SynaestheticA
500+ Head-Fier
I think the Bose QCII's sounds great for what they are, honestly.
I know there are plenty of people here who would say otherwise but I think they're just a hair below the top dogs that I've hear, and I have the Fokus Mystiques, Final Audio ZE8000, Nuratrue Pro, Status Between 3ANC etc etc, but have way better ANC and great transparency mode. (I also think the Bose's sounds better than some of the aforementioned earbuds but... I'll leave which ones unsaid)
The bass to me is not extreme and definitely not muddy but rather bouncy and has decent sub bass extension, and the treble is the opposite of harsh. In my experience it was actually hard to make them harsh even if I tried. I can go from the 3ANC straight to the Bose and not feel like sound is worse, just... different. Some parts of the Frequency curve actually sound better to me on the Bose. But with a caveat: This is me using an android phone and EQ:ing with Wavelet and/or Poweramp EQ, so if you're on an iPhone the EQ options are obviously more limited.
I'm not going to say that they're the BEST for sound, but to me they're a far cry from the Bose I remember pre-TWS-era where I bought a set of wired earbuds and ended up being like completely confounded over how they sounded, and how BAD they sounded.
Also, to everybody else: What happened to the update Bose promised where the QC2's would get AptX support?
Having never heard or purchased the Bose, Sony or other big brands, when I was recommending tws to a coworker the other day, I ended up telling him to get the Bose. Just a safe bet, and I imagine the sound is pretty good by most peoples standards.