obvious than that of Bose QC45, which is a small difference in detail. , if you don't like this kind of stuffy feeling like me, maybe you can actually try on the QC45 and it will have a longer wearing comfort.

As can be seen from the picture above, the ear pads of the WH-1000XM4 above are slightly thicker and slightly larger in size. It is this subtle design that causes the two earphones to have different wearing comforts.

In terms of operation convenience, Bose QC45 maintains the physical button configuration of the QC series wireless noise-cancelling headphones, and does not need to remember the gesture operation function in operation, and when the touch panel cannot be seen, use your fingers to find the touch panel. The operation position and other conditions occur. More importantly, the physical buttons will not be touched by mistake. It will definitely happen that you really touch them by mistake. The operation buttons of the QC45 are shaped with different button particles, even when they are touched by hand. It can also operate quickly.

As for the Sony WH-1000XM4, it uses the coexistence of the touch panel and the physical buttons. In short, the right earmuff tile side is the touch panel, and the user can play music by tapping and swiping up, down, left, and right gestures. Function, voice call function, song selection and volume level to operate, while the left earcup is equipped with power on/off and Bluetooth pairing buttons, and finally there are control buttons that can be customized. Compared with the Bose QC45, the WH-1000XM4 needs to memorize more operation methods, and it is rarely touched by mistake due to the adjustment of the wearing position. In contrast, I prefer the old-school button operation of the QC45. .

Both the QC45 and the WH-1000XM4 have their own dedicated apps to make advanced settings for the headphone body, and even adjust the firmware update and sound mode of the headphones, from Bose Music and Sony Headphone Connect two apps The application can clearly see that Sony provides more abundant setting options, including flexible sound control, noise reduction optimization, sound mode, etc., while Bose Music, which started late, only has noise reduction and ambient sound options available. When the user switches, it can be clearly seen who wins and who loses by comparing the two. There is not much suspense in this part.

Bose QC45 and Sony WH-1000XM4 are equipped with Bluetooth 5.1 and Bluetooth 5.0 wireless transmission technology respectively. If it is an Apple device of iOS or macOS, both earphones can enter Bluetooth pairing mode by long-pressing after power on, but WH- The 1000XM4 also has the function of NFC pairing and connection. For its own Xperia series or other Android devices, pairing and connection will be more convenient.

In the actual test, the Bluetooth stability of the two earphones is quite normal. In a complex wireless network environment, there is no sudden disconnection. Both earphones have the convenient function of connecting two devices at the same time, allowing users to You can quickly switch the listening sound between the laptop and the mobile phone. This part is a bit difficult to distinguish.

In terms of battery life, I used the iPhone 13 Pro for wireless music playback for both earphones, with the volume set to 60% and full noise reduction turned on, to test the battery life of continuous music playback. For many digital decoding operations, the Bose QC45 has a battery life of about 23 hours and 9 minutes, while in the same music playback environment, the battery life of the Sony WH-1000XM4 is 28 hours and 12 minutes. The 1000XM4s are much better, and both earphones feature fast charging for emergency use.

The Bose QC45 has good passive noise reduction. When simply wearing it and not playing music, it can block about 90% of the ambient noise. When the noise reduction mode is turned on, although there is still a little uncomfortable negative pressure, it is better than the Bose QC45. Previous QC35 model">QC35 model">QC35 model">QC35 model">QC35 model">QC35 model">QC35 model">QC35 model">QC35 model">QC35 model">QC35 model">QC35 model">QC35 Model">QC35Model">QC35Model">QC35Model">QC35Model">QC35Model">QC35Model">QC35 II has been greatly improved, through the noise reduction mode switch button on the left earphone, After switching to the transparent mode, you can hear about 40%~50% of the ambient sound, but the low-frequency noise, such as the noise of the motor running of the electric fan, will be isolated, and the vocal part of the voice is quite clear, but Not like the WH-1000XM4, you can hear the surrounding sound more clearly.

When the noise reduction mode is turned on in a quieter indoor environment, you only need to adjust the volume of the music to 50% to achieve a complete noise reduction effect, so that you can focus on your work or activities, while in the outdoor environment When using the noise reduction mode, the most interesting part is that the QC45 does not have an obvious effect on the elimination of wind cutting sound. For example, because of the recent frontal attack, even if the noise reduction mode is turned on, you can still hear the wind cutting sound, which is a small experience. Small regret. Finally, in commuting public transportation, after turning on the noise reduction mode, you need to adjust the volume to 65%~75% to have a complete noise reduction effect, but it is recommended to adjust the volume to below 65%. Grasp the information on the inside of the car and the station.

It is said that the Sony WH-1000XM4 has functions such as elastic sound control, but I still directly use the noise reduction and ambient sound modes to experience the noise reduction experience. After turning on the noise reduction mode in the indoor environment, in fact, the WH-1000XM4 has already It has passive noise reduction effect that can isolate 80%~85% of ambient noise, and there will be no uncomfortable negative pressure. The volume of music playback can achieve complete sound insulation effect at about 45% of the volume, and when the maximum environment is turned on After the sound mode, the high-frequency ambient noise can be effectively isolated, and the hearing sense of the ambient sound including the human voice will be quite obvious.

