Bose Goes Ultra With Revamped QuietComfort Headphones, Immersive Audio

pcmag.com:

BROOKLYN—Bose has announced three new pairs of headphones that look to stave off top-notch competitors from Apple and Sony, along with a competitor to Apple's spatial audio.

The new lineup consists of the QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds, the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones, and the QuietComfort Headphones. The first two models are its new flagship offerings and support its immersive audio feature that aims to add a spatial characteristic to your audio. Meanwhile, the QuietComfort Headphones, a retuned replacement for the current best-in-class QuietComfort 45 model, skips that feature.

Previous Bose headphone have sometimes had seemingly random numbers in their names (QuietComfort 45 and Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 are a few examples), but the company seems to be simplifying its approach.

The Ultra Headphones ($429) and Ultra Earbuds ($299) will ship sometime in early October and are available in Black or White Smoke color variants. The QuietComfort Headphones will go on sale on Sept. 21 for $349 in Black, White Smoke, and Cyprus Green editions. Preorders for all these products are live now on the Bose website.

I had the opportunity to check out these new models and the immersive audio effect at an event in Brooklyn, so make sure to read our early takeaways below before putting your money down. Keep an eye out for our upcoming reviews of each product in the coming weeks.

Bose’s answer to Apple's spatial audio, called immersive audio, similarly seeks to add a realistic sense of dimension to audio and envelop the listener in sound. Per Bose, an onboard inertial measurement unit (IMU) and newly developed, proprietary Bose digital signal processing software within the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones and Earbuds are what enable