Bose QC Ultra Headphones Review & Compared To Bose QC45 & Bose NC 700
So these are the Bose QC Ultra Headphones, these are Bose’s new top tier ANC Headphones and these are also the successors to the Bose NC 700’s. Now the Bose QC Ultra Headphones are really close to being amazing, however bose just doesn’t pay attention to the fine details. Nonetheless, today we’re going to checkout the Bose QC Ultra Headphones and see what they are all about, and we’re also going to see how they compare to the Bose NC 700’s and see if its worth upgrading. Regarding pricing, this is something that the Bose QC Ultra Headphones got, and
not in a good way. The Bose QC Ultra has a retail price of $430… its a little up there, but worth it, but id wait to get them when they are on sale if you can. But for comparison sake, the Bose NC 700 had a retail price of $400 when they first came out and now they have a retail price of $380. Now we’re going to be comparing the Bose QC Ultra to a few other headphones out there so keep an eye out for those videos, nonetheless, if you want to pick these headphones up, they’ll
be linked down below, or you can try out that new YouTube shopping button. Now first lets talk about the included carrying case. Now just
your Bose QC45 or QC case… but this case is still great to travel with, its much smaller than your Sony 1000XM5 and Sennheiser Momentum 4 cases… and Bose’s case is much better than the sorry excuses of cases that come included with the Beats Studio Pro or the AirPods Max. Overall, the Bose QC Ultra’s cases is great for traveling with and I would say that it is an upgrade over the Bose NC 700’s case. But with the case out of the way, lets talk about the Headphones themselves. Now like I mentioned earlier, the QC Ultra’s now
have a fully collapsable design to them. Where as the NC 700’s have a lay flat design. Which is why they have a slightly smaller case. But build quality wise, the QC Ultra are great… but they dont feel as premium as the Bose NC 700’s. Now just like the NC 700’s the Ultras have plastic ear cups, and these ear cups pivot and swivel very well. We also have these aluminum arms that glide to extend we then have this headband with plastic on the top and well cushioned leatherette on the bottom. Overall, the built quality on the
QC Ultra is good… but it just doesn’t feel as premium as the NC 700’s. With the NC 700’s theres a big hit of exposed aluminum that gos across the headband. And underneath the headband, we have this super padded silicon. And finally theres the leatherette on the NC 700’s… the leatherette on the NC 700 just feels nicer, softer and more supple than the leatherette found on the QC Ultra. Now dont get me wrong, the leatherette on the QC Ultra feels decent, but it is a down grade when compared to the leatherette on both the NC 700
and Bose QC45. But when it comes to fit, there have been some minor improvements here. Now first when it comes to clamping force, the Bose QC Ultra have a neutral fit to them, as in they aren’t too lose and they aren’t too tight. They’re defiantly Big Head Approved and if you’re someone that has a really hit head of if you like to wear hats, they will have you covered. However, the Bose QC ultra aren’t as lose fitting as either the Bose QC or Bose QC45. So if you want a really lose fit, then you’ll might
want to look at those. But when it comes to the ear pads on these headphones, just as you’d expect, the ear cups on the Ultra are very spacious and they will have no problem accommodating most ear types. And the ear pads on the ultra are a little more spacious than the ear pads on the NC 700. And even if you have very large ears or ears that stick out a lot, these will have you covered as well. And since the ear pads have very little surface area coming in contact with your skin, these earpads do
a really good job of stay cooler for longer. But the key fit difference between the QC Ultra and NC 700 is going to come down to their weight and the padding on their headbands. Now with the QC Ultra, sure they might not feel as premium as the NC 700’s… but they are a little more light weight weigh in at 254 grams, where as the NC 700’s weigh in at 264. Now the NC 700’s are already light weight, but seeing the QC Ultra being able to shave off 10 grams is nice cause it does help with
overall comfort. They are a little less noticeable when they are on your headphones and you notice them shifting around less when you’re walking around with them on. But for comparison sake, the Bose QC45 weigh in at 237 grams, and the Bose QC weigh in at 235 grams, so both of these are more comfortable than the QC Ultra, but when compared to other headphones the QC Ultra fare well because the Sony 1000XM5’s weigh in at 250 grams, the Sony 1000XM4’s weigh in at 255 grams, the beats studio pro weigh in at 260 and then there are
the AirPods Max which weigh in at a hefty 384 grams. But then, there are the headbands on these headphones. Now the headband on the QC Ultra is well padded and hotspots aren’t an issue for this headband. However, the headband on the NC 700 is a lot softer, it does a much better job of conforming to the shape of your head, and the silicon has a nice cooling effect. So I do miss the headband on the NC 700 on the QC Ultra. But overall, the Bose QC Ultra are a pair of very comfortable headphones to wear
