There are a few things you can rely on when it comes to Bose headphones. The first is (ANC), which has been the best in the industry for years. You can also safely expect the company’s new set of cans to arrive during a long flight or extended work session. Bose continues to check both boxes with ($), but the main feature here is the company’s unique take on spatial audio. However, more immersive sound and a renewed design, along with everything the company is known for, comes at a higher price.
Design
After introducing a refreshed design in the Bose 700 headphones in 2019, the company returned to its old aesthetic in subsequent models. With the QuietComfort Ultra headphones, Bose did a combination of the two, but mostly stuck to the traditional look of the QC line. The exterior of the headphones is where the combination of the previous 700 and QuietComfort models is most evident. They have a similar shape to the 2021 QC 45, but the physical buttons have almost completely disappeared, more like the 700s.
Bose eliminated the three-button setup for play and volume, and instead mapped play/pause, skip tracks, and switching audio modes to a single multi-function control. Just below, on the right earcup, the Bluetooth pairing button also handles power. The company moved the built-in volume adjustment to a touch-sensitive strip that you can slide your finger on to raise or lower the level. Bose also allows you to assign a shortcut to the volume slider that is activated by long pressing it. Although tactile, the slider reliably recognized my thumb movements.
Another notable design change is the headband and hinge. Bose gave them a refined look by using metal instead of relying entirely on plastic. The hinge is better integrated into the headband, so there are no visible screws until you fold the headphones. Those earcups can also rotate flat, in line with previous models over the years. Even with all the changes, Bose managed to keep things extremely comfortable during long listening sessions. Both the pads and the inside of the headband are soft and padded, and I didn’t notice the extra weight.
Software and features
All settings are located within the Bose Music app. Once connected, the software offers battery life and a volume slider at the top, with quick access to audio modes, Bluetooth connections, equalizer, immersive audio, shortcut customization, and tips below. The app also has a media player that mirrors whatever you’re playing elsewhere, so you don’t have to stop monitoring songs when you change your headphone settings.
For audio modes, Bose offers three by default: Silent, Mindful, and Immersive. The first is simply active noise cancellation, while the second is full transparency. Immersion is both maximum ANC and immersive audio. Bose also offers the ability to create your own modes with adjustable noise cancellation, the option of wind blocking and immersive audio. Once you create a new mode, marking it as a favorite will make it accessible through the QuietComfort Ultra headphones’ built-in controls.
For Immersive Audio, there are three options to choose from. You can turn it off completely for the original Bose setting and to save battery, or you can opt for the Still Image or Motion setting. The first keeps the audio at a fixed point and is best for when you are sitting. The latter allows the audio to follow you as you move, using head tracking to keep the sound in front of you at all times.
To use that long press on the volume slider shortcut, you first need to enable it in the Bose app. From there, you can assign some actions to the gesture. These include listening to the battery level, cycling through Immersive Audio presets, accessing a voice assistant, or playing Spotify content. If none of these seem particularly useful to you, you can always leave them disabled.
Sound quality and immersive audio
While the main feature is Immersive Audio, Bose has also improved its original fit on the QuietComfort Ultra headphones. Even before turning on spatial audio, I noticed that the sound was considerably warmer and clearer, with more bass right out of the box. Overall sound quality is an area where Bose fell slightly behind Sony and Sennheiser, but the company is certainly catching up.
Bose’s vision of spatial audio doesn’t rely on specialized content like Dolby Atmos on Apple Music or Sony 360 Reality Audio. Those formats have been specifically designed to make instruments sound like they are playing around you. Bose uses a combination of headphone components and its newly developed signal processing for Immersive Audio. Thanks to virtualization it works with any content and that makes it more comfortable.
Like dedicated spatial audio formats, the first thing you’ll notice is that the sound is louder. Immersive audio gives a more general presence to the music, but there is also greater clarity and detail. Instead of surrounding you with sound, Bose aims to put you in the acoustic sweet spot, as if you were sitting in the perfect position in front of a set of high-end speakers. In fact, the company achieves this with albums like the progressive metal TesseracT. War of Being They have atmospheric depth while retaining the finest details, from the texture of the singer’s growl to the subtle nuances of the drums.
Sometimes Bose’s spatial audio can make songs sound worse. On “In Your Love” by Tyler Childers, the vocals are high-pitched and metallic, and the reverb is accentuated to the point of becoming a distraction from the rest of the music. And the voices are now several degrees louder than the instruments. When it arrives, this audio technology is a pleasure to listen to, but because Bose relies on signal processing rather than carefully crafted content, results can vary greatly.
Another area that Bose continues to improve is transparency mode. In the QuietComfort Ultra headphones, the company offers noticeably clearer audio when transmitted to your environment and allows you to hear your voice. It’s still not as good as what Apple achieves with the AirPods Max (no one really comes close), but Bose is making progress. That certainly helps when you’re on a call or need to stay in tune with your surroundings.
Stellar noise cancellation performance is nothing new in a pair of Bose headphones. The company is consistently the best in terms of allowing you to block out the world and the same goes for the QC Ultra headphones. The constant noise of an air conditioner or white noise machine is reduced to just a whisper. The headphones work very well with TV sound and also with human voices, even the lethal combination of a nine-year-old playing. Fall Guys.
Call quality
Bose promises “incredibly clear calls” on the QC Ultra headphones, a claim that’s on par with almost every headphone company these days. While he wouldn’t describe call audio quality that way, it’s adequate for everyday voice and video calls when you just need to hear and be heard. It doesn’t sound like you’re using the speaker, but it’s not flawless either. That’s better than what much of the competition offers and about the best you’ll get with wireless headphones.
Battery duration
Bose says you can expect up to 24 hours of use with ANC on. If you opt for both noise cancellation and immersive audio, that figure drops to 18 hours. However, during my tests using the latter option, both the Bose app and macOS showed 30 percent remaining after 20 hours. So while it’s true that the company’s new spatial audio affects battery life, the QC Ultra headphones still exceed the stated numbers.
To help you conserve battery, the QC Ultra headphones will automatically turn off when not in use and no audio is playing for 10 minutes. There’s also a quick charge feature that gives you two and a half hours of use in 15 minutes. However, that’s with ANC on and immersive audio off. If you need spatial audio during this time, Bose says you can expect 30 minutes less battery life after quick filling.
The competition
While Bose has done a lot to catch up, it still doesn’t offer the feature set that Sony does on the . No company does and that’s why the M5 is consistently at the top of our list. The QuietComfort Ultra headphones offer more effective noise cancellation, but there’s nothing like Sony’s Speak-to-Chat auto-pause or the ability to change audio modes based on your activity or location. The M5 also supports Sony’s DSEE Extreme, which uses ai to enhance compressed audio and increase depth and clarity. The results are much more consistent than those of Bose Immersive Audio.
Wrap
With the , Bose remains near the top of the headphone heap. While Immersive Audio is great at times, the results are inconsistent and can be downright bad with some albums and songs. Still, the default tuning has been improved and brings these headphones closer to the level of Sony and Sennheiser in terms of sound, mainly due to the added bass, greater clarity, and improved warmth. Bose needed to nail down its new brand feature to help justify the higher price, but it failed to do so. The QuietComfort Ultra headphones feature a number of improvements over previous Bose models, but they’re not good enough to dethrone the king.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/bose-quietcomfort-ultra-headphones-review-a-new-spin-on-a-reliable-formula-160009025.html?src=rss
