If your upcoming holiday plans include a lot of travel, having a pair of noise-cancelling earbuds can help make the flight or train ride a little less chaotic. Bose’s second-generation QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds are among the best noise-canceling earbuds we’ve tested recently, and they’re on sale for a new all-time low of around $249 ($50 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target.
The earbuds’ ability to nearly eliminate low-frequency noises (think plane engines) without playing any audio was particularly impressive, as was their ability to minimize (but not fully block) the sound of people talking around you. Bose allows you to adjust the intensity of the earbuds’ active noise cancellation if you find wearing them to feel too isolating. You can also switch to the earbuds’ transparency or Aware modes to allow some outside noises to filter in, which can make you feel more connected to the outside world.
Out of the box, the second-generation QuietComfort Ultra earbuds sound a little bass heavy, and higher frequencies can be accentuated to the point that listening at high volumes can feel fatiguing. However, you can adjust their three-band EQ to customize their sound to your tastes. The earbuds’ Immersive Audio feature includes head tracking, which can make it sound like you’re listening to music on a pair of speakers if you’d prefer.
The latest QuietComfort Ultra earbuds are bulkier than Sony and Apple’s latest earbuds, and they only last up to six hours per charge (you can get two hours of music playback off a 20 minute charge), but their ANC performance still makes them a great choice for travelers.