Troy—October 31, 2025
These are good! I am coming from some older earbuds, namely the original pixel buds pro earbuds. I felt that those earbuds hit a better price point than their successors, the pixel buds pro 2, did. They recently started to give me some trouble and the battery has been degrading quite rapidly, so I know I needed to look for a new set. These Bose buds caught my eye as the largest limitation with the OG pixel buds was their ANC performance. I use earbuds a lot when performing yard work, so drowning out various tools and traffic noise were top of my priorities. Additionally, I did not want to spend 200+ USD on something like the AZ100 or the more premium offers from Sony/Bose. These have filled those requirements nearly perfectly. I am very impressed with ANC performance, they seem very similar to my Sony WH-XM3s. This is a very impressive feat for in ear buds, but I know that the Sonys are a few generations old at this stage. I can say that they handily outperform the pixel buds. This seems especially true with higher frequency sounds. Overall, very impressed with how they handle noise suppression/ANC in busy environments as well. Voices seem to be suppressed quite well. I was also presently suprised by sounds quality. I think that these sound a little better than the OG pixel buds do. Clarity is better, especially in the mids. These also tend to get really loud, especially compared to the pixel buds. I notice I am often not using more than 50% of the volume available to achieve normal listening volumes. Bass is somewhat bloated, overall similar to the Sony WH-XM3s, but this is overall a pleasurable tune and can be adjusted with a 5 band equalizer. There are some potential downsides. While the buds themselves feel high quality, the case feels relatively cheap and oversized. The OG pixelbuds have been rock solid for me. Their case has survived numerous drops and being mistaken for a dog toy a time or two. The Bose QC case feels much lighter and the cover feels much thinner. The hinge also does not feel nearly as robust. With that said, I do appreciate that they sell a replacement charging case for 60$. While it was touched on, I do also want to mention that the case seems just a little too large. It's about 50% thicker than the pixel buds or airpods. It's still very pocketable, but I do not think I will carry them with me at all times like I did with the pixel buds. The intrusiveness of the larger case in conjunction with my concerns about durability make me hesitant. Overall, these are really nice earbuds. I have not experienced any connectivity issues using the latest update. They connect and play quickly as expected. They have had great stability in ear, even while running. I think these strike a very good value for money where spending more may have diminishing returns. I think this is especially relevant as it seems that all wireless earbuds tend to have a lifespan of a few years before they are end of life due to wear or battery degradation. It's hard for me to justify spending more on something I can only expect to last 2-4 years. Read more
THUMP25—August 24, 2025
I was gifted a pair of these Bose Quiet Comfort Earbuds by a close friend of mine. I have been using Air Pod Pros both the 1st and 2nd Generation exclusively and nothing else. I use Foam Tips on my Air Pod Pros and have been very happy with the sound quality, noise cancellation effectiveness, and comfort with the Foam tips. I ordered some Foam Tips for these Bose QC Earbuds and I'm not sure if it was just the brand or simply how the tips mount to the Bose QC earbuds but I did not like the Foam Tips that I purchased for these ear buds. They did not create an effective seal when inserted into the ear canal and it did not matter if it was S/M/L because of the lack of the seal creation it rendered the noise cancellation useless. I have had these about 3 days now and have been giving them a good test run. The silicone tips in medium that come attached to the Bose QC earbuds have actually been comfortable to wear in my ears. I don't understand why they have been so comfortable to wear seeing that Apple Air Pod Pros silicone tips hurt my ears. The silicone Tips on the Bose QC create a great seal while in my ear canal and the noise cancellation is every bit as effective as my Air Pod Pros using the Foam tips. If you go read earlier reviews on the Bose QC earbuds you will see all the negative reviews about connection issues, mic issues, etc. Bose revamped the Bose QC earbuds correcting all the issues from their earlier versions of the ear buds. In addition to that they came out with an app to compliment the ear buds. In the Apple Store it's called Bose QC earbuds. I charged the ear buds to 100% in the case when I first opened them up in the box. I downloaded the app from the Apple App Store. I went to Bluetooth on my phone and connected the Bose QC ear buds to my phone. Open the case and it should put them in pairing mode automatically. I placed the ear buds in my ears and opened the app. I connected my ear buds to the app. Right away I saw there was a software or firmware update. While the ear buds are in your ears and the app is open and you have good signal run the update took about 3 minutes. You can customize everything on your ear buds to your personal preferences in the app. It is extremely easy to do in the app. You can also name the earbuds in the app and on your phone. The mic quality has been good and no one has complained to me yet. The battery life has been great. I think at $149 you will not find a better pair of noise cancelling ear buds. They are performing as good if not better than my Air Pod Pros. The one feature that I have been enjoying is the voice command feature to control things. You can turn your camera on. Maybe you want to take a selfie or get a group photo. Wearing your ear bud(s) you can say Hey Headphones...(pause)...Take Photo and the iPhone camera will take a picture. It is very slick. Great value for the money! Considering I got mine gifted from one of my buddies these have exceeded my expectations. They are every bit as good as my Air Pod Pros 2nd generation. These will be my primary ear buds moving forward. Because Bose revamped them, added an app to compliment them, and kept the name the same there is a lot of confusion by customers. They do not understand the issues with the earlier versions have been corrected. I did not even know until I started stumbling onto videos discussing all of this stuff. Give them a try you will be pleasantly surprised. This coming from someone who has only used Apple Air Pod Pros for last several years. I know Bose is good because I have used many of their over the ear noise cancelling headsets in the past. QC1, QC2, QC25, QC35, QC45. These QC earbuds with their noise cancelling are every bit as good. They sound great. Hope this review helps someone in their decision making. Read more
