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Bose goes back to wires with $99 noise-cancelling earbuds that never need charging

Bose’s new Noise Cancelling Wired Earbuds plug into USB-C and take their power from the phone or laptop, so they cancel noise without a battery; they cost $99 and ship in mid-October.

· from 3 sites

What Bose announced

Bose has opened preorders for a pair of wired earbuds with active noise cancelling, called simply the Bose Noise Cancelling Wired Earbuds. They cost $99 and begin shipping on October 15 from Bose’s own store and Best Buy, 9to5Google reported; Engadget put the release in mid-October.

They come in black and a colour Bose calls White Smoke, and Engadget and Gizmodo both listed a limited-edition Dewdrop Mint as well.

How they work

The cable ends in USB-C rather than a headphone jack and runs 4.2 feet, according to Engadget and Gizmodo. Because the earbuds draw power through that plug, the noise cancelling runs without a battery to charge, which 9to5Google presented as the main appeal. The earbuds send a fixed 24-bit signal and work with any device that has a USB-C port, Android phones included, the site said. Despite the noise cancelling, there is no wireless mode and no battery at all; 9to5Google stressed that these are wired earbuds and nothing more.

Each earbud has two microphones listening to the room, four in all, which drive three modes: full noise cancelling, an Aware mode that lets outside sound through, and cancelling switched off, Engadget reported. A remote on the cable has physical buttons for volume, playback, calls and switching modes, with its own microphone for voice. The earbuds come with three sizes of ear tip and two of wing tip, and are rated IPX4 against splashes.

Why wired, and why now

Engadget linked the launch to a wider return of older formats, pointing to the revival of the portable CD player, and argued that a cable can carry lossless sound that wireless earbuds cannot match. Gizmodo simply declared that wired earbuds are back in fashion, without offering a reason.

The trade-offs

The USB-C design brings limits. Since the conversion from digital to analogue happens inside the earbuds, owners cannot route them through their own digital converter or headphone amplifier, 9to5Google noted, and they will not plug into an older 3.5-millimetre jack. Engadget, for its part, counted the lossless connection as the main reason to choose them over wireless pairs.

Key points

  • Bose’s Noise Cancelling Wired Earbuds cost $99 and ship on October 15, with preorders open now.
  • They plug into USB-C and take power from the device, so noise cancelling needs no battery.
  • Two microphones per earbud support full cancelling, an Aware mode and an off setting.
  • The design rules out a 3.5mm jack and outside digital converters or amplifiers.

Sources

rss.mobi wrote this story from what these sites reported; each report belongs to its publisher. Found a mistake? Write to rss-mobi@vvm.space.