Audio is integral to so many people's lives – and 2026 has seen the ways in which you can source your favourite music, in particular, look as much forward as back. From the vinyl and CD resurgence to the proliferation of powered bookshelf speakers – a new category in this year's Awards – there are more ways to engage than ever.

This category also houses many staples in the audio market, whether picking the best headphones to pipe your favourite tunes into your ears, or opting for a more classic plug-in wireless speaker to fulfil Hi-Res over your home Wi-Fi network. There's something for everyone here.

The T3 Awards 2026 celebrate our brand's core areas of coverage – across Tech, Active and Home pillars – and the quality over the past 12 months has been undeniable. In addition to this Best Audio and Headphones page, do also check out the Best Tech and Best TVs Awards features.

Picking each of the winners from our broad range of reviews from the last year was no easy task, of course, but there can only be one winner per category. So without further ado, let's get to it: here are the T3 Awards 2026 winners across Audio and Headphones.

Best Headphones

Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2

In a market with so many competing for this title, you have to be something particularly special to earn the crown.

Which is exactly what Bowers & Wilkins' second-gen PX8 headphones represent. They're a class act, with second-to-none sound quality and an exuberant finish.

The design details, material choices and pristine finish really set them apart. There's stronger active noise-cancelling (ANC) elsewhere on the market, it's true, but the goal here is for all-round quality, comfort and home-listening appeal.

These are the business class of headphones – and once you've settled in, you won't ever want to downgrade again.

Highly commended: Sony WH-1000X The Collexion

Best Travel Headphones

Sony WH-1000XM6

Despite such considerable competition, Sony has managed to maintain its firm grip on producing the best headphones that you'll want to take on your travels.

The XM6 has been joined by a new, higher-end model this year – The Collexion – but it's the folding design of this established older model that maintains it as the clear winner in this category.

With active noise-cancelling (ANC) that's the very best money can buy, plus superb sound quality, and a lovely carry case included, there's no stone unturned in these headphones' quest to be your perfect travel companion.

Highly commended: Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones 2

Best Earbuds

Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen)

While the second-gen version of Bose's QC Ultra Earbuds doesn't bring huge additions over the first model, that doesn't detract from what are the best active noise-cancelling (ANC) earbuds that money can buy.

The slight improvements generation on generation – wireless charging and software tweaks to the ANC's operation – further improve what was about as close to perfection as you could obtain just a couple of years back.

While these new earbuds may appear physically large, when in the ears they feel so well-considered and lightweight to wear that you'll barely notice them – even for extended periods.

Highly commended: Apple AirPods Pro 3

Best Wired Headphones

Meze Audio Poet

For the ultimate audiophile experience, high-end headphones that only deliver a hard-wired experience are a real luxury experience. That plugged-into-quality-source listening experience can bring out-of-this-world quality that wireless just cannot.

The best wired headphones are quite often eye-wateringly expensive, though, as they're often crafted from luxurious materials and feature drivers of a build and size that you won't find in cheaper and more transportable models.

Embodying all of that (in the best of ways) is this year's winner, the Meze Audio Poet. Delivering a "direct, confident and impressively musical listen," these beautifully constructed headphones are simply sensational.

Highly commended: Meze Audio Liric (2nd Generation)

Best Gaming Headset

SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Omni

We loved last year's Arctis Nova Elite, but its price tag was hard to swallow – by contrast, the Arctis Nova Pro Omni is a headset with no asterisks attached, which makes it one of the clearest award winners in any category this year.

The headset doesn't rip up the excellent design work that SteelSeries has done in recent years, using a design that's basically identical to previous versions, but the improvements are clear. Its swappable batteries will last longer and its sound is subtly better too.

The biggest upgrade, however, is a base station transmitter that now works with all consoles (including Xbox) in one version, letting you even mix between sources. This makes the Omni a powerhouse for those with multiple devices that they use for gaming. The fact that it's also a dream to wear for hours at a time is a lovely bonus.

Highly commended: SteelSeries Arctis Nova Elite

Best Powered Bookshelf Speakers

Cambridge Audio L/R S

A major new category for this year's T3 Awards, but no surprise given that 'The biggest new hi-fi trend of 2026 is powered wireless speakers – as buyers pivot from traditional separates setups'.

The number of brands entering this market is increasing at pace, but Cambridge Audio's established quality has seen its L/R system deliver a rare 5-star first attempt – and in strong style, too.

This is the small version – hence 'S' model in the range, with the 'M' and 'X' medium and large models delivering bigger, pricier and more advanced options – but its sound and quality is quite the opposite.

Highly commended: Ruark MR1 Mk3

Best Wireless Speaker

Sonos Play

We feel like we waited years for Sonos to make exactly this speaker, but it was worth the patience. The Play puts the multiroom experience into a genuinely convenient portable option, much like a more sensibly sized Sonos Move 2.

The Play sounds excellent and compares pretty well to an Era 100 fixed speaker, but it sits on a charging dock, ready to be lifted out and carried around as and when you need it.

With sound that can adapt to the open air when outside, and a design that's durable enough to be fine in bad weather (hot or cold), the Play is just wildly convenient to use as a home speaker that you can cart around the house.

For those who like the idea of speakers that can work equally well when home or away, this is Sonos' most flexible product to date. It stands apart from the more permanently fixed speakers that are also part of this category, but if that's your want then Focal's runner-up position is a solid alternative.

Highly commended: Focal Naim Mu-so Hekla

Best Portable Speaker

Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 Gen 3

Bang & Olufsen's smallest speaker has been a long-time favourite among the best portable Bluetooth speakers thanks to its sheer quality of design and sound.

Now in its third generation, the latest model enhances the looks, the bass output, and extends the battery life. That's a win-win in all departments, then, which ensures its place at the top in this already saturated market.

This speaker is so exceptionally well-made and delivers audio that's a level well beyond what its scale suggests, so you'll barely believe the results. You'll have to pay for the privilege – but it'll reward you handsomely for your investment.

Highly commended: JBL Xtreme 5

After telling the whole world what it was working on, Nothing has now properly unveiled its latest earbuds – the entry-level Ear (3a), with perhaps the biggest news being some absolutely wild colour options.

There will be four variants of the Ear (3a), including standard white and black options, but also a bright yellow one and a neon pink variant, the latter two of which are undeniably different looking compared to your averages set of 'buds.

Of course, this being Nothing, these aren't just a tiny update to the Ear (a). Nothing is also making another bold play when it comes to audio recording tech. The pricier Ear (3) changed things up by having a microphone built into the case for better audio when recording content. Now, the Ear (3a) has actual built-in storage in the earbuds themselves, to let you make recordings without needing your phone.

As Nothing explained to me in a briefing, the Ear (3a) comes with 32 MB of built-in flash storage, powering a new feature it's calling Audio Snapshot. This will let you clip whatever audio you're listening to through the earbuds, whether it's a phone call with a friend or a video you're watching.

The feature is activated by pinching both earbuds at the same time and captures a little audio before and after the trigger to make sure it doesn't miss the moment. When you connect to your phone, these recordings will port over to the Nothing X app for you to review and share as you like.

Similarly, you can also record entire calls (up to that 32MB limit) right on the earbuds, so you could get around two hours of recorded audio on the go. Thankfully, there will be a privacy announcement when you activate the setting, so the other party always knows you're recording.

In terms of the actual audio quality of the earbuds themselves, Nothing says the Ear (3a) have new 12mm dynamic drivers that allow them to boast Hi-Res Audio Wireless certification, which is a nice metric for wireless quality. Noise cancelling has also been improved, along with quite big steps in the transparency mode, apparently.

Finally, the earbuds get 10 hours of use on a charge, and the case has just over three more charges in it, giving you about 42 hours without needing a power cable, which is very decent.

All of this comes at a price of just $99 / £99 / €99, so Nothing's entry-level tech remains very impressive from a value point of view. You should be able to order them today from Nothing's own store, and they'll doubtless spread to other retailers soon, too.

There's no shortage of headphone brands out there, so when a new one turns up out of nowhere it needs to stand out. Enter Daisy Sound, a new audio company coming out of California, with a natty pair of headphones with a design which will go toe-to-toe with the AirPods Max.

That comparison comes thanks to the aluminium outer shell, which gives the model a really premium look. At the base of one of the earcups is a knurled aluminium dial, complete with a daisy motif on the outer edge.

Inside, magnetic ear cushions are employed, to make it easier than ever to remove and clean the contact point of your headphones. They're also made with memory foam cushioning, to make sure your ears stay comfortable as possible in use.

Each of the cups houses a 35mm dynamic driver, which should be capable of delivering impressive sound. In particular, the low-end is optimised with the brand's own proprietary algorithm.

Elsewhere, you'll find a hybrid, adaptive ANC, a natural transparency mode and a noise filtering algorithm with voice isolation. It's an impressive suite of tech focussed features, and should be enough to let the Daisy One keep up with the best on the market right now.

In terms of battery life, you can expect 35 hours with the ANC engaged, or 45 hours with the ANC off. That's pretty decent, and is made even more impressive with the quick charging feature, which delivers two and a half hours of listening time from a three minute charge.

Another peculiar feature is still mode. That sees a range of five immersive tracks recorded in the California wilderness embedded directly onto the device, meaning you can listen to a range of relaxation tracks without needing to pair to your phone.

The other bright point is the price. At £365 / US$399 (approx. €426 / AU$705), these sit beneath a lot of the established competition, which should make them an attractive prospect. I'll reserve further judgement until they've been tested, but it's certainly an attractive option.

Nothing is far from done with product launches for the year. Having already released the Nothing (4a) phone series earlier this year, alongside the new Headphone (a) over-ears, it will soon introduce a budget phone – the Nothing Phone (4b) – and new earbuds.

