I’ve compared these models today, in terms of noise canceling. The test environment was the Best Buy store in my neighborhood. The noise profile of the store is very similar, in terms of frequencies, to the noise in an open floor office, so it’s a noise similar to what many people will experience at work in an office environment - it might be louder than some offices, but the frequency profile is pretty similar.
The differences are not huge, they are all rather close to each other, but there are some differences, and it’s quite easy to rank them. From best to worst performer:
- Bose QuietComfort Ultra
- Apple AirPods Max
- Sony WH-1000XM5 (and XM4)
I knew that the AirPods Max were slightly better than the XM3 and XM4 - I’ve done that test a while back, when the XM4 was released. The XM3 and XM4 are extremely close to each other, and the AirPods Max beat them by a slight margin. But I didn’t know, until today, how the XM5 and the new Bose perform, compared to the AirPods Max.
Well, the XM5 is virtually the same as the XM4 when it comes to store / office noise. There are some differences, but overall they are not materially different. So the AirPods Max is slightly better than the XM5.
The new Bose flagship, the Ultra, beats the AirPods Max by the same margin that the Max beats the XM5. That was surprising. The Max are already very good, I did not expect to see meaningful improvements there. Well, Bose did it. They beat the Apple flagship. Bose has now the best NC headphones on the market when it comes to office noise.
I have not compared them in other kinds of environments, because this is the only kind of noise profile I really care about. E.g. on a plane most noise is low frequency, and many NC headphones, even old models, do well with that. It’s the midrange noise, the human voice, that is hard to cancel, it’s where Apple had a slight lead, and it’s where Bose actually made slight progress over Apple.
This is actually visible in the NC diagrams on rtings.com, where both the AirPods Max and the Bose Ultra have a significant dip in the residual noise in the midrange, but the Ultra shows deeper suppression in that interval.
Keep in mind, they are all rather close to each other, so any of these models would do well in the office. But if you want the absolute best NC for the office, that’s currently the Bose Ultra.