QuietComfort Ultra Bluetooth Headphones (2nd Gen), Wireless Headphones with Spatial Audio, Over Ear Noise Cancelling with Mic, Up to 30 Hours of Play time, Desert Gold - Limited Edition

6 days in, here are my thoughts. COMPARISON WITH SONY: Straight off the bat, have to say, much better than Sony. While I appreciate Sony’s palm over ear gimmicks, something to keep in mind is its impossible to tell which side is which because Sony made it really small on the outside (most headphones have inside L and R indicators), so I spent like an hour trying to figure out my whatsapp calls wouldnt go through — turns out it was the wrong side. SOUND: While Sony does have the nice gimmicks, Bose is unmatched for sound. The bass hits HARD, the sound is crisp and clear. Billie Jean and other trailer music or bass-heavy songs sound incredible. Noise cancellation is obviously also unmatched. Both Sony and Bose leak sound though, so keep that in mind. It’s not a huge issue for me, and it isnt that bad for me. Charging is pretty fast, im honestly blown away by how quick it charges. Within a few minutes, it jumps from 0 to 10, then about a while in, perhaps half an hour-to an hour, its at full (though id check other reciews to make sure). Connectivity is pretty easy too like airpods, switching between devices. Mainly, i turn off bluetooth in my phone and move to another device and just tap the connect button on bose if it doesnt go through the first time. The controls like EQ, mode, etc are pretty easy to go through using the app, but i dont know if i would recommend the shortcut feature, since its super easy to trigger it with just the slightest pressure, so take from that what you will. I would prefer not to trigger it that easily, but each to their own. My personal choice for EQ: base at 10, mid at 6, treble at 3, and test out Billie Jean. Cinematic is a solid choice for mode. I dont know too much about durability since im only a week in, but ive done a shake test, tested the hinges, and it works great. So far, pretty durable. Ive seen other reviews attest to this before buying it too. The design is honestly so much better than Sony xm6, looking a lot more “expensive” or sleek. It also feels about the same in comfort, but I have to give the edge to Bose for that. The ear puffs are very soft, is lightweight and the headphones are adjustable somewhat. The ear puffs are also replaceable whereas Sony’s are not. Apparently Sony has a connectivity bug going for years. In my opinion, while Sony can be a second cheaper option, Bose is a better longer term investment, and a better value for money. Im keeping this one. Best of luck choosing :)

Absolutely blown away by these headphones. The sound quality is incredible with deep bass, crystal clear vocals and a really immersive feel, especially with the spatial audio turned on. Noise cancelling is excellent too — perfect for flights, trains and busy environments. What surprised me most is how light and comfortable they are. I’ve used AirPods Max before and while they sound great, these Bose QC Ultras are far better for travel in my opinion. They’re noticeably lighter, don’t clamp your head as much and are much more comfortable for long listening sessions. I can wear them for hours without any discomfort. I also rate them above my older Sonys, however I do use the Mk5 Sonys for when I’m in need of good inears Battery life has been brilliant and the build quality feels premium without being overly heavy. Bluetooth connection is fast and reliable as well. If you travel a lot or just want premium headphones that are comfortable enough to wear all day, these are easily 5 stars. Bose absolutely nailed it with these. Paired with a Questyle QCC pro and iPhone so release lossless audio

Excellent noise cancelling and sound quality. I upgraded from gen 1 after they gave up on me (after six years daily use) Tried a couple of cheaper options first but these are the best by far. The battery life is great with simple USB C charging. I have fallen asleep in bed with these on a few times so comfort and durability is right up there too.

The sound and ANC would be great if these stayed on your head. I'm amazed that for £350 you have to use rubber bands or buy chinese rubbery aftermarket headphone sleeves to stop them falling off. What a waste of time!

