So the Bose QC Headphones are a very marginal upgrade over the Bose QC45 cause they mainly have slightly better active noise cancelation. But the Bose QC Ultra’s are completely new and they have some all new features for Bose. Now the standout characteristic for both of Bose’s headphones is their comfort… but if you’re trying to choose between the Bose QC or the Bose QC Ultra, lets see which one is right for you and lets see if the Ultra’s are worth the premium.
Regarding pricing, both of these headphones have gotten a price increase. The Bose QC headphones have an advertised battery life of $350… around what you’d expect for a pair of premium ANC headphones. Where as the Bose QC Ultra have a retail price of $430… which is up there cause at this price we would start to expect to see some more premium materials. But overall, both of these headphones are decent options, but I would wait for them to go on sale. Nonetheless, if you want to pick either of these two headphones up they’ll be linked down below, or you can always press on the YouTube shopping button.
Now first lets talk about these cases cause I feel that this is very important for traveling. Now both of these headphones come included with decently hard shall cases so they are going to keep your headphones safe even if you cram them into a cramped backpack. And both of these cases are decently small, so traveling with either of these two cases is very easy, cause for comparison sake, headphones like the Sony 1000XM5’s and Sennheiser Momentum 4’s have very large cases which are a hassle to travel with. And then theres the soft shell case that you get with the beats studio pro which I feel is unacceptable, and then there’s the AirPods Max case which dont fully protect your headphones. But overall, both of Boses headphones come included with decently small hardshell cases. Now issues here to report.
But with the cases out of the way lets talk about the headphones themselves. Now design wise these headphones look different but they have the same build quality and they’re using the same materials. Both of these headphones are fully collapsable, they both have mostly plastic bodies, and they’re both using leatherette on their ear pads and headbands. The Ultras have some exposed aluminum in their arms and their headband glides instead of clicks like the headband on the QC’s. But other than that, these headphones are built the same. The only thing that I want to point out here build quality wise is, even though these leatherette on both of these headphones feels fine, this leatherette doesn’t feel as soft, or as supple or have the same grain as the leatherette found on Bose’s old headphones. Now this isn’t a huge deal, but I do want to give a heads up to anyone who might be thinking about upgrading from either the QC45 or NC 700.
But now lets talk about fit. Now both of these headphones are very comfortable to wear… however, the Bose QC’s are a little more comfortable than the Bose QC Ultra. Now both of these headphones are big head approved and even if you like to wear hats, both of these headphones will have you covered. However, the Bose QC’s does have a slightly looser fit than the Bose QC Ultra cause they have a little less clamping force. So if you want something with a looser fit, then you’ll might want to go with the Bose QC. Now the ear pads on both of these headphones are extremely spacious, so they will have no problem fitting most ear types and even if you have very large ears or ears that stick out a lot, they will have you covered. And since both of these ear cups have so little padding that makes contact with your skin, both of these ear pads do a really good job of staying cooler for longer. But the main fit difference between the Bose QC and Bose QC Ultra is going to come down to their weight. The Bose QC’s weigh in at 235 grams, where as the Bose QC Ultra weigh in at 254 grams. Now both of Bose’s headphones are light weight cause your average pair of premium ANC headphones weigh in at around 280 grams… but the Bose QC’s are 20 grams lighter than the Bose QC Ultra. And this 20 gram difference is a big difference when its on your head. So with the Bose QC’s these are just easier to forget that youre wearing when your sitting at your desk and you notice them shifting around less when youre walking around with them on. So overall, the Bose QC Ultra are a pair of very comfortable headphones to wear… but the Bose QC are even more comfortable cause of their looser fit and light weight.
But with all of that out of the way, lets talk about tech specs. Regarding battery life, both of these headphones have an advertised battery life of 24 hours with their active noise cancellation tuned on. Now an advertised battery life of 24 hours is fine, but it is a little behind when compared to the rest of the competition, and you cant use these headphones with their Active noise cancelation completely turned off. So you cant extend their battery life past 24 hours. And personally I do think that that is a shame cause I think that if you could use these headphones with their ANC turned off they could go for as long as 40 hours, 35 at least.
