QC35 Bluetooth Stuttering/Drop-outs

[almightybunghole]

I have just taken ownership of a pair of QC35's (bought on Amazon a few days ago) and I must say that whilst I'm impressed with the sound quality, I am suffering from the same issue mentioned here.

The problem definitely appears to be associated with Bluetooth signal strength. If I put my phone (Nexus 6P) in my top coat pocket (chest height, left side) and play music, I get consistent drop outs on the signal, maybe 5 or 6 times in my 10 minute walk to work. I have even noticed this with the phone on my desk, if I turn my head. The QC35's are running firmware v1.0.6 and seem to work fine in every other way. I have cleared and re-paired them on multiple occasions.

Whilst these are clearly fine headphones, I have read lots of similar reports online, and if there is no obvious solution forthcoming from Bose they will regretfully have to be returned to Amazon as not fit for purpose (and very much not worth the £290 that they cost).

At this price point, this sort of rudimentary problem is just not acceptable.

[bensmith]

Yeah, I'm on the verge of doing the same.  It will be an easier process to return them and buy something else than go through the break-fix process, especially in this country.  The number of documented and unadressed instances of this lead me to believe there is either a hardware issue or perhaps software - the latter could be fixed, but how long will we wait for that?

The Sennheiser Momentum's II's have superior sound, but inferior ANC and design (in my opinion - design is of course subjective).  There's also the PXC 550 to consider.  The only other contender is the Sony MDR's and they don't come close in the reviews, and you'll never catch me with a pair of Beats on my head.

I guess this forum won't yeild a solution, but I will be satisfied if it draws attention to the issue and in the long run the proglem gets solved for others and until then, perhaps steers others away.  I encourage everyone to post their experience rather than expect a fix.

Ultimatley though, I'm dissapointed because these are otherwwise great cans and I will say this, when they work uninterrupted they are the best all-rounders out there.

Cheers,

Ben

[almightybunghole]

Hi Ben

Dissappointed? You and me both. I had really high hopes for these, and as you say, the ANC is legendary. Unfortunately if they chop in and out every 5 mins for me that's a deal breaker.

Interestingly, in terms of other options, I had a chance to try a pair of B&W P7 Wireless earlier today - the sound quality blew both the Momentum 2 and QC35's out of the water. They also look very retro-cool if that's your sort of thing. If you're considering an alternative, they warrant a listen. The only downside is no ANC at all, which is a shame, but the sound quality is epic by comparison, IMHO of course.

[almightybunghole]

... and as if anyone needs to read any more on this, we're not alone:

https://www.reddit.com/r/bose/comments/4tfaqe/qc_35_bluetooth_drop_outs_stuttering/

[maccatori]

Have an S7 also, so gonna try this and see. Walking to work it drops every minute. I was in Heathrow the other week, and it started stuttering every two seconds. Have the moderators commented anymore on this issue, as it seems it is an issue. Maybe they don't want to be seen making a statement on it.

[bensmith]

That's why I started a thread here rather than Reddit, as if Bose had acknolwledged the hardware fault on Reddit then they should surely do so here, on their own forum page.  

Regarding the moderators lack of a response, I work in a corporation and the way it works here is that whoever is tasked with social media for a particular product line, will typically ask the internal community for assistance.  They either receive a good answers or they do not, or what comes back is unsatisfactory - they don't usually have any SLA driven line of support.  In this case then, they probably have either didn't receive an answer internally, or what they received was not good enough or not to be made public.

In all cases, the proper proceedure is always to send things back for a service where if the problem is frequent enough it can be root-caused and an advisory/fix can be made.  If we don't hand in the hardware, they can't really diagnose the issue.  I was hoping that this may have already happened as per the Reddit thread and Bose might just swap out my/our faulty cans. It's pretty clear that this will not happen so is B&O H9's time I think.

If you're the kind of person who gets on Twitter etc., you might want to harass them there, it's more or less the only way to get results these days - I don't use those sites do must defer.

Best of luck,

Ben

[maccatori]

Hi Ben

Thanks for that, I appreciate that. I worked for a company's twitter before and our SLA was an hour, but I'd rather try and sort with Bose here. I followed Matt's instructions for the S7 and it seemed to be much better, it didn't stutter coming and then leaving every tube station, but did still stutter in the street in Central London, but less times than before. I've emailed them, so will wait on a response.

It'll be a real pity if the fault is in the hardware, but can't get fixed, will see.

Colm

[haffioconnor]

Well the headset is updating the firmware from 1.0.6 to 1.2.9 ??

Now thats a big jump !  ? what happened to 1.0.7 or 1.0.8 or even 1.1.x ?

😛

hopefully that reflects the number of fixes and fixes these issues that are here above and also give the mic a tune down,, since it picks up everything in the enviroment and leaves the headset unusable almost for voice.

[ST - Hearphones]

Bose has just released a new firmware update for your QC35 (version 1.2.9)

Please make sure that your firmware is up to date using one of the following:

Bose Connect app (IOS and Android)

Bose® system update center (Windows)

Does that help?

ST

[haffioconnor]

Nope did not fix the issue 😞