Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) review – more dynamics, better bass

STEREO GUIDE verdict

91%

91%

The new Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones 2nd Gen deliver powerful bass, low-latency head tracking and strong noise canceling. Voices sound rougher, but the bass is convincing and the increased dynamics are a joy to listen to.

Pro

1. Powerful, deep and precise bass
2. Very responsive, crisp playing style
3. Great app, wide range of functions
4. Very effective ANC

Cons

1. somewhat harsh in the mid-high range, especially with voices

• Tonal balance / transparency

  8.6
• Bass / Dynamics

  9.5
• Usability / Connectivity

  9.5
• Price/Performance

  8.8

Bose enters the second round with its QuietComfort Ultra Headphones – and largely sticks to the tried and reviewed design. Anyone familiar with the predecessor of the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones 2nd Gen will immediately recognize the familiar design: The striking lines, high-quality materials and comfortable padding are practically identical. The most noticeable visible difference comes from the lower parts of the headband with the folding mechanism, which is made of solid metal. Bose emphasizes the metal character in the second generation with the polished surfaces, which also stand out on the white version. There are also new, fashionable colors: sandstone beige and dark purple.

At its core, Bose’s over-ear with active noise canceling (ANC) continues to rely on the familiar TriPort acoustic system with dynamic drivers, but with an audibly different tuning. The real innovations are in the details – and they mainly concern the acoustics and signal processing. According to Bose, the internal architecture has been slightly revised to enable a more dynamic sound image.

Improvements in connectivity and battery life

Like its predecessor, the hard case with cable compartment is one of the most compact of its kind. This is ideal for traveling with hand luggage and wherever space is at a premium. There are also no major surprises in terms of weight (only 250 grams), battery life and operating concept. With up to 30 hours of playback without ANC and spatial audio, up to 24 hours with ANC and 18 hours with noise-canceling plus activated immersive mode, the runtime is at a higher, but not record-breaking level. The battery charging time is up to 3 hours. For those in a hurry, there is the option of a quick charge in 15 minutes for up to 2.5 hours of battery life via the USB port.

As usual, the Bluetooth headphones are controlled via a mixture of haptic buttons and a touch surface for convenient volume control using swipe gestures, which in practice is still one of the more reliable solutions on the market.

In addition to the wireless connection via Bluetooth 5.4 with SBC, AAC or aptX adaptive codecs, there is also a classic analog input, which is realized via the 2.5 mm jack connection typical for Bose headphones. A suitable adapter cable to the 3.5 mm jack sockets commonly used on mobile devices is already included. This means that the headphones can also be used on an airplane – with the appropriate airline adapter – or on a laptop if Bluetooth needs to be switched off.

Now with lossless USB audio playback

A significant update is the audio playback via USB-C connection, which can also be used to charge the second-generation QuietComfort Ultra headphones at the same time. The headphones can also be controlled digitally without loss via the included USB audio cable – an option that is particularly interesting for gamers. The 2nd generation of the Bose QC Ultra headphones eliminates the delay between image and sound, which is particularly annoying in the gaming sector, even in Bluetooth mode: Anyone using an Android device with Snapdragon Sound will benefit from the special gaming mode with particularly low latency. In this mode, the aptX Adaptive Codec automatically optimizes the transmission for smooth mobile gaming without noticeable delays.

If you own a Bose soundbar such as the Smart Soundbar 600, you can connect the headphones to it via Bluetooth “SimpleSync” – but not to use the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones 2 as an additional speaker, but to watch your movie late at night with headphone sound without any trouble with the neighbors. This is practical because many televisions – not to mention projectors – do not output Bluetooth sound.

Operation, app and practice

Control is still via a mixture of physical buttons and a touch field on the earcup. This makes it easy to control volume, playback and calls. The Bose Music app for iOS or Android offers advanced options: ANC and transparency mode can be set here in several stages, sound profiles can be created and bass, mids and treble can even be adjusted using an equalizer. You can customize the assignment of the short-cut button and use it to call up the voice assistant or control Spotify playback, for example.

A friend and colleague wanted to get an impression of the sound of the test sample. When he paired his Android smartphone with the Bose noise-canceling headphones, he was taken directly to Google Play to download the music app and was able to use it immediately without logging in. I hadn’t even noticed that. After all, the app was still installed on my iPhone from previous Bose reviews – such as the SoundLink Plus or the QuietComfort Earbuds 2, whose review will be published soon.

Telephony and everyday life

The predecessor already scored with very good voice quality, and the 2nd generation of the Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones is no exception. The multi-microphone array with adaptive filtering ensures that voices are transmitted clearly and intelligibly, while wind and background noise are reliably suppressed. The Bose are therefore ideal for video conferences and long phone calls. In the settings under “self voice”, you can even specify how loud you want to hear yourself speaking during the call.

Sound test: The new QC Ultra have crisper bass

In the sound test, it is immediately noticeable that the new QuietComfort Ultra headphones are much more powerful with a really rich punch. The bass not only goes deeper, it also kicks much better. And it remains controlled and clean even at high volumes. Kick drums are more precise, electronic beats have more foundation.

After just a few minutes of listening, it becomes clear that the revised acoustics are not just empty promises: The bass range is much more confident. Kick drums have more thrust, electronic basses reach deeper and at the same time sound more controlled. Compared to the first Ultra, the new headphones sound noticeably more energetic and lively without slipping into a boomy foundation. The dynamic range and maximum volume are impressive.

