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Headphones have come a long way since the old-school, plug-and-play contraptions wired directly to the cassette player hanging from your hip—orange foam ear coverings included. Now, the best wireless earbuds come with a variety of features, including selectable eartips, water-resistant materials, volume and playback touch controls and active noise cancellation.
The unique shape of each individual ear—especially the ear canal—affects how sound travels and how noise cancellation technology performs. QC Earbuds II are the world’s first headphones to counteract this effect using CustomTune technology. When the earbuds are placed in your ears, a chime is played that a microphone captures and measures to determine the best settings for each ear, ensuring that the sound is perfectly balanced when it reaches the eardrums. CustomTune technology also enhances active noise cancellation, particularly for sounds that are hardest to reduce, such as voices.
QC Earbuds II come with a “fit kit” that allows greater customisation of the ear-earbud interface, making them our most comfortable earbuds. The kit includes interchangeable eartips and stability bands to help you find the best fit for your ears. For instance, if the right ear has a wide canal but a small outer ear area, you can choose a large ear tip and small stability band for that side. For the left ear, you might find a different combination more comfortable, such as a medium ear tip and a medium stability band, depending on your preference. The ability to mix and match tips and bands provides you with 9 options to personalise your listening experience while ensuring the earbuds stay in your ears.
Bulky charging cases are tough to pocket, and reducing the size usually means losing charge capacity and power. With the QC Earbuds II, a compromise is no longer needed. We designed a case for the earbuds that’s 45% smaller and 25% thinner than the first generation QuietComfort® Earbuds case. In fact, the improved charging case now supplies three full charges, compared to just two before. The total package now provides up to 24 hours of listening time: up to six from the fully charged QC Earbuds II, and then up to an additional 18 hours with multiple charges from the case, making these our wireless earbuds with the longest battery life.
With the QC Earbuds II, we have shrunk more than the charging case. The new earbuds are 30% smaller than the first generation QuietComfort® Earbuds and have been redesigned to stick out less. The new low-profile design fits with the contours of the ears better and looks sleeker. You are also less likely to dislodge the small earbuds by bumping them, and they’re more comfortable to wear while lying in bed or relaxing on the couch since the fit is more flush with your ears.
Anyone who uses Bluetooth-enabled earbuds knows about the annoying blips, glitches and drop-outs that can break the signal. To strengthen the connection to your earbuds, we have upgraded the QC Earbuds II to the latest version, Bluetooth 5.3.
This new generation of Bluetooth technology offers a strong, continuous connection over a range of 9 metres. Another upgrade in channel classification reduces interference that could otherwise break the connection. It’s also more energy-efficient thanks to a reduction in the data that connected devices have to process. Additionally, Bluetooth 5.3 features a smoother shift from “low-duty” to “high-duty” functions, making it easier to switch from music to a phone call with no drop-off in performance.
When it comes to the music we love and the business we conduct, QC Earbuds II take performance to the next level, whether you’re listening to beats to boost a workout at the gym or your coworkers at the virtual meeting table at work. In fact, these five upgrades might just be what gives you a leg up, on the track or at the office.
