STACK #205 Nov 2021

LIFE TECH FEATURE

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incredibly light weight) while adding some key new features. The noise cancellation smarts have been seriously improved on this new model, with the expected (and easy for most ANC headphones) background drone of engines or fans reduced to near-silence. This time, though, the ANC has been upgraded to use an extravagant six microphones alongside some computing cleverness to reduce high frequency noise more than ever before. If you’re sitting in a room with a loud TV or standing on a noisy street corner, then turn on these headphones, it’s remarkable how much of that sound simply goes away. The soft, over-ear design also does a lot to get rid of the stuff that spoils your music. The QC45 has another new trick, too – something Bose calls “Aware Mode”. It’s a button on one side of the headphones that basically turns off noise cancellation, but leaves the microphones on, mixing outside sound what you hear. It’s there for those situations where you want quality music but want to navigate the outside world safely – or just to have a conversation without having to take the headphones off. The audio quality that’s been a hallmark of the QuietComfort range is very much still there – but now with even more extended, but natural bass thanks to new vents in the earcups, and active management of EQ so that music sounds as good as it can at any volume. The smartphone companion app offers a range of other sound profiles to choose from, too. With improved audio quality, noise cancellation, voice pickup on phone calls, and a bigger battery that provides up to 24 hours of music (or three hours via a 15-minute USB-C quick charge) the QuietComfort 45 sees Bose refining their classic premium headphones even further. If you’re after the best noise cancelling around, Bose is back in front of the pack. How does noise cancelling work? While it seems like impossible wizardry the first time you turn it on, the science behind noise cancelling is simple. Microphones on the outside of each headphone constantly pick up sound from the world around you, sending it to an audio chip that literally “flips” the waveform, and sends that version into your ears. Because it’s the opposite of the outside noise, the two cancel each other out and, to you, the outside noise effectively goes away.

The pioneer of noise-cancelling returns with a superb update of their classic QuietComfort headphones, with improved sound and new features. Enjoy the silence! B ose has always been a company that likes to do audio differently. Back in the late ‘60s, when many people were still listening to records in mono and passengers. They’re perfect not just for BOSE QUIETCOMFORT 45 headsets for pilots and then in-flight headphones for

drowning out engine noise on long-haul aircraft flights, though, but for a whole range of other times when you want to hear the music, not the stuff going on outside. Bose has been the go-to name for noise- cancelling headphones for decades now,

speakers were the same old big rectangular boxes that we see today, Bose came out with speakers that bounced sound away from the listener, using the walls of the room to create an immersive audio experience. Right from the start, they were literally thinking outside the box. Their QuietComfort range of headphones has become synonymous with active noise cancelling

but the competition has been nipping at its heels in recent years – and of course they’ve responded in style, with the new QuietComfort 45 acting as the successor to the 35 II model, revered for both its sound quality and, as it says on the tin, its luxurious comfort while wearing them. This new version keeps all of that (including

– the first model debuted back in 2000, after Bose spent years perfecting the tech in aviation

48 NOVEMBER 2021

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