for multiple hours on end cause they have a neutral fit to them, the have very spacious ear cups and they’re fairly light weight. However, I do prefer the silicon headband on the NC 700 cause it does a better job of conforming to your head, and the NC 700’s do feel more premium than the QC Ultra cause of their exposed aluminum headband and better feeling leatherette. But now lets talk about tech specs, when it comes to battery life, the QC Ultra’s have been upgraded over the NC 700’s. The QC Ultra’s now have an advertised battery life
of 24 hours with their active noise cancellation turned on, where as the NC 700’s have an advertised battery life of 20 hours with their ANC turned on. But if you were to use the QC Ultra with their immersive audio turned and ANC turned on, then they’ll only go for 18 hours. Now dont get me wrong, a battery life of 24 hours with your ANC turned on is good, but these days more premium ANC headphones are trying to hit a battery life of 30 hours. But the main issue here is, yet again, you can not use
these headphones with their Active noise cancellation or ambient mode turned off. and I think this is a shame cause I think that if you could use these headphones with their ANC turned off, they could possibly go for as long as 40 hours. Personally, I just wish that bose would just give us the option to use our headphones with their ANC turned off, cause depending on your situation, maybe you want to extend their battery life as much as possible is you’re traveling. And this is something that bose can easily add through a software update, but they
refuse to do so. But when it comes to charging these headphones, just as you’d expect, they charge via a USB C port as they should. But the fast charging on the Bose QC Ultra isn’t great, if you were to charge these headphones up from a dead battery for 15 minutes, they are going to get you 3 hours of playback time. Defiantly usable, but it is a little behind when compared to the rest of the competition. Overall, the battery life on the Bose QC ultra is okay, but this is still one of Bose’s main weak points.
24 hours with your ANC turned on is okay for traveling… but 18 hours with your immersive audio turned on, is a bit problematic. And theres the whole deal where bose refuses to allow you to use your headphones with their ANC turned off. But when it comes to connectivity, these headphones can be connected to 2 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, the Bose QC Ultra still only have support for SBC and AAC. Now AAC is perfectly fine, but these still dont have support for higher quality audio codecs out there. But if you want to, you can always use these headphones with a wired connection cause they still have an audio jack. Which is great cause you can plug these headphones into the entrainment system on the plane or to monitor your audio if you’re a content
creator. Just keep in mind that these are still using a 2.5 millimeter audio jack instead of a 3.5 millimeter audio jack. But more importantly, these cant be use passively… even if you want to use them with a wired connection, they need to be powered on. And also, you still cant use the USB C port on these headphones as a wired connection. The USB C port on the Bose QC Ultra is still strictly for chargning. But with all of that out of the way, lets talk about sound. Now just as you’d expect, the Bose QC Ultra
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, 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 on 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. Okay, so with bass out of the way, lets talk about whats really important here and that’s going to be the openness and instrument separation cause the immersive audio on the Bose QC Ultra is the main differentiating factor here. With the immersive audio turned off, the Bose QC Ultra sounds and performs very similar to the Bose NC 700. Perhaps the Bose QC Ultra has a little better clarity in the highs, but besides that, unless you listen to these headphones back to back and if you’re extremely particular, you’re not
going to notice a huge difference. However, what is a huge difference here is the immersive audio. With the immersive audio the Bose QC Ultra are going to put an emphasis on the vocals so that they are right in your face, and the instrumentals are going to open up a lot. Honestly, the Bose QC Ultra sound like a completely different pair of headphones with their immersive audio being turned on and I love them. And with this immersive audio feature, you can set them to track your head so your music will move with you, our you can
have it set to still. Now personally I hate the whole head tracking thing, so I just use these headphones with their immersive audio set to still. Basically, immersive audio does for the Bose QC Ultra what spatial audio for the AirPods Max and other AirPods, it makes them sound more open, but they dont sound artificial or shallow. But heres the problem with immersive audio, if you want to get the best sound quality out of your headphones, and its safe to assume that you always want to get the best sound quality out of your headphones, you have
to use the Ultra with their immersive audio turned on… but if you always use the immersive audio on these headphones, that’s going to take a considerable toll on the battery life cause they’ll go from 24 hours to 18 hours. So to wrap this all up, the Bose QC Ultra are still better suited for someone that like a more neutral or vocals focused EQ and with their Immersive audio turned on, they sound much better than the Bose NC 700’s cause they have significantly better instrument separation. But if you want to get the best sound quality out