Indeed, the latter have now been confirmed, with a full launch planned for next Tuesday, 7 July. Called the Nothing Ear (3a) they will be the latest in the brand's affordable audio range, and we've just received a teaser in preparation.

We don't know a whole lot about the new buds yet, save for the fact you can sign up for a launch notification on the Nothing website. But interestingly, the teaser video doesn't only have music connotations (with a vinyl deck displaying a zoetropic animation), it effectively gives us the colour options that will be available – white, black, yellow and pink.

Oh, and it just so happens to have been shot using the camera on the forthcoming new phone – the Nothing Phone (4b).

Other than that, the rest is guess work for now. That includes price, although we wouldn't be surprised if the Nothing Ear (3a) replace the current Ear (a) pair. That would put them around £79 a pair at launch.

The flagship buds – the Nothing Ear (3) – are currently £149, so these new additions will be cheaper than those, for sure.

It's hard to say what features you might get – active noise cancelling and Hi-Res Audio support are likely. Although we doubt there'll be the Super Mic case, as found on the more expensive devices.

You won't have too long to wait to find out, although it's also worth considering that if you are in the market for budget earbuds at a decent price, the Nothing Ear (a) are currently down to £49 – probably in anticipation of this latest launch.

They're very decent for that price.

Camera-equipped AirPods sound familiar? That's because this is far from the first time the idea has surfaced.

T3 previously reported on claims that Apple was exploring AirPods with built-in cameras, and multiple reports since then have suggested the project has moved from experimentation to active development.

Now Bloomberg's Mark Gurman says the earbuds are being lined up for a late-2027 launch alongside Apple's foldable iPhone and 20th-anniversary iPhone.

The latest report suggests Apple sees the earbuds as one of its first true AI-era wearables. According to Gurman, the devices would include tiny cameras embedded in the stems, allowing Siri to understand what's happening around you in real time.

That might sound invasive, but the cameras reportedly aren't designed for taking photos or recording video. Instead, they're expected to act as sensors that feed visual information into Apple's Visual Intelligence system, helping Siri identify objects, answer contextual questions and provide more useful assistance without needing you to point an iPhone camera at something first.

The bigger picture is that Apple appears to be building an entire ecosystem of AI hardware. Recent reports suggest the company is simultaneously working on smart glasses, camera-enabled AirPods and other wearable devices that use visual context to make Siri more aware of the world around you.

Rather than relying solely on a phone screen, future Apple devices could continuously gather information about your surroundings and provide assistance when needed.

The AirPods can make more sense than smart glasses in one way: hundreds of millions of people already wear earbuds every day. Adding visual intelligence to an existing product category may prove easier than convincing consumers to adopt an entirely new form factor.

There's even academic research demonstrating that low-power camera-equipped earbuds can provide surprisingly effective environmental awareness for AI systems.

There's still no word on pricing, and Apple hasn't confirmed any of the rumours. But after multiple reports over the past two years – and claims that the hardware has reached advanced testing – AirPods with cameras are starting to look less like a strange experiment and more like a product that's genuinely on the way.

The mystery surrounding Beats' next pair of over-ear headphones is disappearing one teaser at a time.

The latest clue comes from long-time Beats ambassador LeBron James, who shared a series of Instagram Stories showing himself at a golf driving range wearing what appear to be the unreleased headphones.

More importantly, the clips seem to demonstrate one of the rumoured new features borrowed from the Apple AirPods Max 2: magnetic, swappable ear cushions.

Accompanied only by a string of emojis – a golfer, golf flag, padlock and headphones – James removes the ear cushions, replaces them with another set and carries on hitting balls.

The padlock emoji appears to be a playful nod to the fact that the product is still under wraps.

At this point, it's becoming increasingly difficult to believe these sightings are accidental.

Over the past few months, the headphones have appeared on the heads of several high-profile athletes and celebrities, including Lamine Yamal and Kobbie Mainoo.

The first time we learned about the potential swappability of the ear cushions was in a social media post from South Korean football player Lee Kang-in, who teased the upcoming cans just a couple of weeks ago.

Following a familiar playbook

James is by far the biggest name to tease the mystery over-ears and has played a key role in Beats' launches in the past, across both guerrilla and standard marketing channels.

A couple of years ago, he helped tease the return of the Beats Pill speaker before its official unveiling, and he's also fronted campaigns including Beats' first collaboration with Nike.

Using one of the company's most recognisable ambassadors – who has 154 million followers on Instagram alone – to showcase an unreleased product on their social media channels fits neatly into the company's established marketing strategy.

The biggest takeaway from James' latest appearance is that he appears to be highlighting their modular design.

Previous leaks have pointed towards removable magnetic ear cushions, and this is the clearest public demonstration of that feature so far.

Beats has yet to officially acknowledge the headphones or announce a launch date, but the steady stream of carefully choreographed sightings suggests the reveal can't be too far away.

If anything, LeBron's latest tease feels less like another leak and more like the next chapter in a marketing campaign that's already well underway.

If you've been looking for an exceptional pair of headphones – despite the warm weather! – then look no further. Yes, eyes off Beckham, please, much as he makes these 5-star over-ears look even more appealing.

Bowers & Wilkins has long made the best over-ear cans for the luxury market. The brand has Becks on the team as an ambassador, too, with the latest PX7 S3 (plus the even-higher-end Px8 S2) part of his repertoire.

Check out the B&W PX7 S3 new low price

Even if the PX7 S3 weren't Becks' apparent choice headphones, however, they'd still be an assured top-class buy. We said they offer "mark Bowers & Wilkins' arrival into serious active noise-cancelling (ANC) territory," in our review.

As they're so high up the league, however, the PX7 S3 has never been a bargain basement purchase. The £399 suggested retail price has been lowered marginally since launch in April 2025, but it's only now that these headphones have dropped lower than ever before.

As this is part of the Amazon Prime Day sale, it's limited to stock or until the end of Friday 26 June – as that's when the promotion ceases. You never know, though, Black Friday could see an even better return in late November – if you dare to wait!

If price is a big incentive to your shopping, however, then you could consider the PX7 S2e model – i.e. the previous generation – which has also fallen to a new price low in the same Amazon sale.

I've tested a whole heap of the best noise-cancelling headphones on the market in recent years, and while my tastes tend to lean in the direction of stealthy and subtle ones, every so often I love the look of a more interesting pair of headphones. The Nothing Headphone (1) was a great example, but looking a little further back, KEF has repeatedly done cool design work.

Its Mu7 headphones are some of the funkiest, smoothest and alien-looking headphones the market has ever seen, with basically no straight lines anywhere on them, and I love how they look. They're a great pair of headphones to listen to, as well, and Amazon Prime Day means that you can currently grab them for a lot less than usual.

From a brand that really doesn't do discounts very often, this is a super intriguing and downright enticing deal, but it won't be around for all that long, so if you're interested in KEF's work you might want to jump on it.

KEF is the sort of brand that has prestige you might not even be aware of – as demonstrated by how often it pops up providing sound expertise to other brands, whether it's in speaker tuning or providing sound systems for cars and more. It's a storied house of audio expertise, basically.

The Mu7 offer a long list of reasons to pick them up, but their sound quality is high up that list, with really precise and impressively neutral clarity. They have smart noise-cancelling that adapts to your surroundings, keeping them up with the latest and greatest, while 40 hours of battery life is also way more than even recent flagships from Sony and others.

Touch controls take some getting used to, but KEF's work well enough, and the overall package is really quite excellent at full price, let alone with this 20% discount applied. If you want to look a little unlike most people wearing headphones, be sure to check them out.

If you twisted my arm and asked me which headphones I used the most, I probably would have said Apple's AirPods Max 2. Then, if you twisted my arms a bit further and demanded to know my second-favourite over-ear cans, I would – through the pain, because come on, at this point, my arms are in a proper jerk – name Beats' Studio Pro.

Shop all headphone deals in Amazon's Prime Day Deals sale

One aspect of Beats' headphones that might tip the scales in its favour is their price. Amazon just discounted them to £159, which is less than half price, making them one of the best-value cans on the market today. And they look pretty good, too!

The Studio Pro are Beats' most advanced over-ear headphones (although a new model is certainly on its way), combining premium sound, effective noise cancellation and improved compatibility across both Apple and Android devices.

They feature custom 40mm drivers that deliver richer bass, more detailed mids, and clearer highs than previous Beats headphones.

The Studio Pro have fully adaptive Active Noise Cancelling (ANC), which continuously monitors ambient sounds and adjusts noise-cancellation levels in real time.

When you need to stay aware of your surroundings, Transparency mode lets outside sounds pass through naturally without removing the headphones.

The Studio Pro also support personalised Spatial Audio with dynamic head tracking, creating a more immersive surround-sound experience for compatible music, movies and games.

Battery life is another strong point, with up to 40 hours of listening time and up to 24 hours when ANC or Transparency mode is enabled. Fast Fuel charging provides up to four hours of playback from a quick 10-minute charge.

The headphones support lossless audio via USB-C and offer three distinct sound profiles depending on whether you're listening wirelessly, through USB-C or via the included 3.5mm cable.

Bluetooth Class 1 connectivity helps maintain a stable wireless connection, while upgraded microphones improve call quality and voice pickup.

The fact that the DX3000CL are the most affordable model – as well as the first closed-back model – in Final Audio’s ‘DX’ range is not the same as saying they represent any sort of bargain.

Final Audio's DX6000 flagship costs approaching four times the price – at nearly £1900 / $2000, after all – so everything is relative. However, the DX3000CL could conceivably represent great value for money if you're looking for a wired closed-back over-ears.

Price & Availability

The Final Audio DX3000CL have been on sale since late 2025. In the United Kingdom they sell for £549. You’re looking at $599 in the United States. And it's around the AU$1099 mark in Australia.

