Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd gen) Black

The quality of these Bose Gen2s is more than excellent. I can easily isolate myself with earplugs in a busy environment. My conversation partner doesn't hear any ambient noise when I'm on the phone in a busy office (even with one earplug in).

The sound is really good—you hear noticeably more detail than you're used to. The active noise cancellation (ANC) works well, although I can't compare it to other models. At the highest setting, ANC filters out a large portion of ambient noise. Not all of it, of course (but a system that completely cancels out everything simply doesn't exist).

The earbuds are exceptionally comfortable, and the audio quality is impressive. Even without music, they help you relax: children playing outside, cars, a lawnmower, or neighbors playing soccer… it all almost completely fades into the background.

I haven't made any calls with them yet—that wasn't the reason I bought them.

I hesitated for quite a while because of the price, but I find myself using them more often than I originally planned. That speaks volumes: I really enjoy them.

I invested in these earbuds and deliberately chose the second generation because, based on the description and various reviews, I understood that these earbuds are great for making calls in busy environments like traffic or at the office. The earbuds supposedly have multiple microphones per earbud, allowing them to effectively pick up your voice and isolate it from ambient noise. You can also set whether you want to hear your own voice naturally (or not).

I've had the earbuds for a few weeks now and have used them frequently. Unfortunately, I'm deeply disappointed with the functionality described above. While I can follow conversations well, and the active noise control provides a pleasant listening experience for me, the people on the other end complain that I'm hard to hear in the car, outside, at the office, or in my living room when the kids are playing and/or the radio is on. Ambient noise like wind or static seems to be somewhat suppressed, but human voices are often picked up just as loudly as my own. And when human voices are present in the background, other noise is also picked up. The same thing happens with audio recordings, such as voice memos.

I have a Samsung S24 Ultra (2024 phone) and checked the settings. There, I was able to adjust some settings for phone calls, WhatsApp, and other apps. Unfortunately, this didn't solve the problem. I also tested the earbuds with the latest iPhone and my Lenovo laptop to see if the problem was related to my phone (settings). Unfortunately, the results were the same.

Because being able to make calls quietly (on both sides) and record voice recordings was the most important reason for choosing these earbuds, I'm disappointed with my purchase.

I'm extremely satisfied with the music, the noise-canceling function, battery life and charging in the case, the ease of touch controls, and the number of customizable options. The earbuds are a different shape than I was used to, but comfortable and customizable thanks to various rubbers and sound feedback (sound settings), which I really like!