The best wired and wireless pairs available

Bose and Sony are locked in a battle of one-upmanship when it comes to noise-cancelling headphones, and we feel that in terms of ANC performance Bose has beaten Sony with its QuietComfort Earbuds II.

The design has been revamped from the original QuietComfort Earbuds, not as chunky (but still fairly big) and ditching the Stay Hear tips for a shape that fits into the ear better and helps remove some ambient noise before the ANC kicks in. They’re comfortable to wear over long periods of use, though it’s a slight disappointment that we can hear some minor wind noise with ANC activated, an issue we had hoped the new model had eradicated.

Despite that, this is the finest noise-cancellation we’ve tested in a true wireless so far, removing more sounds than its nearest challenger in the Sony WF-1000XM5. While not every sound was removed, the Bose weren’t far off from achieving that goal. When we stopped using them we were always surprised by how loud our surroundings were. Improvements include suppressing people’s voices, which it does even better than the original did.

The Aware mode is excellent too, producing a clear, detailed, and natural performance. Bose’s ActiveSense technology works similarly to the AirPods Pro 2‘s transparency mode in automatically reducing loud background noises. When we used it on the London Underground, we found it worked very well during a conversation with another person.

The audio performance is noticeably better on this model than it is on the original, with the top end of the frequency range brighter and bass is bigger and punchier. Vocals carry more weight too, and there’s a better sense of depth and width than we can recall with the original. The sequel is a better listen overall.

There aren’t many features but there is a three-band EQ to customise the sound profile of the buds within the app, and we found the wireless performance to be excellent, with barely a hint of a dropout noted. One disappointment is the call quality performance. Vocal clarity is good, but in noisy areas the earphones let in too much noise.

All in all this is an impressive performance that improves upon the original. It has been replaced by the QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds that add Snapdragon Sound support and Bose’s Immersive Audio feature, though we don’t find the noise-cancelling to be as good on that model. The QuietComfort Earbuds II are still available and for less than £200, we’d highly recommend them.

Reviewer: Kob Monney
Full Review: Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II