Best earbuds: Apple AirPods Pro vs. Bose QC Earbuds II

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who will make the fairest noise-cancelling earbuds of all? Is it Apple, with its warm-advertising $249 AirPods Pro (2^nd technology), or Bose with its $279 QuietComfort Earbuds II?

After crafting in-depth evaluations of each best-shelf merchandise, and then residing with them for several added months, my rapid answer is you just cannot go mistaken with both. More than time, nevertheless, I’ve come to take pleasure in significant individuality variations and use-situation situations the place a single performs improved than the other. I hope my observations aid you come to a decision which buds are for you.

Most effective for sounds reduction: Bose (largely)

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If you’re a regular flyer, bus rider, or educate hauler, you are going to want to tote the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II. The maker states these are ideal sounds-eradicating telephones it has ever created, which includes its above-ear models. Through a the latest cross-country air journey, I discovered them to be just as helpful at sounds blocking and entertaining as Bose’s most current, finest QuietComfort 45 around-ear headphones. More to the stage, the QC Earbuds II are notably remarkable to the Apple AirPod Pros (2^nd generation) when it comes to blocking out the noisy interruptions of the planet.  

The two sets of buds eradicated the bulk of loud jet motor rumbling on my flights, but only the new Bose proved able of also irradicating a persistent, minimal-frequency hull rumbling that resonated like a ghost in the equipment even though Apple’s buds ended up in my ears. The only way I could mask that sounds with Apple’s buds was to crank up the tunes, but that shouldn’t be important with sound cancelling. You really should be capable to listen at decreased volume to stop ear fatigue and possibly keep away from hearing problems. And when you’re utilizing noise-cancelling earbuds sans songs to capture some Z’s, you shouldn’t obtain yourself replacing 1 aural distraction with yet another.

The Bose QC Earbuds II also proved able of simultaneously masking diverse noises through a go to to a crowded Starbucks, chopping back again on the home chatter as properly as dish clatter. And back again house, in my bedroom and house business, only the Bose item totally removed the whirring enthusiast sound from my air purifiers.

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I lastly identified the QC Earbuds II’s Achilles’ heel though seated on the lower deck of a Megabus traveling the New Jersey Turnpike: Bose’s ANC algorithm demonstrated a awful practice of amplifying the metallic shaking and sputtering seems of the bus’s unfastened suspension process any time its tires hit a pothole or an expansion strip.

The noise built me feel there were being loose screws rattling all-around in the buds, in my cranium, or each. I repeated the situation with a 2nd set of the Bose just to be positive I wasn’t tests a defective pair, but I bought the very same outcome. The Apple AirPods Professionals dealt greater with these poor vibrations, lowering the audio of the rattling by at minimum fifty percent.

Most effective audio effectiveness: Bose for bass-a-holics, Apple for spatial audio

As I have presently stated, both equally sets of earbuds are large-doing headphones for tunes-listening sessions. Selecting which is best for you is dependent on how you program to use them.

Eight periods out of 10, the Bose QC Earbuds II available a lot more pleasure from deep dives into a wide variety of songs, providing additional forward, in-your-encounter seem. They dig further into bass frequencies nevertheless take care of to sound a lot more nuanced at the exact time. On my jet-plane face with Tom Petty & The Hearbreakers’s newly released, 33-monitor, covers-heavy Dwell at the Fillmore, 1997, tunes like Lucille, Louie Louie, and Get in touch with Me the Breeze, Bose’s earbuds sent way more bounce to the rockin’ ounce.

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But it is not just all about that bass. In the silent of my bedroom, the QC Earbuds II squeezed out more mid-array nuance in the achy breaky vocals of Luciano Souza on the Brazilian artist’s tribute album The E-book of Chet also did much better by Taylor Goldsmith’s bemused, bothered, and bewildered observations on the hottest Dawes’ album Misadventures of Doomscroller. When that wry observer muses “There’s a Joke in There Someplace,” the QC Earbuds II are better at emotionally digging it out.

Even a cursory glance at the way these factors are designed is revealing. The QC Earbuds II are more eccentrically shaped to things and seal greater in the ear canal. And their automatic equalization, dependent on a sequence of check tones that evaluate the user’s ears, appears much more subtle than Apple’s auto-EQ, which is based on an assessment of pictures of the listener’s ears and facial construction just after they’ve snapped photos with their iPhones.

But which is not the entire tale, both. With considerably less bass receiving in the way, the AirPods Pro supply a brighter choose on trebly oriented tunes (believe tremulous acoustic guitar plunks, splashy cymbal-using drummers, and scorching violin soloists.) And the tables undoubtedly turned in the AirPods’ favor with content from the Apple New music streaming assistance blended and served in Dolby Atmos. When the AirPods Professional see an Atmos flag in the information stream, they activate Spatial Audio method, which folds in some exciting section-shifting and timing outcomes to put a sharper edge on and much more air around voices and instruments.

Jonathan Takiff/Foundry

I also suspect that activating Spatial Audio method cranks up the AirPods Pro’s volume, relative to the other written content I’ve fed them from a selection of sources. Listening to Harry Connick Jr.’s holiday break album Make it Merry, the Xmas tunes did not feel quite as playful or twinkle-star magical when listened to in plain outdated stereo by means of the Bose buds. If you’re an Apple iphone or iPad user as very well as an Apple Audio subscriber, you will attain some aural pros by marrying your source materials with the AirPods Pro.