This one versus the xm6 I will give the victory to this one. Both have great sound quality and anc but I prefer a few things here. It’s slightly more comfortable. The volume control is far better here. The auto stop when not wearing works better too. But the main reason is it does not get full of finger smudges after a few hours of use. This smudge problem on xm6 is annoying. If someone asks if they worth the price the answer is a big NO. You can find a very similar sound quality and anc on sony ult wear which I paid 140 euro. It’s definitely a luxury item. You buy it if you have conditions and that’s it.

first of all the frequency response is designed to save battery at the sonic experience - for this price point, I expected better high end and a proper quality driver, so as a music producer it failed my expectations. you do not compare these to Apple. next we have the colours, this is premium on the cups but not convinced about the gold chrome whatever it is. they are lightweight and are not too tight. I use them mainly for the gym and do my writing in coffee shops.. and they are okayish at blocking outside noise, i have to turn up the music a bit, apple ones are superior at this. in the gym they need to stay under tension on your head, and while they are not squeezing properly from sides, even after bending them for more grip for the sides.. you have to compensate for this by tightening then upwards from the large/small head size adjustment- until you have enough tension and call it good enough. I tried to check if I can replace the earpads for the future event, they seem glued, not sure about this point. as I did not forced nor did research. Edit: earcups are replaceable. battery is fine, leather seems cheap. I wanted to return but I ripped the box too soon and so badly than is too late. this is what happens when you trust the price and advertising..

These are great. They ooze quality. The sound quality is superb, as you’d expect from Bose. Very comfortable & light to wear & the active noise cancelling is extremely effective. High quality all round.