But also, with the Bose QC Ultra if you use them with their immersive audio turned off, they are going to go from a battery life of 24 to 18 hours, which I do feel is problematic if you plan on flying with these headphones.
Now when it comes to charging these headphones, just as you’d except they both charge via a USB C port as they should and when it comes to their fast charging, with both of these headphones if you charge them up for 15 minutes from a dead battery they’re going to get you 3 hours of playback time. Which is okay, but it is behind when compared to the rest of the competition.
So overall, both of Bose’s headphones have the same battery life performance, their battery lives are okay but they are a little behind when compared to the rest of the competition, and again, Bose refuses to allow you to use your headphones with their ANC turned off so you cant extend their battery life that way.
Now regarding connectivity, both of these headphones can be connected to any two bluetooth devices at the same time which is good if you’re a power user cause you can easily hot swap from one device to another regardless of eco system.
And when it comes to overall performance, these headphones have zero latency across the board when watch movies or videos on your phone whether you’re an iPhone or an android user, but when it comes to audio codecs, both of these headphones only have support for SBC and AAC which is perfectly fine.
But if you want to you can always just use a wired connection with either of these two headphones cause they both have an audio jack, which is great cause you can plug them into the entertainment system in an airplane, or you can monitor your audio. The only thing to keep in mind here is, you cant use the Bose QC Ultra passively, as in, even if you want to use them with a wired connection, they have to be powered on. Where as that isn’t the case with the Bose QC’s, and also, the USB C on both of these headphones cant be used as a wired connection, the USB C ports on both of these headphones are strictly used for charging.
But with all of that out of the way, lets talk about sound. Now just as you’d expect, both of Bose’s headphones are a pair of neutral sounding headphones. As in, they have bass, but their bass is mostly on the audible. As in, you can hear their bass, but they aren’t going to rattle your head all that much. So some people will say that these headphones sound flat cause they cant physically feel their bass, but these headphones aren’t flat, they just sound different. Now you can always go in and adjust the EQ either of these headphones to your liking, and you can crank up their bass, but even with their bass cranked all the way up, they still aren’t going to physically rattle your head all that much. Overall, both of these headphones are going to be better suited for someone that like a neutral or vocals focused EQ. But the main differentiating factor here is that the Bose QC ultra have immersive audio. And what immersive audio does is that it pushes the vocals forwards and the move the instrumentals back and opens them up quite a lot. So the Bose QC Ultra sound a lot more open but without sounding overly artificial. Now immersive audio also does the whole head tracking thing, but I think head tracking is a gimmick so I just set them to motion… so that things sound still, yeah I know the naming here is a little rough.
Now even though immersive audio sounds great on the Bose QC Ultra… heres the problem with immersive audio, its going to take a significant toll on the battery life cause the Bose QC Ultra are going to go from 24 hours to 18 hours. But overall, both of Boses headphones are going to be better suited for someone that like a more neutral or vocals focused EQ, neither of these two headphones are going to rattle your head all that, and both of these headphones sound the same if the Bose QC Ultra have the immersive audio turned off. But with immersive audio turned on, the Bose QC Ultra sound a lot more impressive than the Bose QC’s but you are going to sacrifice a considerable amount of battery life.
Now when it comes to the media controls on these headphones, the Bose QC’s are using physical buttons so skipping through your music and adjusting your volume is very easy to do directly from the headphones themselves. Where as with the Bose QC Ultra has a hybrid system. Theres a physical button which you can press to play or pause your music and you can also skip through your music. But to adjust their volume theres a touch pads that you can swap up or down on. And personally I hate adjusting the volume on these headphones cause its such a problem. Either the steps are too big, they’re too small or there are a lot of missed inputs. Peornsally I avoid adjusting the volume on the Bose QC Ultra directly from the headphones themselves.
But something that the Bose QC Ultra has over the Bose QC’s is that they have wear sensors, so they will automatically pause your music when you take them off, and when you put them back on they’ll start playing your music again. Now personally I dont really care for wear sensors on my headphones so I usually just turn them off, but they’re there if you want them.
