QC35 II must maintain line of sight with Surface Laptop / Win 10. Otherwise connection cuts

[jason.salameh]

I've noticed that using my QC35 II if they break line of sight with my Suface Laptop 3 (brand new) with latest Windows 10, the connection starts to break up or cuts out entirely.

My exact setup / repro :

1. My Laptop is plugged into Surface Dock 1.5 - 2 ft away from me (underneath my monitor.
2. When i put on the headphones and turn them on, the connection happens fast.
3. I can start to play music, and as long as the RIGHT cup has line of sight connection - all is well.
4. If i turn my head to the right (removing line of sight to Laptop) the sound immediately cuts out and stays so until i turn my head back strait. If i turn left (exposing the right cup to the PC even more) no issues at all.

Things I've tried

1. Updating the firmware to 4.5.2
2. Unpairing + repairing 
3. Soft reset the QC 35 (via turn off 30 seconds, plug in 5 seconds, turn off 1 min, turn on)
4. Hard reset the QC 35 (holding the power button for 15 seconds)

Do these headphones seriously only have a range of like 3 feet? this is ridiculous... 

Note: Another person on my team with the exact same laptop and the Bose 700 reports no such issues and actually can travel down the hall without audio problems. 

Anyone have any ideas?

[Morlock]

I can't really give you a solution, but I can give a little reasoning behind why this is happening.

So it's not happening when the right ear is closer to the computer?  That is because the receiver is in the right ear.  When the right ear is further from the receiver, it is likely that your skull is blocking the signal.  Bone is not a good conductor and it's sometimes this reason that people have trouble with in-ear wireless headphones - because the right is having trouble sending to the left.

They normally rely on reflected signals, so it is less about the distance to the source than what is there nearby that it can reflect off.  If you are in a large open plan office, this could be the cause.  It could also be that being in an office there is more noise (BT/Wifi) that might interfere with the signal.

Saying that, I can't tell you why your friend is not having the issues and you are.  It could still be worth calling Bose support and seeing what your options are, which is likely to be the response you get from here.

[jason.salameh]

Thanks, In general I agree with you. I am in an office where there is likely Wifi and BT signals that could impede.

however, it just seems odd to me that i can be so close to the source and have connection issues... I didn't call bose, but i did go through online support (warranty now expired). I'll try calling to see what they can do.