How Bose’s new earbuds customize sound to your ear shape

Bose says its new earbuds cancel out the noise of the outside world better than any other consumer headphone, including over-the-ear models.

The earphones, called the QuietComfort Earbuds II, are a third smaller than their predecessor, each one weighing in at just a third of an ounce.

The Earbuds II come with three sizes of silicone ear tips, to better fit all ear sizes. They also include three sizes of “stabilizer band,” a ring of soft silicon around the middle of the earbud that molds to the shape of your outer ear, holding the earbud firmly in place, Bose says.

The company says the new QuietComforts feature a technology called “CustomTune” sound calibration technology, which is meant to tune both the noise cancellation and the audio playback to the unique shape of the user’s ear.

Bose engineer John Rule says the earphones emit a “light chime” sound into the user’s ear canal, then measure how the sound waves move inside that confined space. The audio processing technology in the earphones uses that data to customize the EQ of the music to the specific shape of the user’s ear. It also uses the data to customize the way the phones cancel out ambient noise.

Since I was not provided with a review unit, I can’t say how well this actually works. I can, however, say that the noise cancellation in the sister unit, the QuietComfort over-the-ear headphones, is impressively useful in noisy shared work environments and on plane flights.

[Photo: courtesy of Bose]
Bose was the first to bring noise cancellation to consumer headphones two decades ago. Bose CEO Lila Snyder says the company is challenging itself to help people manage the sounds they hear, even as media quality and listening environments continue to change.

“We feel like great sound has never been more at risk than it is today,” she says. “Not only is content being made at different quality levels—sometimes it’s studio-quality and amazing, sometimes it’s somebody on their iPhone recording a video that we’re watching—but our [consumers’] expectation is that all of that content is going to sound great. And we’re consuming it in more and more harsh environments: on the go, in our car. So we think there are so many exciting problems to be solved within that realm.”

The Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II will sell for $299 starting September 15, and will be available in tri-tone black only, though Bose says it will soon add a soapstone color.

https://www.fastcompany.com/90782756/how-boses-new-earbuds-customize-sound-to-your-ear-shape?partner=rss&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=rss+fastcompany&utm_content=rss

Creată 3y | 7 sept. 2022, 18:21:32


Autentifică-te pentru a adăuga comentarii

Alte posturi din acest grup

TikTok Notes is shutting down as Lemon8 steps in

TikTok is shutting down TikTok Notes—wait, you didn’t even know it existed? Well, that explains a lot.

TikTok Notes, the platform’s short-lived attempt to take on Instagram (just as Inst

3 apr. 2025, 19:40:05 | Fast company - tech
Women dominate online influencing. So why are they paid less?

Influencing has a major pay gap, and it’s not what you might expect. 

A new report from Collabstr, based on over 15,0

3 apr. 2025, 19:40:04 | Fast company - tech
An OpenAI ‘open’ model shows how much the company—and AI—has changed in two years

Welcome to AI DecodedFast Company’s weekly newsletter that breaks down the most important news in the world of AI. You can sign up to receive this newsletter every week 

3 apr. 2025, 17:20:11 | Fast company - tech
How Elon Musk’s political gambit could tarnish his legacy at Tesla

Tech leaders often brand themselves as “disruptors”—and few fit that label more snugly than Elon Musk. In the three months since joining Donald Trump in the White House following Trump’s election,

3 apr. 2025, 17:20:10 | Fast company - tech
Visa unveils a trio of new tools to make the payments process easier

At Visa’s ETA Transact event on April 3, the payments giant introduced three new products designed to simplify and secure payment acceptance. These innovations—Authorize.net 2.0, Unified Checkout,

3 apr. 2025, 12:40:06 | Fast company - tech
Straight Talk Wireless rolls out smartphone vending machines at Walmart stores

For those tired of waiting in line to buy a new smartphone or anxiously refreshing a delivery tracking site to make sure a new phone arrives intact, Verizon’s

3 apr. 2025, 10:30:03 | Fast company - tech