In typical, I’d argue that the far more intense, in-your-confront character of the Bose buds make them superior companions for each on-the-go use (since of their remarkable sound cancellation) and for serious, sit-down-and-hear classes. I have no grievances about the musicality of the much more laidback, lighter-toned AirPods Pro, and listening to Dolby Atmos tracks is very pleasant.

Ideal for making and using cellphone calls: Tie

When it comes to building and taking palms-absolutely free cellular phone phone calls, each sets of earbuds are wonderful. They deliver good sound at equally ends of the phone, no matter if you are outside or in a silent zone. This one’s a attract.

Greatest for comfort and ease: Apple’s are lighter, the Bose hold in tighter

This one’s a toughie, ripe for a Biblical Solomon (or Judge Judy) to adjudicate. Most improved-ergonomics honors go to Bose, as the radically redesigned, more compact, and lighter Silent Comfort and ease Earbuds II do a significantly better task of residing up to their title than the 1st-generation products, which get started hurting my ears soon after two several hours of use.

Weighing just .2 ounces each—compared to .3 ounces for the initial QC Earbuds and .15 ounces for the second-gen AirPods Pro—I can don Bose’s most recent buds easily for a entire 4 hrs. The engineers at Bose changed the very first-generation’s oversized wing stabilizers with modest rubbery hinges that easily lock into the rims of your ears for a incredibly protected in shape. In actuality, they place up a little bit of battle when you pull them out—and which is a very good thing.

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The AirPods Professional appear to be to depend additional on gravity and the stickiness of their silicone ear strategies to retain them in put. This has not worked for me during severe sweat-generating exercise classes, or even when I was just pulling a sweater in excess of my head. On the beneficial facet, the lighter fat and semi-bulbous entire body shape of Apple’s buds make them even a lot more snug in my ears—I can listen for up to six hours—which just so occurs to be the optimum runtime of the AirPods Pro’s battery. Bose provides the very same number of several hours, but you can recharge the QC Earbuds II only 3 periods with the backup battery in its scenario, wherever you are going to get 4 expenses out of Apple’s situation.

If you obtain the 2nd-gen AirPods Professional and develop into dissatisfied with the in shape, you are going to discover a sizable cottage business of aftermarket memory-foam ear recommendations and increase-on ear-wings that promise both of those greater clinging and bass reaction than the manufacturing facility-presented ideas produce. I bought a established of Lanwow strategies on a friend’s suggestion, but have so much resisted the urge to throw my practical experience with them into this now sophisticated shoot-out.

Ideal for customization: AirPods Professional for alternatives, QC Earbuds II for simplicity

Apple’s AirPods Professional supply a large amount extra customizable equalization profiles than the Bose earbuds, especially if you’ll be using the AirPods Professional with an Iphone, iPad, or iMac. You will locate a couple dozen EQ options you can customise according to the type of music you are listening to, ranging from electronica and hip hop to jazz and classical.

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The AirPods Pro also supply applications to support protect and keep your hearing. You can keep an eye on the decibel output stage, website link to your related iPhone’s microphone and repurpose the buds as listening to aids, or set them into a quantity-reduction method to use them large-tech ear plugs. You can wirelessly recharge the buds and their carrying circumstance making use of a Qi charger, an Apple Watch’s Magnetic Quick Charger, or with a USB-to-Lightning cable. If the AirPods Pro or their situation go missing, you can use your Apple’s Uncover My purpose to assistance track down them.

If simplicity of operation is a lot more your factor, go for the Bose buds. The 3-way (bass, midrange, and treble), person-customizable EQ options in the Bose Audio Application are as simple to use as they are fun. I also like how you can let some ambient noise in for situational awareness without thoroughly defeating lively sounds cancellation. When you obtain the suitable blend, you can shop this worth as a preset—one for four—that can be recalled from inside of Bose’s application or with a faucet on 1 of the thermal regulate panels on each and every bud.

All those exact pads can also be used to adjust the quantity, play/pause the present monitor, skip up or down your playlist, and deal with telephone calls. They are much much easier to access and manipulate whilst on the go than the controls situated on the AirPods Pro’s small stems.

Jonathan Takiff/Foundry

Ideal ANC earbuds all round: It is Bose by a nose

We don’t hedge our bets at TechHive, so we’re naming the Bose Peaceful Comfort and ease Earbuds II as the winner of this competitiveness by advantage of their remarkable lively sound cancellation and bolder seem. That mentioned, no a single should really obtain a solution primarily based on a single criterion, and Apple’s AirPods Professional provide a pretty refined listening encounter as properly.

The serious base line listed here is that you cannot go mistaken with possibly selection, but recurrent travelers and lengthy-length runners could favor the QC Earbuds II, though marathon listeners and multi-taskers might be happier with the second-gen AirPods Professional.

For individuals who continue to cannot decide, we have boiled down just about every product’s pluses and minus here:

Best characteristics of the Bose Peaceful Convenience Earbuds II

• Outstanding noise cancellation
• Fuller bass, warmer all round existence
• Cling a lot more securely in your ears
• Less difficult bodily controls

Negatives of the Bose Silent Comfort and ease Earbuds II

• Slightly bulkier and heavier
• They have on out their in-ear welcome faster
• ANC freaks out with loose bus suspension clattering

Greatest capabilities of the Apple AirPods Professional (2^nd era)

• Quite at ease fit
• Obvious, comprehensive sound
• Lengthier collective battery existence
• Decodes Dolby Atmos

Negatives of the Apple AirPods Pro (2^nd era)

• Not as versatile at cancelling multiple noises simultaneously
• Bass reaction is not as entire bodied
• Not as fantastic at remaining in the ears all through sturdy workouts
• Physical controls are more difficult to find and use