of these headphones, you are going to have to sacrifice a considerable amount of battery life which could be a problem if you plan on constantly traveling with these headphones. Now when it comes to controlling your media with these headphones… there have been some major changes here and plainly said, I don like the media controls on the QC Ultra. Now on the NC 700 you have a touch pad. Now all though this touch pad is small, you can double tap to play or pause, you can swipe front or back to skip through your music and you
can swipe up or down to adjust the volume of your music. And one swipe is one step. So adjusting the volume with the Bose NC 700 isn’t horrible. However, with the QC Ultra, we have a physical button that you press once to play or pause, double tap to skip and triple tap to go back. And we have a touch surface that you can swipe up or down to adjust your volume. And personally I hate adjust the volume with this new touch pad. The steps are too large, sometimes you get a quarter step, and very regularly
you get missed inputs. Plainly said, I avoid adjust the volume with these headphones and instead ill waiter use my watch or my phone. So I really hope that bose fixes the volume controls on these headphones, cause right now, they’re a headache. And I prefer the touch pad on the Bose NC 700. But also, if you press and hold on this touchpad you can assign a short cut to it… and this is something that im going to rant about in a little bit, so stay tuned. But something that is new on the Bose QC Ultra over
the NC 700’s is that they have wear sensors, so they will automatically pause your music when you take them off, and they’ll start playing again when you put them back on. Now I don’t really care for wear sensors on my headphones and you can turn them off if you want… but they are there if you want them. But now lets talk about the active noise cancellation on these headphones. Now even though the Bose NC 700’s we’re Bose’s most premium ANC headphones until the QC Ultra came around… the NC 700’s didn’t have the best ANC that
bose had to offer, the Bose QC45’s actually had better ANC than the NC 700’s. And I can confidently say that the Bose QC Ultra has better Active Noise Cancelation than both the Bose NC 700 and more importantly, the Bose QC45’s which have been my daily drivers for the past 2 years. But now we’re going to jump into the ANC test, and we’re also going to be including the wind noise reduction setting on the QC Ultra. So like you may have just seen, the Bose QC Ultra block out considerably more noise than the Bose NC 700’s
and they also block out noticeably more noise than the Bose QC45’s which have been my favorite headphones to recommend specially for frequent flyers. But even though the Bose QC Ultra block out the most amount of noise here, when they have a lot of noise to block out, you do start to notice some cabin pressure. Now the cabin pressure on the QC Ultra is not as harsh as the Cabin Pressure found on the Bose QC35’s or AirPods Max… but if theres a lot of noise pollution around, you will notice a some pressure on your ear drums.
But if youre in an area that doesn’t have as much noise, then you’ll feel very little to no cabin pressure. So overall yes, the Bose QC ultra has improved active noise cancelation performance over both the Bose NC700 and QC45’s… the performance difference between the NC 700 and QC ultra is much larger than the difference between the QC Ultra and QC45… but bose is being more aggressive this time around and you will feel some cabin pressure when theres a lot of noise pollution around, but its not unbearable like the with the Bose QC35 or AirPods Max.
But also, the Bose QC Ultra has an ambient mode, now the ambient mode on these headphones sounds very natural, theres zero hissing in the background and their microphone array does a really good job of blocking out wind noise when walking out doors. But you cant adjust how noise these headphones let in like with the Bose NC 700 or like with a lot of other headphones out there. But the really important thing here is, the ambient mode on the Bose QC Ultra is the active kind, meaning that they will actively protect your hears from getting blasted
from a sudden loud sound. All you have to do is make sure that this feature is activated and it works a little like this, major headphone warning. So like you may have just seen, when the Bose QC Ultra Detected that sudden loud sound, they turned off their ambient mode and when that loud sound stopped, they turned their ambient mode back on. Now my main critique here is, the QC Ultra are a little slow to react, but at least they react, cause with the Bose NC 700 and QC45, they just let in everything, like this. So
like you may have just seen, the NC 700’s let in everything, which is not ideal specially if you’re walking around in the city. But ultimately, I do not like using the Active Ambient Mode On the Bose QC Ultra cause it is overly sensitive and it is slow to react. Like you saw in the demo, the Ultras let in a good amount of that siren, and then then lowered their ambient mode. Hence, I say its slow to react. But its also overly sensitive cause sounds like cars rolling by, or just people walking by and chatting, like
being at the mall, the ultras will just constantly raise and lower your ambient mode. And these are the exact sounds that you need to be able to hear if you’re using your ambient mode. So instead of being useful, the Active Ambient Mode on the Ultras is a burden cause instead of being able to hear the outside world and being able to be aware of your surroundings, you just end up hearing small snippets. So for the time being, I prefer to use my Ultras with their active ambient mode turned off, and I highly recommend that Bose