When the experience scene is moved to an outdoor environment, the WH-1000XM4 has the noise reduction effect of "reducing wind noise", which makes this headset a little better than the QC45 in terms of noise reduction, and can basically isolate most of the In terms of the volume of music playing, if there is no potential danger in the outdoor environment, it is recommended to set the volume between 50% and 60%, so that the noise reduction effect will be completely isolated. However, it is still recommended that you use the ambient sound mode to keep abreast of the surrounding environment. Finally, in commuting public transportation, my own suggestion is the ambient sound mode, with 65% to 70% of the music playback volume, it will be the best setting to master the ambient sound and listen to the music at the same time.

Compared with the previous generation QC35 II, the Bose QC45 has added a fourth external microphone configuration. In addition to better sound reception, the Bose QC45 can isolate and focus your voice when paired with headphones. At the same time, it uses an anti-noise algorithm to filter ambient sounds to improve call quality. As for the WH-1000XM4, it adopts precise radio technology, has five built-in microphones and is equipped with advanced audio signal processing technology to improve call quality. First of all, let's listen to the test of the indoor call quality of the two headphones. From the actual test recording file, the call effect of the QC45 and WH-1000XM4 in the indoor environment is quite clear, but it can be heard that the WH-1000XM4 will appear slightly. the ambient sound, but will not affect the overall call quality.

Then I moved the test scene to the street in Neihu Science Park during off hours to test the quality of outdoor calls. You can clearly feel from the two recording files below that the WH-1000XM4 is better than the QC45 in terms of radio quality. It is better, and the wind noise and wind cutting sound during calls will not be as obvious as the QC45. In fact, the most important thing is the performance of the vocal clarity. Although the QC45 can also hear the human voice clearly, the accompanying environmental noise It is much more obvious than the WH-1000XM4, and this part is believed to be the better performance of the WH-1000XM4.

The Bose QC45 adopts the exclusive patented TriPort design and exclusive "Volume-optimized Active EQ", which makes this wireless noise-cancelling earphone with a more forward voice, with clear and non-sharp treble, full and solid mid-range. The treble and the elastic bass can fully listen to the sound of each audio, but to say which audio performance is better, it seems impossible to give a clear answer on this headset, but it is worthwhile to be happy that, Before and after the QC45 turns on the noise reduction mode, there is no obvious difference in the actual sound quality performance, which can reassure you.

Through Eggplant Egg's "Dear Ruthless Sun Xiaomei", you can listen to the electric guitar Solo full of tension and the rhythmic drum sound. The lead singer's unique and smoky voice can also be faithfully transmitted to the ear. Listening to YOASOBI's "Monster", you can hear the lead singer Ikura's excellent true and false voice conversion details, and when you listen to Billie Eilish's 007 movie theme song "No Time To Die", you can feel Billie Eilish's unique vocal interpretation, plus There are few details of the conversion of breath sounds and true and false sounds, so although the QC45 tends to be balanced in the performance of each audio, the interpretation of the vocal part adds a lot of goodwill to the actual listening experience.

As for the Sony WH-1000XM4, it uses a 40mm dome-type driver unit with an aluminum-coated liquid crystal polymer diaphragm. Although it supports AAC, SBC and LDAC Bluetooth audio decoding formats, for the sake of fairness, I still use the same iPhone 13 Pro as the Music player. The WH-1000XM4 also belongs to the tuning setting that is more forward for the human voice. It can be felt that the performance of the mid and high audio frequencies that are most deeply felt by the human ear is quite solid, full and rich in layers. The elasticity of the playing is difficult to show the rhythm that the bass needs to present, and the treble is clear and not sharp, which can fully interpret the shape of the instrument with the high handle position of the violin or the high key position of the piano.

The Sony WH-1000XM4 has better sound resolution than the QC45. It has a higher grasp of the sound details of instruments and vocals, and the listener can easily imagine the contours of instruments and vocals. In terms of listening experience, I myself use the preset sound mode to experience, and Sony also provides preset and personalized equalizer functions in the Headphones Connect app, with Sony's exclusive DSEE Extreme digital sound quality restoration function , it has a great effect on the overall sound quality and the actual sense of hearing. This is also a functional design that Bose can consider adding in the future.

From the actual experience of the Bose QC45 and Sony WH-1000XM4 wireless noise-cancelling headphones in terms of appearance, wearing comfort, ease of operation, noise reduction effect, call quality, sound quality, battery life and Bluetooth connection stability, The Sony WH-1000XM4 is better than the Bose QC45 in terms of noise reduction, call quality, sound quality, and battery life. With the dedicated Headphones Connect app, it can add more functions to the WH-1000XM4. Such as flexible sound control, up to 20 levels of ambient sound control, noise reduction optimization technology and 360 Reality sound technology, sound equalizer and other functions, plus Speak to Chat, quick attention mode and wear sensor, overall, Sony WH-1000XM4 would be a better choice.

The Bose QC45 is in the actual experience of wearing comfort and operation, which I think is superior to the Sony WH-1000XM4, but with the blessing of Bose's exclusive noise reduction technology, the QC45 also has good performance. The noise reduction experience, but if you can import the ambient sound control of the Bose 700 wireless noise canceling headphones, and add the anti-wind sound mode and use the same six-microphone system, you can also increase the sound quality optimization function in the Bose Music app. , such as adding more sound modes and personalized equalizer settings, if these parts can be enhanced, this Bose classic QC series wireless noise-cancelling headphones will be more competitive.