Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) review

Following their arrival on the scene in late 2023, the original Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds were capable of mixing with the best of them. While we didn’t deem them to be the last word in outright sound quality at their given price – that accolade went to the Sony WF-1000XM5 – their admirable all-round performance and industry-leading noise cancelling made them a roaring success.

However, the times, to quote Bob Dylan, are a-changin’. Since the first generation QC Ultra Earbuds landed, we’ve seen the emergence of stellar premium wireless earbuds candidates from the likes of Technics and Bowers & Wilkins, while the aforementioned XM5 buds continue to offer a deeply attractive proposition.

For its new generation flagship buds, Bose has promised better ANC, a broadened feature-set and improvements to the sound tuning of the QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen). The question is, will subtle tweaks be enough for Bose in a market that remains ultra-competitive?

Price

The Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) are priced at £299 / $299 / AU$450, marking them out as a decidedly premium pair of wireless earbuds. They are, however, the very same price as the first-gen Ultra Earbuds were two years ago, and we welcome the fact that there has been no price rise here.

At this level, their key five-star competitors are the more expensive Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 (£349 / $399 / AU$599) and, for slightly less money, the Technics EAH-AZ100 (£259 / $299 / AU$499).

The Award-winning Sony WF-1000XM5 are still around, and as they are also two years old, prices have started to drop to around £219 / $299 / AU$350.

Build & comfort

If there was one area in which we weren’t particularly keen for Bose to deviate too much from one generation of its flagship buds to the next, it was build and comfort. The first QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds were comfortable and secure, qualities they were able to lord over their slightly more finicky Sony WF-1000XM5 rivals.

Thankfully, Bose hasn’t tinkered too much with a winning formula this time around.

The QuietComfort line has always gone for slightly unconventional designs, with the established configuration of having an outer stem fitted to a more rounded central body feeding into a slender nozzle returning once again.

Unconventional it may be, but it’s a formula we find just works perfectly. The new earbuds are well-made and replicate the premium feel of their predecessors. We’re particularly pleased to see the return of Bose’s stability bands, the small ridges which tuck into the top part of your inner ear to aid with a more secure fit.

In our experience, they work wonders. Soft enough to be comfortable yet firm enough to act as an anchor, they’re a great concept that adds to the QC Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen)’s commuting and sporting credentials. We took them out for a few short runs and, to our delight, found that their locked-in fit made them a viable pair of sporting companions.

Touch controls return, and once again it’s a responsive and well-implemented system. You can customise the Bose buds to your liking via the app – whichever tasks we assign to the QC Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen), they’re adept enough to react with sufficient sharpness to prevent us from becoming frustrated by the kind of lag which can mire the touch experience of less talented alternatives.

Downsides? The choice of three ear tip sizes is a bit miserly pair of premium wireless earbuds. Those stability bands will probably negate too many issues with fit, but even so, for the money you’re paying, it’s not unreasonable to expect four or five size options in pursuit of that perfect user experience.

Features

The new Bose buds offer six hours of battery life on a single charge, with three additional charges from the case resulting in a healthy 24-hour total battery life. Rather disappointingly, that’s the same numbers as the last-gen model, and we had rather hoped that this was an area the 2nd-gen models would improve upon.

The newer Technics EAH-AZ100 rival, for instance, boasts a more impressive lifespan with 28 hours in total. However, B&W’s Pi8 offers 20 hours, while the Apple AirPods Pro 2 and Sony XM5 also offer 24 hours – so the Bose aren’t lagging behind in any way.

In terms of Bluetooth, the standard AAC and SBC codecs are supported, as well as aptX Adaptive for streaming in 24-bit hi-res lossless with low latency via compatible sources. Other features from the established QC Ultra Earbuds model return, including Immersive Audio (more on this below) and Bluetooth Multipoint connectivity for easier switching between two connected devices.

Yes, Bose’s slightly divisive take on spatial audio, dubbed Immersive Audio, is back, in Still and Motion (dynamic head tracking) modes. As before, the idea is to take the traditional headphone sound from ‘inside’ your head and make it seem as though the soundscape is being listened to on a pair of traditional stereo speakers.

Performance-wise, it’s a similar story as before – some tracks benefit from the wide, spacious feel this Immersive mode provides, while others can seem disorganised or overly pulled apart as a result.

Our review team remain split on this Immersive Audio effect, although we have found tracks (such as Ramin Djawadi's Across The Oceans Of Time) where its benefits are shown off in full. We’d suggest you give it a go and try a few tracks to see if the effect works for you.

Note, also, that Immersive Audio drains your battery life considerably, slashing it from six hours on a single charge to a rather meagre four when switched on. If you want your buds to last longer, it might be best to use the somewhat divisive feature sparingly.

Noise cancelling and call quality

If you’re a regular Bose customer and are eyeing the QC Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) as your latest shiny pair of go-to travel companions, this may be the part of the review to which you head first. After all, this is what the US brand is all about: class-leading noise-cancelling.

We found the first-gen buds’ handling of ANC to be deeply impressive. Bose aims to up the ante in these sequel buds, claiming smoother changes in noise cancellation levels for filtering out sudden spikes of noise, meaning the likes of sirens or screeching trains are set to be handled more effectively this time around.

