Bose Releases Lighter QuietComfort Headphones That Bring Features from Ultra - DTNS 5326

**Tom Merritt** (0:08)
This is the Daily Tech News for Thursday, August 6th, 2026 We tell you what you need to know, give you important context, and help each other understand.

**Huyen Tue Dao** (0:17)
Today is home theater day on the show, yay! We have the new Dolby Vision 2 for HiSense, a new sun bar that doesn't need a subwoofer, and Bose's first new QuietComfort headphones in three years.

**Tom Merritt** (0:30)
Yeah, I like this. Good stuff to talk about today. I'm Tom Merritt.

**Huyen Tue Dao** (0:35)
I'm Wynne Dweadale.

**Tom Merritt** (0:35)
Let's start with what you need to know with that big story.
So yeah, Bose has launched an update to its ubiquitous QuietComfort headphones found in first class and business class cabins around the world, as well as a lot of people's houses.
This is the first update to QuietComfort in three years. So let's go through a few of the improvements. Cinema mode, making dialogue clearer on movies and TV, very popular feature these days in audio on televisions.
Immersive audio, which used to be exclusive to the Ultra series. In fact, a lot of the Ultra features are coming to the regular QuietComforts.
This uses motion sensors in the headphones so you can mimic a 3D soundstage. And when you look to the left, you get closer to the sound, that kind of thing. Spatial audio basically. USB-C audio is now supported. No longer get a 2.5, 3.5 mm headphone jack. You get USB-C two-way audio. So you can use them wired if you want and get 24-bit, 48 kHz lossless audio. And because it's two-way, it helps you sound better too if you're using those headphones on a video conference. You can also use them while charging. So when you're plugged in to USB-C for listening, it can charge off of your device. And they say battery life is 24 hours, so hopefully you won't even have to do that all that long. There are also unsurprising improvements like, oh, the noise cancellation got better. One of the ways it got better is, Bose says it can compensate for gaps in the cup seal. So if you wear glasses, you might have a little gap there. It's going to compensate better. And then ActiveSense can handle sudden spikes in noise. You know, I don't know, car honking, something like that. Headband has a sliding design. Cushions are more cushiony and now more oval. They call them pill shaped. Supposedly that's going to make them more comfortable. And the new second gen Bose QuietComfort headphones are available for preorder on August 8th, shipping August 13th for $359.

**Huyen Tue Dao** (2:38)
Oh, so exciting. Bose QuietComfort, the, I don't know, would you call it like the poster child or like the OG or the?

**Tom Merritt** (2:44)
Yeah, poster child's kind of kind of the way, because I know there are varying opinions.
It used to be that like the serious audiophiles were like, Bose aren't that great. Then there was a backlash of like new audiophiles saying, those old audiophiles are being unfairly harsh on Bose. They're better than you think. But I think it's, the truth is somewhere in between. Like Bose headphones are pretty good. Maybe they are not the very best that you could possibly get, but for $359, you know, that's a mid-range price. You get probably better than mid-range audio quality.

**Huyen Tue Dao** (3:18)
It does sound good. So this is so funny because recently I met a new friend who works at Sony, like Sony in Japan.

**Tom Merritt** (3:25)
Oh yeah.

**Huyen Tue Dao** (3:25)
And I had mentioned, because he actually worked on the Sony, I'm going to get the name of that wrong, but basically the pairing app on your phone. I think it's Sony Sound Connect. So anyway, we were talking about stuff and he was letting me know that they had just released their Sony collection at COLEXION.
And they sounded great. They're very high-end. They're much more expensive than any kind of like the usual suspects. I think even either as expensive or a little more expensive than the AirPods Max. Anyway, I bought them because I'm also just a sucker for the Sony's, but also I kind of just had credit card points to spend. But what came up was that these particular headphones, even though they are so expensive and they are rather new, don't have USB-C audio. And to be honest, even as someone who wears like headphones constantly between programming, work and traveling all the time, I actually, not that, honestly, I didn't really know USB-C audio was a thing because it's because I just didn't. Maybe that makes me a bad tech person now, but I didn't. And I was chatting with some friends and it feels like for a lot of people, USB-C audio is now a deal breaker when it comes to headphones. Do you feel that way? Like, do you use USB-C audio?