Bose QuietComfort Ultra 2: A Beloved Choice, Now $50 Discounted

Bose QuietComfort Ultra 2: A Beloved Choice, Now $50 Discounted

Bose’s QuietComfort Ultra 2 earbuds are presently the leading noise-canceling earbuds on the market. They are currently available at a $50 reduction, aligning with the best pricing typically seen outside major sales occasions like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. While waiting until November may lower the price back to $200, $250 still represents a sensible deal—particularly since the price frequently rises back to $300. The reduced price applies to all five color variants, including Black, Deep Plum, Desert Gold, Midnight Violet, and White Smoke, which is unusual as typically only the vibrant colors receive discounts.

These earbuds excel at blocking out distracting sounds, whether you’re trying to concentrate by looping 10 hours of Coconut Mall or dealing with aircraft noise such as wailing infants or strange noises. The active noise cancellation greatly improves your audio experience.

Featuring advanced noise cancellation, Bose’s QuietComfort Ultra 2 earbuds also deliver remarkable sound quality with a custom profile designed for your unique ear shape, and an app is available for EQ adjustments, touch controls, and spatial audio configurations. They offer around six hours of battery life, or 24 hours with the charging case. The earbuds come equipped with an Aware mode that allows outside sounds in while dampening the loudest noises, making it ideal for being aware of your environment without unexpected interruptions.

These earbuds are highly proficient, providing crystal-clear call quality, exceptional audio, and a contemporary aesthetic, although they may not be comfortable for those with very small ears. In summary, they offer substantial value at their full price, so saving $50 is an additional perk.

For anyone considering other headphone alternatives, supplementary guides on the finest wireless earbuds, workout headphones, noise-canceling headphones, and open earbuds are available to assist in finding the ideal pair for your requirements.

Sonos Play Evaluation: Merging Efficiency and Ease

Sonos Play Evaluation: Merging Efficiency and Ease

It’s more streamlined and mobile than the bulky Move, yet sufficiently large to provide a fuller sound in comparison to the compact Roam. It can stay put on its charging stand like the home-focused Sonos Era 100, or follow you wherever you go. Fundamentally, it represents Sonos’ versatility, and now that it’s operating smoothly, it’s hard to resist.

Keep Playing

The unboxing of the Play’s brown cardboard box exudes a blend of Scandinavian elegance and sustainability, mirroring recent items like the Arc Ultra soundbar. Inside, a white cloth reveals a sturdy, cylindrical speaker with a rubber loop, measuring 7.6 x 4.4 x 3 inches and weighing just under 3 pounds. It comes with simple setup instructions and a wireless charging dock, but no wall adapter. You will need an adapter that supplies at least 9 volts and 2 amps (18 watts), but a 15-volt, 3-amp (45-watt) one is optimal for “best” charging. Sonos states that omitting the adapter is to help minimize e-waste, though they’ll offer one for $29.

Other than this, the Sonos app is all that’s needed for setup. Following a mandatory firmware upgrade, my Play was connected to my home network in minutes. Sonos directly supports over 100 streaming services, and you can also stream through third-party platforms like Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, Apple AirPlay, and others. The speaker appears as a separate “Room” on the app’s main page, allowing you to swipe to pair it with other Sonos devices on your network, or access settings to modify features like EQ, Room name (crucial if you own more than one Play), and Sonos Trueplay for audio tuning to your surroundings.

A Battery Saver feature is available by default, powering down after being idle for too long. This feature, according to Sonos, caused the connection issues I faced while confirming the speaker’s 24-hour battery life claim. Sonos has pinpointed the main issue, and after the firmware update, I’ve let the speaker power down multiple times without experiencing any subsequent network problems during a week of further testing.