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Home / News / Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II set to get a lossless audio upgrade in 2023

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?

Bose Qualcomm

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.

Qualcomm S3 S5

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

Profile image of Dan Grabham Dan Grabham Editor-in-Chief

About

Dan is Editor-in-chief of Stuff, working across the magazine and the Stuff.tv website.  Our Editor-in-Chief is a regular at tech shows such as CES in Las Vegas, IFA in Berlin and Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as well as at other launches and events. He has been a CES Innovation Awards judge. Dan is completely platform agnostic and very at home using and writing about Windows, macOS, Android and iOS/iPadOS plus lots and lots of gadgets including audio and smart home gear, laptops and smartphones. He's also been interviewed and quoted in a wide variety of places including The Sun, BBC World Service, BBC News Online, BBC Radio 5Live, BBC Radio 4, Sky News Radio and BBC Local Radio.

Areas of expertise

Computing, mobile, audio, smart home