Bose are lying - QC35 II ANC is not the same as previous firmwares.

[Drafto]

You might have noticed the numerous QC35 complaints about how the active noise cancelling is weaker since the latest firmware update. When I tested these headphones out at the store, I was amazed by the ANC, like I was in a soundproof room - was like magic, had to get it. Cut to a week later, I stupidly updated my headphones using the connect app (as it just starts it automatically, and who's going to check online if an update will practially reduce the cost of your kit by about £200). 

So went onto support, usual copy paste answers we see here time and time again (I bet I'll get one on this thread too). Of course no fix, only fix is to revert back to when the firmware was utilizing the hardware properly. No, you can't revert back - why? who the hell knows. Support told me over and over that they did not change anything on the ANC throughout the updates - hard to prove it to them but they know wha'ts going on, they just won't take ownership. I have a feeling they are degrading the quality of these headphones so you upgrade to the new 700's etc, apple do it, why not Bose.  

My wife got a new pair of QC35 II and I could finaly test the differences between firmware 2.5.5 and 4.3.6. Night and day! Wife's headphones got that magic quality, the reason I bought mine in the first place - my 4.3.6 cans? has that irritating white noise, hardly any ANC (low and high sound the same). 

Contacted support again about my findings and they just said they'll replace my headphones - great! new heaphones, old firmware, lets party. Nope, got heaphones with the latest firmware (I think I got someone elses that returned it for the same reason) and I'm now stuck with £40 headphones that say Bose on the side. Nice. So only thing I'm hoping here is enough complaints will show Bose we want to have that magic back, but I really doubt it. Should have gone with Sony, but Bose do have that comfort... at least you can't break that with new updates. 

phew, sorry about the long read. 

[Jessie_O]

Hi Drafto, 

Thank you for your post and welcome to the Bose Community!

Thank you for your honest feedback on the Firmware issues. 

I updated the raised ticket for this issue to make our development aware of your very detailed review of the update. 

When we have an update we will post to the Community. 

Thank you for your patience. 

Kindest, 

Jessie O - Community Support 

[joelirwin]

Well we know that Bose is not planning a way to moved back to the firmware version you want.  What I would do, imho, is return what you have and try either a local retailer to see if you can find one with the older firmware that has not yet been sold (I found older ones a month or so back at the Apple store, for example).  Then you can try eBay - could be sellers out there of older ones but I would confirm the firmware with them before buying since most will not accept returns.  Otherwise your last hope could be Amazon - if you're Prime, they pretty much take back anything but again, you want to go for the oldest QC35ii they have.

[m1sterd]

I have been posting about this very issue for a very long time, my QC 35 II's were as you say, once amazing, like being in a soundproofed room and slightly better than my aging QC3's, however since the first firmware update that I did (to 4.something) the ANC was so much worse in geeneral and no where near as good as my QC 3's, yet everytime I and others complained on here we just get the boiler plate answer of "Our development team have confirmed no changes", well something has changed and enough people have commented to confirm this isn't just a few people having the issue.

Hopefully you will not get the usual cut/paste response out of this, and maybe even a firmware that brings back the greatness that was once there with these headphones, I have BOSE 7.1 surround sound speaker package, QC3's, BOSE Companion 5's, BOSE QC 20's and the QC 35 II, but I have to say, with the responses and sound quality that I get since the QC 35 II firmware upgrade I am questioning if I shall continue putting my money into BOSE products going forwards. Unfortunately I can't return my BOSE QC 35 II's to where I purchased them from, so I don't have any alternative but to hope that a firmware update will fix the issue.

[Kerilk]

I created this account to share that I am experiencing the exact same issue, IE reduced sound canceling quality and white noise at low volume.

This is very disappointing to say the least...

Of course I tested the reset procedure to no avail. You should have a reset button in the bose updater app, would be simpler than this plug/unplug procedure that doesn't give you any feedback on wether it succeeded or not.

[vocalreason]

I was about to buy a set of QC35IIs.  Sounds like I want to stay way from Bose and their poor support.  I can't believe how lame all the Bose offical responses to this issue have been!

[Drafto]

---

@Jessie_O wrote:

Hi Drafto, 

Thank you for your post and welcome to the Bose Community!

Thank you for your honest feedback on the Firmware issues. 

I updated the raised ticket for this issue to make our development aware of your very detailed review of the update. 

When we have an update we will post to the Community. 

Thank you for your patience. 

Kindest, 

Jessie O - Community Support 

---

Hi Jessie_O

Any updates about the broken firmware? been a week since this reply. 

thanks

[Vin Dante]

Just got a notification to update
My firmware. Updated and I can’t tell the difference between low and high noise cancelling. And there is very little difference between noise cancelling off and noise cancelling on. What the hell, I had to pay 500 dollars for these headphones where I live. My wife s 20 dollars non-ANC headphones now do a better job at noice cancelling that my premium ANC Bose QC II. @bose you just lost a client who spent 1000 dollars on your products over the past 3 years and had no reason to stop, until now.

[Vin Dante]

And it s not the issue by the way, it s the asinine admin posts and the fact that I still got a notification to update a few minutes ago when I learned on this forum that they ve been rolling out this update for days. So you know you got a buggy update and instead of listening to the community (no one NEEDS the update it could wait) you keep rolling out a broken update. You should been apologizing in a **bleep** YouTube video, have rolled back the update yesterday already and stopped pushing the update onto mobile app users. I work in the software industry - these are all things that can and should be done within one day when you roll out an update that breaks the very reason for owning your product in the first place.

[Vin Dante]

I propose we post this on Their twitter and Facebook - tagging them @bose. I expect if we do that they will suddenly care.