Bose has put active noise cancellation into a pair of wired earbuds that cost $99 and never need to be charged. The Bose Noise Cancelling Wired Earbuds skip Bluetooth entirely, connecting over USB-C to a phone, tablet or laptop, and drawing power straight from that device instead of an internal battery.
There's no 3.5mm option either. SoundGuys, which published a review of the earbuds on Thursday, notes the USB-C connection isn't a simple analog wire. Bose runs digital signal processing on the earbuds themselves to handle sound and noise cancellation, so the audio arrives as a digital signal rather than an old-school wired feed.
That setup gets you three listening modes, Quiet, Aware and ANC Off, cycled through a three-button inline remote with a built-in microphone. Voice prompts announce which mode is active. There's no companion app, no EQ customization and no multipoint or Auracast, the kind of omissions you'd expect once Bluetooth is off the table.
The build is plastic, with shallow-fitting silicone tips, stabilizer wings and an IPX4 water-resistance rating, so sweat is fine but a dunk isn't. Bose includes three tip sizes and two wing sizes in the box, along with a carrying case. One catch: the cable isn't replaceable, so a damaged cord means a damaged pair of earbuds at the $99 price point.
SoundGuys ran its standard ANC measurements against the earbuds and found they cut the perceived loudness of outside noise by an average of 82.3% with ANC switched on. With ANC off, passive isolation from the silicone tips alone reduced noise by 57%, according to the outlet's tests.
For context, SoundGuys measured Bose's own QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) at 85% noise reduction, the Sony WF-1000XM6 at 88%, and the Apple AirPods Pro 3 at 90% in the same testing. That puts the $99 wired pair within a few points of Bose's flagship wireless earbuds, even though it trails the best of the current wireless crop.
The outlet's measurements show ANC doing its heaviest lifting in the bass range, cutting roughly 30 to 40 dB across low frequencies, useful against engine rumble, transit noise and air conditioning hum. Higher frequencies lean more on passive isolation, and SoundGuys' reviewer reported still hearing kids playing outside, nearby voices and even keyboard clicks through the earbuds with ANC running.
Cable noise was another issue flagged in testing. It was manageable at a desk, the reviewer wrote, but became noticeable while cycling, with the cord rubbing against a helmet strap, and the inline remote brushing a jacket zipper in Aware mode.
Bose hasn't been quoted on pricing for other markets, and the $99 figure applies to the US listing cited by SoundGuys. Whether the earbuds land in India or elsewhere, and at what price, hasn't been addressed in the reporting so far.
GDFiled by The Gadgets Desk
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