Hi XBaker,
Welcome to the Bose Hear Community. Congratulations on getting your Bose Hearphones.
You wrote: "I am slightly confused about the World Volume. The sales literature says it's for controlling the "environmental" sounds of the world. "
Let's start with this note from the Bose Hearphones Owners Guide
How World Volume works •
As you increase World Volume, quiet sounds in the environment are amplified more than loud sounds so tha t all sounds can be heard comfortably.
As you decr ease World Volume, sounds in the environment are reduced, enabling you to focus on your activity, for example, listening to music or podcasts, r eading or using your mobile device.
You wrote, "I thought that might mean HVAC, jet engine rumble, restaurant background noise, etc., IOW, an adjustable Noise Cancelling control."
Sounds like jet engine rumble, and other constant lower-frequency sounds are handled by the Bose Noise Cancelling technology - not the World Volume.
You wrote, "Having used my Hearphones for only a few hours, it seems World Volume also controls the volume of conversation, too."
It might be useful to think of the World Volume as the volume control for conversation (and other things that fall in the same frequency range as conversation).
You wrote, "I thought I could push the noise of the world down and still hear people talking. In technical terms, I expected constant frequencies would be cut or eliminated (like my QC35s) but a Bandpass filter would allow and even boost (better yet, compress) frequencies in the human voice range."
It's the other way around. The noise cancelling is always on. World Volume adds back frequencies in the human voice range. Please see the notes below about how the noise canceling and World Volume work together.
Bose Acoustic Noise Cancelling™ technology and World Volume
We’ve had several requests related to Bose Acoustic Noise Cancelling™ technology and World Volume. I thought it would be helpful to give you more information about how these two features function.
Let’s start here: Noise Cancelling is always lowering the level of the environment (similar to the Bose QC35 when you have the noise cancelling set to maximum). We do not reduce the noise cancelling as you change the World Volume. It is always at 100%.
World Volume controls how much and in what manner you add part of the world back in.
At World Volume 0 and below we try to keep the world sounding as natural as possible. As you turn up above World Volume 0 we start trading off naturalness to maximize speech intelligibility and comfort.
I hope this new information is helpful.
What follows is what we’ve previously said about World Volume.
World Volume is the primary controller for Bose Hearphones. Just like the volume setting on the phone controls the loudness of the customer’s music, podcast and phone calls, the World Volume setting controls the loudness of live voices, TV and other environmental sounds. Each customer adjusts the World Volume so that it’s just right for them and for each place they are.
Above “0,” the Bose Hearphones will amplify the environment in a special way: Quiet sounds are amplified more than loud sounds so that all sounds can be heard, but none are uncomfortable. This is helpful when the customer needs to hear conversation in acoustically challenging environments.
At “0,” the environment will sound as loud as it would if the Bose Hearphones weren’t worn.
Below “0,” the Bose Hearphones will reduce sounds in the environment. This is useful so that the customer can escape loud environmental sounds and either focus on their smartphone content or just enjoy the quiet.
The World Volume can be adjusted on the device or using the app. All World Volume settings use Bose Acoustic Noise Cancelling™ technology.
Does that help?
ST
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