Bose introduces some new audio gear : QuietComfort 20 and the SoundLink Mini

Bose recently launched two premium class products – QuietComfort 20 Earphones and the SoundLink Mini dock.

QuietComfort 20 belongs to an advanced class of earphones. These are the first in-ear noise canceling head phones from Bose.

These earphones have everything that you would expect from an expensive product, a decent design and an amazing sound quality. We’ve had a hands-on with the earphones and we tried a variety of genres, from rock to the blues and we think that THIS PERFORMS. The product is meant to be used in environments that have an intense amount of background noise. The extent to which the the disturbances are suppressed is remarkable.

How does the noise cancellation work?
The Bose engineers have placed two tiny microphones in each ear bud; one senses the sound approaching, the other measures the sound inside. The measurements are sent to a digital electronic chip located on the control module which calculates an equal and opposite noise cancelation signal with in milliseconds. Bose uses its TriPort technology and its ports to increase the effective acoustic space and in turn to deliver improved audio performance.

Another impressive utility that has been added is the Aware mode. This feature enables you to listen to your music as well as your surroundings which could possibly be a friend speaking, a car honk or an announcement at the airport. Your music is adjusted so that it allows the required amount of background sound to come in.

It has a battery life of 16 hours but you could continue listening to your music without active noise cancellation for a little longer. You can find these in the market in September at the price of Rs 22,388.

The earphones have a peculiar design just made to fit perfectly in your ear. It has a stay here+ ear bud to support your earphone and prevent it from falling off.

The QuietComfort 20 also has the standard control cluster that works with Apple devices, Windows Phones, Android devices and BlackBerries.

The issue that we faced and you are likely to confront is that the aware mode is rendered useless when listening to music at louder volumes.

Next came the SoundLink Mini Bluetooth dock. At 680 grams, it weighs about half of what the SoundLink dock does. This dock is claimed to be scratch proof and fingerprint proof, and also has anodized aluminum frame. Our experience with the dock was fairly good. Switching the dock to high volumes did not affect the audio clarity or quality which is pretty good for a dock this small. And they come with colorful covers.

The dock is built in with 2 passive radiators and had custom built transducers, which allows twice the amount of air to flow making it capable of delivering low base as well as a large spectrum of notes perfectly. This mechanism is a hard one to replicate. Bose has an integrated it’s custom DSP and is capable of storing up to 6 Bluetooth devices. It has a performance span of seven hours. SoundLink Mini will be available for Rs 16,200 in September.

Overall, the products are worth the premium price.