This is affordable by the standards of Final Audio’s ‘DX’ range, sure – but this is still a fairly pricey pair of headphones, one that faces plenty of competition from plenty of equally credible brands among the best wired headphones.

Features & What's New?

Some cable and some drivers – that’s generally it for ‘features’ where passive hard-wired headphones are concerned. And Final Audio is not the sort of company that will pile on the fripperies just for the sake of it. What you get here are the essentials.

Which means a 2m length of oxygen-free copper cable in a flexible polymer sheath, with a 4.4mm balanced termination at the business end and a chunky unbalanced 6.3mm adapter too. The other end of the cable divides into two 3.5mm terminations, as each earcup needs to be wired.

The cable sends analogue information to a pair of 40mm free-edge dynamic drivers, designed and engineered in house by Final Audio in Japan, and which feature a paper/carbon composite diaphragm.

The company is claiming a frequency response of 10Hz - 40kHz, and given that sensitivity is quoted at 96dB and impedance at 37Ω, the DX3000CL shouldn’t be any kind of hardship to drive.

Sound Performance

Being a specialist is not automatically a bad thing – it means that people know where to come when they need something specific done to a very high standard.

But when you’re spending this sort of money on a pair of headphones, you’re entitled to expect a level of across-the-board competence that the Final Audio DX3000CL don’t seem capable of mustering.

To be fair, the things the DX3000CL are good at outweigh the things they’re not quite so good at to quite a degree – and at their best, the Final Audio are among the very best around. Certainly when you consider ‘detail retrieval’ and ‘insight’ as disciplines, off the top of my head I can’t think of a more effective way at this price point.

In the simplest terms, the Final Audio know everything about the recording you’re listening to. There isn’t an aspect of it that’s too minor, too deep in the mix or too transient to escape their notice – and once they’ve identified a particular detail, they have absolutely no problem in putting it into context with just the right amount of weighting.

They’re analytical in the least pejorative sense, because they don’t make teasing out the most fleeting details in your favourite recordings the whole point. They simply want to give you as complete a picture as possible.

The fact these headphones are capable of mustering a large, well-defined and very spacious soundstage helps no end when it comes to revealing all these fine details, too.

The DX3000CL give the participants in even the most complex recordings all the space they need to express themselves – but they also ensure a performance is knitted together convincingly at the same time.

There’s a togetherness and a singularity about the way these headphones present music that might seem at odds with the sheer scale of their staging – but only until you hear them in action.

They are very well judged where tonality is concerned, too, with just the tiniest hint of heat at the bottom of the frequency range making them less than utterly neutral.

Frequency response is similarly judicious: low frequencies hit with determination, and are controlled to the point that rhythm expression is very assured, but they’re never overstated.

The same is true of the midrange, and the brightly substantial top-end of the frequency range too. The amount of weight each area receives is entirely appropriate in every circumstance.

What’s lacking in the way the Final Audio present music is a convincing sense of drive or dynamic impetus. Some recordings simmer along at a consistent level of volume and intensity, and in these circumstances the DX3000CL are perfectly happy.

But those recordings that indulge in big shifts where volume or intensity are concerned – or, even more problematically, both – will expose a lack of willingness on the part of the Final Audio to properly dig in and attack these fluctuations with anything approaching conviction. It makes for an overly 'polite' listen – and that’s not always what’s required.

Design & Usability

Unusually, the DX3000CL earcups move up and down on a slender length of shaped steel in order to adjust the fit of the headphones – it’s more common in over-ear headphones to find the earcups are fixed and the headband has some adjustment.

But that’s it as far as esoteric design choices go – in every other respect, the Final Audio adhere closely to the long-established ‘over-ear headphones’ template.

The earcups are made from a resin that’s reinforced with glass-fibre, and a couple of pronounced circular grooves in the material constitute a design flourish.

The earpads are of synthetic leather, and they’re padded with quite a lot of medium-density memory foam – so be prepared for these headphones to make your head quite a lot wider than many alternative designs insist on.

There’s more synthetic leather on the outside of memory foam for the inside of the headband, too – although thankfully a slightly more manageable amount.

The total weight (with cable) is 410g – which looks like more than it feels like, thanks to a judicious hanger arrangement and some carefully judged clamping force.

It’s worth mentioning that Final Audio uses no adhesives in the DX3000CL's construction – instead, a combination of precision screws and ‘O’-rings are used, and the result is exemplary build quality. Plus, of course, the headphones are much easier to disassemble and repair or renew, and are more sustainable as a result.

Final Audio DX3000CL review: Verdict

If the DX3000CL could attack a recording with as much conviction as they extract all of the information from it, they’d be a shoo-in for that fifth star and be real wired contenders. As it is, they have a remarkably specific skillset that is bound to delight as many listeners as it frustrates.

Also Consider

The best wired over-ear headphones we’ve heard at this sort of money aren’t, strictly speaking, alternatives for the Final Audio DX3000CL at all.

The FiiO FT5 are a tremendous pair of headphones, and at the money are about the most affordable taste of planar magnetic driver technology around – but they’re open-backed, and so nothing like as realistic a proposition for listening to when in company.

The same is true of the Sennheiser HD 660 S2 – outstanding sound quality from a company that is as credible as they come, but from an open-backed design that leaks sound quite readily.

So unless you’re prepared to spend quite a lot more than DX3000CL money, or to spend less and compromise on sound quality, the Final Audio have a little part of the market all to themselves.

I've been testing the Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro – aptly, given the product's name – for four months now. I've tested using the Galaxy S26 Ultra and a bunch of the year's other best Android phones – including Oppo Find X9 Ultra and more.

During my time reviewing these earbuds, I've jostled between a batch of other review units – Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds 2nd Gen included – and have also seen various software updates further finesse the Samsung's already solid offering.

Compared to previous generations, the Buds 4 Pro up the comfort and noise-cancelling ante. But in a field that's already full of big-hitters, do Samsung's flagship earbuds stand out? If you've got a flagship Galaxy phone to match then the ecosystem tie-in may well be reason enough.

Price & Availability

The Galaxy Buds 4 Pro launched in tandem with the Galaxy S26 phone series earlier this year. The initial on-sale price was £219 / £249 / AU$399 – which represented a like-for-like price position per their predecessors.

Since the launch date, however, the price has dipped a bit – as you can see in the live shopping widget above. However, the earlier Galaxy Buds 3 Pro are far cheaper still, if price is your main purchase incentive.

Buds Pro 3 vs 4: What's New?

Paying the extra may well be worth it, however, as the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro bring some tasty extras over the previous model.

Design is the most considerable shift, with the 'Blade lights' of the older model – yes, there were actual lights on the stems – banished from the Buds 4 Pro.

The new model's stems are now finished with a brushed metal, providing a different aesthetic that helps stand them apart from looking like "yet another AirPods replica".

Sound has also been revised, with the 10mm woofer of the previous model upped to an 11mm version. The separate 5.5mm tweeter has also been retuned in balance with that upgrade.

In addition to the promise of better sound, Samsung has also revised the active noise-cancelling (ANC) for greater aspirations, too, with less "hiss" and greater reduction of ambient sounds.

The latest Bluetooth standard and better wide-band call quality are also added to the Buds 4 Pro.

Comfort & Setup

For years I've been an advocate of the best over-ear headphones, but recent years have shown me that in-ear 'buds have come a long way – this Samsung pair very much included.

That's because the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro have been created following "10,000 simulations with global ear data points", Samsung tells me, to create a 'master' average that's more likely to be comfortable for more people.

It's worked a treat for my ears, as even after all these months of on-and-off wearing, from the very first time I put the 'buds into my ears through until now, I've felt largely satisfied with the comfort.

There's no real stress or sensation of pressure, although this can build to some degree after longer periods of wear. I find the Bose QC Ultra Earbuds 2 feel nicer, even if their far larger design might seem at odds with such a statement.

How the 'buds will actually look in your ears is another matter, of course, and this will come down to personal preference. White is the review model I possess, when I'd pick the Black finish all day long – or there's also a Pink Gold, if that's more to your tastes.

But I'm getting ahead of myself here: as setting up the Buds 4 Pro is the first thing that you'll have to perform after taking the earbuds out of their box and, indeed, the included charging case.

Pairing via Bluetooth is easy: simply place the earbuds into that case, with the lid open, then perform a typical Bluetooth pairing function. That's the most basic connection established, but for fuller functionality you'll need Samsung's Galaxy Wearable app to handle everything.

The app is an important aspect of setting up the finer details, as the Buds 4 Pro can do a lot more than just deliver audio straight to your ears. They can read notifications from specific apps, for example – a feature that I found nothing but infuriating in disrupting my music flow (and which took ages to locate and fully disable – a 'do not disturb' override would be lovely).

Other features include a 'fit test' for how well the 'buds sit into your ears; pinch and voice control settings; a fully adjustable graphic equaliser (EQ) with preset options available; 'Adaptive' automated adjustment between noise-cancelling and ambient modes; plus various tutorials.

Sound & ANC

Samsung's hardware upgrades have worked some audio magic, as the Buds 4 Pro sound spectacular right off the bat. Make some EQ tweaks and they'll only sound better, in my view – avoiding distortion and delivering more personalised audio.

While the abundance of bass is the obvious takeaway from these earbuds, the rest of the frequency range is well handled, too, with higher frequencies nicely separated thanks to that dual-driver design. It's a very clean, wide and enveloping listen – which is just what you want from a pair of earbuds.

This sound profile can take on the best of them, plus those with a Samsung Galaxy phone can benefit from even better audio thanks to SSC (UHQ) codec support – that's Samsung Seamless Codec (Ultra High Quality – designed for connection stability with up to 24-bit/96kHz hi-res audio sources. There's also Seamless Earbud Connection to flit between Galaxy ecosystem devices with ease.

