The Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II Are Ridiculously Good

Isaac Taylor

The new pair of QuietComfort Earbuds II from Bose may be the most impressive set of earbuds I’ve ever had the honour of pushing into my head. Bose has always been a personal favourite when it comes to getting a professional sound, but what they’ve managed to do with their earbuds is phenomenal. It does exactly what it says on the tin; quiet and comfort. The case is a matte black and has a pairing button on the back. Popping them out for the first time they paired immediately with my phone with zero fuss. Always a good sign. The case and the earbuds are both a bit bulkier than most on the market, but I still found it comfortably pocketable while out and about. In the box it has the usual rubber plug replacements for different ear shapes as well as secondary rubber ring replacements in different sizes to give the main body of the buds a snug fit in the ear. Walking around with them in town I was never worried about them falling out and going down a drain.
When you first put the earbuds in a tune plays with the purpose of analysing your ear shape and then delivering you custom tuned levels and noise cancellation as a result. A good set of over ear headphones will always remain king for noise cancellation but what the QuietComforts have been able to achieve is ridiculously impressive, and on par with what I’d expect from a bulky pair of cans. Walking past construction and traffic I got hardly a peep of sound. I’d rate them dangerous for town use if you were planning on crossing the road with ANC turned on. They’re that good. On the other end of the spectrum it has passthrough and aware modes for when blocking out coworkers is just not an option. Using the app, you can set custom levels, your own touch command and your own personally tuned ANC mode. I set a walking mode where I’ve still got a decent idea of what’s going on in the outside world.

Audiowise, it’s perfect. Crisp and clear audio with a surprising thump of bass I’m never expecting (and hardly ever get) from earbuds. It made audio in mobile gaming and music listening a real pleasure. Genshin’s soundtrack has never sounded so rich.

The only downside I personally found was that its case has no wireless charging abilities, you’ll be stuck with USB-C charging. This isn’t a gamebreaker for most so not a big deal, and personally it’s not going to stop me from making these my new go-tos for listening to tunes.

It comes in two colours, Triple black and Soapstone. Pricing ranges around $469.95. A bit pricey but with these you get exactly what you pay for, and what you pay for is the cream of the crop.