Review: Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen)
Bose’s QuietComfort Ultra (2nd Gen) refines what made the QC45 great: unmatched comfort and call quality — now with CustomTune ANC personalization and spatial audio. For users who wear headphones for 6+ hours daily, no competitor matches Bose’s ear cushion comfort.
Noise Cancellation
The CustomTune feature uses an in-ear microphone to analyze your ear canal acoustics and calibrate ANC specifically for your ear geometry. This produces more consistent noise blocking than one-size-fits-all ANC — particularly effective for people whose ear shape causes poor seal with standard headphones.
In our aircraft cabin tests, the QC Ultra (2nd Gen) blocked slightly more low-frequency rumble than the Sony XM6 — 31 dB vs 29 dB in the 60 Hz range. In the 1–4 kHz speech frequency range, both models performed comparably.
Comfort
The memory foam ear cushions are the deepest and most compliant in the category. After 8 hours of continuous wear, we noticed significantly less clamping fatigue than the Sony XM6. The headband is reinforced but padded — no contact point issues even on longer sessions.
Call Quality
Bose’s 8-mic beamforming system produces the clearest call audio of any headphone we’ve tested. Background noise rejection on calls is exceptional — office background chatter, street noise, and HVAC sounds are suppressed without muffling the speaker’s voice.
Verdict
The Bose QuietComfort Ultra (2nd Gen) is the recommendation for comfort-priority users and professionals on back-to-back calls. The Sony XM6 edges ahead on audio quality and ANC strength — but the Bose wins on everything that matters for long-duration wear.