Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II set to get a lossless audio upgrade in 2023
Does a new platform from Qualcomm mean Bose’s next QuietComfort earbuds will be lossless?
Iconic purveyor of quality sound Bose is set to introduce a new software update for its excellent QuietComfort Earbuds II early next year. They’re being upgraded to support Qualcomm’s aptX Adaptive and aptX Lossless codecs which are compatible with a wide range of phones and are backwards compatible with aptX and aptX HD.
The true wireless buds are already pretty good – we awarded them a full five stars in our review, saying that “you can’t do better” when it comes to noise cancellation and calling them a “seriously competitive” package. Originally they only supported the SBC and AAC codecs, so the move to support aptX Adaptive and Lossless is very welcome.
The announcement was made courtesy of chip maker Qualcomm who Bose previously teamed up with earlier this year for deeper collaboration on future products. So it doesn’t take a genius to make the leap that Bose will be using Qualcomm’s brand new S5 Gen 2 chip inside future products. That chip is capable of 16bit lossless audio but promises tiny latency of 48ms and is launching alongside the S3 Gen 2.
The new platform also has various enhancements to make noise cancellation and transparency mode more effective and also introduces head-tracking spatial audio tech (if you have a compatible Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 phone) and can provide lossless over low-energy Bluetooth LE Audio, too.
Update 17/11: An earlier version of this story said that the earbuds would get an update with aptX Adaptive only
Dan Grabham
Editor-in-Chief 
