Bose QuietComfort Ultra Wireless White Smoke Noise Cancelling Headphones

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Bose QC Ultra Headphones Full Review

The Bose QC Ultra Headphones take noise cancelling, comfort and immersive audio to another level. If you have not experienced this for yourself, it is hard to imagine and difficult to explain because nothing else feels and sounds like this. Comfort. The headphones are unbelievably light. I use that word "unbelievably" because my first impression was that I might have been ripped off. There was no way that a premium product could feel so… cheap! They feel about half the weight of my Sony and Sennheiser headphones and are supposed to be crammed with features. The padding on the earpieces and headband felt unsubstantial, like they could be blown away. So where did Bose put all this amazing goodness? It turns out that this is the start of what makes the QC Ultras so next level. That insubstantial cushioning cradled my head like air. Thay are so light and so comfortable that I can wear them for hours and hours with zero fatigue. I never noticed myself developing a pressure spot on any point of contact or ever feeling hot under the cups. Mostly I didn't even notice I was wearing them at all. Quiet. Bose uses the terms Quiet, Aware, and Immersion to describe their pre-set noise cancelling levels. Quiet takes normal ambient sounds to nil. Humming A/C, office fans, droning passenger aircraft engine, all of it is erased. Speech is another story. No noise cancelling can eliminate the sound of another person yakking and listening to TikTok only 2 feet away. But they can come close. Enabling Quiet mode is like shutting a door. Like putting all the noisemakers in another room behind thick walls. Yes, at first still hear them, but in a muffled "can't tell what they are saying anymore and don't really care" sort of way. Then you put on your music or audiobook or whatever, and all the co-workers and their noisemakers fade so far out of awareness that they practically cease to exist. Aware. The QC Ultras have some pretty good passive noise filtration just by virtue of their construction. Even with the power of they kill a good bit of sound in my environment. Aware mode actively pipes in ambient sounds, especially speech, so that you can clearly hear the people around you. Sadly, you can't always entirely ignore everything around you. Louder sounds and noises are still filtered out. Bose cares about your long-term hearing. So any noise above a certain level that could cause discomfort is automatically blocked out. Using the Bose app you can customize all of these settings. I like my custom "office" mode to have about 40% strength on the noise cancelling. That blocks most of the droning of compressors and turbines in the production area downstairs, but still allows me to hear someone calling my name from across the room, provided they use their big-boy voice. Immersion. This feature makes these babies Ultra! The immersion settings not only max out the sound cancelling capabilities but also have a function that gives the impression that the sound is being projected at you from a few feet in front of and above you. It stays at that point when you turn your head so you feel like the music is its own entity that's pouring over you! It's an amazing feeling and my favorite setting to use. Every time I have let someone try it their reaction is always the same. Eyes snap open mouth goes, "Wow!" Immersion is the perfect word for this setting because I feel submerged in sound and separated from my environment. Other cool features. Multiple pairing. The Bose CQ Ultra Headphones will pair to 2 devices at a time. I love this convenient feature at work because I can transition between my computer and my phone automatically. No manually connecting or disconnecting. The inputs are very simple. Two buttons and a raised, touch sensitive line control all the settings and they are simple and straightforward. Also if they aren't to my liking and can customize what different inputs do with the Bose app. Support: Bose customer support is fantastic. I add this as a feature because when my first set of headphones because when I contacted customer support for an issue, they quickly had a replacement set on the way. I've done this with two different products over the years. Both devices were protected under the factory warrantee, and both were preplaced with new devices quickly. I can't ask for anything better than that. Negative impressions. Not much. I must put something negative to make the review complete. The power button must be held down for a full second to turn on the device and sometimes it takes 2 or 3 seconds. Also, they are expensive. No denying they are expensive. Final thoughts. The Bose QC Ultra headphones are in a league of their own in noise cancelling and listener experience. Because of the way the headphones deliver sound I can hear little details in my music that I've never been able to hear before. The noise cancelling the sound clarity are second to none.