Sony has started removing YouTube videos showing Concord running on fan-made custom servers, raising new questions about how far the company will go to shut down the community revival.
I’ve been using Bose Quiet Comfort noise reduction headphones for almost 2 decades now, ever since I had to do software development in a large open space office alongside the noisy business-side types (this was in Investment Banking - so whilst not a heavy-machinery-noisy environment, certain the top range of office noisy) and those they were very good already back then (I’m still using at home the first model I got, after replacing the ear-pads which is what gets damaged over time).
The QC 3.5 and onwards have bluetooth AND also a wired connection as fallback (which I have had to use with devices without bluetooth).
Of course, you pay for it (last ones I got were €250 if I remember it correctly), but then again they last a long time (as I said, the first ones, now almost 2 decades old, are still work fine even if the outside is all scratched up and they’re now on the 5th or 6th pair or earpads).
I very much doubt Sony one’s are anywhere close to that, especially given that the quality of Sony devices took a massive dive in the late 90s when top level management which until then was dominated by the Engineering side was taken over by the Media side took over (before they used to be known for the high quality of their electronics).
I actually have been using those Bose QC over the ear ones for a few years now (and I already had to replace the pads once), and they’re not great. IIRC I paid like $300, and they’re definitely not worth that much. I’m not that picky about sound quality, but the UX is terrible. Powering it on is a crap shoot. Sometimes you press the button, and 5 seconds later it plays a sound to indicate it turned on. Sometimes it takes 10 seconds, sometimes more. Sometimes it doesn’t even turn on, and you just sit there doing nothing waiting to see if it decided to turn on this time, or if you have to hold the button for ~30 seconds to get it unstuck. Sometimes that sound that plays when powering on even gets interrupted by the bluetooth connection notice. Sometimes, it gets stuck in a loop switching between sound isolation modes, just endlessly saying “Aware. Immersion. Quiet.” until you intervene.
It’s also hard to simply wear them around your neck when your ears get tired and you just want to use them as tiny speakers. This is for two reasons. First, the placement of the physical buttons on the side of the cups means that they will accidentally get pressed when the cups collide (which will happen when you wear them around your neck). Second, they will constantly pause whenever they get close to your chin, as they’ll think you took them off your head. That part is overly sensitive, and they were too cheap/lazy to add a simple sensor to detect the rotation of the cups to know when they’re not being used over-ear.
And finally, the battery life is not good enough to last an entire work day, so you’ll have to connect them to power… except, for some reason, connecting a usb cable to charge causes it to shutdown immediately. You can use them while charging, but you have to power them back on/reconnect them after connecting the cable, which means you have to play the annoying waiting/guessing game again with the power button!
I have other complaints, but whatever. When they’re working, they’re fine, but I’m probably done with Bose. These little issues on such an expensive product left a bad taste in my mouth. I don’t know how Sony’s over the ear headphones compare, but the in-ear ones I have are amazing simply because they work as intended 99% of the time without any of this kind of bullshit.
I use headphones, which cover the full ear so I don’t get any “tired ears” from those. Maybe you’re using a totally different model (no idea if BOSE have earphones and if they’re any good - I avoid any earphones exactly because of getting “tired ears” with them).
If you’re using headphones, maybe you have the QC 3 (which are widelly seen as shit)?!
I have had over the years the original QC, QC 2.5 and QC 3.5 and still use the QC and QC 3.5 with none of those problems (funnilly enough, the oldest, an original QC, uses a single removable AAA battery, and I use rechargeable ones and even that will last around 3 - 4 days, whilst the built-in LiPo in the QC 3.5 lasts even more than that when using bluetooth, and even more when using an audio wire).
I’m using “Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones” manufactured in 2024, according to the app. I can’t find any model number, but I just looked up the order in my email and it turns out I’ve actually only had it for a little over a year, and the price was a ridiculous $380. Luckily, I only ended up paying around $200 because I had reward points with the vendor, but I would definitely not recommend these to anyone at $400. At $200? Maybe, but I wouldn’t buy it again at that lower price.
My ears fit in the cups, but they still get tired sometimes after wearing them the entire day. Idk what to tell you, I guess my ears are too big and brush up against the inside of the cups? It’s not a real issue for me, and doesn’t happen often, which is why I didn’t even mention comfort as being a problem.
Do you really not experience any of the software issues I mentioned? The Bose app even says I’m on the latest firmware version.
In my own experience, the original QCs were great tech for the time, the QC 2.5 (or maybe I had a QC 2?) had issues and lasted much less and then the QC 3.5 were again great (the battery lasts way longer, build quality is nice and the user interface is decent with no such problems as your reported “easy to switch off” button).
Also I never used the manufacturer’s app, and it’s not really needed even with with the wireless 3.5 model (I don’t even know if there’s a mfg app for those), certainly not with the previous ones which are wired.
(As a general rule I avoid mfg apps since they’re almost always overbloated shit and instead always chose devices which do not require an app).
The QC 3.5 was launched almost a decade ago, so plenty of time for later models to have been enshittified.
Damn those headphones you have are from the pre-enshitiffication era. Cherish them!
The headphones work without the app fortunately, but you need it to control EQ settings, isolation settings, and install firmware updates. They’re kinda like the shitty software that PC gaming peripherals ship to control LED colors or whatever.
