I am not much of a consumer of high-end earbuds with fancy features like ultra-advanced Active Noise Cancellation. My daily drivers are the Google Pixel Buds A-Series, which don’t feature ANC at all. And while I’ve used ANC headphones before, nothing I’ve ever tested comes even close to the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds 2, which I tried during and after the launch event in NYC.
As it turns out, I wasn’t the only one surprised by the noise cancellation in these true wireless earbuds. We were all in awe during the official demo. Bose claims these feature the “world’s best noise cancellation.” These things are insanely good at blocking external noise, and I can tell the technology has come a long way. But what happens once you take something like the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds 2 out of a controlled environment and into the real world? Is there such a thing as “too good” Active Noise Cancellation? I believe so.