Bose QuietComfort 2nd Gen Arrives in August With a Fresh Design and USB-C Lossless Audio

Bose has a QuietComfort upgrade coming, and it’s more than the usual refresh cycle. The second-generation model, which leaked through French publication Dealabs Magazine, brings a full redesign — pill-shaped ear cups, a wider adjustable headband, and more synthetic leather — alongside features that QuietComfort users have been asking for since the first edition landed in 2023.

The most practical upgrade is USB-C lossless audio. On the current QuietComfort and QuietComfort Ultra models, the USB-C port handles charging only. The 2nd Gen finally lets you pipe high-fidelity audio directly over the wired connection, which matters if you care about sound quality and already carry a USB-C cable for your laptop or phone.

Bose is also rolling out what it calls TrueSpatial, an immersive spatial audio mode, alongside new listening presets: an Immersion mode, a Cinema mode tuned for video content, and a simple “noise canceling off” option. These replace the first-gen’s rather limited personalization system, which only offered a wind-noise reduction toggle.

The ActiveSense transparency mode gets smarter too. It now automatically tones down sharp, sudden environmental noises while you’re in transparency mode — so a jackhammer outside won’t blast your ears, but normal conversation still comes through clearly. Call quality is also supposed to improve, with better background noise suppression on the microphone side.

Battery life holds steady at 24 hours with ANC on, dropping to 18 hours if you keep TrueSpatial running the whole time. The headphones will ship in at least six color options at launch.

Pricing lands at $359 in the US (€349.95 in Europe). For context, the original QuietComfort launched at $349 and the Ultra variant at $429, so Bose is slotting this right in the middle. The official announcement is expected around August 7, with pre-orders opening the same day and retail availability on August 13.

Whether the redesign and feature updates are enough to justify an upgrade depends on how much you use the current model. But the lossless audio support alone is a meaningful addition — it closes one of the bigger gaps between Bose and competitors like Sony and Sennheiser, who’ve offered USB-C audio on their premium headphones for a while now.