Bose QuietControl 30

Ask any group of seasoned business travellers to name one brand of noise cancellation headphones, and you’re most likely to hear the name Bose, a testament to how good their products (and marketing) are! The Bose QuietControl 30 (Rs 27,000) is the newest offering from Bose, but unlike its predecessors, these are the company’s first active noise-cancelling earphones that give you granular control over the level of noise blocking. What this means is that, depending on your surroundings, you can decide to have a little active noise cancellation or dial it all the way up and completely block out your surroundings. Makes sense — you’d want a little more ‘world awareness’ when you’re in traffic or at an airport than say if you’re on an airplane. Bose provides twelve levels of noise cancellation to choose from, which are controlled via the buttons on the in-line remote or a dedicated Bose app on your smartphone.

Now, since these are collar-style earphones, slipping one on and wearing them all day can tend to be divisive. It’s not the in-ear buds, they’re super comfortable. Personally, I found the rigid part of the neckband too stiff and I often found myself struggling to get the collar part to sit comfortably. As a result, the neckband gradually rotates and shifts around your neck throughout the day, and can get a bit bothersome. Make sure you try one for size in the Bose store. Audio quality is decent, but as with most Bluetooth headphones, slightly flat with that pumped up bass many people love these days.

The noise cancellation by itself is quite decent — the snug fit in the ear and the noise cancellation circuitry in the neckband-style QC30 does cut out a lot of ambient noise — though I’d rate the Bose QC35 and the wired in-ear QC20 far better at the job. It’s almost as if Bose deemed these as everyday walkabout earphones that you’d use wirelessly with your smartphone in the bus or the train, but not on a flight. Case in point — the QC30 doesn't plug into in-flight entertainment systems since it doesn't have an option to run a wire from the neckband to a device, and there’s no passive mode to listen to audio when the 10-hour battery runs out.