There are no perfect headphones or ear buds. Technology complicates everything. It was so much easier when there were wires ending in that good old-fashioned headphone jack. The only thing that mattered was the sound, and perhaps fit and comfort. Easy. Now, there is so much more to consider. And it is all awful. Earbuds are better than ever. And yet they are just awful. I hate them all, even the ones I love.

Rather than talk about the sound quality right away, I want to talk about all the things that go into the modern earphone calculous. If I have done my job right, by the time I’m done, You will hate them too. Here we go:

Size

Already, we run into a problem. These buds are big by my estimation. But what is the right size for earphones? Nobody knows. I have no idea. I suspect they are too big if they look big while you are wearing them. They are too big if you can feel them bulging in your ear. They are too big if the case is too big. By all these subjective measures, the Bose QC buds are too big.

That said, so are the PowerBeats Pro. Apple’s AirPods Pro are not too big. They are almost too small as they could use some buttons, and maybe longer battery life per charge. Almost every wireless earphone I have seen has some issue with size. Apple has cracked the code. But if manufacturers want to compete in the sound and ANC category without aping Apple, the rule seems to be go big or go home. Bose went big.

Fit

I usually love the fit of Bose earphones. Bose was the first to make in-ear buds that I could wear comfortably. I fell in love with them a long time ago for that. These are the first in-ear Bose that leaves me questioning fit and comfort. The medium tips are a little small and the large are a little large. I think the problem is the size and weight of the buds. Those clever hooks that hold them in your ears are being asked to do a lot more work than before. They are barely up to the task.

That said, your milage may vary. There are three sizes of hooks. Just be prepared that the size hook that has worked for you in the past may feel a little strained with these new buds. They don’t feel quite as secure in my ears. Again, it is because those hooks are being asked to do more than hooks should be asked to do. I don’t think they will fall out. But I have to keep reaching up and fiddling with the right bud because I just have to be sure. That has never been an issue with any Bose I have had in the past.

Battery

Which is more important? Is it the amount of charge the earbuds can hold before needing to be refreshed? Or is it the total amount of charge you get including recharges with the case? To me, it is all about the amount of charge you get before having to take them out and putting them in the box.

PowerBeats are the clear winner. They can go for 9 hours away from the box. I wear them out of the house without bringing the case. That is a good thing because the case is frigging huge. AirPods Pro are the worst at 4 1/2 hours when using ANC or Transparency mode. And of course, you will always want to be using one or the other.

The QC sit in the middle with 6 hours. It is unclear if that is with ANC. I don’t know if I trust them enough to walk out for a long excursion without the case. And that is too bad because the case is also too big for casual pocket lint.

These are just a few things you have to consider in this brave new world of earphones. If they didn’t have to be independent, they wouldn’t have to accommodate big batteries. They wouldn’t require buttons and other mechanisms to control your music. They wouldn’t need a case. The case wouldn’t have to also be a battery pack. All of these realities require major compromises. Oh, before I forget…

Bluetooth

If you don’t hate bluetooth by now, you just don’t use it enough. Bless your heart. Headphone bluetooth is its own special brand of hell. Apple uses its own blend of bluetooth and other ingredients to do connectivity. Whatever Apple is doing, it works well. PowerBeats benefit from the same black magic.

Bose has always done its own thing. They used to post that you could pair with 6 different devices at once, And the earphones would stay live with the last two devices you used. That pairing trick seems to be a thing of the past. It feels like a digression unless there is something I’m missing. You can pair with a few things. But you have to actively switch to each device you want to use.

iOS 14 and Big Sur makes that feel old and busted, because it is. With the new OSs, Apple’s ear worms just automatically switch to whatever device you start using. Automatic switching is a killer feature. Bose was not invited to the party. And I now hate having to manually connect to the headphones. It is like wearing a wire. Yuck!

You also don’t have that magic pairing with which Apple is spoiling us. Pairing is harder than it needs to be. Pressing and holding the button inside the case puts the earbuds into pairing mode. Its fine. But again, it feels like a regression. Also, yuck!

Sound

Here is where the QCs win back all their lost points. Oh, my god! The sound quality is like Bose took the 700s and shrunk them down to the size of earbuds and crammed them into your ears. I have heard a lot of headphones in my day. These are the best earbuds by a mile, and maybe the best headphones of any kind. Dang!

Think of sound as having three different colors: treble, mid, and bass. It is a lot more complicated than that. But lets go with that useful fiction. If one of those colors is too strong, that’s all you can hear. If one of them is too weak, that weakness stands out. If you don’t hear any of the three colors in particular, the balance is just right. The sound is transparent. That is how I would describe the sound of these earphones.

That said, no one wants transparent sound these days. They want a curated color profile for the kind of music they like. So lets talk about bass.

There is the kind of base that things with small, flat speakers cannot reproduce thanks to our old nemesis, physics. No matter how hard manufacturers try, they can’t win that battle. Apple’s MacBook Pro 16” boast the best speakers on any laptop, ever. They can’t produce the kind of bass I am talking about. Your phone can’t do it. Your tablet can’t do it. And your bookshelf speakers might not be able to do it. For great bass, you have to move lots of air.

