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We torture test hundreds of microphones a year; how does the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) fare?
9 hours ago
Upon its release, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) will likely be among the most popular active noise canceling (ANC) earphones not named “AirPods.” But now that earphones have morphed into do-it-all smartphone companions, there’s more to a purchase than just “does it sound good?”
For those of you with the gift of gab, it can be important to know how well your voice will come across in calls — especially if you use your earphones as a work headset. So what does the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen)’s mic sound like? We ran it through our standardized torture test to find out. For our purposes here, we’re also going to look at the Apple AirPods Pro 2 as a direct competitor.
Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) microphone performance in ideal conditions
Hold up! Some background before you read
Newer earphones often rely on some pretty intensive software to handle noise rejection, among other things. The Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen.) make a lot of claims about call quality, but the results may not reflect what you’re expecting. There are a number of possibilities as to why the noise rejection wasn’t what we were expecting, but you should be aware that sometimes — much like it is with the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro — some features are only available under certain conditions and uses. For example, when the “phone” app is open and you’re on a call. We used a current Android device with the Bose app installed to collect these samples, but your experience may vary depending on client, network, or app settings.
In quiet conditions without wind, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) does a fairly decent job at recording voices at a decent quality. Bluetooth headsets all struggle with this due to limited bandwidth, but some are better than others.
Comparison model: Apple AirPods Pro 2
For reference, the above sample is the same clip as recorded by the Apple AirPods Pro 2. Though each set of earphones has their strengths and weaknesses, the gulf isn’t massive enough for someone to notice on a video or phone call. Remember, these mics are only for recording voices, not the next top pop jam — so you’re likely to notice even less audio quality when you take a call over a cell network or chat client that limits bandwidth. As you can hear above, the main issue here is the Bose earbuds taking a short while to get the right gain when someone starts talking. Beyond that, there’s no noticeable noise, so we’re off to a good start.
Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) microphone performance in the real world
But where earbud microphones struggle is the real world. While a quiet room is an easy recording environment, things like noise, wind, and unexpected sounds can really ruin a call. We simulate several of these situations with calibrated noise fields in our test setup to see how each product handles hypothetical recording hazards.
Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) performance in the office
Okay, so there’s some noise that makes it through, but not everything in the background sample can be heard. For example, the soda can opening, the phone ringing, people banging things around the desk, and the keyboard all get very well muted. You probably only noticed a little bit of some of these sounds in the clip above, and maybe wouldn’t have noticed them at all had I not mentioned they were there. This is an improvement over the original Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds:
Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds:
However, let’s listen to our competitor’s sample. You’ll notice some differences.
Apple AirPods Pro 2:
Apple’s default noise suppression algorithm doesn’t do as well here, so that’s an interesting result. Let’s see if it holds up.
Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) performance on the street
This sample seems to have a fair bit of noise and/or distortion added, but what’s happening is the earphones are applying a very aggressive reduction processing to the sample, effectively muting the buses, cars, and other street noise that was played around it. For reference, here’s the AirPods Pro 2 again:
You can sorta hear things popping in and out, but on the whole Apple’s noise reduction is a little more effective at maintaining voice quality here.
Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) performance in an echoing room
The performance is a little weird here, as the echoes can be somewhat suppressed sometimes, but then let through clear as day later. This is something that’s a bit of a torture test for most earbuds, as this is something that most fail at. So don’t be too hard on the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen), especially when the following is probably one of the better options on the market for this:
Apple AirPods Pro 2:
Still hear the echo, right? Try not to read too much into a product not doing amazingly well here, it’s tough even for the best of them.
Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) performance in the wind
I’ve yet to come across earbuds that handle wind perfectly, because there’s so much going on that can really freak out noise reduction systems. Not only is the pressure from the moving air a concern, but turbulence, other wind noise, and difficulty separating vocals and noise is a tall task. However, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) really struggles here, as high, sustained wind is something that the earphones don’t seem to be able to handle all that well.
Apple AirPods 2:
Even the mighty AirPods Pro 2 struggles here, so don’t expect perfection from any product in the wind. But as we’re trying to stress the microphones with situations people might subject them to, it’s worth knowing how each product can be made to fail during normal use. For the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) and other earbuds, avoiding wind while on a call is a good idea.
What do you think?
After listening to the above, what are your impressions? How would you rate the microphone of the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen)?