Review: Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II Boast the Best Noise-Cancelling Leave a comment
According to Bose, this bravura efficiency is due to its CustomTune expertise. When the earbuds are taken from their charging case and positioned in the person’s ear, a quick tone burst assesses the particular properties of the ear canal. In beneath half a second, the QCE II take the data and set themselves up, for each audio and ANC, to greatest complement the wearer’s particular traits. And then, by means of an encore, CustomTune stays vigilant in case you’re in “aware” mode, and can instantly kick in the noise canceling if a sudden loud noise ought to intrude.
Despite the lack of headline codec compatibility, the QCE II are a unified, detailed, and spacious pay attention, and musical in a method that should be a given however very often isn’t. Through the course of our testing, the Bose performed every thing from Warren Zevon’s Gorilla, You’re a Desperado to …and the World Laughs with You by Flying Lotus through the Cleveland Orchestra’s rampage by Orff’s O Fortuna—and at no level do they sound something lower than engaged and entertaining.
As is commonly the case with Bose headphones, low frequencies are beneficiant, however right here they’ve correct attack-and-decay management to go together with their prodigious extension and appreciable weight. This degree of authority makes for first rate rhythmic expression, and recordings have a correct sense of momentum in addition to stable underpinnings. Detail ranges regarding texture are excessive, and there’s punch and finesse in equal measure.
At the reverse finish of the frequency vary, treble sounds assault politely. Bose has erred on the aspect of warning right here, however solely a bit of. There’s adequate chew and shine to the prime finish, nearly, and positively no suggestion of hardness even at quantity. Some listeners might hanker after a bit of extra high-end aggression, however then once more, some listeners have by no means heard of tinnitus.
In between, the Bose do uncomplicated good work with singers of every type and all ranges of competence. The degree of perception obtainable by the midrange means no element of timbre or approach is simply too minor or fleeting to flee the attentions of the QCE II. And because of this, vocalists are described with all their character and perspective intact.
The Bose consolidate the whole frequency vary solidly, with a clean, bump-free journey from prime to backside. Overall tonality might be simply fractionally on the heat aspect of impartial when EQ settings are left effectively alone. Naturally, it’s attainable to skew the presentation to your style inside the app, though to be sincere, you’ll be hard-pressed to make a real enchancment. Different is about the greatest you may hope for.
It’s straightforward to think about “good taste” being excessive on the sonic want checklist when Bose was tuning the QCE II. That may go some solution to explaining the barely inhibited dynamic response to huge Orff-style shifts in quantity and depth. There’s distance between quiet and loud right here, in fact, but it surely’s not fairly as marked as it’s by another equally priced options. Where the low degree dynamic variations in devices or voices are involved, although, the Bose are on a lot surer floor.
The Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II are smaller and lighter than the mannequin they change, which places them on par with their apparent rivals. They are totally aggressive, if not class-leading, the place sound high quality, battery life, and person interfaces are involved. And in the case of truly canceling noise, it appears to be like like solely Apple’s next-generation AirPods Pros have a shot at dethroning them. Which means we’ll be updating that best-of checklist immediately.