If you don't have another Galaxy device, however, then no need to fret – the audio quality remains top-notch, as I've experienced on my various test devices, from Google to Oppo and Honor to OnePlus. From a sound perspective, therefore, there's little to criticise about Samsung's top-end earbuds.

The active noise-cancelling (ANC) has also shown generational improvements, seeing it do a great job at keeping ambient sounds further at bay. You can adjust the degree of ANC through five levels within the app.

You can also permit some 'ambient sound', i.e. the amount of surrounding sounds that can pass through, again on a five-level slider control. This doesn't have to be done manually, though, as Adaptive mode can take control based on your scenario.

Adaptive can be set to maximise ambient sound when there's voice or sirens detected, or during calls, for example. Call quality is very good, by the way, with microphone improvements making a big difference in clarity – whether or not you have Adaptive switched on.

Personally, I'm all about ANC being on and set to its maximum. Even at this setting, however, the Buds 4 Pro can't blot out some 'clickier' high-frequency sounds – which will continue to pass through. So Samsung's ANC solution isn't the best on market for my money – close as it gets.

It's still very good in most scenarios, though. Whether you're surrounded by road traffic or noisy air-conditioning fans, or on an aeroplane where the background "hiss" is abundant – all of which are effectively muted through this ANC system. It just needs a few tweaks to be 100% effective.

Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro review: Verdict

If you're looking for comfortable earbuds for your Samsung Galaxy phone that offer big bass, a broad soundstage, and decent active noise-cancelling, then the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro are an all-round success.

Even if you've got another type of Android phone, while you'll lose the Samsung-specific audio codec and some baked-in operating system controls, these earbuds deliver features to take on the best of the competition.

Indeed, it's only really the ANC allowing some ambient sounds to cut through that hold these 'buds back from near perfection. Battery life is also beaten by Apple's key competitor, at a maximum of 6 hours per charge – but the case will deliver three further full charges.

All in all, though, Samsung's flagship earbuds deliver a raft of improvements in a better-looking and better-sounding design than it's ever managed before. I'm still wearing them months on from acquiring a pair – and will continue to do so.

Also Consider

If you want the best-of-best in ANC, however, then Bose's QC Ultra Earbuds are a winner – and the 2nd Gen is preferable, should the price be on point.

Otherwise, Apple's AirPods Pro 3 do make a strong case for themselves – albeit more for iPhone users. Indeed, Samsung's efforts are the equivalent tie-in for a Galaxy ecosystem.

Apple's unannounced Beats headphones have surfaced once again, this time on England midfielder Kobbie Mainoo, suggesting the long-rumoured over-ear cans could be nearing an official reveal.

The latest sighting comes via a comparatively small Instagram post from Manchester United fan account united.core, showing Mainoo wearing a pair of previously unseen Beats headphones alongside teammate Marcus Rashford.

Curiously, I was unable to trace the image back to an original source.

A reverse-image search using TinEye returned no matches, indicating the photograph has yet to appear elsewhere online.

That could mean this is one of the earliest public appearances of the mystery headphones to date.

The design matches earlier leaks but appears in a new colourway, featuring white earcups paired with dark blue ear cushions.

It's the third public appearance of the mystery headphones in recent weeks.

Previous sightings included Spanish footballer Lamine Yamal and South Korean star Lee Kang-in, with each athlete wearing a different colour combination.

That growing collection of finishes hints that Beats could be planning an unusually broad colour lineup at launch.

More than just another leak?

The repeated football connections are particularly notable, with every major sighting so far involving players competing at or associated with the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

This suggests Beats may be using elite athletes as part of a coordinated teaser campaign, which is not uncommon for the brand.

There's also a possibility that the contrasting colours point to some form of customisation.

While there's no evidence that ear cushions or other components are interchangeable, the different combinations seen so far have sparked speculation that Beats could be experimenting with a more modular design.

For now, though, Apple and Beats remain tight-lipped about what could become the company's first major over-ear headphone release since the Beats Studio Pro launched in 2023.

The 'open-ear' market is going from strength to strength this year, with many additional brands having entered the 'not-in-your-ears' earbuds market – with Sennheiser also adding to your choices with the all-new Accentum Clip.

That's hot on the heels of Shokz's latest, the OpenDots 2, and follows the likes of Bose, which released its Ultra Open Earbuds more than two years ago. Other big names in this space include Huawei.

There are different types of open-ear 'buds with different intents and target users, of course, to which Sennheiser is no stranger – having launched the Accentum Open last year. The focus of this product was to always permit ambient sound to enter your ears for awareness.

The new Clip, however, is as its name describes: a clip-on design that suits a wider range of use-cases, given the assurance of it remaining in place. So whether you want it for the office, or when out running, there's greater versatility.

Sennheiser has long been in the audio business, with over 80 years of expertise. That's one of its big upsells with the Accentum Clip, which promise to deliver audio quality first and foremost – something that many open-ears are criticised for, in offering 'thin' sound.

The Accentum Clip use 12mm drivers to deliver their sound, which can easily be from multiple sources thanks to Bluetooth 6.0 multipoint connectivity. There's LDAC streaming offered for higher-fidelity audio sources, too.

Design-wise the Clip 'buds are super-lightweight for comfort, offering an IP54 rating to ensure resistance to water splashes – a feature that'll be a must-have for sports users.

The battery life is quoted at 9 hours per charge, with a further three charges in the case bringing that up to 36 hours in total. A 10-minute charge delivers 2 hours of playback, should you come up short.

Sennheiser's Accentum Clip go on sale from 23rd July – so you've got almost a month to wait at the time of writing – with pre-orders at uk.sennheiser-hearing.com available now. There are Black, Cream and Ice Blue variants, priced at £149 / AU$289.95 each.

It's always a bit of a task to sift through everything that Apple announces at WWDC, and this year was no different. It was a big year for the tech giant, with huge changes unveiled for Siri and showcases of all its new operating systems to get through in around an hour and a half of keynote time.

Still, Apple managed to run through it all, and that was partly by skipping through some surprisingly impactful announcements really quickly. My pick of the bunch? A tweak to how AirPods and AirPods Pro work that could mean way more control for people when they listen to music.

We're now almost a decade into the AirPods era, and for much of that time, some audio experts have been clamouring for one thing – EQ customisation on the earbuds. Apple has long taken the simplest possible approach by shipping its earbuds with a fixed tuning setup and ensuring that everyone, therefore, gets the exact same experience.

However, plenty of much more affordable earbuds let you tweak their sound signature to get something a little more personalised, and since the release of the AirPods Pro 3, these demands have been louder than ever. I love the Pro 3, but some people feel that its sound is a little less natural than the Pro 2's, despite clear improvements in other areas like ANC and battery life.

Perhaps because of that reaction from some of its audience, Apple's finally bringing a very limited form of EQ customisation to its AirPods in iOS 27, which is a game-changer in many regards. It showed off the feature in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it part of the WWDC presentation, but that confirmed a few things for us.

Firstly, this is just a three-band EQ system that lets you adjust the strength of lows, mids and highs, without any more granular control than that. Secondly, Apple isn't labelling these segments with frequency ranges, and it also doesn't give a scale of how much you're boosting or limiting frequencies, so you'll be mostly going off a graph and your ears.

That makes this a pretty rudimentary version of the system that others use for their earbuds, but in this case, something is a million miles better than nothing. I've been wanting any control over my AirPods for years (since I used the Pro 2 for their entire lifespan), so I'll definitely be jumping on it the moment iOS 27 drops later this year. I'm not a beta kind of guy, though, so I will have to wait until the official release to get my ears on it.

I'm adamant that the AirPods 3 are the best earbuds going for the majority of iPhone users, even without EQ, but you can always improve things. It's great to see Apple leaning more into customisation, and the only big question left is which AirPods models will support the feature. The more the better, of course, so let's hope it's all of those still on sale, and a couple of generations back, too.

Sennheiser made some of my favourite headphones ever when it brought out the Momentum 4 Wireless. It updated what I'd personally found to be an off-putting design in the originals, yet retained its excellent yet neutral sound signature – with the addition of adaptive noise-cancelling (ANC). I've used those over-ears every time I've travelled for a couple of years (save for when testing the best headphones for work).

That position had recently been taken over by the Sony WH-1000XM6, though, so I was hugely interested when Sennheiser announced the Momentum 5 this summer. With the brand's long-term health a topic of some debate, I've found it fascinating to use the Momentum 5 for a few weeks to see how it stacks up to the ever-increasing competition.

Price and Availabilty

The Momentum 5 Wireless was unveiled in May and is available to order now, so you can pick it up from a range of retailers around the world. It comes in at £329 / $399 – which means that it's quite cannily priced from Sennheiser's point of view.

While it shares a lot of its features with the likes of the Sony WH-1000XM6, and the same can be said of Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones 2, it comes in as a decent chunk cheaper than those competitors. That could give it quite an advantage among smart buyers, although the proof is obviously in the performance.

Design and Features

There are people out there who'll still tell you that the updated design Sennheiser brought in between the Momentum 3 and Momentum 4 was a total shame, and left the Momentum line looking generic and boring. I get where they're coming from (there's much less exposed metal now), but don't agree at all – I really like the refined and subtle look of the newer design.

That's lucky, since it's barely changed between 4 and 5, which suggests that Sennheiser was pleased with its work, too. In the years that have passed, all that's really changed is some minor finishing detail. This time you can buy the headphones in black (as tested here), white or "denim" blue, with the last of those being the most eye-catching (albeit not really to my taste).

The earcups here are pretty massive, yet they're nicely cushioned for comfort. The Momentum 5 comes in at 290g, so it isn't the lightest set of cans out there – but I find they sit on the head nicely and comfortably. That's something about Sennheiser's design that's always been on point for me.

