Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) Spiel

by Rian

I had to rewrite this piece several times over as I wasn’t sure what to add more on the subject. Headphones of any kind are already being reviewed extensively with audio equipments one can only see in the lab. And these reviews aren’t being published on academic journals; these are for average consumers and hobbyists, laying out what are their, audio-wise, strength and weaknesses are. Headphones generally make an interesting case for having a professional reviewers, as different manufacturers have different priorities on what to focus on a good speaker; after all, with only so much room, it can’t have whole nine yards.

So let me start by saying what prompted me to look for an alternative from AirPods Pro 3. I was relatively happy with how it worked and the audio quality. The “smarts” of AirPods is definitely an added bonus. Bose, as much as I highly recommend it as a consumer product, never had a good track record when it came to softwares. The only reason why I started taking Bose seriously again was the problem I had connecting AirPods to different hosts. What I learned was that this is mostly an issue on Windows, and it is unlikely to be fixed anytime soon. I could try changing the transmitter to AAC-compatible ones, but they were too bulky for my use case.

Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds uses Qualcomm’s proprietary codec, aptX. From what I understand, between Sony’s LDAC and Apple’s AAC, aptX fit my needs the best. It will work across the devices and there are transmitters available for flights. Not to mention, I was hoping to replace all of my headphones, including AirPods Max with Lightning, into one reliable wireless earbud. It wasn’t too exotic for me to worry about price gouging, but it wasn’t too cheap to the point I would be turned off by the audio quality.

There are, of course, the areas I certainly miss with Bose. The updates are generally done in staged deployment, so the forum is overwhelmed with different users troubleshooting different versions all at the same time. And as far as I am aware, there is no official way to force an update on the headphone yet. The lack of MagSafe (or Qi2 MPP) can be a bit nuisance, but majority of my all-in-one chargers already include a flatbed type for wireless earbuds. The biggest difference by far would be the lack of conversation awareness in noise cancelling. I never had the luck with the feature on AirPods; it would often pick up passerby conversation and lower noise canceling. I wouldn’t say one is necessarily better.

Conclusions: Good Compromise

For the record, there are some contexts behind why I chose an earbud over a proper around the head type headphone. I wear prescription glasses, so the pressure from the headphone often ironically makes the ear cups loose around glasses’ legs. What’s worse, AirPods Max compensated its weight with bigger than average mesh, which began to deteriorate after years of use. Coupled with all that, I think Bose’s focus during the great compromise to fit everything in an earbud makes a compelling case, if not, at least more reliable case for anyone who is struggling with Windows PC connectivity and general codec platform issues.