Headphone happiness

So Amazon put the Bose QC25 headphones on sale during Prime Day, $125 (down from $249). I’ve been meaning to upgrade from what I was using at the office (>10 year old Altec Lansing headphones), so, done:



My office setup makes cords off to the right kind of awkward:

Also, I wanted to be able to easily disconnect the headphones to use the AX510 sound bar under my Dell U2412M monitor (which is connected to the “headphone” jack of the MacBook Air) ... Long story short, I picked up the SoundBlaster Play 3 to hang off a USB port on the monitor (there are a slew of < $10 trinkets on the market that purportedly do the same job, but all had mixed reviews). The SoundBlaster Play 3 is a separate audio device the Mac can be set to automatically switch to when inserted:

The Play 3 also has a TRRS jack for the headset allowing the microphone on the Bose to work with VoIP-type applications (it also has a separate microphone jack, if you want to use a headset with both pigtails). The final piece of the puzzle is this cheap, simple, nifty hanger, that lets the headphones sit out of the way when not in use.

So ... It may not be “audiophile quality,” but it sounds pretty f’ing alright for office use. Even with just a casual listen of, e.g., Jack White and Alicia Keys’ Another Way To Die, exposed notes and dimensions I’d never noticed before. And the headphones do a great job of isolating me from the noise of the office (even with a private office, there’s distraction aplenty; loud coworkers, phones ringing, etc).

I’m a happy geek, especially at this price point. Bose may not be the greatest things ever, but they’re far and away more than “good enough,” especially for casual / office listening. (The Soundlink Revolve+ that came “free” with my A20s is likewise just the thing for BBQ tunes on the balcony, without firing up the home theater system loud enough to hear out there - which the neighbors don’t necessarily appreciate. Condo living. Meh.)

For batteries I’m using an Eneloop Pro AAA in the QC 25 (I also really like the regular Eneloop AAs) with a good charger.