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Bose's first wireless noise-canceling headphones, praised for their industry-leading noise cancelation technology and comfort. Released in June of 2016.

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Left speaker only working intermittently, crackling noise with ANC

Hello good repair-inclined folks,

Recently, my Bose QC35 headphones have developed an annoying fault. At first, I noticed a crackling sound in the left speaker, which is motion-sensitive and linked to active noise cancelling (no ANC, no crackling). Later that day the left speaker kept dropping out.

Has anyone dealt with this? Is the driver shot? Any repair advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

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My bose headphone one side not working with bluetooth however its working fine with wire.

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I ended up replacing the driver. As suggested in a comment below. That fixed the problem.

I think Bose does not use prime quality of drivers in the headphones or drives them too hard and hence they die early.

I tried to find the original Bose parts -- no chance. They might just buy cheap ones and match their digital processing to match the driver. Who knows.

In the end, I just ordered a pair off Amazon with decent reviews (40mm, 32Ohms, if you like search for Bose QC35). I don't presume to be able to judge whether the headphones now sound worse or better.

The glue that holds the speaker enclosure and the driver itself in place is some mean stuff. I don't have a hot-air soldering iron and thought a hair-driver would do. Weeeell, yes, but it is incredibly hard to pry the enclosure off without also mangling some of the plastic. I will have to live with some dents in my headphones now. Scraping all the glue off; hard work. I wish they used a less grabby adhesive and some screws instead.

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I've just experienced the same symptoms with my QC35 II; crackling noise with ANC on left speaker, and it intermittently not working at all. Lightly "hitting it" seemed to resolve it for a while, further suggesting a glitchy/loose electrical connection, until it fully stopped working. Disassembling it, and probing it, all connections seemed to have signal and be well, but I accidentally poked the speaker membrane, which made it sing!

So a "speaker driver replacement" should probably do it. I temporarily added a piece of rolled tape to press down on the speaker membrane at the connection point to make do for now (the speaker driver is behind a glued cover, requiring a hot air gun and glue to restore properly).

See How to repair Bose QC25 or QC35 - speaker replacement DIY or Replacing Blown Speaker on Bose QC35 I & Bose QC 35 II.

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Hmm, thanks for the comment, Leonard. I'll give the tape/pressure approach a try too.

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It worked for my QC 35 headphones, big help

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bought me some time. Thank you.

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Absolutely fantastic, great thanks! I had the exactly same problem with my Bose II. Finally starting to hit it harder and harder to get back the sound😂

I tried your trick and it worked perfectly! I used peace of regular writing paper. I have it a bit tight with my economy temporarily so this helped me a lot😊

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Thank you Leonard. For reference to others on QC 35 ii, I had to poke my paper further to the right on Leonard's picture - over where the wire joins the speaker membrane on the outside, almost under the plastic box on the right.

It's a stop-gap but it's working 😊

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@cistron check the wire and solder connections on the driver. Resolder if possible. Also check the wires in the barrel connector. If those are all okay you know it is the driver but it does sound more like a bad connection

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Thanks for the advice. Let’s see if I can take it all apart and resolder :)

Maybe a stupid question, but what is the barrel connector?

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Sorry to resurrect this… How did you get on?

I have a similar fault - first crackling with ANC on, but fine without. Few days later, either speaker can drop out completely.

Even now, it seems fine for first minute or two after powering on.. then lots of weird noises and failure to play music, then the power button doesn't turn them off. So many symptoms its hard to write a sensical description!

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Sadly, they’ve been sitting on my shelf untouched for a long time. I started disassembly and got stopped in my track when I saw the tiiiiny gage of the wires used to connect the PCB. Thinly coated, no way for me to keep them apart and my soldering iron wasn’t small enough. :/

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Mike will be eternally grateful.
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