The build is almost entirely plastic, though, so if you're looking for some headphones that scream "premium" from every stitch and bolt, this isn't the answer for you. Then again, nor is the more expensive WH-1000XM6 from Sony, for some context (the WH-1000XX The Collexion push that envelope further, though).

Normally, I'd talk about on-earcup controls, since most headphones have an array of buttons and dials, but Sennheiser takes a different road. In design terms, it keeps things admirably simple – even if not everyone will like it.

On the right earcup, there's a power and pairing button, some LEDs to give you charge and status indicators, and a USB-C port for charging. That's it – everything else is controlled through swipes and taps on that same earcup's outer surface, while the other side is completely bare.

The Momentum 5 does come with a nice slim hardshell case, impressively smaller than the equivalent for the Momentum 4, and therefore great for travel. The headphones fold flat in it, rather than into any smaller arrangement.

From a feature point of view, the battery life situation has stayed relatively stable, but at a very impressive level. You'll get around 57 hours with ANC turned on, which means the headphones can more than make it through a week of use in normal situations. One huge but less obvious upgrade is that said battery can be easily replaced, with just a Philips-head screwdriver needed to access it.

There's also fairly comprehensive codec support (SBC, AAC, aptX, aptX HD, aptX Lossless, and aptX Adaptive), which means that LDAC is also covered, making these a great choice regardless of how you listen wirelessly. The headphones ship with Bluetooth 5.4, but a future firmware update will bring this up to 6.0, apparently.

I think the Momentum 5 is a really solid iteration on what's come before it – even if the only visible or obvious changes are some more external grilles for ANC microphones. They're still among my favourite headphones to wear from a subtlety standpoint, as much as I value crazier choices like the Nothing Headphone (1).

Sound and Performance

We don't just look at headphones and wear them without any connection, though – how the Momentum 5 actually sounds is just as important.

That does require starting with some ergonomics, though, because Sennheiser's touch controls are a factor in the headphones' performance. In short, they work ably, but I'd still much prefer some more buttons in addition. Swiping and tapping are responsive enough, once you learn what does what, but the lack of volume buttons in particular feels churlish.

Sennheiser's SmartControlPlus app is a smooth enough way to get some extra control over these features (including turning them off entirely if desired). It also lets you choose when (if ever) the headphones will turn themselves off after a period of idling, and gives you a decent amount of EQ control, too.

That last point is relevant because the Momentum 5 makes a slightly bigger change to the sound signature of the Momentum line than I'd expected, principally in the form of a boost to the low-end bass register. It's certainly beefed up, and that might cut differently for different people.

I really liked the neutrality of the Momentum 4, so the new sound tuning is a little less to my tastes straight out of the box – albeit a quick EQ tweak basically reverses it entirely (praise be the EQ controls coming to AirPods soon for similar reasons). Still, even before any tweaks, the overall sound quality is excellent.

I used the Momentum 5 to run the gamut of genres, from a little bit of Vivaldi (get me) to test the highs, to some Queens of the Stone Age to get a sense of that boosted bass – and it was a really zesty yet precise listen the whole time. Plus, there's one audio area where the upgrade is far clearer and more unequivocal – ANC.

The Momentum 4 had good ANC for its day, but that day is now years ago, and rivals have made some big steps in the intervening time, so it's reassuring to report that the Momentum 5 takes a welcome leap forward. That's not to say that this adaptive noise-cancelling is completely different from what came before, but it definitely blocks more ambient noise and does so with less of an audible static feedback, in my experience.

I used the Momentum 5 on a long trip to and from Edinburgh from my home in London as my first proper stress test of their quality, and they kept me really nicely bubbled whether I was connected to my phone or my Switch 2. This combination of really solid sound quality and much-improved ANC is a winner, in my book.

Verdict

The Momentum 5 feels like a really solid return to the top table from Sennheiser, not least because it continues to offer a sensible option to those looking for very similar features to a top-end pair of headphones, but for a little less. Sure, the asking price is hardly tiny, but it's still a chunk cheaper than much of the established competition.

Given time and sales, that advantage should be maintained, and I think that leaves the Momentum 5 positioned really nicely as a great option for those looking to spend a little more cannily. You'll still get excellent sound, and a design and fit that I personally find comfortable in the extreme – making these over-ears a pretty stellar way for Sennheiser to at least partially silence the doubters of its longer-term health.

Also consider

The obvious upgrade if you are willing to spend that extra cash, of course, is the WH-1000XM6. The Sony's ANC is just a little superior and the headphones' more compact folding options might float your boat too. I think they're in a similar bracket comfort-wise, though, so the gap is pretty small.

Another option is Sennheiser's own HDB 630, which is much more geared for home listening. You lose ANC and battery life, but gain in sound quality quite noticeably, especially when using the included dongle for your connections. If you're intending to do your listening at home, they might be a great choice.

As an avid AirPods Max user, I can only recommend these premium over-ear headphones – they look great and sound even better. The only issue is that they are rather expensive. Well, not anymore! The USB-C version is at its lowest-ever price on Amazon ahead of the big shopping event next week.

Shop all Apple Featured Deals on Amazon

To clarify, these aren't the latest AirPods Max 2 but the previous version, which, to be fair, is very similar to the new cans. Those added better noise cancellation and somewhat better sound, but between you and me, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the ANC and sonic quality of the USB-C AirPods Max.

The Apple AirPods Max USB-C retains the same distinctive design as its predecessor (and successor), featuring anodised aluminium ear cups, a stainless steel frame and a breathable knit mesh canopy that helps distribute weight more evenly across the head.

It utilises the company's H1 chip, enabling features such as Active Noise Cancellation (ANC), Transparency mode and Adaptive EQ. ANC continuously monitors external sounds and works to reduce unwanted noise, while Transparency mode lets you hear your surroundings without removing the headphones.

The USB-C AirPods Max also support Personalised Spatial Audio with dynamic head tracking, creating a more immersive listening experience when watching films or listening to compatible music. Apple has additionally enabled lossless audio and ultra-low-latency audio over a wired USB-C connection, making the headphones a stronger option for music enthusiasts and content creators.

Battery life is rated at up to 20 hours with Active Noise Cancellation and Spatial Audio enabled. Other highlights include automatic device switching, Find My support, voice control via Siri, and effortless pairing with iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV.

If Beats wanted people talking about its next pair of headphones, mission accomplished.

The Apple-owned audio brand appears to be continuing its unusual pre-launch campaign for a new set of over-ear headphones, with another football star now spotted wearing the unreleased cans ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

This time, it was South Korea international Lee Kang-in, who was photographed wearing the mystery headphones following his country's victory over Czechia.

While the sighting alone wouldn't be particularly noteworthy, eagle-eyed fans quickly noticed that Lee's headphones feature neon yellow ear cushions and a matching headband paired with white earcups, creating a striking two-tone look.

That detail has fuelled speculation that Beats could be introducing interchangeable components, allowing people to customise the appearance of their headphones.

Drip-fed by design

It's the latest chapter in what increasingly looks like a carefully orchestrated teaser campaign.

The headphones first appeared at the end of May when Spanish football superstar Lamine Yamal was spotted wearing a bright pink version during Spain's World Cup preparations.

A few days later, Yamal shared images showing a second colourway, suggesting Beats was intentionally drawing attention to the unreleased product.

Although Beats hasn't officially acknowledged the headphones, several clues point towards a launch drawing closer.

The model has already surfaced in US Federal Communications Commission filings, while multiple athletes from different national teams have now been photographed wearing the product in public.

As for what these headphones actually are, that's still up for debate: the design doesn't closely resemble either the current Beats Solo 4 or Beats Studio Pro.

The flatter earcups, slimmer support arms, and more premium-looking construction have prompted comparisons with the Apple AirPods Max 2, particularly now that interchangeable-looking components are in the mix.

There's also speculation that Beats could bring some of Apple's more advanced audio technology to the new model.

Recent Beats products, including the Powerbeats Pro 2, have incorporated Apple's silicon, raising hopes that these headphones could offer deeper integration with Apple's ecosystem than the Studio Pro currently provides.

If history is any guide, Beats may not keep us waiting much longer. Two years ago, basketball superstar LeBron James was seen carrying the unreleased Beats Pill speaker in April, and the product officially launched on 25 June.

That puts roughly two months between the first high-profile sighting and the official reveal.

Applying a similar timeline here would place a potential announcement of the new headphones sometime in July.

With the World Cup providing the perfect global stage for athlete endorsements and product placement, it wouldn't be surprising to see Beats continue its drip-feed campaign throughout the tournament before unveiling the headphones shortly after the final whistle.

[via 9to5Mac]

In life, there is very little as cool as an electric guitar. Whether it's Slash wandering into the desert before the solo in November Rain, Hendrix setting fire to his Strat at the Astoria or the myriad of other legends who have used the instrument to earn legendary status, it has become a staple of modern life.

Now, Audio-Technica has partnered with Fujigen Guitars to create a limited edition pair of headphones inspired by the instrument. They feature wooden panels on the outside of the earcups, complete with an iconic three-tone sunburst lacquer on the outside.

Those are based on the ATH-WP900 series headphones, which actually already offer wooden cups provided by Fujigen. The regular model makes use of flame maple, though, where this limited edition is crafted from solid ash.

It's also got the much more pronounced three-tone burst, where the standard model is more of a two-tone fade. It's a subtle difference, but one which will matter to audiophiles and music lovers with exacting standards.

Inside, you'll find 53mm drivers, which should offer a decent low-end representation, complete with enough detail at the top to make things pop. The model uses the brand's A2DC detachable connectors, offering 4.4mm balanced and 3.5mm standard options for different use cases.

There's also a handwritten serial number card in the box, as well as a Fujigen cleaning cloth which is specifically designed for lacquered finishes.

