QC Earbuds are Bose’s first wireless headphones. To convince, active noise reduction is obviously one of the essential features.
The Bose QC Earbuds just miss getting a better rating. Despite noise reduction that equals the best available on the market (but does not exceed them), a slightly too large number of missteps – foremost among which are frankly incomplete controls – prevents us from recommending these headphones without any reservations. However, they will be able to attract the favor of phone addicts thanks to their remarkable voice capture in hands-free kit mode.
Points forts
- Clean and balanced sound.
- Impressive bass, very dynamic, without any overflow.
- Very effective noise reduction overall, especially at low frequencies.
- Manufacturing quality, IPX4 certification.
- Remarkable support, good comfort (although not quite universal).
- Excellent hands-free kit, voice capture almost impossible to fault.
Weak points
- Chemical highs, sound lacking in space and articulation.
- Noise reduction less adept at erasing human voices.
- Very bulky and thick storage case.
- Incomplete controls: no volume adjustment, no return to the previous track.
- Very high streaming latency (almost 400ms).
NB: The reported price drop is calculated by comparing the lowest price of the day with the average of the lowest prices charged by all merchants for the product last month, with security rules to exclude prices from shops whose the VAT policy is not clear (known as “grey” shops, typically in the case of imports from China).
An alternative
It’s an event: for the very first time, headphones without any wire manage to offer very effective noise reduction, even managing to match that offered by the very best wired noise reduction headphones. But this is not the only quality of these Sony WF-1000XM3s, which also rank among the very best in their category in terms of comfort, autonomy and, last but not least, the quality of sound reproduction. After all this, we wouldn’t dare take offense at the mediocre performance of hands-free kit microphones – which doesn’t prevent Sony’s latest products from being quite simply the best in-ear headphones. true wireless available on the market.
