Apple, Bose and Sony make the best noise-canceling earbuds. So, as soon as Sony released its latest flagship earbuds, the WF-1000XM6, in February, people started asking me how they compared to Apple's AirPods Pro 3 and Bose's QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen). I wish that were an easy question to answer.
Everybody's ears are different, of course, and what may be best for me may not be best for you. It's something I try to account for in all of my reviews, though, so I do have some thoughts on the strengths -- and a few weaknesses -- of each model to hopefully steer you in the right direction. Here's a quick rundown of the three buds, all of which earned CNET Editors' Choice awards.
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Apple AirPods Pro 3
Since they didn't get a new H3 chip, some folks felt that the upgrades to the AirPods Pro 3 seemed pretty incremental and didn't necessarily think they sounded better than the AirPods Pro 2. However, in my view, all the key elements, such as fit, sound quality and noise cancellation, were noticeably leveled up along with a single-charge battery.
The AirPods Pro 3 are about as close as earbuds get to being complete: excellent noise cancellation, strong voice-calling performance and sound quality that rivals the very best. As I said in my review, few buds excel in all three areas -- and the Pro 3s manage to do that while packing in plenty of extra features, including personalized spatial audio with head-tracking, a Hearing Aid mode and new heart-rate monitoring and Live Translation features. Price: $249 list ($229 street). Read my review.
Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd gen)
As far as the hardware goes, the QC Ultra Earbuds (2nd gen) look exactly the same as the original QC Ultra Earbuds, although Bose has added new deep plum and desert gold colors to the line. There are two small changes, though: the 2nd-gen Ultra Earbuds now support wireless charging (which, frankly, should've been available with the originals), and the included eartips now have wax guards, a fancy way of saying there's a silicone mesh that covers the holes in the tips. That helps prevent dust and wax from clogging up the buds and degrading sound quality and noise-canceling performance.
The reality is they're not a true 2.0 product. But they do offer improved adaptive noise canceling that's truly impressive, along with some sound quality enhancements, including a new spatialized immersive audio Cinema mode that widens the soundstage and makes "video content more lifelike," with clearer dialog. The mode also helps with spoken-word audio content such as podcasts and audiobooks. Price: $299 ($269 street).
New features available in both the original QC Ultra Earbuds and 2nd-gen model include:
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