I have been listening to hours upon hours of music and podcasts using my Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II. BBC Radio One presents a wide variety of popular musical content – from pop hits during the day with active commentary, to wild EDM and even metal late at night in England. I listen to tech podcasts with varying attention paid to mixing and audio recording. All of it has been super-excellent.
My thoughts on modes.
Modes are interesting. You start off with Aware and Quiet. I added a Commute just to try it out. While initially handy, I actually found that toggling back and forth from Aware to Quiet as needed was the best experience for me. Going through another mode to get to what I wanted, while easy, was also frustrating. If there was a way to directly access set up modes beyond two, I think modes would be much more valuable. As it stands today, again for me, just using two is perfectly fine and easiest to use.
ANC is joyous. Self-voice even more so.
As I have posted in the past, I was about a click away from procuring a pair of Apple AirPod Max headphones because their self-voice is so good. I like to use headphones or buds while in Teams meeting calls to prevent room noise pickup and to keep things more private. So without a great self-voice, it makes conversations to become stressful on the near-end of things. You sound horrible to yourself.
I decided to try the QCEII out before making a large purchase decision like that – and I am SO THANKFUL that I did wait, because the self-voice on the buds easily rival Apple’s offering. The self-voice on the Bose is wonderful – and paired with the clearly superior ANC – makes them a go-to solution for meetings, general listening sessions, complete comfort, and convenience.
I purchased the Bose in lieu of picking up the AirPod Max. I am a total Apple fanboy and I bought into the ecosystem LONG ago. I totally get how Apple makes things so much easier since they own the whole technological stack. They can do things no one else can given one using an iPhone, iPad, or Mac.
I’ll be traveling to Europe in December and I have some very lengthy flights and sailing trips to take during that time. Better for buds than a cased set of headphones. Much better in my opinion. More discrete, easy to charge, and portable.
Conclusion.
If you’re on the fence at all in regards to getting the Bose buds, buy them and if you don’t love them, return them. I don’t think you will though. They truly are that good.