A little bit of background, I’ve owned a pair of B&O Beoplay H4 over ear bluetooth headphones for about 10 years now. I paid £250 for them brand new and they’ve been utterly fantastic. The best headphones I’ve ever owned and an absolute bargain considering how long they have lasted. Recently however, the leather has started to look very tatty and I’ve found myself using my Airpods 4 earbuds more and more for their noise cancelling capabilities, which the Bang & Olufsen H4s don’t have. So I decided to finally retire my B&O H4s and treat myself to new pair of over ear headphones with noise cancelling. I quickly balked at the idea of buying B&O headphones again because they seem to be aiming purely for the very high-end market these days, with prices to match. As I own an iPhone and a MacBook, and as I’ve been very happy with my Airpods 4 earbuds, the Airpods Max were the obvious choice, so I bought a pair 5 months ago as a little Christmas present to myself. What can I say? The Airpods Max are a brilliant pair of headphones. The sound quality, the noise cancelling, the fact that they look premium, the little design touches like the rotating crown that controls volume. I loved everything about them except for one thing, if I wore them for more than 30 minutes or so I got terrible tension headaches. I don’t know if it’s because of how heavy they are, how strong their clamping force is, or a combination of both these things but I just couldn’t wear them for any extended length of time. Which is a pretty big problem for headphones. I really tried to make them work because everything else about them was absolutely perfect. I tried stretching them, I tried slowly acclimatising myself to them but nothing worked, so I reluctantly decided to sell them and look for something else. Which leads to me to where I am now. I watched countless headphone reviews on YouTube and read countless headphone reviews online and came to the same conclusion that I’m sure most people arrive that, that for premium Bluetooth headphones with noise cancelling, your choices are pretty much Airpods Max, Sony XM6, Bowers & Wilkins PX7 or Bose QuietComfort Ultras. Obviously the Airpods are out so I was left with a choice between 3. Sony, Bowers & Wilkins or Bose. After my experience with the Airpods Max, I resolved to put comfort first. What’s the point in headphones if they’re not comfy? Every single review I came across seemed to state that the Bose are by far the comfiest and are also universally praised for having best in class noise cancelling. It seemed like my decision was an easy one, the Bose QuietComfort Ultras gen 2 are the stand-out contender. And better still, they come in white. I love white gizmos. My iPhone is white, my very expensive Bluetooth speakers are white and I really wanted my new headphones to be white too, so I order the Bose in white smoke. I was disappointed as soon as I unboxed them. They are not white, they are an ugly beige colour. At first I thought that maybe Amazon had sent me the wrong colour. I know these headphones also come in a colourway called driftwood sand so I thought maybe I had been sent those in error. But no, these were definitely the white smoke colourway, easily distinguished because the driftwood sand model have gold coloured accents whilst the white smoke model have silver coloured accents. A lot of people won’t care too much about the colour and a lot of people will actually like the ugly beige colour but that's irrelevant to me as someone who really, really wanted white headphones. And if they're not actually white, which they aren't, why do all the official product photos make them look white? Why do they have white in their name? They are not white. They are not even close to being white. They are beige. Possibly ecru, I don’t know, I don’t work for Pantone. If, like me, you remember the 1990s you will probably associate this colour with one thing and one thing only, that awful beige that every computer seemed to be coloured with. The Commodore Amiga, PCs back when they were described as IBM compatible and had 486 processors, they were all this same shade of ugly beige and that’s the colour that these White Smoke headphones are. I have included a photo to show what they really look like and made sure that I photographed them next to my Airpods 4 case to really show the contrast between the beigeness of the Bose against something that actually is white. I really don’t understand why they use photos that make them look white when they’re not. It’s borderline false advertising and I can’t be the first or last person to purchase this colourway and be immediately disappointed. I can only assume that they’re called white smoke because they look like something that used to be white but have been stained with nicotine after sitting in a chain smoker’s living room for the last 30 years. Anyway, that's enough of my issue with the colour. I was undoubtably unhappy but if everything else about the headphones was top class, maybe I could learn to compromise and live with it. But everything else about the headphones was not top class and I’m really struggling to see what everyone else sees in them. The sound quality was poor out of the box but I followed some online advise and via the Bose app, changed the 3 band EQ to -6, 0 -4. This made the sound quality better but far below that of the Airpods Max. I then decided to test the noise cancelling by wearing them out for a walk and quickly became even more disappointed. I’ve seen people describe their noise cancelling capabilities as being akin to sitting in a bubble of isolation, completely shutting out the outside world but this was not my experience whatsoever. I heard every car that went past, every barking dog, every conversation from passers-by. They undoubtably dampened down the sounds of the outside world but nowhere near to the level that I was hoping for and nowhere near as effectively as either the Airpods Max or my Airpods 4 earbuds. I even had to check a couple of times to make sure that the noise cancelling was actually turned on. It was. It just wasn’t as good as I was expecting it to be. Even worse than that though is that the noise cancelling did a very strange thing with my footsteps. Every footstep I made seemed to be amplified somehow. Not the actual sound of my feet hitting the pavement mind you but a strange sort of booming vibration. It was like my footsteps were being scored by Hans Zimmer. VWAAAMP VWAAAMP VWAAAMP every single step I took. Awful, just awful. Not fit for purpose whatsoever if you intend on wearing these and walking at the same time and as most humans do tend to walk, that seems like a rather large design flaw. To be somewhat fair, I have read that Bose specifically optimised the noise cancelling in these headphones for air travel but that is a very specific activity and most people will not be buying these headphones purely for wearing whilst in an aeroplane. So far, so bad. A colourway that differs to their product photos, average at best sound quality and noise cancelling worse than what I was used to. However, remember when I said that I had resolved to put comfort as my main priority? If they were super comfy maybe I could live with all these compromises and learn to love them but once again they fell short. The comfort is fine. Just fine. Like everything else about them. Aggressively average in everything they do. I've seen people describing them as like wearing fluffy clouds on their ears, that you can’t even tell you’re wearing headphones but yet again, this was not my experience. They weren’t uncomfortable but I’d be lying if I said I found them particularly comfortable or that their comfortability was in any way remarkable or noteworthy. They were fine and I was certainly aware that I was wearing headphones. The one positive thing I will say about them is that they are light, a lot lighter than the Airpods Max for example… but that lightness comes at a rather large cost. In order to keep weight down they are made almost entirely from plastic and they look it. For a pair of headphones that cost anywhere from £350 to £400 you’d expect them to look like a premium product but these do not look premium. Not at all. They look cheap and plasticky. Because they are cheap and plasticky. Well, they’re not cheap but they are definitely very plasticky. Compared to the Airpods Max or my 10 year old Bang & Olufsens, which both looked like expensive, premium products, the Bose look cheap, very cheap indeed. So, here we are. A £400 pair of white headphones that aren’t white, with disappointing sound quality, disappointing noise cancelling, that look cheap and are nothing special in the comfort stakes other than being quite light. As you might have ascertained, I quickly decided to return them and will not be buying Bose products again. I’m so surprised by how average everything about them is considering the almost universal praise they have garnered. A lot of reviewers rate these headphones as the absolute best you can buy, which actually blows my mind a little bit. I just don’t get it. I know these things are highly subjective and I have no doubt that a lot of people will genuinely love them, maybe I’ve been spoiled by my experiences with the Bang & Olufsens and Airpods Max but the Bose QuietComfort Ultras 2 just don’t do it for me. Not by a long shot. For £400 they need to much better than this, at everything. If they were cheaper, I think a fair score would be 3 out of 5 stars but considering their price, considering the misleading product photos for the white smoke colourway and considering my total disappointment at everything about them, I can only give them 2 out of 5 stars and can’t find anything about them to recommend. If you can live with their weight and clamping force, the Airpods Max do absolutely everything better than the Bose and it’s not even close. I have no idea how the Sonys or Bowers & Wilkins compare but I would be very surprised if they are worse than the Bose. So finally, for me, the search for a new pair of comfortable over ear headphones continues. I don’t like the colourways of the Sonys (or their huge earcups) and the design of the Bowers & Wilkins doesn’t appeal much either. And worse than that, neither of them seem to score highly in the comfort stakes. Who knew it was so hard to find a good all-round pair of headphones when you’re willing to pay £400? Against my better judgement I might try the Sonos Ace next or maybe I’ll just start playing the lottery and hope for a big win so I can go back to B&O. Anything but Bose.

