How much do you value quiet? I’m not trying to get profound here—this is a gadget review, not a self-help seminar—but it’s a question worth asking. Personally, I find quiet to be pretty important. Nothing says loving myself like putting on a pair of earbuds and telling the entirety of New York City to kindly, f**k off. And for that peace of mind, you have a lot of earbuds at your disposal. Any pair worth its weight in plastic will have the option for ANC nowadays. But just because they all have it doesn’t mean every pair of ANC buds is created equal. To the contrary, my friends, there are levels to this shit.
If you’re like Bose and you put “quiet” in the name of your earbuds, one should expect a high degree of noise cancellation—even more so for a gen-2 product. And folks, I’m here to tell you (not quietly) that’s exactly what the $299 Bose QuietComfort Ultra (2nd gen) bring to the table.
I tested these puppies in some of the worst conditions you can imagine (the chaotic NYC subway), and I can say, without a doubt, if I want to block the maximum amount of noise with earbuds, these will be the ones I reach for. Bose doesn’t provide exact dB numbers on how much cancellation its newest QuietComfort Ultra earbuds block out, but anecdotally it feels like a lot.
Bose QuietComfort Ultra 2 Bose's second-gen QuietComfort Ultra 2 earbuds still have class-leading ANC. Pros Amazing ANC
Amazing ANC Cool design
Cool design Sensitive touch controls Cons Sound is good but not mind-blowing
Sound is good but not mind-blowing Middling battery life
Middling battery life Heavy Bose premium
The noise cancelation
On the subway, I felt extremely insulated from train noise and voices, which is incredible if you’re trying to zone out on your commute to work or avoid any unwanted conversations. I also tested them at a busy coffee shop with lots of chatter and music playing, and they blocked out all of that racket adeptly when I started playing music.
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