But now, lets talk about the active noise cancelation on these headphones. Now with this new generation of headphones, Bose has seen some performance improvements when it comes to active noise cancellation. The Bose QC’s block out more noise than their predesscors and the Bose QC Ultra block out more noise than the Sony 1000XM5’s which have been the king of ANC of the last year and a little bit, but so that you can see for yourself we’re going to jump into an ANC Test.
ANC Test
So like you may have just seen, the Bose QC Ultra blocked out more noise than the Bose QC’s which is to be expected cause the Bose QC Ultra are more premium than the Bose QC’s… but the Bose QC Ultra also block out more noise than the Sony 1000XM5’s which have been the King of active noise cancelation for the past year and a little bit. The Bose QC Ultra are just able block out more lower frequency sounds like road noise and they are also able to block out more higher frequency sounds like chatter. But the thing about the Bose QC Ultra, is that if there is a lot of noise pollution to block out, they do start to have a considerable amount of cabin pressure. Now the cabin pressure on the bose QC Ultra isn’t unbearable like the cabin pressure found on the AirPods Max or Bose QC35… but you will feel some pressure on your eardrums. Where as with the Sony 1000XM5’s, they are able to block out a ton of noise with significantly less cabin pressure. So if you want to block out the most amount of noise then you can go with the Bose QC Ultra… or if you want better comfort you can go with the Sony 1000XM5’s and also block out a lot noise. Now since the Bose QC’s aren’t blocking out as much noise as the Bose QC Ultra, they do have less cabin pressure than the Bose QC Ultra as well… but they Sony 1000XM5’s also have less cabin pressure than the Bose QC’s all while still managing to block out more noise than the Bose QC. So both of Bose’s headphones block out a lot of noise and the Bose QC Ultra block out more noise than the Bose QC’s, but you do have to be mindful of the cabin pressure on both of these headphones.
But then theres the ambient mode on these headphones. Now both of these headphones have a very natural sounding ambient mode and they both have zero hissing in the back ground, and through a recent update on both of these headphones, you can now somewhat adjust their ambient mode to your liking. Now this isn’t as straightforward as it should be and you do have to go digging to find this feature… but it is there. But overall the Bose QC Ultra has a better ambient mode than the Bose QC’s cause their microphone array does a much better job of blocking out wind noise when walking outdoors. Where as the Bose QC’s are very fast to pick up wind noise, it is a little annoying honestly. But also, the Bose QC Ultra have active sense, so you can set their ambient mode to protect your hearing from loud sounds like this. Major headphone warning
Demo
So like you may have just seen, when the QC Ultra detected that siren, they turned their ambient mode off and when that siren stoped they turned their ambient mode back on. Where as the Bose QC’s dont have active sense, so they’ll just let in everything like this.
Demo
So like you saw, the Bose QC’s just in everything. And this could be a problem if you plan on commuting with your headphones through the city. Now even though its great and all that the QC Ultra’s have active sense… their active sense needs work cause its overly sensitive and its slow to react. Like you saw in the demo, the QC Ultra’s didn’t react immediately when that siren started going… which is a problem cause headphones like the Sony 1000XM4’s react almost instantly. But also, the Active sense on the Bose QC Ultra is overly sensitive cause they’ll block out the road noise when cars are driving by or they’ll block out the chatter if you’re in a crowded area like at the mall… and those are the exact sounds that im trying to listen for when I have my ambient mode turned on. So the Active Sense on the Bose QC Ultra is more of a burden cause you’ll only hear snippets of the outside world, so thats why I use the QC Ultra with their Active sense turned off. But I still maintain that the Bose QC Ultra have a better ambient mode than the Bose QC cause their micprhone array does a much better job of blocking out wind noise when walking out doors which is super important.
But something that is missing on both of these headphones is a conversation mode, which is found on the Bose NC 700’s. And basically when you press and hold on the multiple purpose button on the NC 700 they’ll lower the volume of you music and pump in all of the ambient sound around you so that you can talk to someone without having to take your headphones off like this.
