Bose is now taking pre-orders for its new QuietComfort Earbuds, which are set to rival Apple's AirPods Pro in the premium true wireless ANC earphones market.
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As the QuietComfort brand name suggests, Bose's latest earbuds feature active noise canceling combined with passive isolation, offering "all the noise cancelling performance of our best over-ear headphones — from a compact, truly wireless earbud."
Bose says its new StayHear Max silicone tips are designed to conform completely to the contours of the ear to create a gentle seal, while an array of internal and external microphones detect ambient noise and produce an opposite signal to cancel it out in a fraction of a millisecond.
Another thing Bose's earbuds have in common with AirPods Pro is a transparency feature, which allows the user to simultaneously listen to music while still hearing the environment around them – whether that's to hear traffic during a run or an important train announcement during the morning commute.
Bose QuietComfort Earbuds offer 11 levels of transparency, allowing users to dial down the noise canceling to suit the situation. That contrasts with AirPods Pro's transparency mode, which is a binary on/off feature that can't be customized.
Bose's Earbuds respond to touch-based gestures to control content, while a microphone in the right earbud picks up the sound of the user's voice and rejects other noise during calls or when using a virtual assistant. Bose also promises a premium listening experience, thanks to the inclusion of "innovative" audio equalization technology:
The acoustic package inside these earbuds is capable of producing deep low notes and exciting, lifelike sound no matter how loud (or soft) you like to listen.
And that's no small feat. Because as you lower the volume on most earphones, the bass tends to disappear, leaving your music sounding tinny and small. We solved the problem with our Volume-optimized Active EQ technology. This innovation automatically boosts the lows and highs so the music, videos, and voices you're listening to remain consistently balanced — even as you change the volume.
The QC earbuds are IPX4-rated, making them sweat, rain and weather resistant, and offer up to six hours of battery life on a single charge, while two additional full charges are provided by the wireless charging case. There's also a quick charge mode that can provide two hours of listening time on a 15-minute charge.
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Bose's QuietComfort Earbuds cost $279.99 and are available in Triple Black and Soapstone (black and white). Pre-orders are being taken on the Bose website with shipping scheduled to begin on September 29.
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Do we really need 11 levels of transparency?There should be a mic on both sides. Some times one side dies and you need to swap for a phone call. And hopefully Apple can update firmware to offer transparency levels on AirPods Pro.
I strongly suggest you avoid them, overpriced and with terrible build quality. For instance I owned some Bose QuiteComfort wired headphones that stopped working after a few months of just using them at my desk with no mistreatment. They failed and were replaced by Bose, and a few months later failed again and were replaced.
The final time they failed I didn't bother returning them and instead opened them up to look at the build quality. Most headphone manufacturers use decently thick cabled and inside the headset wrap the cable around a bit of plastic to it cannot be pulled away from solder connections. An idea decades old.
But not in the Bose headphones, just a direct connection from the cable to speaker with nothing inbetween to even try to stop them from pulling apart, with a very small wire and solder connection supposed to take the weight of prolonged use.
I have seen headphones for 1/10 of the price with better build quality.
AirPod Pro are infuriating for me. While they sound good, I’m one of the people that can’t keep them in my ears no matter what I try. Same tip sizes for both, mixing tip sizes. I’ve even purchased 3rd party tips to try to make them usable for me. Nothing works.
I preordered the new Bose QuietComfort earbuds as well and can’t wait until they arrive.
And you could buy a Chinese cell phone for $50, yet here we are280 bucks for a pair of earphones. I can get a set of blueteeth headphones for 25 bucks off Amazon. Who buys these?