fixes their active ambient mode through a firmware update to make its less sensitive, cause right now they are blocking out the exact sounds that im trying to hear, and it also has to react faster cause I dont need to have a police siren getting amplified and making my ears ring. And something that is sorely missing on the QC Ultra is a conversation mode like with whats found on the Bose NC 700’s where they will lower the volume of your 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. So like you may have just seen, with the NC 700 if you press and hold their multiple purpose button they’ll pump in all of the ambient sound around you and when you press it again, they go back to normal… and I love when my headphones have this kind of feature cause you can very quickly talk to someone without having to remove your headphones. This feature is great for when youre on a plan and a flight attendant asks you if you want something. And for some reason,
the QC Ultra dont have this feature. But I feel that bose can very easily add this feature by making it an available short cut feature when you press and hold on the touch pad. I just dont understand why bose didn’t include this feature on the Ultra’s cause a lot of other headphones have a similar feature and this is the lack of attention to detail that I talk about when it come to bose and their headphones. But finally heres the microphone test, and the microphones on Bose’s headphones have been okay. The Mic on the Bose QC45
and Bose NC 700 are decent to take phone calls with while in a quiet room. But I do feel that the microphone on the Bose QC45 does a better job of focusing on my voice than the microphone found on the Bose NC 700 But the microphone on the Bose QC Ultra has even better clarity than the microphone on both the Bose NC 700 and Bose QC45 But what really makes the Bose QC Ultra here is how it deals with noise pollution, cause right now this microphone is doing a really good job reducing all of this
road noise all while still keeping my voice front and center. Cause of comparison sake, if we were to switch over to my lapel microphone you’re going to clearly hear all of this chatter, but if we were to switch back over, it is severely reduced. Now the Bose NC 700 are also trying to reduce this road noise, but they aren’t blocking out as much noise pollution and my voice doesn’t sound as clear. And with the Bose QC45’s these are letting in a lot more road noise and my voice has even less clarity. But when it comes
to blocking out chatter, the Bose QC45’s do a slightly better job. And the Bose NC 700’s are also doing a decent job of blocking out this chatter, but there is a slight echo effect going on. And finally theres the Bose QC Ultra which are doing the best job here of blocking out this chatter all while keeping my voice front and center. Cause again for comparison sake, if we were to switch over to my lapel microphone you’re going to clearly hear all of this chatter, but if we were to switch back over to the Bose QC
Ultra, it is severely reduced. So overall yes, the Bose QC Ultra have a much better performing microphone than both the Bose NC 700 and Bose QC45, it has better clarity and it does a much batter job of blocking out noise pollution. But with all of that being said, the Bose QC Ultra are a very impressive pair of premium ANC headphones that are definitely worth the upgrade whether you have the Bose NC 700 or the Bose QC45’s. The Bose QC Ultra’s have a decently small case which is great for traveling, they are very comfortable to wear
for long use sessions, they’re now a little lighter than the NC 700’s, they block out more noise than both the NC 700 and QC45’s, they have a great sounding ambient mode which is also now the active kind, so they will protect your ears from sudden loud noises and they sound much more open than both the NC700 and QC45 thanks to their immersive audio. And they also have a better performing microphone as well. However, the Bose QC Ultra aren’t without their short comings. First off if you want to get the best sound quality out of these
headphones, that is going to take a toll on the battery life, and 18 hours is a little short. The QC Ultra also don’t allow you to adjust your ambient mode to your liking and I hate that bose didn’t included the conversation mode which is found on the NC 700. But I feel that bose can easily add that feature. I also dont like to use the Active Ambient Mode On these headphones cause they block out the sounds that you need to be able to hear and they are slow to react to block out the sounds that
you dont want to hear. Bose defneitly has some fine tuning to do with their Active Ambient Mode. I also dont like that you can’t use the QC Ultra with their ANC completely turned off and even if you want to use them with a wired connection they need to be powered on. And their volume rocker drivers me crazy. And finally theres their build quality, dont get me wrong, the QC Ultra are well built, but they dont feel as premium as the Bose NC 700 cause of their martial choices. Overall, the Bose QC Ultra are a pair
of very great ANC headphones… but Bose’s lack of attention to the finer details does hold them back from being amazing. However, Bose can definitely improve these headphones through some firmware updates.
