In 2022, Bose launched a new pair of premium headphones. With the QuietComfort Earbuds II, the company asserts its mastery of active noise reduction a little more.
I won’t soon forget the first time I put the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II in my ears. I had just received the new AirPods Pro, and I was bragging about their qualities to my colleague Geoffroy Husson, audio product specialist at Frandroid. It was then that he stopped me to say: Here, try the new headphones from Bose. You’ll see, it’s bluffant. I knew he was right from his smug look the moment he saw my reaction. I could only give in: yes, the QuietComfort Earbuds II are stunning, for anyone looking above all for a way to isolate themselves from their environment.
Bose’s high-end headphones, sold for under €300, rely on active noise reduction to convince users. And, how can you blame the company? It has made this functionality a specialty: each new product is an additional opportunity to recall its know-how and, even better, to improve it a little more. We have tried dozens and dozens of audio products equipped with active noise reduction, and the QuietComfort Earbuds II still manage to surprise with their effectiveness.
Latest headphones from Bose provide the best noise reduction
When you insert the QuietComfort Earbuds II in your ears for the first time, you feel like you’re caught in a bubble of silence. We immediately perceive the immense work of attenuation carried out by the noise reduction. So much so that you could almost hear it working when you wear them. This is a sign that the product works well, and that it is constantly on the alert to perfectly isolate those who intend to make the most of the calm or their playlists. Even in very noisy environments, such as a gym where the dumbbells clash and the background music sounds like a hubbub, outside sounds struggle to reach us. Even when listening to a podcast with little ambient sound, the attenuation is remarkable.
The QuietComfort Earbuds II are so powerful that they can reduce bass by more than 40 decibels, while providing incredible attenuation on other frequencies. We wouldn’t be so rave about Bose’s accessory if it were headphones. By their more open design, headphones are more likely to let outside noise through (when headphones are naturally much more closed, since they include the ears). In all honesty, we did not think one day to write that headphones could offer the best active noise reduction, all categories combined. If that’s your primary consideration for a purchase, the QuietComfort Earbuds II are the perfect choice.
Naturally, the excellent performance of the QuietComfort Earbuds II in terms of active noise reduction has a positive impact on the transparency mode – called “Attentive”. We can even make it adaptive, so that the loudest sounds are still filtered so as not to surprise you. We find this functionality a little less natural than on AirPods Pro – the models of its kind – but sufficiently convincing when you want to remain aware of your environment.
A sound signature that is still too flat
The QuietComfort Earbuds II don’t just excel at active noise reduction. We also appreciate their design, all-purpose, even if they are not the smallest headphones on the market. Bose has made an effort of miniaturization compared to the first generation (- 33%), provided with an encouraging weight loss (2.3 g less). This observation also applies to the charging box, the only fault of which is that it is incompatible with wireless charging – a real defect at this high price in the segment. In terms of comfort, the QuietComfort Earbuds II are quickly forgotten – a guarantee of quality – and provide good support (tested and approved in a gym).
From the Bose Music application, you can act on several parameters of the QuietComfort Earbuds II: the shortcut for the long press, the management of the noise reduction level (several levels possible, when at Apple, it’s simply “ON” or “OFF”) or the installation of updates. Good point: you can create several noise reduction profiles, and choose a suitable name for each use. This is rather an excellent point for ergonomics.
We will end by talking about the sound reproduction, a normally important criterion when you want to acquire a pair of headphones. As is often the case with Bose products, the QuietComfort Earbuds II offer a fairly flat rendering by default, with a dynamic that we find a little too crushed. They lack punch, warmth compared to Sony’s WF-1000XM4 or even balance compared to AirPods Pro (there are fewer details that stand out). Fortunately, there is an equalizer in the application to give a little color to the acoustic performances. He will still find it difficult to produce a miracle, given the signature that is too neutral by default. Faced with their competitors, the QuietComfort Earbuds II must bow on this point. We can still note an interesting evolution compared to the first version.
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