Bose is giving their flagship active noise-canceling (ANC) headphones a fresh update. While it’s not quite an exhaustive overhaul, the 2nd Gen Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones does bring a whole slew of new tweaks that should make it a significant-enough improvement over its predecessor.
There are plenty of small changes here, from various tweaks to audio performance and battery life to a new spatial audio setting and lossless playback over USB-C. Granted, none of those really makes it an extremely compelling upgrade over its predecessor, although these are good enough changes that make it a more worthy competitor to the current top-end offerings in the category.
The new Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones takes on a similar appearance to its predecessor, albeit with polished metal on the headband frame. Of course, the more significant changes are all underneath the surface. For instance, it now supports lossless audio over USB-C, so you can enjoy your 16-bit 48kHz music files without the need to use an analog jack. If you prefer that, though, it still comes with a 2.5mm headphone jack that you can use for wired listening. The USB-C connection, by the way, also works as a low-latency option for desktop and mobile gaming.
Another big change here is the Cinema Mode, which is the outfit’s version of spatial audio. According to the outfit, activating this mode spatializes and balances background sound with other audio effects, creating a movie-like experience with a much wider soundstage that feels like it’s coming from the front. As you can imagine, this mode enhances dialogue clarity, making it a great option not just for movies and shows on your big screen TV, but also podcasts and audiobooks. They tweaked the standard audio, too, giving it a deeper bass at higher volumes, as well as a more natural sounding treble and consistent clarity even when you crank up the loudness. It also uses CustomTune technology that analyzes your ears and adapts the fine-tuning to your individual ear shape.
The new Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones also get the same ANC update found in the QC Ultra Earbuds. Specifically, they changed the automatic switching on the noise canceling levels, so they’re now much smoother when encountering sudden loud noises. There’s also a new Immersion Mode that activates both the ANC and Bose Immersive Audio for distraction-free listening. Battery life is also enhanced, with the headphones now able to go a full 30 hours with ANC running. If you activate Immersion Mode, that goes down to 23 hours, although you can stretch it to 45 hours if you turn ANC off entirely. When you connect it to a computer via USB-C, by the way, it will automatically charge while you listen to music at the same time.
Other features include noise-rejecting mics with AI-based background suppression, Bluetooth Core 5.4, multipoint connectivity, Snapdragon Sound Certification, Google Fast Pair support, Spotify Tap support, improved on-head detection, and an included carrying case. It launches in four color options, namely black, white smoke, driftwood sand, and midnight violet.
The 2nd generation Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones are available now.
