Bose has announced its first new wired earphones since 2015. The Noise Cancelling Wired Earbuds, priced at €99.95 and offered in black, smoke white and a limited "dew mint" colourway, are available to pre-order now and ship from 15 October.
The pitch is deliberately analogue-flavoured: no battery to charge, no Bluetooth pairing, no app required. Power comes from the host device — a smartphone, laptop or music player — over USB-C, so there is no 3.5 mm jack here. That choice makes the earbuds compatible with most current hardware but excludes older gear.
Controls sit on a physical in-line remote inside a 1.30-metre cable, covering volume, playback, calls and switching between noise-cancelling modes. A microphone is mounted on the back of the remote, a placement Bose says keeps clothing contact noises out of voice pickup.
The audio path uses Bose's own digital signal processing over the USB Audio Class 2 protocol, handling input at any sample rate and bit depth and rendering playback at 24-bit/48 kHz. Bose cites the wired connection's low latency as a benefit for video, gaming and content creation, where synchronisation matters.
Noise cancelling is achieved with two microphones per earbud. Three modes are on offer: Quiet to reduce outside distractions, Aware to let ambience through, and an ANC-off mode for plain wired listening. The earbuds are rated IPX4 for water resistance and come with a zipped carry case.
Why it matters: for years the headphone market has treated wires as a legacy concession, bundling noise cancelling and codec support behind Bluetooth and companion apps. Bose is betting that a slice of buyers will trade wireless convenience for zero charging, no pairing friction and lower latency — a niche, but one that other vendors, notably in enthusiast and gaming audio, have been quietly reclaiming.
