Bose QuietComfort Ultra Wireless Noise Cancelling Over Ear Headphones

The headphones work well, the sound quality is fantastic, the noise cancellation is very good, they feel great on the head, and are an average weight compared to other headphones I’ve owned. However, I am returning them as too many small issues add up; You cannot turn the ANC off and listen to music at the same time. Aware mode processes audio from the outside world, plays noise suppression, and replays the outside sounds to your ears. This is redundant and gives me headaches. The setting for ANC changes merely how much outside world noise gets played into your ears; there is no change in the electronic noise cancelling. It is a necessary feature of noise-cancelling headphones to turn ANC off. Second, there is this loud startup sound that supposedly decreases in volume with the volume of the headphones, but I observed no change. This sound cannot be turned off; it only becomes quieter (which I couldn’t accomplish). It was irritating to hear every time you turned on the headphones. Third, the size of the headphones needs to be adjusted every time you take them out of the carrying case. The carrying case only fits the headphones in their smallest, most collapsed size. So, you have to fumble with them every time you remove them. To their credit, adjusting them is quite easy to do. Lastly, and most importantly, the minimum volume is too loud. I end up wearing them around my neck most of the time. Some small things that aren't so bad but still irksome; the control buttons are not intuitive to use, the automatic shutoff doesn't work reliably, and the battery life isn't great. Again none of these is enough to bother me too deeply, but the combination of all of the above makes the ComfortUltras an infuriating product. I feel like a slave to bad engineering decisions when placing them on my head.