Bose Ultra Open Earbuds: audio as an ear cuff you wear all day (2024)

Earbuds had long been defined by sealing the ear: noise cancellation, isolation and in-canal fit were the arms race. By 2024 the open-ear alternative — buds that let the world in — had become one of the hottest formats in portable audio, but Bose's first try, the 2021 Sport Open, used a hard plastic hook over the ear. It was heavy and awkward, the fit was unstable, and it interfered with glasses and hats, so Bose's second attempt had to start from scratch.

The redesign changed the product's category identity. Bose's research pointed at the "one-bud phenomenon": people already listened with a single earbud so they could stay aware of their surroundings. Chief product officer Raza Haider framed the goal as reimagining wearable audio altogether, and the design team looked to ear-cuff jewelry. The Ultra Open is a two-piece cuff — a speaker chamber beside the canal, a battery barrel behind the ear, connected by a silicone flex arm — that clips onto the ear's ridge, leaving the canal fully open.

Openness created an audio problem, and Bose answered it with engineering: OpenAudio, a tiny dipole transducer with a tightly controlled acoustic structure, beams sound across the short open gap with almost no spill to people nearby. A limited Kith co-branded version preceded the main launch on February 15, 2024 at $299, with polished, brushed-metal finishes presented as fashion rather than tech.

Reception showed both the bet and its cost. Engadget found them extremely comfortable — the most comfortable open-type earbuds it had tested — but noted subdued bass and a polarizing look, scoring 75/100. WIRED, a self-described open-ear skeptic, gave 7/10 and called the sound the best in the genre, and said the buds became part of its reviewer's daily routine: music, calls and full awareness of the world at the same time.