Bose QuietComfort Earbuds: Notes from an early adopter (and also on other true wireless earbuds)

Nadim · October 11, 2020

Hi everyone,

I've been a subscriber to LTT for many years now and this is my first forum post.

I want to spend this Sunday morning sharing with you all a post on my experiences with true wireless earbuds and especially on the new Bose QuietComfort Earbuds which were released last week and which I've been trying out with interest since yesterday morning.

Experiences with true wireless earbuds in general

I'm a bit of an audiophile (not the "extra" kind with multi-thousand-dollar setups, but I do have an ear for high quality headphones, audio monitors etc.) and I've been also interested in trying out different true wireless earbuds. In the past year, I have tried out the following earbuds (listed in chronological order alongside the abbreviations I'll be using in this post):

Sony WF-1000XM3 (WF3).
Apple AirPods Pro (APP).
Jabra Elite Active 75t (75t).
Samsung Galaxy Buds Plus (GBP).
Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2 (MTW2).
Bose QuietComfort Earbuds (QCE).

I bought all of the above on my own and purely inspired by an interest in tracking and comparing the field of true wireless earbuds and understanding how the current offering differed (and of course to discover better ways to listen to my music on the go). First, before getting into the QCE, I wanted to share some things I've remarked after my experiences with the six true wireless earbuds listed above.

1. Reviews' judgement of sound quality and overall product viability on the market seems to be influenced by brand reputation

This was most obvious with the MTW2. The MTW2 is a highly unexceptional product whose sound quality barely, barely edges in front of the APP, 75t, or GBP, if at all. And the cost of this debatable advantage in sound quality is high: uncomfortable, large buds. Absolutely terrible software (with firmware updates taking 49 minutes to apply!), worst-in-class microphones for calls, bad battery life, and the Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) is actually, I'm sorry to say this, a complete lie: there is no ANC! The MTW2s' ANC feature is, as far as I could tell through weeks of daily usage in multiple scenarios such as metro, train, and so on, total placebo. But the MTW2s still scored stellar reviews with focus on "superior audio quality" to the degree of tucking all of the other dealbreakers under the rug.

To a lesser extent, this same problem is present with the WF3. They are a good offering overall, unlike the MTW2, but at the same time you'd be hard-pressed to find them a reasonable fit for most people and their microphone is quite sub-par, while their audio quality superiority over other earbuds, while clearly present unlike the MTW2s, still simply does not excuse their inferiority on virtually every other front. And yet they are also paraded by reviewers. The end impression I got here was that if a "classy" brand like Sony or Sennheiser made earbuds with ever so slightly an improvement on audio quality and soundstage, then this combination was sufficient to parade them as some sort of success in the market.

My point is that many of these earbuds had total dealbreakers that weren't taken as such by reviewers. The MTW2 genuinely has virtually no ANC, subpar battery life, and a horrible software experience with hour-long firmware updates that break off and must be restarted if the app is backgrounded even on Android. This is a recipe for a product that's not competitive even if it has superior audio quality, which it barely does if at all.

2. Reviews almost never seriously examined microphone and call quality

This is a simple point to make. Reviews could not be relied upon as a source of material for judging call quality through earbuds. They either didn't bother to test, or the tests weren't conducted on a sufficiently diverse set of phones. Reviewers need to pay closer attention to call quality. Of the above list, only the APP and QCE performed well on calls, with the GBP producing acceptable results. The rest were nothing short of very bad. Also, microphone quality was sometimes confounded with the quality of the experience of hailing Google Assistant/Siri. For example, the 75t have mediocre microphone quality, but the hailing experience is bad because of the latency involved.

Experiences with Bose QuietComfort Earbuds

As you may have guessed, I am extremely impressed with the QCE. This is largely because:

Best sound quality from any true wireless earbuds I've ever used. Of course I'm limited to my list above, but I feel like it's pretty representative. The sound quality almost rivals the Sony WH-1000XM3 (the over-ear headphones, not the true wireless earbuds) and I'm willing to stand by this statement. It's not as good, but it's closer to that level than it is to any other wireless earbud, which is huge. Great sound stage, great lows, mids and highs, music simply sounds excellent. I am very impressed by this.
Best microphone from any true wireless earbuds except for the Apple AirPods Pro. This is awesome, because when I buy a set of earbuds I want to feel like I'm spending my money on something that's not only great for music but that can also help me out when I need to have a phone conversation or hail Google Assistant hands-free. These are the only true wireless earbuds with actually good microphones that exist out there other than the APP. The mic array makes you sound very clear, and reasonably blocks out background noise, although not completely. I have made two phone calls with these and hailed Google Assistant a dozen times, and it all works great.
Best ANC from any true wireless earbuds I've ever used. The ANC is absolutely nuts. I am nothing short of blown away by the ANC on these things. The passive seal on the ear canal is also excellent. By far the best ANC, making even WF3 and APP ANC look like amateur hour. There is simply no comparison.
Highly comfortable fit and seal. I wore these for two hours straight and there was no fatigue. I have somewhat fussy ears and get fatigued from uncomfortable earbuds or headphones.
Great software experience. I have only tested this on Android but the software is great, although, regrettably, you need to sign up with a Bose account to use it (that was the only downside).
Stable connection with no obvious issues or latency. I've only had these for a day but so far the connection seems great. I've tested them indoors, outdoors, and inside the metro.

Things people may not like:

Large case. The case is large. It's not as big as the Apple PowerBeats Pro case.
Expensive. 279EUR here in France. Exact same price as the Apple AirPods Pro.

Things I have not tested:

Battery life. I do not know how long the battery lasts yet, I've only had these for 24 hours.
Connection to PC. I haven't tried connecting these to a laptop yet. I am happy to try this if anyone wants me to and report results.
Connection to phone with older Bluetooth standard. The QCE support Bluetooth 5.1, and my phone has Bluetooth 5.0. I can't guarantee that the connection will be as reliable on older phones, although it probably would be.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I want to strongly encourage people who are into wireless earbuds to try out the Bose QCE, and I really think these would be a great candidate for an LTT or ShortCircuit review. These are in my view certainly the best true wireless earbuds on the market right now and I would be keen to hear what Linus and co's impressions are on them.