Bose QC Ultra review: five months with Bose premium headphones

© Marc Mitrani for Presse-citron

Announced in fall 2023, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra are a high-end version of the QuietComfort Earbuds II released just a year earlier. According to the manufacturer, they provide immersive sound as well as support for AptX Adaptive capable of producing sound of quality equivalent to that of an audio CD (44.1 kHz in 16 bits). With the added bonus of a price increase of 50 euros bringing their price to 350 euros, making them the most expensive consumer intras at the moment…

Is this price, which even Apple has not (yet) dared to charge, justified?? To find out, we lived for five months with these luxury headphones.

Bad surprise when unpacking: the case containing the QC Ultra is not eye-catching, far from it. It is made of a solid, completely ordinary matte plastic that you wouldn't expect to find on a product of this price. In addition, its surface conscientiously captures fingerprints, which doesn't help matters in terms of appearance.

© Marc Mitrani for Presse-citron

Its charging is done via a USB-C port housed at its base… and that's it since Bose has decided not to provide it with inductive charging, yet very useful. To benefit from it, you will need to purchase the “wireless charging case cover” into which the case will be slipped. Allow a supplement of 60 euros on an already high bill. You said stinginess ? Let's look at the positive side of this: the very hideous plastic case cheap disappears from view of the user…

Luckily, this first bad impression fades when you open the case to access the headphones. With a reasonable volume and weight (6.24 g per earphone), they benefit from careful construction as well as impeccable finishing. The large touch area has good sensitivity.

© Marc Mitrani for Presse-citron

Bose uses its attachment mechanism made up of tips and attachment bands that we appreciated so much during the QC Earbuds II test. It allows you to create 9 combinations to best adapt to the ears of each user. We strongly advise you to take a little time to find the ideal combination, the one that will ensure exceptional support in the auricle and ear canal.

© Bose

Once equipped with the right suit, the QC Ultra are incredibly comfortable to wear. You can use them for hours without feeling the slightest embarrassed. During our five months of testing, the headphones never fell accidentally, including when playing very active sports. Note that they are IPX4 certified and therefore resistant to perspiration as well as rain.

The “Bose Music” companion app still proves to be as pleasant to use. During the first uses, it will offer you an update of the internal software of the headphones. We cannot advise you enough to apply it, as it resolves some bugs and improves the stability of the Bluetooth connection.

© Lemon squeezer

© Lemon squeezer

© Lemon squeezer

It gives access to an equalizer as well as the main parameters (voice prompt language, allocation of shortcuts, creation of listening profiles, etc.). The “Immersive Sound” section is undoubtedly its main novelty. It allows you to choose between different spatial audio configurations: off, still or motion.

This spatial audio made in Bose is pleasant and effectively immerses the user in the heart of the audio scene. It is applied to any type of stereophonic track and does not require Dolby Atmos-style pre-encoding, everything being done locally by the electronics of the headphones. This surely explains the drop in battery life on a single charge, which goes from 6 hours to 4 hours. Note in passing that the case allows three full charges of the QC Ultra, which provides a maximum autonomy of 24 hours if spatialization is not activated.

The quality of the sound produced is simply excellent. The bass is clear and deep without being intrusive, the high frequencies are judiciously crafted while the midrange does not suffer from any notable defects.

The AptX Adaptive connection is only active on a smartphone equipped with a Snapdragon 8 SoC(usually 1, 2 or 3) and requires an uncompressed audio source. Even when these conditions are met, the improvement is subtle, especially when active noise cancellation is engaged. Only experienced music lovers will appreciate it.

© Marc Mitrani for Presse-citron

Active noise cancellation, a technology invented by Bose in the 70s, is simply the best on the market at the start of 2024. To be convinced, simply activate it in any slightly noisy environment to find yourself in a sort of bubble of calm. We particularly appreciated its efficiency in the Paris metro, in a TGV, in a plane or even in an open space.

Good point for the “attentive” mode, accessible from the touch controls, which reduces ambient noise without completely isolating the user. We can thus enjoy our favorite playlist while hearing someone talking to us. The sound quality during telephone conversations is very good, our correspondents confirming that our voice remains perfectly audible, even in the middle of the street.

© Lemon squeezer

© Lemon squeezer

© Lemon squeezer

Top audio quality, impressive noise cancellation and comfortable wearing even for long hours: would the QC Ultra be the perfect headphones? Not totally since they lacks support for multipoint connections. So you will have to disconnect them manually in order to switch to another device. Really a shame.

Without a doubt, the Bose QC Ultra are a success in terms of audio quality and active noise cancellation. The spatial sound is also excellent (although it consumes a lot of power), as is the mechanism for holding the headphones in the ear.

We do, however, regret the absence of multipoint Bluetooth and the inexplicable removal of induction charging. (Become optional) and the cheap side of the storage case.

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