If you're not familiar with the Fujigen name, fear not – you almost certainly know the work, with the brand producing Japanese-made guitars for Fender, Gibson, Ibanez and more over the years. Prior to moving to T3 to write about the best tech, I worked in a popular guitar store, and the Fujigen stuff was always up there with the very best.

The ATH-WP900SE will be available from today, priced at £599 / €699 (approx. US$800 / AU$1,145).

I've been reviewing the best ANC headphones for many years now – and it's rare that a pair of in-ears stands out enough for me to jump up and pay attention. I'm usually too much of an over-ears guy, ultimately.

But then Bose's 2nd Gen version of its QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds are no standard 'buds by any means. These offer the pinnacle of active noise-cancelling (ANC) in an in-ear format – which I've found very comfortable to wear for long periods, too.

However, that "2nd Gen" badge might not mean quite as much as you'd hope, for these earbuds aren't dramatically different from the original QC Ultra Earbuds model, as I'll get into below.

However, a March 2026 firmware update further enhanced the ANC controls. And, having used the QC Ultra Earbuds 2 for a week for this review, my initial state of 'nothing but impressed' has only been further reinforced. Here's why Bose still reigns supreme.

Price & Availability

The Bose QC Ultra Earbuds 2 launched in the summer of 2025, with some markets only receiving them towards the later part of that year. With a key 2026 firmware update having rolled out in March, these are still Bose's most flagship earbuds – and just as relevant now as at launch.

Price-wise, things have also improved over time. The £299 / $299 / AU$450 launch price has dropped, with some pretty strong discounts at the time of writing – as you can see in the shopping widget above. That closes the gap somewhat between the original model and this 2nd Gen release.

What's New?

• New colour options: Deep Plum, Desert Gold, Midnight Violet
• Adds wireless charging to case
• New 'Cinema Mode' preset
• Adjusted ANC profile

To look at there's no difference between the QC Earbuds Ultra 2 and the original version – unless you purchased one of the more standout new colourways, as listed above, which join the staple of Black and White Smoke.

The same design is matched with the same weight as previous. No surprise, as the battery capacity within these 'buds and the included charging case also sees no change. There is, however, wireless charging for the latter, which for the original product was an add-on accessory option only.

Aside from improved earwax guards, it's otherwise largely software-based changes, with a new Cinema Mode preset added, and an adjusted ANC profile and Aware Mode improvements now part of the package.

While I found that in the equivalent over-ear Headphones Ultra 2 this made for a weaker ANC experience overall, in the Earbuds Ultra 2 it's actually an improvement. The new adjustable Noise Control slider can be manually set as you please in custom settings, giving you full control if you wish.

Design & Usability

As the idiom goes: "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". Bose had really hit the nail on the head with the original QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds, so the 2nd Gen model treads the very same path – with at least equal success.

While initially I thought the 'buds looked rather large, this scale doesn't affect the comfort or fit. I've found even long periods of wear over many hours very comfortable indeed, while a trio of eartips included in the box ensures you can find the correct seal for your ears.

Each protruding silicone eartip is soft and comfortable, complemented by a stability band edging that's made of the same material. That means when these buds are in your ear, they're well and truly there to stay.

Even with motion I've found these earbuds to stay in firmly, contrary to what the visual appearance may suggest. They can be easily controlled via touch directly from the ear-mounted position, too, with the app educating you on those actions.

The app is a key part of the usability, as this is the gateway to accessing the Modes, adjusting Noise Cancellation (ANC), equalisation (EQ), Immersive Audio processing, and selecting your Source, while also being able to see the battery charge level of each earbud and the charging case.

By default you're presented with Quiet, Aware, Immersion and Cinema. Those cater for: full ANC; auto-adjusted passthrough using Bose's ActiveSense tech; spatial enhanced output; and three-dimensional audio when paired with a TV viewing experience.

But as you can create custom extras, this general overview can be manipulated as you please. Personally, I don't use the Aware option, as I'm not a big fan of passthrough in ANC modes.

That said, the 2nd Gen product has gone at lengths to ensure its ActiveSense is more subtly responsive than in the original product, rather than making any abrupt changes based on ambient noise spikes.

Sound Quality & ANC

The real treat with the QC Ultra Earbuds 2 is the overall sound quality. That's important, too, as many competitors continue to up their game – including the likes of Technics' AZ100.

Just as said of the original Ultra Earbuds, the 2nd Gen model continues to deliver "astounding audio" with great fidelity. Bass is abundant, which is a Bose signature trademark, hitting those low notes to such dizzying degree that you might not expect it from a pair of in-ears.

Bose is also a dab hand when it comes to processing, too, which isn't something that many audio-makers have got quite as correct. Here it's Bose's Immersive Audio tech that I really enjoy, subtly enhancing the soundstage to feel more three-dimensional – even 'moving' as you physically move your head throughout the space (a setting that you can turn off as you please).

That excellent audio signature is one part of the Bose puzzle, but it's the ANC that really ramps these 'buds up a notch. The brand has been very, very good at delivering cancellation that's so considerable that ambient sounds you'd be sure you'd hear when wearing them can all but disappear.

I've used these earbuds on trains and planes, at my desk or when walking at lunchtimes, and regardless of the scenario they just consistently deliver. Some may prefer the ActiveSense tech takeover in Aware mode, which has been nicely smoothed out – and I can see the worth in that for, say, those park walks.

The final part to mention is, but of course, battery life. It's rated at 6 hours per charge, but that dips to 4 hours when you've got Immersion active. Which, given how much I enjoy using that feature, is how I use these headphones. I'd like longer innings, really, but it's still a fair showing overall.

The case will deliver a further three full charges, which will help you along, and the case can then be recharged too – although its 2-hour top-up time from dead to full seems a bit slow, given its approximate 700mAh capacity (around one sixth of your mobile phone's battery).

Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) review: Verdict

While the 2nd Gen version of Bose's QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds don't add a huge amount over the original model, that doesn't detract from what are the best active noise-cancelling (ANC) earbuds on the market.

The marginal improvements – namely wireless charging and software tweaks to the ANC's operation – only further the user experience for the better. If you're an avid wireless charging fan, then the former feature makes a strong case to spend a little extra over the still-on-sale original.

With stellar sound, an abundance of bass, ANC that almost defies belief in its ability to blot out ambient sound, and improved customisation options within the app, the Bose QC Ultra Earbuds 2 are untouchable. Don't let the large size fool you either, as these are as comfortable as they are great-sounding.

Also Consider

If you don't care for wireless charging and can find a good deal on the original QC Ultra Earbuds, then you'll get a similar audio and ANC experience – with those savings perhaps an even better case for you.

Otherwise, it's Sony's WF-1000XM6 that arguably deliver an even more refined audio experience, along with very good ANC. They might cost you a little more at the moment, though, giving Bose the edge.

If having super-strong ANC isn't the absolute in your wants, however, then Technics' AZ100 are our go-to pick for audio quality to take on the best of them. Design-wise they might appeal to those who baulk at the Bose's larger scale, too.

We Are Rewind has truly captured the spirit of the 80s with its WE-001 Walkman-style cassette players and the GB-001 Blaster. Now it's adding a new product to the range, and it perfect matches both.

The brand has announced its first standalone pair of headphones and they continue the retro vibe. The We Are Rewind Freddie headphones (EQ-002) are similar in style to the the EQ-001 pair you can get bundled with a cassette player, but now feature Bluetooth 6 connectivity.

Styled around the classic Walkman headphones of the early 80s, the EQ-001 on-ears include interchangeable ear cushions in three colours – orange, yellow and black. They are wireless, but you also get a 2.5mm to 3.5mm cable in the box if you want to be like Cliff Richard and be "wired for sound".

There's a 36mm dynamic driver in each ear cup, while charging is performed over USB-C.

The 200mAh battery gives you approximately 14 hours of playback, and you can charge from flat to full in around three hours.

There's a built-in microphone, and on device controls can access music and incoming calls.

The headphones weigh just 66g and are made of stainless steel, plastic and foam.

While they are perfectly matched to one of We Are Rewind's cassette players, you can also use the Freddie pair with any other Bluetooth device – including an iPhone or Android phone.

Being able to skateboard and look cool is entirely optional.

The We Are Rewind Freedie EQ-002 headphones are available now priced at £43 / $59 / €49 a pair. I think they'll go particularly well a new Anbernic RG Rotate retro games console, which doesn't come with a 3.5mm headphone jack, but does support Bluetooth.

I might give that a go myself.

As part of Shokz's product catalogue diversification, the company has just revealed the OpenDots 2 air-conduction 'buds – adding much-requested improved ingress protection (now IP57).

But there's another product that's launched in tandem – helping the brand go more mainstream in its offerings – called the OpenDots Air.

This all-new air-conduction offering, while altogether similar to the OpenDots 2, goes a little lighter on some features – and, as a result, the price you'll pay is lower.

I've used the Shokz OpenDots 2 for a couple of weeks and have been exploring the OpenDots Air in person, too. So which should you buy and why?

Price

The Shokz OpenDots 2 is the more expensive product, priced at £179 in the UK and $199.95 in the USA. Australian pricing is TBC at this time.

That's a like-for-like price compared to the original OpenDots product, but the new feature set is broader and more advanced – which I'll get to – so the value remains competitive.

The Shokz OpenDots Air, meanwhile, retail for £129 in the UK and $129.95 in the USA. Again, Australian pricing is TBC for the time being.

Design & Fit

Above are the two earbuds wrapped around my finger. They're different in appearance – but only marginally – with the OpenDots 2's more recessed JointArc band fitting more securely.

The OpenDots 2 has a nicer finish, too, with more of the soft silicone used at a larger number of touch-points. The OpenDots Air, by comparison, has a more plasticky feel in majority places – excluding the JointArc structure.

The weight is negligible between the two, with the OpenDots 2 at 6.4g per 'bud, while the OpenDots Air are 6.3g per 'bud – something you can't humanly detect.

