Bose released the Ultra Open Earbuds earlier this year which looked more like jewelry from the future than earbuds. We liked them for their innovative design, great battery life, and excellent sound with minimal leakage. They’re also immensely comfortable—to the point where you could forget that you’re wearing them.
The company just gave one of our favorite open-ear buds a functionality that, if works exactly as promised, is pretty impressive, but there’s a slight caveat to it, too.
When you pair the Ultra Open with the Bose Smart Soundbar, the buds will double as the rear surround speakers in a traditional surround sound set-up. And since they sport an open-ear design, you’ll still be able to listen to the audio emanating from the soundbar. So, the soundbar is still your primary speaker in this setup, and the buds will complement the experience by adding another directional audio output.
The good thing about this is you won’t have to invest in extra speakers or worry about the physical space they would take in your lounge. The downside is that they’re unlikely to sound better than a standalone set of rear speakers.
Also, this setup only works if you use the Ultra Open with the $499 Bose Smart Soundbar, not the company’s entry-level $279 Bose TV Speaker soundbar, and not even with its higher-end offering, the $899 Smart Ultra Soundbar. This means you need a minimum investment of $800 (Ultra Open plus the Smart Soundbar) to enjoy the feature.
The Smart Soundbar is Bose’s refresh of its already existent Smart Soundbar 600 with a new feature, the AI Dialogue Mode. Debuted on the Smart Ultra Soundbar last fall, the mode tweaks the speaker’s audio stream in real time as soon as it detects speech in the content it’s playing. This guarantees improved clarity and promises to make sure the dialogue in your content isn’t taken over by the loud, overpowering background music.
The caveat on Bose’s new surround sound feature reminded me of Sonos limiting its latest Ace headphone’s audio swap feature to its high-end $899 Arc soundbar which defeats half the purpose of touting the feature on a $450 pair of headphones.
Bose’s new Gen 2 QuietComfort Earbuds join the soundbar refresh and surround sound upgrades. Priced at $179, these come with a lot of the same features the Gen 1s offered such as ANC and customizable gestures, but add one new functionality. With their new Remote Selfie feature, you can turn them into a remote camera trigger by telling them “Hey headphones” as soon as you’re done striking a pose. Your buds will instantly take a photo in your camera app.
via Gizmodo https://gizmodo.com/
September 18, 2024 at 08:04AM