Bose QuietComfort Ultra Review - Better than Sony and Apple?

In this video, Resolve reviews the Bose QC Ultra, provides a rundown on its active noise cancelling quality in practice, and shares his experience using the Bose flagship ANC headphone on a plane. He also provides frequency response measurements and an additional test with a music-like noise stimulus that goes beyond traditional methods of headphone testing, since they aren't sufficient for these types of headphones.

How to read the new measurements:
The 10 stages of headphone measurements

00:00 - Intro
00:51 - General thoughts
01:34 - Sound: Subjective
04:32 - Sound: Objective
08:12 - ANC quality
10:10 - What it's like to travel with the QC Ultra
12:12 - Additional features
14:33 - Build & design
15:05 - Comparisons
17:33 - Conclusion

[ResolveReviews]

For those wondering how it compares to the Bathys and a few of the more 'audiophile' ANC products, I wanted to save that for a different video or maybe the tier list video. There are different tradeoffs with each, but they are also quite different devices overall and there's a good argument that stuff like the Bose QC Ultra are more well-suited to their purpose of noise cancelling... because they do that better.

[imwhatsnew]

They're also very very similar sounding to the qc ultra iems. Credit to bose for keeping that level of consistency in tonality across two different form factors.

[MML]

10:43
You can listen to calm music at a low volume and you do not need to raise the volume, but rather at full volume when there is disturbance around you. This is an experience and this context makes me prefer them and I choose them over headphones and IEM for $2000. The purpose of calm music is to be quiet and there is no point in raising the volume in order to block out the sounds. Annoying: This is a big advantage in ANC, and after SONY’s acquisition of Audzy, the rules of the game may change

[SidW-lz]

Cool! I just bought them and found this review by an audiophile I really respect. Good timing. Thanks!

[zblurth]

Interesting stuff, if you do more ANC testing it would be nice to see a nice isolating wired IEM just so we can get a baseline to see how ANC improve in just deep plugging your ears

[Benzo]

I sometimes use the QC Ultra's more than my Arya Organics just for its comfort alone. I sometimes listen to music or watch content at very low volumes as a way of relaxing and the ANC really helps with that. Admittedly I don't really consider myself an Audiophile, I just wanted something good and took a gamble with the very few headphones I own. Before the QC Ultra, I had the Soundcore Q45, which I ended up giving away as I didn't like the sound and the comfort was a bit weird. The EQ bands didn't really make sense either. For the price though the ANC is pretty good but that's about it.

I'd love to try something like the Focal Bathys, but maybe I should wait a few more years and see if they make a worthy successor to it.

[papabits]

For someone like me who has considerable hearing loss ( 35 years of underground mining) the ANC on these takes out all of the noise you don't want even wind when out for a walk, all you get is the music and that's all I want. When using it in a quiet place you can turn the volume down which saves my old and crappy ears. I use these every day and there my go too set of headphones. Great review .

[FountCreations]

Considering that Bose is known for having made muddy ANC products in the past, I’m impressed at how consistently the response line stays within the 2024 Harman region (I believe that overly boosted sub bass is a warm welcome as it still doesn’t drown out and become muddy). The new base model QC Headphones are also surprisingly well tuned

[matejgrim]

I'm quite excited about active headphones in general, so looking forward to future content on that

[arthurwang]

How does this compare to the Focal Bathys? Thanks.

[ReaktormanNr]

I'm really glad that we seem to finally have a rather good sounding and also good ANC over ear headphone with this one, at least in the overall wideband tonal balance.

I think a lot of the audiophile folks underestimate how much actual soundquality a good ANC headphone with a good tonal balance could bring, just maybe not in the way we (audiophiles) usually think of "good soundquality". I might even go that far and say these may be way more "detailed" than most wired passive closed back or wired IEM's, at least in certain situations with noisy environments.

Let's say you own the most detailed IEM's or the best sounding passive wired closed back headphones, all the detail and fidelity just falls short when you also constantly hear the loud drone of a subway or a plane or a street. These lower frequency just go through the pyhsical body of closed back headphones and even good sealing IEM's almost unaffected.

The bass of your headphone now has to compete with the bass frequencies of the environment, the lower mids are also affected and get muddy, they often lose their distinctive quality and the overall saturation of all the lower frequencies combined also heavily effects the rest of the mix in my experience.

No audiophile grade, high fidelity, high detail and "blackest background" between the treble notes of expensive closed back headphones or IEM's will really help in this situation.

There's then only little fidelity in the sounds of your music that actually stand out beyond the ambience of your environment.

Combatting this issue with higher listening volume doesn't nearly solve the issue as well as good active noise cancelling will be be able to, when blocking out the higher frequencies passively and cancelling out the low frequencies actively. Given of course that it's also a reasonably good sounding headphone otherwise.

I think folks that consider themselves audiophile, but also regularly travel in noisier environments, really should give ANC a try if they haven't done it yet.
At least for me the ANC technology is something that I never expected to like as much as I do, especially not after being used to the more conventional high end audio devices at home or expensive passive IEM's when on the go.

[hamburg]

I’ve owned headphones and IEMs up to $5K, but I must say I’ve been very pleased with this Bose as well as its companion IEMs. They make listening both fun and effortless, which is not something I could say about higher end products, which often require lots of ancillary efforts and products to sound good,

[MML]

‏‪10:43‬‏
You can listen to calm music at a low volume and you do not need to raise the volume, but in full. This is an experience and this context makes me prefer them and I choose them over headphones and IEM for $2000. The purpose of calm music is to be quiet and there is no point in raising the volume in order to block out the annoying sounds. This is a great advantage in ANC and after SONY's acquisition of Audeze the rules of the game may change




Let us not forget that you do not need a DAC AMP, dongle, or wires that will bother you when you move or use a dongle that eats up the phone’s battery

[Jayson_Tatum]

I've noticed how nuanced the EQ setting is, regardless of it only having 3 sliders. It really lets you customize the sound of literally every single song. I have a few presets saved for certain genres or certain bands. It's impressive for being just a simple app EQ.

These also do have great mid-tones, I agree. It is really pronounced in hip-hop and like top 100s, whereas in rock music it can get a little separated between highs and lows, but rock is pretty hard to nail in a headphone, given rock is a VERY spacious production inherently. But yeah, pop and hip-hop, r&b, and even more synth or electronic genres really shine well I think.

I do agree there is a little to be desired in those low trebles, but that's more on a song by song basis for me. You can add or remove mids as needed to usually alleviate this it seems.

[hokagoteatimereviews]

14:30 Bose caught my attention with that 😳

Jokes apart as usual great video resolve 🙏 Maybe a Bose x Resolve collab will solve the sound issue these have.

[darthnihilus]

Really appreciate the round up comparisons at the end!

[marcelniles]

I own a pair of Bose quiet comfort ultra...very satisfied with them...Awesome❗️

[mitchellsigler]

Thanks for this review! Most reviews I find are on the Hifiman planars etc. I have the Ultras and they are fantastic in all ways. I also have the Bowers Px7 2se, which I also love, and, I have Grado's SR325. Just ordered the Ayra's. This, and the others should keep me from the more addictive headphone search to find better. Ive learned so much from your videos. Thank you for all the info u supply.

[toSRT]

Excellent review! Very informative. Thank you.

[RalexNSW]

Thanks for the feedback, this has confirmed my decision. These look like a great choice.