Convo demo
And when you press any button the headphones will go back to normal again, and personally I love when my headphones have this type of feature cause its very useful especially if you plan on flying with your headphones cause you can have a quick conversation with someone without having to take your headphones off.
And personally I am shocked that neither of these two headphones have this feature cause the NC 700’s do have this feature and this type of feature is very common on other headphones out there. But I think bose can very easily add this feature to both of these headphones through a firmware update. Now I know you can just pause your music and switch them over to their ambient mode… but thats not as seamless as having a dedicated conversation mode.
Mic Bose QC Wired Quite
But finally heres the microphone test, now the Bose QC’s come included with a wire that has a built in microphone. And this wired microphone sounds really good while in a quite room.
Mic Bose QC Quite
Now the built in microphone on the bose QC headphones also sounds good while in a quite room, but it doesn’t have as good clarity as the wired microphone.
Mic Bose QC Ultra Quite
And finally, heres the microphone on the Bose QC Ultra and I feel that this microphone has better clarity and it does a better job of focusing on your voice than the Bose QC.
Mic Bose QC Ultra Ultra Road Noise
But what really separates the Bose QC Ultra from the Bose QC is that it does a better job of dealing with noise pollution. Cause right now this microphone is reducing some of this road noise, cause for comparison sake, if we were to switch over to my lapel microphone, you’re going to clearly hear all of this road noise, but if we were to switch back over to the bose QC ultra, it is reduced.
Mic Bose QC Road Noise
Where are with the bose QC headphones, these are trying to reduce this road noise but they are letting in more noise pollution than the Bose QC Ultra.
Mic Bose QC Wired Road Noise
And finally heres the wired microphone and these are just letting in everything.
Mic Bose QC Wired Chatter
And when it comes to chatter its that same thing, this wired microphone lets in everything.
Mic Bose QC Chatter
Where as with the built in microphone on the Bose QC’s microphone does try to reduce some of this chatter.
Mic Bose QC Ultra
And finally here are the Bose QC Ultra and these are blocking out even more chatter than the Bose QC’s and again for comparison sake, if we were to switch over to my lapel microphone you’re going to clealery hear all of this chatter, but if we were to switch back over to the Bose QC Ultra, it is severely reduced. So overall, both of these headphones have decent sounding microphones on them to take phone calls with while in a quite room. And for the best sound quality you can use the wired microphone on the Bose QC… But the Bose QC Ultra’s do have better preforming built in microphones than the Bose QC’s cause they have better clarity and they do a better job of dealing with noise pollution. But even though the microphone on the Bose QC Ultra is very good… its not the best one out there.
But with all of that being said, if you’re trying to choose between the Bose QC and Bose QC Ultra, here are the main differences. Both of these headphones are very comfortable to wear for multiple hours on end, however the Bose QC are a little more comfortable cause they have a slightly looser fit and therye 20 grams lighter, which is a lot. And with the Bose QC, if you want to use them with a wired connection, you can use them passively. But with the Bose QC Ultra, they do sound a lot better than the Bose QC’s if you use them with their immersive audio turned on. But immersive audio does take a toll on the battery life. The Bose QC Ultra also block out more noise than the Bose QC’s but they have more cabin pressure. The Bose QC Ultra also has active sense, but it think their active sense needs a lot of tuning, but I still say that the Bose QC Ultra have a better ambient mode than the Bose QC’s cause their microphone array does a much better job of blocking out wind noise when walking out doors. And finally, the Bose QC Ultra have a better performing microphone on them… cause I doubt many people will be using the wired microphone on the Bose QC’s realistically. But overall, are the Bose QC Ultra worth the premium over the Bose QC’s… I dont think so. I think more people are going to be perfectly fine with the Bose QC’s cause they’re super comfortable and they also block out a lot of noise. In order for me to justify getting the Bose QC Ultra over the Bose QC’s… they need to have better battery life, a better tuned active sense, less cabin pressure, and better materials.