Bose QC35 II high pitch distortion in phone calls/audio conferences

[marco.c]

Hi,

I am writing this to hopefully solve an issue I've been dealing with since a couple of weeks ago.

I replaced my first Bose QC35 II pair because they started having a bug (not going into detail about it since not relevant for this topic). Got a replacement from Bose which had an even worse issue: a high pitch distortion that was driving me crazy. Thinking it may be just a defective replacement, I contacted customer service again and got another replacement. The new one did not have the high pitch problem for 2 days and it just started doing it as well.

A few notes:

- the high pitch distortion happens only when making a phone call or a video conference call, on all devices I have tried (an iPhone, a Macbook Pro, a Macbook)

- I searched for similar posts and tried all remedies listed there

- I followed the instructions to reboot to no avail

- I unpaired/paired to no avail

- I updated to the latest firmware to no avail

I work with these headphones and I am on video conferencing all day. Between the time spent to get these replacements and the headaches for this high pitch noise I have lost so much time and patience. I had to call the Customer Service 3 times with an average 25 mins hold, which also involved being bounced between 5 people. I am so frustrated and I can't believe this is happening after having spent $300 on a pair of headphones from the brand I considered the best.

[Keith_L]

Hi marco.c,

Thank you for posting and welcome to the community. I'm sorry to hear you have bee having difficulty when using your QC35 II headphones while on phone calls. 

Thank you for letting us know what troubleshooting you have already attempted with your headphones, it does sound like you have done most of the troubleshooting we would usually suggest and it is interesting that with your replacement set the issue only occurred after a couple of days of working fine.

Did you make any changes to the headset or setup within those two days? Even something simple like adding extra Bluetooth devices to your computer, or introducing more wireless devices into the workspace would be useful to know about, just so we can get the full picture of what is going on.

Something that can affect the audio quality of the headphones in general, not necessarily when on a call, is when you have 2 devices connected to the headphones and they are both trying to play some kind of audio to the headset. Could we try ensuring only one device is connected and see if we still get the same issue?

Kind Regards,

Keith L - Community Support

[marco.c]

Hi Keith, 

thank you for your answer.

Nothing has changed to the headset or setup within those two days, given that it was Thanksgiving weekend and I did not use them. Literally no changes.

I also tried with either only the phone connected or only the mac connected, issue still persists on both phone calls and conference calls.

Being on a video call for 2 minutes was enough to give me a headache. This is painful and frankly unexpected from a brand like Bose.

Marco

[Hector_B]

Hey Marco.C, 

Thank you for posting and updating us on this! Sorry to hear this, let's look into this a little further. 

I have a few questions that I would like to know the answer to see if I can get a little more information on the issue you are having, can you please answer the following: 

• Does the issue happen in other environments or only when you are at work? 
• Are you able to test with a non-Apple device?  
• Do you have any other headphones you can test?
• What software version are the devices running? 

I look forward to hearing back from you with the answers to the above and would love to hear from any other users that are having this issue. 

Kind regards, 

Hector B 

[marco.c]

Hi Hector,

thank you for your reply.

• Does the issue happen in other environments or only when you are at work? It always happens. However, this morning I tried at home and it's not happening for the first time.
• Are you able to test with a non-Apple device?  Done with an android phone, same
• Do you have any other headphones you can test? Yes, I have echo buds and they do fine.
• What software version are the devices running? 4.5.2

I was wondering whether it can be caused by the noise reduction settings and yesterday I tried changing them to no avail.

Given that it only happens when on calls and video conferencing, can it be caused by the mic? Any mic settings I can tune? 

Another point: thinking the above yesterday I tried going to a silent room at work and still the issue persisted.

thank you,

Marco

[Jessie_O]

Hi Marco, 

Thank you for your response! 

Based on the troubleshooting you have already tried and the answers to the questions above, the only additional step I can offer is to try updating the firmware. Your Firmware version is the most recent but, in some cases, if you head to the LINK HERE on a laptop or PC it will allow you to reinstall the current firmware version. 

If this is unsuccessful, I would recommend getting in contact with customer support again to discuss your options. I have included the LINK HERE where you can select your country. Make sure to scroll down to 'Contact Us' for the contact details. 

I hope this helps! If there is anything else we can do for you, please reach out again! 

Kindest, 

Jessie O 

[marco.c]

Hi Jessie,

thank you for your reply.

I was finally able to pinpoint the issue.

At work the problem is there. At home, it is not.

I went ahead and put my finger on the little dots on the right:

and the issue stopped. If I lift the finger, the high pitch starts again.

An additional point: this issue was not there with my first pair of QC35 II, it started only with the replacement (which I guess is newer hardware and software).

What can I do to make this issue go away? Tried toggling noise cancellation to no avail.

Marco

[Keith_L]

Hi Marco,

Thank you for updating us with more information on the situation. 

To clarify from an earlier post, when you mentioned it did not have this issue for the first time when you used them at home, was this the first time you tested them outside the office or was this the first time you did not have the issue while at home as well?  Because if it is the case that the headphones and microphone are working fine everywhere except the office it would suggest that there is something in the environment being picked by the headphones causing the distortion rather than an issue with the headphones themselves. Especially as you have discovered covering the microphone in these situations to stop the distortion temporarily, it would make sense that something the microphone is picking up would be the cause.

Kind regards,

Keith

[marco.c]

Hi Keith,

so I bought the headphones long ago and they used to work perfectly at home and at the office. They started having trouble (something else, not this issue discussed before) so I contacted the Customer Service and I got a replacement. The replacement started working fine at both home and the office but after a few hours at the office it started with the high pitch distortion. I contacted the Customer Service again and I got another replacement, same issue. True, it may be something picked up in the environment (which btw is a very ordinary office) but all my colleagues have the same headphones and they work fine. Also, my previous identical pair (the first one I bought) did not have this issue.

Marco

[Keith_L]

Hi Marco,

Thank you for following up on this.

I do understand that it is the case that your previous set was working before, but as it was something that happened across multiple pairs of headphones and only seemed to be happening in the office environment, it was worth us considering the possibility it may be environmental. That was why I asked for clarification on whether you had ever had the issue at home previously after your previous response.

As you have mentioned your colleagues using similar headphones it may be less likely to be environmental, but it would definitely be interesting to see if their headphones had the same issue with your computer/phone and if your headphones worked fine with their equipment?

Kind Regards, 

Keith L