Colourways are Pearl White, Grey and Black (pictured) for the OpenDots 2, while the OpenDots Air offer Daybreak Purple or Black (pictured) finishes.

Weather-sealing

The OpenDots 2 also upgrade the original OpenDots with an IP57 rating. That means they're dust-resistant (the '5' part) and water-resistant to a depth of 1-metre for 30-minutes (the '7' part of the equation).

The OpenDots Air offer some protection, but it's not quite as good, at IP55. That's the same dust-resistance, but it can't officially withstand submersion – the secondary '5' meaning it can sustain low-pressure water jets.

The OpenDots 2's case is also IP54 protected – so "splash resistant" – whereas the Air's case offers no official ingress protection whatsoever.

Battery Life

The OpenDots 2 also offer slightly better battery life. The quoted time is 10 hours per charge, with up to 40 hours total from the case.

The OpenDots Air, meanwhile, quote 9 hours per charge, with up to 40 hours total from its case.

The OpenDots 2 also offer wireless charging via the case, whereas the Air does not. The former also charges faster – with 5-minutes said to deliver 2-hours of playback (it's 10-minutes for the same from the Air).

Sound Quality & Calls

While both products have dual air-conduction microphones for calls, it's only the OpenDots 2 that adds an additional bone-conduction microphone – making call clarity improved, even in more difficult conditions (and better for those with hearing impairment, too, of course).

In terms of sound quality, the OpenDots 2 offer the better solution of the two – although I've worn both and the differences aren't so gigantic to make this the biggest reason to buy one or other. It's the other parts of the feature set that'll define your decision.

However, the OpenDots 2 Shokz's Bassphere 2.0 technology for deeper bass, and have a Dolby Audio setting within the app (not that I care for the latter – I think personal EQ is the way to go). The OpenDots Air, meanwhile, have the first-gen Bassphere and lack the Dolby addition.

Conclusion

While you might assume the biggest difference is sound quality, I'd say that's the mildest difference between these two headphones.

The reason to pick the OpenDots 2 is simple: there's better water-resistance, making it the obvious choice for runners and, well, anyone wanting them for active adventures.

The OpenDots Air are obviously appealing for their far lower asking price, however, which is around 28% lower for UK customers and 35% less for US-based buyers.

Also don't forget the OpenDots 2 offer the better finish and longer battery life, too, further adding to the list of reasons to buy them.

But, ultimately, if money is your key factor – and you want something that's cheaper than Huawei or another maker – then Shokz is covering all bases with these two open-ear products.

When you think of the best earbuds, your mind may venture to those you see en masse in public – whether that be AirPods or one of many other brands – but there are also specialist market players that have fought for their place too.

One such brand is Shokz, well known for its bone-conduction earbuds and, more recently, air-conduction solutions – which hold great success with many in the running community, as one example demographic.

But as the whole 'open-ear' market explodes – with Bose joining the party last year – Shokz is doubling down, releasing its OpenDots 2, and, in a rare presentation with questions to a small group of journalists last month at Shokz's HQ, Ken Chen, one of the co-founders of the company, told his story – from the struggles to success.

Chen, who trained as a mechanical engineer, is now a successful businessman – but that's not always been the reality. He's a humble character and a surprisingly open and honest presenter – delving into the company's development from AfterShokz LLC to today's Shokz, while contemplating what the future holds.

From producer to innovator

“Inspiration is easy, innovation is really hard," began Chen, who co-founded then-AfterShokz back in 2011. But the work had begun well before that date, of course.

“At the beginning, we were a two-way radio earpiece manufacturer. We were a factory. We produced a lot for international brands.”

Applying his expertise – and that of his colleagues – to products for other companies wasn't where Chen's mind was though. There was ambition, spurred by inspiration.

“If it is something new that really makes a difference in our society, then that is innovation.

“When I first tried bone-conduction, I was thinking ‘wow, there are so many things that we [AfterShokz] can do with that.’”

That was the catalyst; the spark. With his established engineering background, he could see practical options to create a consumer brand – and not just produce for other companies.

Trials and trepidations

“But there was lots and lots of hard work down the road. We tried a lot of new stuff because we were engineers triggered by education [of bone-conduction's existence] – but none of them were successful with our customers.

“Certainly, if we wanted to become a consumer brand, it seemed an impossible challenge. Whatever you create is not popular – at the beginning, at least.

“We thought that we could do more with the technology – and we had passion. So we founded AfterShokz LLC in Syracuse, New York. At the Consumer Electronics Show in 2011 [or CES for short], we had a little booth – the smallest possible – and we were showcasing our headphones.

"But nobody understood what we were doing. Nobody knew anything about bone-conduction technology. Nobody paid any attention to what we were trying to say.

“But you know, not everything was bad. If that were true then we wouldn't have made any further investment. So we saw the silver lining in our failures ... and we needed to seek out sales and marketing. Engineers don't know anything about that."

Upward trajectory

“After the launch of AfterShokz, we participated again at CES in 2012 – and this time we made a little bit of a bigger investment. We had twice the size of the smallest unit – the booth was modest, as it was just $500 – and it was shipped [to Las Vegas, Nevada] in twenty-three boxes.

“Our PR was sick because the work was overwhelming; she made a lot of effort and noise at that CES. But it worked. The Wall Street Journal gave us one of the ‘top gadgets of CES’ [that year].

"Then the booth was so crazy. Groups of people arrived – they brought their friends and their colleagues, and the word spread about bone-conduction.

“So we were really encouraged. We rocked CES. So we went on to make more investment.

“After that show, we spent the entire year building Bluez – the world’s first Bluetooth bone-conduction headphones.

"Bluez was so complicated for our company at that time. But we were doing something new, so the media reported about us."

Got the Bluez

“However, Bluez was a difficult product – and it was not a great product. But we still had to go to market with the goods.

"The expectation [in retail] was [to sell] one piece per store per week. Higher than that and you get a bigger space.

“So when the first report came back it was eighteen sales – that from one thousand stores. Eighteen in total. That's was horrible.

“Between 2012 and 2015, business development became a kind of guerrilla war. We were in Best Buy, then out. In Apple Stores globally, then out again. We entered Fnac and MediaMarkt – and were later rejected. We moved from one distributor to another, from one sports store to another. We simply couldn’t find stability.

“However, people didn’t reject the idea of open-ear audio, they rejected our execution of product at that time.”

A long Trekz

"So instead of giving up, we went back to the fundamentals – we focused on our technology and our product.

"We realised that we needed to improve the underlying technology first. The bone-conduction solution needed to be louder, we needed to reduce sound leakage, to reduce vibration.

"So we worked on that. We invented these layers to reduce the leakage. We invented and re-invented the premium pitch to make the sound more balanced. And we also mastered the titanium frame and flexible fit.

“Eventually, we created this product, Trekz. Trekz actually changed the business type and changed people's opinion about bone-conduction technology.

“For the first time, consumers felt like ‘this actually works!’. That moment changed our business.”

On a viral run

“In the old days, some of my friends would give good suggestions and kind words of encouragement. When Trekz came out, they just asked for Trekz samples.

"And it's very interesting that when you create these good things, they naturally become viral. Good things should be viral. That's how you grow a brand – it's that chain reaction.

“We were really proud of what we did with Trekz. But we were still struggling on the business side. If we couldn't sell it, we thought: 'how about we let them try?'

“So, half a year before Trekz was released, we were working on these demonstrations so that people could try [out Trekz in person in store – first in South Korea].

“If you are innovative, it's also your responsibility to educate the market about your innovation.

“But we have to beg these stores to give us space. We said: ‘If you give us space, we will train your staff even better, and give them Trekz [to understand the product].

“Brookstone was eventually one of the early adopter stores in North America. At the peak, one third of their revenue came from Trekz. We were selling tremendous volumes of product.

“Finally, our bone-conduction headphones had great value to their owners.”

Long-distance marathon

"We found spaces in the running stores in the UK. We succeeded among runners and became more successful.

“As we went grassroots, we touched early adopters – and they turned around and championed us. They recommend us to their family and friends – and the word of mouth effect is huge.

“We became a meaningful statistical number in an industry report. And that's when the MediaMarkt, the JB Hi-Fi and so forth took us in.

"But it's all the grassroots and underlying work where the value was created.

“The early days were a struggle, but the determination and the work ethic was always to tackle the problem.

“For quite some time, I would not allow us to release new product unless they showed significant improvement on the technology.”

To the future

Shokz has released plenty of innovative products since those mid-to-late 2010s, too, from the OpenRun Pro and beyond – with air-conduction products released later.

Queried about Shokz's future, Chen was ponderous: "Bone-conduction is, of course, a fantastic technology. But the market is relatively limited. As we continue to go more mainstream, open-ear audio allows us to serve a much border audience."

The latest release, in the form of OpenDots 2, reinforces that. This product release is more about refinement; about mainstream desires – adding IP57 ingress and water protection to add sports and mass appeal.

Chen is clearly confident in the technology: "I always feel very proud. When we produce a product, it would have to be good enough for us first."

And what about beyond the next 5 years? "As we grow, inevitably we have to cater to a broader consumer base. But we still emphasise technological development.

"Our mission has not changed: we still want to build the most wearable headphones ever. That means staying focused on the fundamentals, being true to ourselves and to keep creating value.

"But, of course, the future is always going to be challenging – and we're not kidding ourselves about that".

If you've been pondering buying a pair of the best earbuds, but hate that 'pressurised' feeling of something in your ear canal, or dislike the inevitable heightened lack of awareness, then Shokz is here to solve your issues.

The long-established brand's latest open-ear flagship, the OpenDots 2, are air-conduction headphones designed to deliver earbud-like sound quality – but without blocking your ear canals, thus ensuring you maintain awareness of your surroundings.