I’ve been using Bose Quiet Comfort noise reduction headphones for almost 2 decades now, ever since I had to do software development in a large open space office alongside the noisy business-side types (this was in Investment Banking - so whilst not a heavy-machinery-noisy environment, certain the top range of office noisy) and those they were very good already back then (I’m still using at home the first model I got, after replacing the ear-pads which is what gets damaged over time).
The QC 3.5 and onwards have bluetooth AND also a wired connection as fallback (which I have had to use with devices without bluetooth).
Of course, you pay for it (last ones I got were €250 if I remember it correctly), but then again they last a long time (as I said, the first ones, now almost 2 decades old, are still work fine even if the outside is all scratched up and they’re now on the 5th or 6th pair or earpads).
I very much doubt Sony one’s are anywhere close to that, especially given that the quality of Sony devices took a massive dive in the late 90s when top level management which until then was dominated by the Engineering side was taken over by the Media side took over (before they used to be known for the high quality of their electronics).
I actually have been using those Bose QC over the ear ones for a few years now (and I already had to replace the pads once), and they’re not great. IIRC I paid like $300, and they’re definitely not worth that much. I’m not that picky about sound quality, but the UX is terrible. Powering it on is a crap shoot. Sometimes you press the button, and 5 seconds later it plays a sound to indicate it turned on. Sometimes it takes 10 seconds, sometimes more. Sometimes it doesn’t even turn on, and you just sit there doing nothing waiting to see if it decided to turn on this time, or if you have to hold the button for ~30 seconds to get it unstuck. Sometimes that sound that plays when powering on even gets interrupted by the bluetooth connection notice. Sometimes, it gets stuck in a loop switching between sound isolation modes, just endlessly saying “Aware. Immersion. Quiet.” until you intervene.
It’s also hard to simply wear them around your neck when your ears get tired and you just want to use them as tiny speakers. This is for two reasons. First, the placement of the physical buttons on the side of the cups means that they will accidentally get pressed when the cups collide (which will happen when you wear them around your neck). Second, they will constantly pause whenever they get close to your chin, as they’ll think you took them off your head. That part is overly sensitive, and they were too cheap/lazy to add a simple sensor to detect the rotation of the cups to know when they’re not being used over-ear.
And finally, the battery life is not good enough to last an entire work day, so you’ll have to connect them to power… except, for some reason, connecting a usb cable to charge causes it to shutdown immediately. You can use them while charging, but you have to power them back on/reconnect them after connecting the cable, which means you have to play the annoying waiting/guessing game again with the power button!
I have other complaints, but whatever. When they’re working, they’re fine, but I’m probably done with Bose. These little issues on such an expensive product left a bad taste in my mouth. I don’t know how Sony’s over the ear headphones compare, but the in-ear ones I have are amazing simply because they work as intended 99% of the time without any of this kind of bullshit.
This is totally different from my experience.
I use headphones, which cover the full ear so I don’t get any “tired ears” from those. Maybe you’re using a totally different model (no idea if BOSE have earphones and if they’re any good - I avoid any earphones exactly because of getting “tired ears” with them).
If you’re using headphones, maybe you have the QC 3 (which are widelly seen as shit)?!
I have had over the years the original QC, QC 2.5 and QC 3.5 and still use the QC and QC 3.5 with none of those problems (funnilly enough, the oldest, an original QC, uses a single removable AAA battery, and I use rechargeable ones and even that will last around 3 - 4 days, whilst the built-in LiPo in the QC 3.5 lasts even more than that when using bluetooth, and even more when using an audio wire).
I’m using “Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones” manufactured in 2024, according to the app. I can’t find any model number, but I just looked up the order in my email and it turns out I’ve actually only had it for a little over a year, and the price was a ridiculous $380. Luckily, I only ended up paying around $200 because I had reward points with the vendor, but I would definitely not recommend these to anyone at $400. At $200? Maybe, but I wouldn’t buy it again at that lower price.
My ears fit in the cups, but they still get tired sometimes after wearing them the entire day. Idk what to tell you, I guess my ears are too big and brush up against the inside of the cups? It’s not a real issue for me, and doesn’t happen often, which is why I didn’t even mention comfort as being a problem.
Do you really not experience any of the software issues I mentioned? The Bose app even says I’m on the latest firmware version.
Fuck, maybe they went down in quality again 😬
In my own experience, the original QCs were great tech for the time, the QC 2.5 (or maybe I had a QC 2?) had issues and lasted much less and then the QC 3.5 were again great (the battery lasts way longer, build quality is nice and the user interface is decent with no such problems as your reported “easy to switch off” button).
Also I never used the manufacturer’s app, and it’s not really needed even with with the wireless 3.5 model (I don’t even know if there’s a mfg app for those), certainly not with the previous ones which are wired.
(As a general rule I avoid mfg apps since they’re almost always overbloated shit and instead always chose devices which do not require an app).
The QC 3.5 was launched almost a decade ago, so plenty of time for later models to have been enshittified.
Damn those headphones you have are from the pre-enshitiffication era. Cherish them!
The headphones work without the app fortunately, but you need it to control EQ settings, isolation settings, and install firmware updates. They’re kinda like the shitty software that PC gaming peripherals ship to control LED colors or whatever.