Open-back wireless headphones (OWS headphones) are getting more and more popular.
There may still be readers who don't know much about this category, so let's briefly introduce it:Open-back headphones are a new type of wireless headphones that can hear sound without putting headphones in your ears, and are mainly divided into bone conduction headphones and air conduction headphones according to the sound transmission method, both of which allow users to hear sound in a special way.
Bose Official).
I experienced a bone conduction headphone a few years ago, and it left a pretty good impression on me, the only two flaws are the inconvenient storage and the sound quality is average. Now, I'm looking at another category – air-conduction open-back headphones – to experience the main character of our article today – the Bose Ultra open-back headphones.
The Bose Ultra open-back headphones have a very unique shape, and there are no similarities compared to mainstream TWS headphones, and I didn't even know how to wear them at first. Once you have figured out its structure, it will be able to clip it to your ear very naturally, just like an ear clip.
Produced by Lei Technology).
Xiao Lei has experienced an ear clip-on headphone, but the connecting stem part of that earphone is completely fixed, and it can only exert its maximum strength in the ears of some users。The soft silicone grip of the Bose Ultra open-back headphones allows you to adjust the angle so you don't have to have one way to wear them.
Produced by Lei Technology).
And the clip-on design offers another advantage: it's comfortable to wear. Because it does not need to be plugged into the ear cavity, and it does not need to be hung on the ear, it will not bring additional burden to the ear. During the Chinese New Year, I wore it for more than 4 hours in a row, and I didn't feel any foreign body, just knowing that I had something stuck in my ear. If you're like me and wear earrings in a habit of it, it's easier to wear.
Produced by Lei Technology).
Compared with the traditional earhook design, the ear clip design will not squeeze the back of the ear, so it will not cause a feeling of foreign body pressure on the back of the ear for a long time, and the comfort is definitely T1 level. Compared to regular in-ear headphones, Bose Ultra open-back headphones do have a more comfortable wearing experience when worn for long periods of time. But Xiao Lei wants to remind everyone here:Wearing Bose Ultra open-back headphones should also give your ears time to rest, after all, hearing loss is irreversible, and maintaining correct, healthy ear habits is important and will benefit you for a lifetime.
Produced by Lei Technology).
In addition, the biggest advantage of open-back headphones is not the sound quality and noise cancellation, but the suitability for a wider range of use cases.
In the past, I always struggled between wearing and not wearing headphones when riding, wearing it will bury a lot of potential safety hazards, but if I don't wear it, I feel a little bored because I can't hear it, open-back headphones are born for these scenes, and the unique way of sound and sound transmission allows people to listen to ** while retaining the perception of external sounds, especially when walking outdoors, you can hear the ** sound from the headphones and the sound of traffic horns from the outside world at the same time, instead of ignoring the sound of the outside world like in-ear headphones.
Produced by Lei Technology).
In particular, the design of the open-back headphones allows air to circulate better around the ears, reducing moisture around the ears and fundamentally eliminating the appearance of symptoms such as otitis media.
Bose Ultra open-back headphones are indeed the most comfortable wireless headphones I've worn recently, but can they break new ground when it comes to the birth defect of open-back headphones: sound quality?
According to my previous experience with open-back headphones and my colleagues, its sound quality is really audible, and being able to hear ** and navigation voice clearly accomplishes its mission. Because open-back headphones are different from traditional headphones, their sound generating units will be exposed to the air, resulting in a loss of sound quality during the propagation process, which is a congenital defect that can hardly be remedied.
However, this does not mean that open-back headphones can lie flat in terms of sound quality, and Bose Ultra open-back headphones are trying to be better in terms of sound quality.
Bose has redesigned the position of the driver to effectively reduce the frequency and resonance of sound reflections inside the headphones, resulting in a more natural and realistic listening experience, especially in the details of the human voice, the Bose Ultra open-back headphones are quite well restored.
In the case of Quicksand, for example, I could clearly hear a lot of instrumental notes in the background, which were dynamic but just right, without affecting the vocals and high-frequency performance of the main song. And Bose has also turned the permeability, which was originally a bit of a disadvantage, into an advantage, bringing a fairly good performance in the high and mid frequencies, and also having a very unique airy sensation , if you are new to Bose Ultra open-back headphones, you will definitely be impressed by this peculiar airy feeling.
Produced by Lei Technology).
In the low-frequency part, the performance of the Bose Ultra open-back headphones can only be said to be numb. The design of open-back headphones is destined not to bring the same sense of closure as traditional headphones, and the performance of other Bose audio products in low frequency has not been particularly good.
Produced by Lei Technology).
When I connected the Bose Ultra open-back headphones to the Bose**app, I found some clues and in the October Bose QC Noise Cancelling Headphones Ultra review, I was surprised by the new immersive audio introduced by Bose, which is probably the first manufacturer other than Apple to truly bring spatial audio to the top of the industry. When you turn on immersive audio in the Bose**app, you can feel that the sound field of the headphones is instantly expanded several times, and the sound coming out of the headphones has changed from simple binaural to a more three-dimensional 3D sound source.
