Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II, Wireless, Bluetooth, Proprietary Active Noise Cancelling Technology In-Ear Headphones with Personalized Noise Cancellation & Sound, Soapstone

This is my very first purchase of wireless earbuds (well, I purchased 3 others at same time, to compare them to each other). I did a decent amount of research in a short period of time, and landed on three of the highest rated. These, the Sony WF-1000XM4 and the Beats Fit Pro. I’ll start by stating that I haven’t felt compelled enough to actually write a review in years. I was so afraid these would disappoint me based on other reviews and Reddit threads, but after just a couple minutes listening to music with these and the Sony earbuds – I had determined an easy winner. I didn’t even bother opening the Beats Fit Pro because I knew there was no way they wound better than Bose. My previous earbuds were Bose Soundsport (a gift from someone), so maybe I just have some bias because I’m accustomed to the sound that Bose delivers. My only other prior experience with ANC wireless earbuds is Apple Airpods Pro (I think first generation?) and all I remember when I tried them is instantly thinking the music quality wasn’t even close to my Soundsport. Which is a good segue into my Pros and Cons list.PROS:1. Sound/Music quality. I’m not educated on all the components of sound/music, I don’t know the exact science of what’s what, I only know what sounds good to me. I know when music sounds “full bodied” and that’s how I’d describe these/the Bose sound. The bass especially. I love Bose bass.1. Comfort. One of my biggest gripes with the Bose Soundsport was the fit/the wing tips. I HATE the wing tips, even with the smallest size they would cause soreness in my left ear in less than hour. In contrast, I LOVE the way these fit/feel. I have worn them for 3+ hours with zero discomfort. And that’s with the size that they came with, I haven’t even tried the other sizes yet to see if they can be even more comfortable.2. Noise Cancelling. Again, I’m not highly educated/experienced in this area (Soundsport didn’t have ANC), but I can tell these do it well. I blow-dried my hair while listening to music and I couldn’t hear the blowdryer at all (I did have my music up to max/near max volume), but still. I did try to compare this feature with Sony’s, and either Sony’s ANC was malfunctioning (I researched and troubleshooted), or it was just really bad in comparison to Bose.3. Easy set-up/sync. Scanned a QR code, downloaded the app, and boom, I was connected. I’ve had zero connection issues. (I have a Galaxy S21+).4. Aesthetic. I like how they look. I didn’t like the weird knob thingy on the Sony, and I don’t like the very obvious “b” Beats logo that’s on the Bits Fit Pro, so I am extra grateful that I ended up liking these the most, because I also like how they look the most.CONS:1. Hiss/static noise. One of the biggest complaints I saw people have with these is the faint static/hiss noise (when no music/sound is playing), particularly when in Aware mode (ANC turned off). And yes, mine make the noise, and it can be heard even if music is playing at a very low volume, and yes it’s annoying, but when I considered how infrequently I would have my earbuds in but not have any music/sound playing (or have volume low enough to hear the static), I determined that’s really not a deal breaker for me, and it doesn’t outweigh the pros.2. At first they were a little difficult to remove from the case, but I have quickly gotten better at knowing where to grab/how to remove.NEUTRAL FOR NOW/WILL UPDATE LATER:1. Call/mic quality? In my research I also came across a lot of complaints about call quality, people say that the other person on the line can barely hear them/there’s a lot of noise, etc. For me, I literally didn’t even consider this a factor in my decision making, because I barely care. It’s not my primary purpose or use for my wireless earbuds. However, I’ll eventually test it out and will update my review later with my experience.2. Touch controls. I’m new to this, so it could just be a learning curve, but every so often I have trouble getting the touch controls to respond or do exactly what I want. I like it, I think it’s neat, and I’m sure I’ll get better at it, but I also expect touch controls in general to be finicky on occasion.CONCLUSION:While I would recommend these to anyone, I do believe the best choice for everyone is going to be different, and that it’s important to know what your priorities are, what annoys you more, etc.For me personally, the primary purpose of my earbuds is for enjoying music for relatively long periods of time, oftentimes while engaging in physical activity/chores, so sound/music quality and comfort are my two greatest priorities, so for my purposes, I am absolutely thrilled with these.

I work in a dental lab and I have bad noise sensitivity issues. Bad enough to bring anxiety attacks. I was hesitant to buy these because of the price. I tried other ear buds but they did not cancel anything enough. My hubs demanded I buy these and so I did and good lord the peace these have brought me. What sound does make it through is dampened so much that it’s barely there and no longer triggers me. I cannot believe that these little things can block SO MUCH. They are so comfortable that I forget I have them in and the cool little bands they have around the bud keeps them in. They ain’t going nowhere! They weigh NOTHING. Easy to get them in and remove. I love that the volume control is a swipe on the side of the bud. Also you can tap three times to repeat a song! I find them very good with phone calls too (android). They are VERY sensitive to my touch commands. I don’t have to mash the hell out of them to get them to pause, skip or go back.Music and audio books sound brilliant!! I find that the sound from the buds does not have to do battle with any background noise making for an awesome experience. Every other pair of earbuds I have had including Sony’s has had to do battle with background noise because they could not cancel squat at my workplace.On the connection issue, I had it. The left one stopped syncing. I tried twice to fix it and twice it stopped syncing. I was a sad panda and almost returned them until my hubs told me the left bud syncs with the right bud so if I was taking the left one out first ( I was taking them both out at the same time), it could be causing an issue. I reset the whole thing. Then I started taking the right on out first and putting it in my ear and waiting for the, battery at blah blah percent prompt then the tone that tells you that it’s on. Then I take the left one out of the case and put it in and I have never had another problem and I waited a over solid month of nearly everyday use before I posted this. Not one more problem. If you are reluctant about this issue, just remember you can always return them and get your money back if you can’t fix the issue. It’s freaking worth a try!!! This is an amazing life altering product that has made an ENORMOUS difference in my anxiety level due to constant bombardment of NOISE.On battery life. At work I keep the earbud case plugged in. When I go on break and lunch, I put them back in the case to charge. I have never had the battery run out on me. I am there for 9 hours.In my opinion these are worth every damn cent. I cannot be without them now. Just remember to take the right one out first and put it in your ear and wait for the tone that tells you it’s on. Only then take the left one out.