I researched a lot of headphones before choosing the QC Gen 2. I had an older version of Sony’s flagship before so I felt these ones needed to be great. After using then consistently for several months I can say they are. What makes them great is in the name. Quiet- yes noise cancelling is great without hiss, not quite as quiet as Sony, but I would say that the way it feels is more natural. Pass through is superior, I can use these for conference calls and hear myself perfectly and voices are crisp and clear. Comfort- I can use these for hours and even fall asleep with them on…nuff said. Sound- these sound great out of the box and the 3 band EQ is more than enough to perfect them. It’s hard to describe this sound, its precise and warm, offering a satisfying and immersive experience in every genre. Most important is that it’s not fatiguing, allowing longer term playback and enjoyment. Price- seems high, but the quality is worth it.

I’ve owned the Bose QC35 II for 8 years and use them daily, so the QuietComfort Ultra is a significant upgrade. The noise cancellation is outstanding and easily the best I’ve experienced. Sound quality is well-balanced rather than bass-heavy like Sony’s XM series. With Immersive Audio off, the QC35 II still holds up surprisingly well, with only slightly less bass. Mids and treble are very similar. Immersive Audio is impressive and creates an open, speaker-like effect, though it sounds a little tinny to me, so I usually leave it off to extend battery life. Transparency mode is excellent—better than my AirPods Pro—and I can comfortably take calls without removing an earcup, unlike with the QC35 II. Comfort is exceptional. They’re lighter than the QC35 II, and I’ve worn them for over 10 hours a day without discomfort. Battery life has been excellent. I got through an entire weekend of around 24 hours of listening, plus another 20 hours across the following weekdays before needing to recharge on Thursday night. I mostly use Spotify Lossless wirelessly, but wired on my iPhone and iPad the sound quality is even better. As an enthusiast (not an audiophile), I’m very satisfied. Bluetooth performance is mostly reliable, though I experienced occasional static with a Pixel 9a, likely due to Android multipoint issues. My biggest disappointment is multipoint switching. My QC35 II switches audio almost instantly when I pause my TV and start a video on my phone. The Ultra has a noticeable delay of a few seconds, making it feel more like Sony’s implementation. The volume slider takes some getting used to, but it’s only a minor annoyance

Bose, non delude mai, suono avvolgente e pieno , nessun squilibrio e eccesso in riproduzione, materiali leggeri per un confort alto, ottima l’applicazione che consente una gestione ottimale del suono secondo i propri gusti, deluso dalle molte recensioni che trovano pecche , o che preferiscono restituire questo prodotto , ovvio ci sono cuffie con specifiche più alte , ma ovvio i costi sono superiori, ma vi assicuro che queste cuffie non hanno nulla da temere . Le consiglio …