Headphones can do it because they are very close to your ears. So they are moving enough air relative to the distance to your brain. Even so, most earbuds don’t have the stuff for truly good, thumpy bass. Bose has cracked the code. If you want bass. These will be your best buds. I’m not talking about the bad bass from the bad old days of Beats. I’m talking about the good base that cuts right through to your soul even when the music isn’t loud or boomy. It is not like whip cream on top. It is more like truffles. It tastes like something you can’t afford. But it is totally worth it.

I thought I would take this excellent base and max it out. So I went into my music settings and gave it Bass boost to see if that would break it. Do that to the wrong music at the wrong volume and you will need to be checked for concussion. Your brain is going to rattle. The interesting thing is adding that EQ setting didn’t break the rest of the sound. Don’t get me wrong. You don’t need to do this, and probably shouldn’t do it. But if you are a real base head. Bang away, brother. As for the rest of you, You can’t handle the bass. So don’t add the bass boost. Its stupid. It just happens to be my kind of stupid. You’ve been warned.

Bring on the funk, bring on the noise (canceling)

Bose and Sony have been battling it out for the active noise canceling (ANC) crown. I don’t have experience with Sony’s ANC. I can’t judge. But I do know every Bose ANC headphones since the beginning. The ANC on these earbuds is as good as the ANC in the Bose 700s. If those are the best, these are the best.

Nothing eliminates all sound so that you are functionally deaf. But they do eliminate sound to that point that the stomping upstairs is like the footfalls of a ninja. The loud TV in the next room is like soft library whispers. Your cat right in front of you demanding that you give her another bowl of that expensive pâté you really can’t afford does not phase you. It’s worth it for that, alone.

Bose lets you choose somewhere around 10 gradients of ANC in the app. I refuse to use the app. If you are not as allergic to the Bose app as I am, you can set up three presets from full ANC to full transparency mode, and everything in between. There are three levels of ANC by default. Those defaults are just fine.

Really, don’t use utility apps that force you to create an account. It is unnecessary, stupid, and dangerous. That is just one more place that has your login that you know will be hacked and used to unlock the rest of your kingdom. Shame on Bose and every other company that opts for useless logins. At least they use Sign-in with Apple. If you must use the app, use Sign-in with Apple.

Controls

I like buttons and I hate all attempts to fake having buttons. You know what is just as good as buttons? Nothing. That’s what. These buds have no buttons. The PowerBeats have the best controls of them all. They have buttons for everything. And every function can be accessed from either ear. You can leave the house one just one of the PowerBeats and lose nothing when it comes to controls and features. Not so with QC.

There is no way to change the value from the QCs. For some, that is a deal-breaker. But then, those people will not be using the AirPods Pro, either. If you can get over that, there are more compromises to hurdle. You have to tap to control. I hate tapping things that are in my ears. The sound in your ear is disturbing and a little painful.

Double-tap the left ear to cycle through ANC options. Double-tap the right ear to start and stop content, answer and hang up calls. Tap once and hold to bring up Siri. If you need to fiddle with the right earpiece for fit and comfort, expect to bring up Siri by accident, a lot. You will curse. When you are done cursing, just put on some Randy Travis and all will be forgiven.

Conclusion: Only if you are crazy about sound

And that’s the thing about the QC buds. You have a lot you have to forgive. There are more compromises than usual. This whole product category is a compromise sandwich. There are a handful of desirable features sandwiched between huge slices of compromise, crusts and all.

You have to forgive the large size of the buds and the case. You have to forgive the slightly odd fit and feel in your ear. You have to forgive the middling battery life. You have to forgive the backward step in pairing and bluetooth connectivity. You have to forgive the tap-tap control scheme and the lack of volume controls. And while this is the first I am mentioning it, you also have to forgive the $279 price tag.

All you have to hang your hat on, really, is the stellar sound quality and ANC that are so good, they forgive a multitude of technical fouls. Is it enough? I don’t know if it is for me. It really has to be all about the sound. Are you an audiophile with golden ears? You are going to love these headphones. If you are a commuter to or from a noisy metropolitan, you are going to love these earphones.

Requiring a utility app to access functions is bad. Requiring you set up an account just to harvest your email address is unforgivable. I mentioned switching devices being harder than it needs to be. You have to have the case to do it. If you are listening to something on your iPad and want to take a call on your watch, you have to press the button inside the case and reconnect the watch. You cannot just select the headphones from a list because when they are not being used by the device, they are not in the list. It is stupid beyond measure. You just have to get over it.

Is all this worth great ANC and pristine audio. It might have been 10 years ago. But the world has moved on. And in some ways, Bose has moved backward. Sound quality isn’t everything. You have to also consider the experience of using the device and how nicely it plays with the rest of your ecosystem. If you are an Apple person, you almost have to have AirPods Pro or PowerBeats.

That is why, as an Apple guy, it pains me that I cannot recommend these earbuds. They are too expensive for the compromises you have to make. These are the best sounding earphones you shouldn’t buy.

The search for the perfect set of earphones continues.

David Johnson