I considered both the Sony and Bose last year and bought the Sony WH1000XM2. The reasons I went for Sony over Bose:

• I like Sony (as a brand) and intend to get a 2018 Xperia mobile when released, so the future LDAC pairing was a big factor.
• NC  - for all reviews I read (and I read a lot) it was about 50/50 between reviewers as to which had better NC (which means they are both excellent).
• Sony had touch controls (see below).
• I preferred the look of the Sony over Bose.
• From the reviews I read, Sony was preferred for soundstage (although, like NC, it is not clear cut between reviewers).
• I did not like the news that the Bose app is programmed to send information to Bose on your listening habits (and this was happening in secret until Bose were caught out).

On the touch controls, in general, these are great and big improvement on tactile buttons. Occasionally, I will be trying to adjust volume and not quite get a vertical swipe, so finish up skipping forward or back instead, but this is not often. The cup ambient talk feature is not something I use, I prefer to take  my headphones off to talk to someone. Though it's handy for listening to announcements in airports etc.

All in all, I'm very happy with the Sony and recommend them.

The whole being able to listen to ambient is an over rated feature IMO. If you're having a conversation with someone, you take off your headphones, or at least put a cup back. It's a bit rude to leave them on, and the other person probably doesn't know you have turned on ambient noise! The only reason I could see it being useful is listening for train announcements etc, but it's not hard to just put a cup back. 

I have the QC35's, my work mate had the Sennheisers, but has sent them back to exchange for the QC35's as he didn't feel they were very comfortable over extended periods.

I have wireless QC35s which I wear most of the working day, so probably 5 hours a day minimum. They are the most comfortable headphones Ive had. NX is great, takes away the drone of the office well and when I have used them on flights they have been great. They are paired to an ipod nano and my android phone at the same time. Battery life is great and I they will playback from which ever was the last device to signal a play request. Voice calls from the phone via the headset are crystal clear. I highly recommend them.

I have never even seen the app, I just have mine paired as a bluetooth device.

looks like the QC35 ii has a google assistant button, I only have series 1 so other than firmware updates the app doesnt do anything for me, BT pairing already works by default and the buttons seems to always work as an ipod would, forward, back, play, stop, volume etc.

gzt:

sbiddle: My honest opinion here is that neither is better than the other overall. There are pros and cons to both.

I'm seeing comments that Sony is a bit better at filtering out external office conversations compared to Bose. Was that your experience?

Don't really have any experience of that as I don't wear them in an office environment. My main use is on planes, and Bose still win hands down in the N/C performance in that space.

I do however like the Sony's and am in no rush to get rid of them, but I see myself going back to Bose the QC45? when they appear.

gzt: Yeah app is required for NR level change and action button reassignment.

Pretty sure you don't need the App to change the NR settings - pushing the Action Button on mine (the single button, not in the three music control buttons) changes NR from Off to Low to High.

I don't use Google Assistant, so if you do, maybe the Action Button defaults to that instead of NR profile.

sbiddle:

 

gzt:

sbiddle: My honest opinion here is that neither is better than the other overall. There are pros and cons to both.

I'm seeing comments that Sony is a bit better at filtering out external office conversations compared to Bose. Was that your experience?

 

 

 

Don't really have any experience of that as I don't wear them in an office environment. My main use is on planes, and Bose still win hands down in the N/C performance in that space.

 

I do however like the Sony's and am in no rush to get rid of them, but I see myself going back to Bose the QC45? when they appear.

 

 

 

 

 

I may do that, unless I get more into LDAC because that really is amazingly good.

However, since pretty much 100% of my music now is streamed from Apple or Google, I do not think it likely.

I certainly won't switch out MDR1000 for MDR1000 2.0 or whatever ridiculous number Sony gave it (why not just Mk2?) however.

Geektastic:

 

sbiddle:

 

gzt:

sbiddle: My honest opinion here is that neither is better than the other overall. There are pros and cons to both.

I'm seeing comments that Sony is a bit better at filtering out external office conversations compared to Bose. Was that your experience?

 

 

 

Don't really have any experience of that as I don't wear them in an office environment. My main use is on planes, and Bose still win hands down in the N/C performance in that space.

 

I do however like the Sony's and am in no rush to get rid of them, but I see myself going back to Bose the QC45? when they appear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I may do that, unless I get more into LDAC because that really is amazingly good.

 

However, since pretty much 100% of my music now is streamed from Apple or Google, I do not think it likely.

 

I certainly won't switch out MDR1000 for MDR1000 2.0 or whatever ridiculous number Sony gave it (why not just Mk2?) however.

 

I'm guessing the reason Sony moved away from the MDR1000 to WH1000 was probably because of the bad reputation the MDR1000 got after everybody had to return them with the band issue.