Good news for people who love powerful active noise cancellation, aka ANC: Bose’s QuietComfort Ultra Headphones are back, and they’re getting a few notable upgrades. The QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) will open up for preorder starting next week on Sept. 10, and if you’re a fan of listening to headphones wired instead of wireless, this is probably the pair for you.
According to Bose, you can hook the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) via USB-C instead of a 3.5mm jack, which is objectively a lot more convenient given a lot of devices have removed the traditional headphone jack. That’s an especially big win for anyone who wants to plug their headphones into their phone, which—unless you’re a few generations behind with iPhone like me—should also be using a USB-C connection. Like the recently released and very similarly named Bose’s QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen), Bose’s new over-ear headphones also have improved ANC. I didn’t notice anything major when testing the new QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds, but that’s kind of the point—new adaptive ANC is designed to be a lot smoother when adjusting levels.
Mostly, Bose’s QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) have smaller quality-of-life improvements that could add up to feeling like a notable upgrade. Among those tweaks, according to Bose, is better on-head detection, so that the headphones will be better at powering on and off automatically when you put them on or remove them. There’s also a streamlined way to disconnect that should automatically unlink the headphones from their current Bluetooth device when they’re laid “on a flat surface.” This could be a hit-or-miss feature, but I’m willing to bet that, most of the time, when you put your headphones down, you probably want them to disconnect from your device as well. When laid down, they also go automatically into low power and standby mode. The QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) also have a notable bump in battery life over the first generation, offering 30 hours instead of 24 while ANC is on.
One genuinely new thing that’s incoming is an “immersive audio Cinema Mode,” which “allows for clear dialogue while maintaining a wide, externalized sound stage,” according to Bose. It’s hard to say what that means without hearing it, but I look forward to testing it out when I get the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) in my hands. As usual, the new headphones will come with a significant Bose premium, which in this case means a $449 price tag. If Bose’s ANC is as good as the last generation, the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) may actually justify that AirPods Max-level pricing.