These headphones are without a doubt the best headphones I have purchased so far in my entire life. I say thus far, because I know that technology is able to continue to become greater and greater as we advance through time, but as of 2023 these headphones are so packed with technology that they meet every need that I could want out of headphones, and additionally have some extra really cool perks.I want to talk first about the number one need that I wanted these headphones to meet. They claimed that they had 100% noise canceling and I can confirm that that is absolutely correct. Closing out the loud outside world is something that is real true need of mine. I live in a major city, and everything is so loud that I can barely concentrate. I can’t go to the grocery store, out to eat, for a walk down the road, or sometimes even sit in my own home without having some sort of overpowering noise that I don’t want to hear.So here’s how these headphones work noise canceling-wise. I’ll give you two scenarios.Scenario one, I have had a hard day and had to talk to people all day. I’m hungry, tired, don’t want to talk to anyone or hear anyone’s voices. I go to my favorite fish restaurant because I’m too tired to cook but I know that I’m going to need some peace and quiet when I get there. I place my food order, then sit down at my table in a very noisy environment with lots of peoples conversations going in the background. Relaxation is just about to begin. I take out my Bose headphones, I insert one into my ear, and then immediately I hear this sound that sounds like a lightsaber. That’s the Microphones in the headphones testing the ear seal to make sure sound doesn’t get into the headphones. I insert the second headphone into my other ear, and hear another lightsaber like sound. For about two more second I can still hear peoples voices and then all of the sudden I hear a “beep” and everyone’s voices fade away! The noise cancelling has kicked in, and it’s time for me to enjoy my dinner with some relaxing peaceful music. I’m now sitting in the middle of a restaurant and I can only hear my music and no one’s voices at all. Sometimes I’ll turn my music off in the middle of the restaurant, and I’ll watch funny Instagram videos in the headphones. Usually after a 20 minute meal and some funny videos, I’m so relaxed and happy even after a hard day’s work, that I’m ready to go home and go to sleep.Scenario two. I live next to a very busy major street. I can hear lots of road noise, exhaust, loud stereos, and many other kinds of noises. I like to take walks and relax. It’s not very relaxing walking when I have to hear a lot of these noises. I insert my bose headphones , and all of the road noises fade away. All I can hear once again is my music. I have to make sure that I stay on the sidewalk when walking, because these headphones cancel out noise so well that if I try to walk on the road, I’ll likely get hit by a car because I will not hear the cars driving near me.So that being said, the main thing I love about these is the noise canceling. I mentioned that there were couple cool extra things about these that I wanted to tell you about. I do like the amount of bass that these headphones are able to produce. It’s way more than I expected. Additionally the clarity on these headphones is so good that I can can barely describe it in words. There is a treble mode, and a bass mode within the app so I can choose between these two modes and intensify the kind of clarity and or bass that I’d like.The charging case is a medium to small size. It fits well then my pants pocket and doesn’t get in the way when I’m in the gym. That’s one other thing that I wanted to make sure I told you about, is that these are the perfect headphones for the gym. I’ve seen several other people in the gym with them on, and now I know why. They don’t move around in my ears at all! I work out very intensely, and if headphones were going to move around then they would move around on me. They stay exactly where I put them even though I’m sweating on them non-stop for over an hour each day.I love everything about these headphones. My only regret is that I let the price of these scare me away for so long, and I didn’t order them soon enough.

I live too close to an airport and the noise from the planes sometimes can be very irritating and distracting. I was pleasantly surprised how quiet my world can become with these headphones on quiet mode. If it’s really bad I can run some ambient sound at low volume in addition to the ANC and I literally can’t hear most the planes at all and what little I can make out is so faint it’s hardly noticeable to my overly sensitive ears. I was seriously considering moving, but now I can enjoy my wonderful home right here.

I have used several Bose wired earbuds over the years and they are all good, but never sounded nearly as good as Bose headphones. However, these Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II are amazing! They sound better and cancel noise noticeably better than my Bose QC45 headphones and they are very comfortable to wear. I love how easy they are to carry on a plane. I wish Bose would have included the option to buy a wireless audio transmitter for use on a plane. Unfortunately, I found out these earbuds don’t work on in-flight entertainment without a wireless adapter. That was a bummer! Other than that, I am glad I bought them, I love using them and I highly recommend them.