Some users are complaining that the noise-cancelling is diminished after updating their headphone’s firmware — but CNET can’t reproduce the problem.
A lot of people who own Bose ‘s popular QuietComfort 35 noise-cancelling headphone never bother to update the headphone’s firmware. But plenty do and some aren’t happy with the latest update, complaining it’s been detrimental to their headphone’s performance — the noise cancelling in particular.
Jason, a CNET reader, recently sent me an email pointing me to an online thread discussing the contentious firmware upgrades. He said that since my review of the headphone — it received a CNET Editors’ Choice award — « Bose has updated the firmware several times, which has rendered the ANC [noise-cancelling] completely useless. This problem has been ongoing for a month with a hundreds of people complaining on the Bose forum. »
It’s unclear how many people have experienced the problem, but Bose hasn’t been able to get to the bottom of it. On March 7, a Bose community manager who, coincidentally, is also named Jason (Jason_G), said, « You’ve told us that something is wrong, and although we have tested rigorously, we haven’t been able to replicate what you’ve told us. We will get to the bottom of this and we need your help. »
Two limited-edition blue QuietComfort 35 headphones, one of which has upgraded firmware while the other doesn’t.
At the behest of Bose’s engineering team, Jason_G asked for 20 volunteers in the UK and the US to send in their headphones for analysis to « determine a root cause for these reports.