Those promises ring true when we put the buds through their paces. The second-generation in-ears are excellent at adapting to whatever we throw at them, softening those harder, harsher sounds as they intrude while keeping lower-level rumbles and chatter at bay.

There are three noise-cancelling modes to choose from: Quiet, Aware and Immersion, the latter of which is for accessing Bose’s take on spatial audio. Quiet is the buds’ most powerful ANC setting, and it lives up to the Bose standard of completely isolating you in that enveloping, almost eerily silent cocoon.

Some users aren’t so keen on this effect, finding it to be an almost unnaturally silent vacuum, but if that’s what you look for in a pair of noise-cancelling earbuds, Bose has once again nailed it.

Noises across the sonic spectrum, be they clacking keyboards, chattering colleagues or cars beeping their horns on the street, simply dissolve into near-insignificance, with harsher and more intrusive sounds shut out even more effectively than before.

Rivals have their own ways of doing things, and while some users may prefer the more natural performances of the Technics EAH-AZ100 or the B&W Pi8, for simply shutting you off from as much environmental noise as possible, Bose’s flagbearers remain in a class of one.

Elsewhere, Aware mode is effectively the transparency mode, and it contrasts starkly with our Quiet listening experience, by allowing the likes of human speech and low-level train rumbles to filter into our lugs.

How about voice calls? This is another area in which Bose has teased significant strides for the second-gen buds, particularly relating to the reduction of background noises such as wind or office chatter.

Whether indoors or outside, we find that the buds render voices as clear and weighty during our calls, as well as making good on that promise of preventing environmental sounds from intruding on your conversations. They’re just a tad synthetic sounding at times, but overall, it’s a very strong showing.

It certainly sees the Bose buds keep up with price-comparable rivals. The Technics EAH-AZ100 and B&W Pi8 may sound just a tad warmer and more natural with voices, but the Bose do an outstanding job of blocking out the intrusions of the outside world to near-insignificance when taking calls next to a busy road

Sound

Bose hasn’t teased wholesale sonic changes for its second-gen QC Ultra Earbuds. The company confirmed that the driver is the same between the new and old iterations. Instead, the audio tuning in the second-gen buds teases subtle changes aimed at improving bass response and smoother high-end frequencies.

This isn’t the most gushing marketing spiel, but given the fact that the original Ultra Earbuds were five-star performers when we reviewed them, maybe a few tweaks were all that was needed. The QC Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) are building on a solid foundation, and sometimes all you need are a few minor adjustments rather than a wholesale teardown job to elicit great results.

This appears to be one of those instances. Loading up a Tidal rendition of Nick Cave and Warren Ellis’ Song For Bob reveals marked improvements in the areas mentioned above, with the second-gen buds sinking to impressive new depths while retaining the requisite tautness and agility of their lower-end reproduction.

Mournful strings plunge deeper than before, but across all frequencies there’s satisfying body and texture to notes that goes beyond what the original QC Ultra Earbuds could muster. It’s a clearer performance, too, and improved levels of crispness help to delineate where each note starts and finishes with a sharper, keener focus.

That improved clarity is complemented by a newfound richness and authenticity to the newer buds’ presentation, something we detect during Radiohead’s Decks Dark. The track feels a little more natural sounding through the second-gen buds, allowing us to sit back and let the music envelop us in a more rewarding manner.

That clarity is wedded to an admirable knack for organisation and control. Listen to Claude Debussy’s Clair de Lune through the QuietComfort Ultra (2nd Gen), and you’ll be treated to an expressive, finely poised rendition in which each piano keystroke is solid and precise.

The more we listen, the more we grow to like and admire Bose’s latest flagship buds. Rivals abound at this level, from the sparklingly refined Technics EAH-AZ100 to the impressive Bowers & Wilkins Pi8, but the Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen)’s craftily balanced sound, replete with ample detail and impressive cohesion, doesn’t lag too far behind.

The Technics are undeniably more detailed than the Bose, especially through their deeply impressive midrange, and certainly a more refined pair of performers in how they handle low-level dynamics. However, the QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) have enough of their own charms to keep us from discarding the Bose buds in favour of their mighty rivals.

Verdict

Bose’s second-gen flagship earbuds are a pleasing improvement on their predecessors. They’re better sounding than the first iteration of the QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds, and while outstanding rivals swim in similar circles, those minor sonic tweaks for the new model have ensured that Bose remains a five-star performer at this level.

The QC Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) are an entertaining, eminently likeable pair of wireless earbuds. What’s more, not only are they well-made and comfortable, the new Bose earbuds also boast some of the most powerful noise cancelling you’ll find within the true wireless market.

If you were waiting for the second-gen buds to take Bose’s coveted ANC to the next level, all while showcasing ample talents elsewhere, it’s very much 'mission accomplished' for these talented all-rounders.

Review published: 22nd July 2025

SCORES

• Sound 5
• Features 5
• Comfort 5

MORE:

Read our review of the Bowers & Wilkins Pi8

Also consider the Technics EAH-AZ100

Read our Sony WF-1000XM5 review

Best wireless earbuds: top pairs tested by our reviewers