Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones review – The start of something fresh

Bose announced its QuietComfort Ultra headphones towards the end bit of last year along with two other newcomers; the QuietComfort Ultra earbuds and a pair of non-Ultra QuietComfort headphones.

The trio marks a new chapter for the company’s headphone and earbud ranges as they replace the discontinued flagship Noise Cancelling Headphones 700, the QuietComfort 45, and the QuietComfort Earbuds II which were only launched around twelve months prior.

We’re kicking off with the QuietComfort Ultra headphones, the new flagship wireless over-ear active noise cancelling headphones from Bose that replace the four-year-old NCH 700. Thankfully, Bose hasn’t spent the last four years diddling about and has produced something that edges out the competition in most areas. The only problem is you’ll need deep pockets to experience it.

Room for improvement

With the QuietComfort Ultra, Bose has chosen the safe non-descript headphone look over whatever the NCH 700 was doing. Not that it matters when they’re on your head unless you’re the type of person who wants their headphones to stand out. It does matter when they need to fit in a bag and thankfully the QC Ultra have a travel-friendly folding design. Just as well because travelling is one of the major use cases for headphones like these and being able to fold them up should be required. We hope Sony is taking notes.

The design is not only a boon for travellers but office workers too – they’re supremely comfy. We have the light clamping force and generously padded headband and earcups to thank for that and at only 250g, neck strain shouldn’t be a problem. Unlike their perceived value.

While they are reasonably well-built we were expecting more for this kind of money. We don’t mean opulent diamond-crusted earcups but a bit of class wouldn’t hurt. They’re mostly made of plastic, presumably to keep the weight down, with some aluminium and synthetic leather thrown in. Again, we’re not saying they’re poorly built but lush headband and earcups aside, their design and build quality don’t match their price tag.

Immersed in features

What it lacks in premium feel, the QuietComfort Ultra makes up for with its performance and stack of features. The headline feature here is ‘Immersive Audio’ – the company’s proprietary spatial audio tech that is supposed to add depth and immersion to your content to make it seem like you’re there. It’s similar to Dolby Atmos and Apple’s Spatial Audio but this was developed by Bose in-house… for some reason. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work in its favour. But we’ll come back to that.

Bose’s CustomTune technology is also present here in the form of a “thwomp” sound, a few internal microphones, and algorithms or mathematical trickery. The changes to the “thwomp” sound are measured as it reflects off your ears and neutralised so you end up with a sound “as close to the original recording as possible.” The headphones also use this data to personalise their ANC performance.

Then there are the usual high-end headphone features you’d expect. Bose’s active noise-cancelling tech helped define it as a major player in the headphone space and the QC Ultra continues that legacy. These have the best-performing ANC in any headphones we’ve tested to date. They edge out our previous best, Sony’s WH-1000XM5, in terms of passive isolation and active noise cancellation.

That means, if you’re switching between them, you’ll hear even less of the cars outside, the hum of the aircon, or the drone of your colleagues when you’re wearing the Bose. As is standard, they also have a transparency mode which Bose calls ‘Aware’. Its performance is on par with other top performers but the on-board mics and audio processing don’t do enough to stand out as notable.

There’s an app for that

If you want to get the most out of your QC Ultras, you’ll want to connect them with the Bose Music App. This allows you to fiddle with settings, give them a nickname, or tweak the audio via the three-band EQ or the four presets.

The app also provides some control over the headphones’ general use but you’ll probably want to familiarize yourself with the two onboard buttons and capacity strip. A single button handles power and Bluetooth, the other does almost everything else like switching listening modes and playback controls while the touch capacity strip raises and lowers the volume.

You’ll mostly use Bluetooth 5.3 to connect to the QC Ultras via the standard SBC and AAC codecs unless your source supports the aptX Adaptive codec. Sadly, that’s the highest-quality streaming available, which is a shame. It may be possible for Bose to introduce support for the new LC3plus Hi-Res codec later on but we wouldn’t hold our breath for that.

Rounding out the premium headphone features is a stellar battery life. It seems Bose was being conservative when it rated the QC Ultra for 24 hours of listening with ANC on and Immersive Audio off. We found ours lasted a while longer, around 27 hours of listening in Quiet mode (ANC on, Immersive Audio off). That dropped to just under twenty hours with both ANC and Immersive Audio enabled. A full charge takes between two and a half to three hours while a 15-minute sip will get you about two and a half hours of playback time. You’ll need to plan when you charge them because they’ll be unavailable during that time – no offline listening allowed.

Booms with the best of them

Bose has recycled the 35mm dynamic drivers from the NCH 700 for the QuietComfort Ultra so if you already have those and are looking for an upgrade, you’ll need to wait. That also means that if you liked the sound of the former, you’ll probably like these too. They have a broadly appealing sound signature that isn’t looking for any trouble.

The audiophiles might describe it as ‘dark and warm’, meaning the low end is overemphasised for extra thump and boom, the mids are flat and neutral (exquisitely so) giving vocals wonderful presence, and there’s a curious treble roll-off which made them sound dull when listening to highly detailed mixes.

Coming back to the Immersive Audio feature, like other implementations, its performance depends on what you’re listening to. However, unlike other implementations, it doesn’t matter if what you’re listening to has been mixed for spatial audio or not, Bose’s tech treats them all the same. Spatial Audio is still relatively new and therefore still a mixed bag. If you’ve got the time to hand-pick your Immersive content then go ahead. Otherwise, you’ll probably leave it off save for the few times you want to whip out your QC Ultras to flex on your poor friends.

Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones verdict

With the QuietComfort Ultra headphones, Bose has proved that it still knows how to make premium wireless ANC headphones (and milk money from its customers).

The return of the travel-friendly design is welcome but despite their high level of comfort, plethora of features, commendable battery life, best-in-class ANC performance, and inoffensive sound profile, they’re still a hard sell for most people at R12,500.

If they’re within your budget and you don’t mind a plain-looking headphone, you won’t regret getting these. But if you’re trying to stick to a reasonable budget and don’t need all the new bells and whistles, you’ll be better off with something else.