Audio Tech Weekend Explosion: New Headphones, Booming Speakers & Big Moves Rock the Sound World
Flagship Headphones & Earbuds: Kicking off the flurry of product launches, Bose made headlines on September 5 by unveiling its next-generation QuietComfort Ultra series – a top-tier over-ear headphone alongside matching true wireless earbuds. These new “Ultra” models introduce Bose’s own Immersive Audio technology and upgrade to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Sound platform for hi-res, lossless audio over Bluetooth ts2.tech ts2.tech. In practice, that means the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones finally migrate to USB-C and can deliver full CD-quality wireless playback on supported devices ts2.tech. Bose also refreshed the design with more premium materials for a more refined look and feel digitaltrends.com digitaltrends.com. Priced at $449 – slightly higher than the previous model’s $429 launch price – the over-ear QuietComfort Ultra Headphones are positioned to succeed the acclaimed Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 digitaltrends.com. The QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds similarly replace 2022’s QC Earbuds II as Bose’s flagship in-ear offering ts2.tech. Both Ultra models put a big emphasis on enhanced noise cancellation and personalization: Bose says its new adaptive ANC algorithm constantly adjusts to the user’s environment and hearing profile, claiming “the best ANC performance of any headphone, whether earbud or headset” to date ts2.tech ts2.tech. Notably, the Ultra Earbuds are significantly smaller than the
