Bose is bringing active noise cancellation back to wired earbuds with its $99 Noise Cancelling Wired Earbuds, a USB-C model that skips Bluetooth pairing, charging cases and the familiar game of finding the one earbud that has escaped into another dimension.
Wired earbuds never actually disappeared, despite Apple’s 2016 decision to remove the headphone jack from the iPhone helping push the industry toward wireless audio. Their sales have reportedly risen this year after five years of decline, with fashion trends among younger listeners helping fuel the comeback. Practical benefits remain: wired earbuds need no battery of their own, and a cable makes losing one less straightforward.
Bose’s new pair is not a vintage 3.5mm revival. USB-C supplies the modest power needed for active noise cancellation (ANC), which standard analog headphone jacks generally cannot provide. Bose’s previous wired ANC earbuds, the QuietComfort 20 from 2013, used a rechargeable battery pack built into the cable. The new model does away with that extra hardware. USB-C headphones with ANC are still relatively uncommon, giving Bose a small but real niche.
The basic appeal is almost aggressively sensible: plug them into a compatible phone or computer and listen. There’s no Bluetooth setup, battery to charge or companion app to configure. The inline three-button remote handles volume, playback and ANC mode selection. Bose includes three ear-tip sizes and two sets of wings, and reviewer John Higgins of The Verge reports finding a comfortable fit.
In Higgins’ review, the noise cancellation performs well for the price, particularly against low-frequency sounds such as air conditioners and truck rumble. It is less effective against speech: conversation remains intelligible even with ANC on. The cancellation also falls short of Bose’s Bluetooth QuietComfort Earbuds, which have three microphones per side compared with two on this wired model. A faint hiss can be heard when ANC is active and nothing is playing.
Sound is another strength, according to the review. Vocals come through clearly, bass has punch without dominating, and the USB-C connection supports 24-bit/48kHz high-resolution audio. Higgins heard a modest increase in openness and spaciousness when comparing high-res streams of The Beatles’ Rubber Soul with CD-quality versions. That is a real distinction, if not the sort of revelation that requires a ceremonial listening room. The bright treble may be too prominent for some listeners, and without an app there is no equalizer to adjust it.
The wired connection also avoids Bluetooth’s potential audio-video lag. But there are compromises: the review flags mediocre call quality and distracting wind noise. These are not universal replacements for wireless earbuds, then. They are a $99 alternative for people who want ANC and straightforward audio without another device to charge—and who can live with a cable. The future spent years telling us wires were obsolete. Apparently, they were just waiting for USB-C.
Sources: Glitch Please! and The Verge — https://www.theverge.com/tech/1013320/bose-noise-cancelling-wired-earbuds-review — Review by John Higgins; product observations and listening impressions are attributed to the reviewer.
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