I own the Bose QC 35, Ultra Gen 1, and now the Ultra Gen 2. I have to say that they are all great headphones but the Gen 2 are a cut above. Call quality is crystal clear. Sonically they are excellent. Noise reduction is fantastic. Battery life is great and they are comfortable for all day wearing. Materials, craftsmanship, and quality are also excellent. I've purchased the Sony's and returned them because they are not as good as the Ultras. I highly recommend these headphones. UPDATE: I ended up returning these headphones because the Bluetooth connection to my phone and computer stopped working with the app. Very frustrating experience. I selected multipoint in the app and connected the primary connection to my phone and the secondary connection to my HP Laptop PC. The problem is that YouTube doesn't work when the Headphones are selected in my laptop as the sound output device in Settings. When I deselect the Bose Headphones in my Laptop Settings, YouTube works. With the Bose Ultra's selected when I click on play in YouTube it immediately stops playing as if I removed the headphones from my head. I called HP Technical Support but they were of no help. They had me go through a bunch of useless troubleshooting steps that I already did to no avail. And I had trouble understanding the HP Technical Support because the Technician spoke with a heavy Indian accent. I ended up returning the Headphones and purchasing another pair to see if that clears up the problem. I want the Bose Ultra headphones to work because I really like the product. I received the second pair of Ultra Gen 2 headphones today. They are in desert gold and look beautiful! I downloaded the Bose App to my phone. On the App I went to my devices and selected Sources and then clicked on Multipoint. I paired the headphones to my cell phone and then I went to settings on my laptop computer and selected Bluetooth connections and then selected the Bose QC Ultra Gen 2 Headphones. I clicked on YouTube's Play and this time YouTube responded correctly by playing the song without stopping like it did previously. These headphones work! I am now a happy customer since my Ultra Gen 2's work flawlessly. UPDATE 2 Been wearing these headphones 10 hours per day and have to say that they are the most comfortable headphones I have ever worn. They continue to perform flawlessly however, I wish Bose would bring back the voice feature which announces the connection settings and the battery levels as in previous generations. They replaced this feature with a series of buzzes and pops which are rather uninformative. The ANC on these HPs is unreal. I have 2 loud air filters running 24/7 in the computer room and the ANC completely eliminates the sound. Also phone call clarity both incoming and outgoing are vastly improved. Battery duration is also noticeably improved. By placing the HPs down flat earcups down they enter a sleep mode. Finally don't waste your money and time purchasing the Sony WH-1000XM6. The Bose HPs are much better. They are more comfortable, they fold up for easy portability, the build quality is better, the design is sleeker (better headband, hinges and joints; the Sony's are boxier), and are sonically better than the WH-1000XM6. UPDATE 3 Turns out that Bose has a trade in program. So I traded in my QC 35II for an Ultra Gen 2 and got a $150 discount. I had to purchase the HPs on the Bose website however so I need to return the Amazon HPs back to Amazon. The other issue is that Bose sold the Gen 2s to me at full MSRP of $449 even though the Bose website and Amazon listed the HPs for $379. I called Bose to negotiate the better price but they wouldn't do it saying that the $379 price is a promotional discount and it doesn't apply to the Trade-In program. I am not a happy Bose customer as a result. UPDATE 4 Finally received my trade-in headphones. They set up perfectly. My phone and my computer stream seamlessly to the headphones. I am very happy with the Ultra Gen 2's even with the misunderstanding with Bose on the price. I got the Ultra Gen 2's for $299 after my trade-in. Sonically the Ultra Gen 2s are excellent. ANC works perfectly and call quality is also excellent. The Bose App is very easy to use. FINAL UPDATE I am still loving the Ultra Gen 2's. I've been listening to them 10 to 12 hours a day. Battery duration is excellent. They sound truly amazing. They work flawlessly.

Super genial, la calidad y el sonido espectacular de Bose. Mucho más de lo que esperaba