Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) Review: Lossless USB-C and Cinema Mode, With No Numbers Attached

What the second generation actually adds

Bose's own list of deltas is concrete. Its product page credits this generation with improved noise cancellation, a next-generation ActiveSense that smooths spikes in noise in Aware Mode, an all-new Cinema Mode that spatializes video, spatialized audio extended to both music and movies, polished metal, better head detection, quicker startup, and power-saving behaviour. The printed guide fills in the modes behind those words: Quiet for full cancellation, Aware for full transparency, Immersion for full cancellation plus Immersive Audio in Motion, and Cinema for full cancellation plus Immersive Audio in Still, alongside up to seven custom modes.

The wired side is where the generation is least ambiguous. The headphones take lossless audio over USB-C at 16-bit, 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz from a compatible source, keep playing while they charge over the same cable, and the guide notes Immersive Audio is set aside during phone calls. CustomTune plays a tone at power-on to calibrate the sound to your ears, and up to ten favourite modes can cycle from the multi-function button.

What Bose does not put a number on is the part the marketing leads with. No page quantifies the cancellation improvement over the first generation, prints a decibel figure, or names the driver size; the word for all of it is 'better'. The additions a buyer can verify on paper are the wired lossless input, the video mode, and the power-saving behaviour. The rest is a claim with no baseline printed beside it.

Ten microphones, four for calls, and no published number

The cancelling hardware Bose documents is a microphone layout: one microphone inside and four outside each ear cup, five per side, ten in total. Four of them, two on the front of each cup, handle phone calls, where the multi-function button answers, declines and ends calls. Bose's specification block lists the noise control type as adjustable noise cancelling, active noise cancelling and echo reduction, and CustomTune calibrates the sound to your ears.

The claims sit above that hardware without a measurement under them. Quiet Mode is described as Bose's best cancellation, ActiveSense keeps Aware Mode's surrounding noise constant when a coffee grinder or a blender interrupts, and none of Bose's three documents (the storefront, the variant data, the printed guide) attaches a decibel figure, a percentage or a test method to any of it. The buyer is asked to trust a parts count and a superlative.

30, 23, and 45 hours, and a codec list that stops at aptX

Bose's guide prints three battery numbers: up to 30 hours with cancelling on and Immersive Audio off, 23 hours with both on, and 45 hours with both off. The conditions are printed too: Bose's April 2025 test, 75 dBSPL playback loudness, the three-band EQ at zero, Quiet Mode. The product page's headline rounds the same cell to 30 hours, or 23 with Immersive Audio. One oddity follows the page around: its footnote still prints 24 and 18 hours from tests written without the 2nd Gen name, which the guide's 30 and 23 contradict.

Charging is specified tightly. A charge from empty takes up to 3 hours, slower if you keep listening; the 15-minute top-up is rated for up to 3 hours with cancelling on and Immersive Audio off, and the guide's own footnote test measured up to 2.5 hours. The page states plainly that a power adaptor is not included, so the charger already in your drawer belongs in the price math.

The wireless spec is Bluetooth 5.4 with a 30-foot (about 9 m) range and the A2DP, HFP, AVRCP and Low Energy profiles, with Snapdragon Sound listed among them. On a Snapdragon Sound-certified device the guide says the headphones stream with the aptX Adaptive codec automatically, and Bose's FAQ adds a gaming mode that lowers latency on those sources. Multipoint keeps up to six devices in the list, two actively connected, one audio source at a time. What the documents never say matters as much: no SBC, AAC or LDAC entry appears anywhere, so a buyer on an iPhone or a non-Snapdragon Android is choosing a flagship whose published codec story ends at aptX Adaptive and the Bluetooth profiles.

0.26 kilograms, removable cushions, and no water rating

Bose's variant data lists the headphones at 4.5 by 16.0 by 20.5 cm and 0.26 kg, with the whole system in its case at 5.55 by 15.55 by 21.35 cm and 0.48 kg. The materials are plastic, aluminum and protein leather on removable cushions, in an around-ear, adjustable-band fit.

Care is the part most likely to bite. The FAQ's answer to the water question is a bare no: no IP rating, and avoid situations where they may get wet. The Canadian warranty agrees by exclusion, listing exposure to liquids, normal wear, and the normal depletion of consumable parts such as batteries unless a defect caused it. Cleaning runs to a cloth that is dry or water-dampened, with no cleaning products. Replacement parts, a term that covers cushions, ear tips and batteries, carry their own 90 days.

The power behaviour is documented down to the timers. Off your head, the headphones disconnect after 10 minutes in any orientation but flat; laid flat or stored in the case, they disconnect after 3 seconds. They sleep to save battery once disconnected for 10 minutes, or 20 laid flat, and wake when you put them back on.

One list price, a Sony near-tie, and a 30-day return window

The Bose price has one state on bose.ca: $599.00, with no strike-through price, discount line or end date on the Black variant, the colour in the photo. Sony's list on sony.ca is $599.99, so the two flagships sit 99 cents apart before tax. Sony's page was also showing a $479.99 sale price against that $599.99 reference with no end date; this verdict is built on the list prices, since a sale price can move while the specification gap stays put. Bose's terms say prices exclude applicable taxes.

Direct purchase adds a 30-day return window in which Bose covers return shipping, as long as the headphones come back in good condition with every accessory and a return authorization in hand. The terms let Bose refuse a return that misses those conditions or charge a restocking fee of up to 15 percent. Bose's price match promise covers an identical in-stock model at Best Buy or Walmart within 14 days of purchase, and excludes marketplace sellers, bundles and coupons.

The warranty is one year from purchase, under the Canadian warranty that applies to products bought from March 31, 2026: defects in materials and workmanship, proof of purchase on request, liquid damage excluded, 90 days on replacement parts, and shipping and insurance for service chargeable to you. What the extra dollar buys against Sony is the documented feature delta: Bose's lossless USB-C input, Cinema and Immersion modes, and aptX Adaptive on Snapdragon Sound phones, against Sony's LDAC.

Where the second generation loses its argument

Skip them for anything wet. No IP rating, an explicit warning against situations where they may get wet, and a warranty that excludes liquid exposure add up to a headphone for desks, cabins and trains, not for gyms or rain. The $129.99 soundcore Space One lists 40 hours with cancelling on and costs about a fifth of the Bose list; a listener whose main requirement is quiet on a commute is not the buyer Bose needs at $599.

Skip them as well when codec paperwork matters. An iPhone or a non-Snapdragon Android gets no published hi-res codec here, where Sony's page names LDAC. An owner of a first-generation pair should weigh how little of the new is quantified: the documented additions are a video mode, a lossless wired input, smoother Aware handling and polished metal, while the cancelling improvement and the 24-to-30-hour battery story rest on pages that do not fully agree with each other. Anyone outside those groups who carries a Snapdragon Sound phone and wants the video and wired modes gets the whole of this headphone's pitch.