A lot has gone into making this article; my favorite Bose QC35 went to the maintenance service after I spilled a little evianchka on them, by accident, I started looking for new headphones on E-bay, the seller in Australia gave free delivery for 13,000 rubles, which is simply ridiculous (our prices are about 27,000 rubles), I asked for detailed photos, comrades sent a fake for review. A lot, a lot of things happened that are worth sorting out.

I’ll announce the main conclusion right away – the Bose QC35 is so far the best headphones for flights, especially long-haul flights, so I flew from Hong Kong last week and slept all the way. Yes, and Valya, over there, recently published such a photo on his Instagram – in fact, these headphones are like sleeping pills. Comfortable, great sound, noisy. Class.

But, manufacturers of fakes are also on the alert. There are fake Bose QC35s of all stripes on the market, these are both very rough products and better ones, sometimes they even ask for about 19,000 rubles for fakes at a penny cost. Insolence, swindle, deceit and God, of course, will punish the swindlers. Well, we will help you to distinguish the wheat from the chaff. Go.

History from E-bay

So, if suddenly a profitable offer appears on E-bay, or even so, a GREAT OFFER, then most likely it is a fake. I am writing to a seller in Australia with a seemingly good story, let me remind you, there is a Bose QC35 for 13,000 rubles, new, free shipping, not a word about originality:

• Dude, hi, are these original headphones?
• My dear man, read the description in detail, everything is there.

I read, there is not a word about originality.

• Dude, hi, but you don’t have a word about originality in there. Can I see photos of the headphones?
• My dear man, there are photos in the ad. Look there.

Well, the photos seem to match, but the look of the buttons, the location of the marks on the power button are a little confusing. I’ll ask one more thing.

• Hey dude, can you connect them to Bose Connect, the app for iOS or Android? You don’t even have to connect them, they just have to be displayed there if you turn it on and put it next to your smartphone.
• My dear man, we will not do anything like that, everything is 100% original with us, I give a tooth.
• Well, then I will write to the administration that you are selling fakes.

After a second, the ad disappears, the seller disappears, that’s it, there is no offer.

Advice for you – if you decide to buy a Bose QC35 on E-bay or another online auction, on Avito, for example, ask the same questions as me. Take a close look at the body. The main thing is to try to connect to Bose Connect, this is the easiest and most effective way to check. The program, apparently, has device serials or some other labels, Bose Connect simply ignores fakes.

Fake: exterior

Well, then my colleagues brought me to see fake Bose QC35, we will do comparative photos with the original later, while here we only have a fake. I must say right away that looking for some discrepancies in the packaging is simply stupid, everything is very similar, the case and cables are very similar, the printing and marks on the packaging are very similar. It’s easy to be deceived from a distance. Although, there are nuances.

During the test, a plastic part fell off – a cover for an adapter for use in an airplane. In the original headphones, it has been holding for the second year. The packaging is slightly larger, but, I repeat, all this does not deserve attention. The main thing is the differences in the design of the headphones. And then I noticed at least a few things:

• The original light indicators are located to the right in the middle of the battery icons, Bluetooth, the fake is on the right and slightly lower.
• Fake lights are dimmer.
• The icons on the power rocker are placed a little differently.

In general, surprisingly, the fake resembles the original too much – soft ear cushions, similar ergonomics, the way the headphones feel on the head.

Assembly gaps, gaps, a fuzzy headband guide, a kind of slackness that Bose products don’t have – all this can be missed if you first see the QC35 somewhere on the market or buy headphones in an incomprehensible online store.

Honestly, I am very worried that such copies appear on the market, I involuntarily recall Viktor Mikhailovich Polesov from The Twelve Chairs: “Viktor Mikhailovich survived by a miracle and from the wreckage of a motorcycle in the next drunken period he arranged a stationary engine, which was very similar to a real engine, but didn’t work.” It’s the same here, the headphones are very similar to real ones, however, they work very poorly.

Fake: sound check

The best way to check is to install the Bose Connect program, turn on the headphones, if this is the original, then you will immediately see a schematic image of your headphones. By the way, even the color of the model is displayed, silver or black.

Let me remind you that with the help of Bose Connect you can transmit sound immediately to a pair of company headphones, you can change the name, update the software, turn on or off voice prompts. Let’s sum up what the fake Bose QC35 earphones DO NOT do:

• When you turn on the original model, the remaining operating time is announced – this is the default behavior of the device. The fake just says Power On, then it beeps and that’s it. There are no other hints.
• In the Bose Connect program on iOS and Android (I tried both there and there), the fake is not visible.
• There is an NFC area on the fake body, surprisingly, everything works, I tried it with the Sony Xperia XZ Premium. That’s just pairing happened for the third time.

Most importantly, the sound. For me, the Bose QC35 is a kind of gold standard, where everything is enough, and bass, and highs, and mids, there is an excellent active noise reduction system, thirty-fifths can be worn for nine hours in a row on a long-haul flight and the bulldozer does not get tired. I have hooked hundreds of people on Quiet Comfort and I am very happy that everything is working out so well.

Therefore, I am very sad and insulted to listen to a fake, where everything is completely, completely wrong. Noise reduction does not work – passive noise isolation is good due to the shape of the ear pads, but the headphones do not “cut” the loud noise, as it will be in the airplane, one can only guess. Apparently bad.

There is also no trace of the chic signature sound of Bose here either, I asked a friend, a professional sound engineer, to characterize the sound – according to him, he hears only a hum, as if there is no high frequencies at all. Listened with Sony Xperia XZ Premium, iPhone 7 Plus, the result is the same, disgusting. I tell it like it is, here you have metallic overtones, too many lows, and a lack of details. Artifacts are noticeable even to those who have not previously used the original.

The price of a mistake

As I said, in retail the original costs about 27,000 rubles, if you suddenly see generous offers somewhere, then these are fakes (most likely). On E-bay, prices for normal used headphones start at 17,000 – 20,000 rubles with delivery to Russia, but here, too, there is always a risk of running into a fake. Sometimes there are new devices at a nice price – and again I will remind you about fakes. Alas, in our time there is only one way to insure against fakes, you go to the official Bose website in Russia, choose “Where to buy” there, look at the list of partner stores. Then you decide where to buy.

By the way, our fake Bose QC35 does not cost a thousand or two money at all, a person was deceived by about 15,000 rubles. The owner was looking for a Bose QC35 on the net, saw an attractive price, bought it, it seemed like real ones, then realized that he had been deceived, brought it to our colleagues, they gave it to us to warn you. Such is the story. To deceive the people is fu. I will advise you, firstly, not to buy into sweet prices. Secondly, somehow do everything right. Third, God bless you.

Thanks to SoundProLab for help in preparing the material.