Produced by Lei Technology).
The Bose Ultra open-back headphones are also equipped with this function, which inevitably makes me a little surprised and incomprehensible, how does an open-back headphone transplant the functions on the noise-canceling headphones to itself, even if the transplant is really successful, can it really bring the effect as expected?
Produced by Lei Technology).
Audiophiles know that in order to achieve true immersive audio, if it is a fixed speaker, a large number of sound generating units are required, such as a home theater, which is generally composed of a subwoofer, a center speaker, two front speakers and two rear speakers, and then through special placement and debugging to bring an immersive sound experience; In the case of headphones, use chips and algorithms to simulate spatial perception and fixed speakers, like the Bose QC Noise Cancelling Headphones Ultra AirPods Pro, to achieve a multi-channel effect.
If wireless earphones want to achieve an immersive effect, they can only use the computing power of the chip and their own algorithms, both of which are indispensable, otherwise they will either greatly weaken the sound quality for this special effect, or they will not be able to follow them at all.
In terms of immersion, the performance of the Bose Ultra open-back headphones is surprising. After turning on"Immersive audio",I can still intuitively feel that the entire sound field has become several times larger,The channel has indeed changed from an ordinary two-channel channel to a stereo channel,The sound**will change according to the movement of your head,No matter which way the head turns, it can keep **In a relative position,More sense of presence。
Produced by Lei Technology).
Unfortunately, all of the above experiences are achieved in a relatively quiet environment, and in outdoor scenes such as airports, stations, and shopping malls, the immersive sound of Bose Ultra open-back headphones will be about 60% off. Therefore, it is recommended to turn on the default mode when using Bose Ultra open-back headphones in outdoor scenes.
Sound leakage is an unavoidable problem with open-back headphones, and some of the worse open-back headphones will have obvious sound leakage at around 30% volume – that is, allowing others to hear the sound coming from the headphones, which not only loses sound quality, but also puts yourself in an embarrassing situation. The Bose Ultra open-back headphones will clear the leaked ** signal by counter-canceling the signal, so that there will be no sound leakage when listening**watching** and playing ** when using it.
Produced by Lei Technology).
The measured results are as follows: at 50% volume, Bose Ultra open-back headphones can't hear anything at all from 30cm away, and the distance is shortened to about 15cm to hear a little sound, which is comparable to many half-fit headphones.
Overall, the Bose Ultra open-back headphones didn't surprise me much in terms of sound quality, but they were up to expectations, after all, it is almost impossible to make the sound quality of open-back headphones comparable to that of in-ear headphones. Although the improvement in sound quality is not large, it is enough to see Bose's efforts and persistence, and we have reason to believe that Bose will bring infinite possibilities to the audio improvement of open-back headphones in the future.
Let's briefly summarize the advantages and disadvantages of Bose Ultra.
Advantages: 1. Comfortable to wear, you won't feel tired after wearing it for a long time;
2. Bose ancestral tuning skills**, good sound quality;
3. There is almost no sound leakage;
4. It is more suitable for special scenarios such as sports, and is more conducive to ear health (compared with in-ear headphones and closed-back headphones);
Disadvantages: 1. The performance of immersive audio is not particularly good;
2. The performance of low frequency is very average.
Bose Ultra open-back earphones have been opened for pre-sale on JD.com, priced at 2299 yuan.
The Year of Science and Technology in China
The experience is overAfter Bose Ultra open-back headphonesXiao Lei's views on open-back headphones should also be updated.
Since the second half of last year, various forms of open-back headphones have emerged on the market, and almost every manufacturer is trying this new category, but because they are just getting started, most of the first-generation products are relatively average, sorry for the four-digit price.
As a vocal family, Bose has a strong voice in the audio field, and the new Bose Ultra open-back headphones are not only a satisfactory answer from Bose, but also bring a revelation to the entire open-back headphone market with good sound quality, comfortable wearing and Bose's unique sound tuning: open-back headphones can also "roll" sound quality.
Produced by Lei Technology).
In 2024, open-back headphones are increasing efficiency at a high speed, such a grand occasion is like the OWS headphone market in three or five years, at present, how to make consumers willing to try open-back headphones is still a problem that manufacturers need to face, in the case of the same four-digit number, why should consumers choose a product with slightly worse sound quality and no noise reduction function? In Xiaolei's view, in addition to doing their own fundamentals (sound quality, wearing, and sound leakage control), open-back headphones also need to find additional added value to support the four-digit selling price.
After SORA detonates AGI technology, open-back headphones may combine AI large-scale model technology to make efforts in spatial audio technology, strengthen comprehensive strength such as sound quality on the basis of scene and wearing advantages, and create a new generation of AI open-back headphones, which is still worth looking forward to in the future.