The first-generation Bose QuietComfort headphones are still $169, days after Amazon's October Prime Day sale officially ended.
The headphones dropped to $169 during Prime Big Deal Days, 53% off their $359 list price, and as of October 8 that price is still live at Amazon in six colors. Best Buy and Bose's own site are matching it. At that price, the originals cost $150 less than Bose's newer second-generation QuietComfort headphones, which are still $319 on sale. The originals keep the strong active noise cancellation, all-day comfort, and tactile ear-cup controls that made them a favorite, though battery life tops out around 24 hours and multipoint pairing can be inconsistent.
Retailers letting a flagship deal run past a sale's official end date isn't typical discounting behavior - prices usually snap back the moment the event closes. The same $169 price holding across Amazon, Best Buy, and Bose's own site suggests this is a deliberate price point rather than a stray unchanged listing. For shoppers, it also reframes the real comparison: with the second-gen model still $150 more, the question isn't which headphones sound better, it's whether a different design and immersive audio are worth nearly double the price.
Call it a $169 lesson in how little "previous generation" matters when the current one costs that much more.