Recently I suffered one of the most dreaded moments in every expensive headphone owner’s life… a sudden equipment malfunction. This usually follows with the annoying sound in one ear, begrudgingly submit to defeat, then scramble to justify another purchase I wasn’t ready for.
This time, the offending moment involved an A list over-the-ear headphones I’ve owned for over two years, suddenly having one of its ear cups collapse. It was as if it couldn’t gather enough strength to cover my right ear anymore. The inner speaker still worked, but what good was it if the right side of my headphones had rendered the noise cancelling feature useless?
I had to pivot. My next over-the-ear headphone purchase has to not only satisfy my home entertainment needs, but also assist in helping me be in the zone when I’m hard at work at my home office.
After staring at my laptop, weighting the choices before me for about a half an hour, I purchased the Bose Quiet Comfort Ultra 2nd Gen. Headphones. When I clicked the “Place Order” button, imagining $450 dollars drain from my credit card balance, I was hoping that money was well spent.
- BREAKTHROUGH SPATIALIZED AUDIO: Super immersive sound spatializes everything, taking the music out of your head and plac…
- NOISE CANCELLING HEADPHONES: Enjoy Bose’s best noise cancellation for headphones with Quiet Mode, turn on Aware Mode to …
- NEW CINEMA MODE: Bring video content to life like never before with Cinema Mode; spatialize and balance background sound…
Once the headphones arrived at my house, after unboxing the packaging, I unzipped the carrying case and seeing how flexible the ear cups were. I paired them with my iPhone then my 42-inch smart TV, I began using it on a daily basis.
As of this post, I’ve used these headphones for about a month and I’m impressed. This set is much better than the headphones I replaced, the Sony WH-1000XM5. Sorry for the spoiler alert. This is for the TLDR crowd. If you want more details, keep reading.
Overall Build of the Headphones – The Reason why I Had To Buy This In The First Place
After a month long daily use, the construction of the Bose Quiet Comfort Ultra 2 (Bose QCU2) looked and felt more sturdy. The element in question, the headband handles hold each ear cup in place, is metal instead of plastic. But to be fair, Sony’s plastic is strong and solid, but it gave way where the adjustable handle swivels the ear cups from side-to-side. The Bose QCU2 feels lighter than the Sony’s (WH-1000XM5). Bose’s overall design fits on my head better. The ear cup cushions feel more comfortable, granted my ears are on the smaller side, so keep that in mind. Compared with the various headphones I’ve worn while wearing glasses the Bose QCU2 fits best. The headphones don’t pinch both my temples eliminating the need to shift my glasses to relieve pressure.
That’s Great and All… What About The Sound?
Based on my daily usage, the Bose QCU2 have a rich, robust sound quality. Only annoying thing is having to download the Bose QCU2 app to adjust the bass and treble. However, that’s considered a normal procedure with expensive headphones these days. The factory EQ levels are pretty good, but I prefer to add bass for a fuller sound. I also had to enable the Cinema Mode within the app, it’s not available out the box, at least in my case.
Speaking of the different sound options, the noise cancellation button is located on the right ear cup. It’s the top button. The options are as follows:
- Quiet – the noise cancelling mode we all know and love. It’s good enough at keeping the lawnmowers, loud voices, and blaring car alarms at a low volume. It doesn’t cancel the sound completely, but Bose QCU2 is better at this than the older Bose QC headphones I had a few years ago.
- Immersive – it adds an expansive, 3D space within my ears. It feels as though the sound follows me as I turn from left to right and vice versa. It also adds a richness to voices, makes them more crisp. The quality is on par with the Apple AirPods Pro earbuds.
- Cinema – It’s Immersive Mode with extra richness to the sound. It’s the ultimate home theater experience.
- Aware – the sound quality without noise cancellation holds better than the Sony WH-1000XM5. I don’t need to take off one ear cup or the entire headphones to hear my outer surroundings. However, the outer sound quality is not as good as the AirPods Pro’s “Transparency” mode. That being said, the Bose QCU2 is a close second.
Rounding Out the Other Notable Features
These Bose QCU2 headphones have a wider range with its bluetooth capabilities than the Sony WH-1000XM5. I’m able to walk in further distances and reach different rooms in my house without the sound cutting out or it disconnecting with my TV.
Bose QCU2’s behaves the same as Sony and Airpod Pro, they all disconnect when I take the headphones off and reconnect its signal when I put them back over my ears. Difference is the Bose QCU2’s bluetooth transition from smart TV to my smartphone is much smoother.
To adjust the volume I go to the right ear cup and slide my thumb up or down. It took me a while for my hand to find the small raised ridge in between the inner part (where the power and noise cancellation buttons reside) and the outer portion of the ear cup where nothing happens. It’s the thin, raised silver part in the middle where I need to slide my thumb up and down. There’s no haptic feedback, meaning there’s no audible clicks or audio cues to guide me. Hearing the volume increase or decrease is the only clue.
It works well with incoming phone calls, too. The robotic voice announces who is calling. It either identifies the caller or it says “unknown”. The sound quality is great for general phones calls and audio / video conferencing.
The Bose QCU2’s battery life is the same as Sony’s 30 hours. I can use it for a full workday. Although it has enough battery life to use for two days, I routinely recharge it at night. Bose QCU2 recharges faster, though. The headphones come with a USB-C to USB-C cable, which has become the universal choice for modern electronic devices. It has a small LED light located at the bottom of the left ear cup right next to the USB-C input. When it’s charging the light is orange. Once it finishes charging, the light turns white. My minor gripe is the LED light doesn’t shut off automatically like the Sony headphones did. I hope Bose QCU2’s battery life isn’t wasted because of this.
Here’s My Closing Paragraph
Other than a few minor concerns, I’m loving these Bose QCU2 headphones! It’s worth the hefty price, thankfully. The quality build, comfortable fit and sound quality are what I expect for one of the leading headphone companies on the market. I highly recommend getting the Bose Quiet Comfort Ultra 2nd Gen. It’s great for working remotely at your home office and/or chilling out and watching a movie, absorbing the grand cinema experience in your home.