However, the new tuning does not only have winners. In the mid and treble range, the second Ultra is somewhat harsher than its predecessor. Voices lose a touch of their naturalness. They sound clearer and livelier, but no longer quite as relaxed. This can be particularly noticeable with acoustic recordings or singer-songwriter material: The warmth and smoothness that shaped the character of the first Ultra have been scaled back here in favor of a fresher, but also edgier reproduction. Depending on the style of music, this can be pleasing – with pop or electronic music it brings more presence and directness, but with jazz or classical vocals it can be irritating.

A breath of fresh air in the 2nd generation of QC Ultra headphones

Compared to the first Ultra model, voices no longer sound as warm and ingratiating, but edgier and rougher. This is at least true when the immersive audio is activated. Nevertheless, I like the sound of the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones 2 with the spatial audio effect much better than without it. And not only because solo voices in the middle of the sound stage – generally a problem area for headphones due to physical conditions – gained contour and the treble sounded fresher and more articulate. This gave cymbals, for example, more radiance and seemed to lift a thick curtain over vocals. In standard mode, the mid-high range sounded somewhat overcast and distant.

Especially if you prefer electronic music, hip-hop or pop, you can have more fun with the more energetic tuning in the two immersive modes “Still” and “Motion” in terms of liveliness, contour of the sound bodies and richness of detail. “Still” is useful sitting in front of your desk. “Motion” dampens the repositioning of the sound stage, to avoid irritating changes during activities, when your head moves constantly.

Cinema mode brings a plus for movie enjoyment

Speaking of film: I searched for the proudly announced Cinema Mode under exactly the same name in the Immersive menu of the Bose Music app and ended up finding it under “Kino”, the German word for “Cinema”, in the “Modes” menu in fourth and last place behind the presets “Quiet”, “Aware” and “Immersion”. Because I didn’t expect to find it in that menu and translated into German, which doesn’t sound as bold as “Cinema Mode”, it took some time to find it.

The term “cinema” should be taken literally and it is better not to use this mode for music playback. Then it sounds a little washed out and diffuse. If you use it to watch surround videos such as the Mission Impossible films on a streaming service such as Amazon Prime Video, you can enjoy enhanced spatiality, good dialog intelligibility and abysmal bass.

You can forget about these headphones for movies

During street scenes like the car chases in M:I-5, it’s easy to forget to listen to headphones. Bose has managed this really well, even if the Americans once again refuse to reveal what they have done. In any case, this is not a Dolby Atmos adaptation but, as usual, a proprietary technology. In combination with the head tracking, this results in an extremely natural and very gripping cinematic experience for headphones, which also makes the QuietComfort over-ears very interesting for gaming.

In this respect, it is definitely an advantage that, in addition to Bluetooth, playback is also possible via the USB cable supplied. After all, PlayStation or Xbox are spoilsports when it comes to Bluetooth support. It also eliminates all latency problems. However, as already mentioned, at least users of Android devices with Snapdragon Sound can use the gaming mode of the Bluetooth over-ear headphones wirelessly for gaming with low latency.

If you listen to music via the USB-C connection on the left ear cup of the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones 2, you can look forward to a finer mid-high tone reproduction and slightly tighter bass. Bose specifies 16 bit/44.1 kHz or 16 bit/48 kHz as the maximum resolution.

The active noise canceling is top

Bose remains true to its line when it comes to noise canceling. The noise suppression continues to work at a very high level, even though the competition from Sony and Apple now performs just as well. In practice, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra 2nd Gen is particularly impressive due to the unobtrusive but very effective way in which it suppresses external noise – and does so evenly across the entire hearing spectrum. Airplane noise or the monotonous roar of a train ride disappear reliably, you feel perfectly isolated. It feels like sitting alone in a perfectly insulated limousine rather than in a suburban train carriage full of people.

The “Aware” transparency mode has also been slightly optimized and should therefore appear more natural. Bose has added a smart function to the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones 2: If the ActiveSense function is activated in Aware mode, the over-ear automatically switches on noise-canceling and adapts it to the ambient noise. Individual noise events should then not stand out as disturbingly, which should lead to a more harmonious perception of the music. ActiveSense can be selected in the Aware mode settings. However, I was not able to fully comprehend this effect in the practical test.

QC Ultra Headphones 2nd Gen: Conclusion and alternatives

The bottom line is that the new QuietComfort Ultra Headphones 2 show an interesting shift in character. Bose is focusing more on dynamics and bass punch, combined with natural-looking spatial audio and the new cinema mode. In return, the previous warmth in the mid-high range, which made the predecessor one of the most unagitated ANC over-ears, particularly suitable for long-term use, is lost. Fans of rich, deep bass and more liveliness will be pleased with the changes.

This clearly positions the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) as a further development in which the strengths that have been worked out easily outweigh the minor weaknesses. The ANC over-ear remains a highly comfortable all-rounder that is just as convincing in everyday life as it is when traveling.

In terms of price and concept, but also the effectiveness of the ANC, the Sony WH-1000XM6 is an obvious alternative. In this comparison, the Sony scores with a more coherent mid-high tone reproduction and longer runtime. In addition to its special kick, the Bose’s main advantage is its higher touch quality, which clearly benefits from the minor retouching for the 2nd generation. And if you want to combine rich bass with audiophile resolution and a particularly appealing design, you should also check out the Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3.

Technical specifications: Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones 2

• Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price: 500 Euro
• Type: Over-Ear
• Transducer principle: Dynamic
• Battery life: up to 30 hours with ANC without immersive audio, up to 18 with; charging time: 3 hours, quick charge for 2.5 hours of playtime in 15 minutes
• Weight: 250 g
• Special features: Bluetooth 5.4 with SBC, AAC or aptX Adaptive, Active noise-canceling, Up to 30 hours battery life, 3D Immersive Audio (proprietary process), App control, Hands-free setup, USB-C input, analog 2.5 mm AUX input (connection cables included), Hard case
• More at: bose.com

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