It's this design fundamental that's made the brand a mainstay for runners – initially with its bone-conduction headphones, which function in an altogether different way – but after wearing the OpenDots 2 for the past two weeks for this review, I think there's much wider cross-over appeal here beyond just sports and exercise enthusiasts.

Other brands have clearly noticed increased interest, too, with more lifestyle-oriented brands such as Bose recently entering the space, or Huawei establishing a more budget take to attract interest. While both of those deliver value in their own right, neither is anywhere nearly as comfortable as Shokz's latest – which is what makes the OpenDots 2 the 5-star option.

Price & Availability

The Shokz OpenDots 2 are on sale right now, priced at £179 in the UK and $199.95 in the USA (I'm currently awaiting Australian pricing – the 4 June on-sale date may slip in that region).

That's the same price equivalent at the original OpenDots product, so there's no year-on-year increase of concern – although the originals are now reduced in price (as you can see in the shopping widget above).

What's New?

So why buy the newer OpenDots 2 over the original product? I think it's worth spending that bit extra for the increased protection alone – it's now IP57 (up from IP54), that '7' meaning full submersion in a metre of water for half an hour is no bother.

Note, of course, that the OpenDots 2 aren't designed for swimming (there's the OpenSwim Pro for that). Simply that they'll be able to take all manner of sweat-dunking use from you, safe in the knowledge that they'll be protected and ready to roll for your next workout or general listening session.

Furthermore, the OpenDots 2 adds a bone-conduction microphone for use with calls, adding greater clarity – a feature that was lacking on the original product. This isn't for music playback, mind, so don't confuse these open-ears' core functionality.

The other key upgrade comes in sound quality, with the latest 'Bassphere 2.0 technology' designed to deliver even deeper low-end with minimal distortion. As these are open-ears, the low-end floor isn't as far down the frequency range as many earbuds – but Shokz has taken on feedback and recognised the importance of bass.

Design & Fit

The fundamental design point of the Shokz OpenDots 2 is that the open-ear nature means there's no actual earbud to wedge into your ear canal. Instead, the air-conduction output sits suspended in front of your ear.

To make this feasible, the earbud has to 'clip' onto your ear. Which is where things get really interesting. Having worn the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds extensively, the Shokz knock those out of the park in terms of comfort – by and large thanks to a patented silicone (Ultra-Soft Silicone™ 2.0) that's incredibly soft.

It's not only this factor, however, it's the beautifully judged pressure – or more the complete lack thereof – that Shokz has elected to use in the OpenDots 2. The (also patented) JointArc is made of a flexible nickel titanium plate, so it's super-light yet flexible – as a result, given the absence of any 'pinch' sensation, I largely forgot I was wearing these open-ears in little time.

People's ears do differ vastly, of course, so your mileage may vary – but Shokz has measured a wide demographic of users to generate a best-case for the majority in this product. How you wear them is another clear area Shokz is keen to highlight, with the associated app keenly telling you all the wrong ways not to put them onto your ears.

The app also educates you on the touch controls available. Pinching the battery 'barrel' that sits behind your ear can raise/lower the volume, while a tap will play/pause. There's also wear detection for auto-off when removing the open-ears from your lobes. The pinch control works very well, the tap control can be hit-and-miss given the flexible nature of one's ears.

Sporting Use

A massive appeal of the OpenDots 2 is that they don't block out ambient sound around you, so using them when running, cycling, or any other multitude of outdoor exercise makes them a good bet if you don't want to lose sense of your surroundings.

Impressively, despite the light touch of the fit, these open-ears stay in place when you're bouncing around on foot, too. They can marginally move, which can affect the sound profile, but will then settle into a natural position and not move unduly.

While Shokz does make other products specifically aimed at runners, the OpenDots 2 are perfectly suited to the task too. And that IP57 rating is particularly important for environmental factors, such as rain, sweat, mud – you name it.

However, while the open-ear nature is a key benefit of this product, it also presents an unavoidable natural ceiling. I've used the OpenDots 2 when cycling and the high speed of travel means an inevitable wind factor – which creates such a rush of sound of its own accord that hearing music from these open-ears becomes limited.

That said, I personally can't stand the 'passthrough' nature of active noise-cancelling earbuds, as it sounds too fake and processed. Besides, I wouldn't wear in-ear earbuds when cycling for safety reasons. That the OpenDots 2 present any kind of option is a step above – and could be ideal for spoken word podcasts and suchlike.

Sound Quality

Just to spell it out clearly: if you're looking for a pair of earbuds that isolate you from the world and offer active noise-cancelling (ANC) then you're very much in the wrong place – and the OpenDots 2 will not be for you.

However, if you're seeking an open-ear experience, where your external surroundings are always audible, then the OpenDots 2 are precisely what you seek. And while you might assume this 'open' nature means sound leakage and poor sound delivery, Shokz proves itself very capable of solid sound indeed.

Now, I'm not pretending that the quality of audio will rival the best earbuds. But in the context of this open-ear market, the OpenDots 2 are as good as it gets – it's only the OpenFit Pro able to offer more sound isolation (plus a higher price, larger and more obtrusive fit, and cold-feel metal that's less comfortable in my experience).

The low-end floor of the OpenDots 2 is 100Hz, so nowhere near the sub levels that you'll find in some other product types. But the Bassphere 2.0 tech does give an emphasis of bass with real throng – more than I'd expected, especially when surrounding ambient sound is minimal.

There are a variety of equalisation (EQ) settings within the app, including the option to personalise, or you can bypass for Dolby Audio at the flick of a switch (which bypasses your EQ selection). Personally I don't care for the Dolby option, I think it over-exerts the mid-section to give an overly 'metallic' presentation.

As said previously, the position of the OpenDots 2 in your ears is integral to how it'll sound, so subtle shifts can change the soundstage considerably. When this happens, the high-end might sound a bit too 'sparkly', for example, such is the nature of this product design.

Overall, I think the OpenDots 2 present a solid sound delivery that's actually exceeded my expectations. There are notable trade-offs with any open-ear design, but the ability to offset some of these with capable volume levels and an emphasis on bass impresses.

Battery life, meanwhile, is much the same as the original product – at 10 hours per charge. That's no surprise, given the space limitations and lightweight nature of this design (each bud is a mere 6.4g).

However, the provided case can charge a further three times, so you can net 40 hours in total. And the case is even Qi wireless charging compatible for easy top-ups. Using the USB-C is quicker, mind, noting that only the charging cable is included (not the wall plug).

Shokz OpenDots 2 review: Verdict

The Shokz OpenDots 2 certainly aren't going to be for everyone. But for the specific user base that these open-ears are aimed at, they're a total knockout.

Active people and runners in particular will no doubt appreciate the design's open nature, allowing you to remain aware of your surroundings at all times, plus the IP57 rating for assurance of wear and tear.

But the sheer degree of comfort in this fit means earbud-despisers may also prefer this option for everyday use, too. The overall sound quality also exceeded my expectations.

No, it's not going to rival an active noise-cancelling earbud. But that's not the point. In the context of this product category, the Shokz deliver solid sound – including a surprising amount of bass – that doesn't feel like a universal compromise.

As someone who dislikes the passthrough option of active noise-cancelling, the OpenDots 2 are a versatile alternative. So whether you're looking for less conventional active earbuds for running, or an earbud-adjacent option to wear all day, every day, Shokz's latest is a 5-star sensation.

Also Consider

If you want nothing in your ear canals at all, then the OpenRun Pro 2 bone-conduction headphones steer clear for even better audio. The fit is with a headband design for rigid placement – making these less versatile than the OpenDots 2.

It's worth mentioning the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds, too, as their more 'lifestyle' design might be initially appealing – but the higher price and less comfortable fit are marks against this option.

Huawei's FreeClips 2 are a near-priced option too. However, their material finish isn't as comfortable, though, so you may instead want to consider Shokz's also-new OpenDots Air – which offer much of the OpenDots 2 with reductions in the build, battery life and IP rating.

If Beats wanted people talking about its next pair of headphones, mission accomplished.

The Apple-owned audio brand appears to have kicked off the marketing campaign for a new set of over-ear headphones by putting them in the hands of a high-profile athlete and letting the internet do the rest.

This time, the athlete in question is football superstar Lamine Yamal, who shared a carousel of images on social media ahead of Spain's latest training camp.

While the post itself wasn't about headphones, eagle-eyed fans quickly noticed a pair of bright pink Beats over-ears appearing prominently throughout the photos.

The headphones are either hanging from Yamal's bag or draped around his neck, making them impossible to miss.

The appearance comes just days after a mystery pair of Bluetooth over-ear headphones surfaced in filings with the US Federal Communications Commission under model number A3577.

At the time, it wasn't clear if the device belonged to Apple or Beats, but Yamal's Instagram post appears to answer that question.

A familiar Beats playbook

This isn't the first time Beats has used athletes and celebrities to tease upcoming products before launch.

The brand has built much of its marketing identity around high-profile ambassadors, often allowing unreleased products to appear in public long before an official announcement arrives.

Yamal is certainly getting the word out. The post featuring the upcoming cans currently has 2.7 million likes and nearly 11,000 comments.

In several shots, the headphones are positioned front and centre, hanging from a designer bag, giving photographers and social media users a clear view of the distinctive pink finish.

The headphones themselves look markedly different from the current Beats Studio Pro, which launched in 2023.

The new model appears to feature flatter earcups and a redesigned headband with slimmer support arms that bear more than a passing resemblance to the Apple AirPods Max 2.

Several observers have also noted that the overall shape does not resemble any current Beats product.

More than a new colourway

The current Beats Studio Pro arrived with custom Beats silicon rather than Apple's H-series chip, a decision that improved Android compatibility but left the headphones without some of the ecosystem features found on AirPods.

Since then, Beats has used Apple's chips in newer products, including the Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 and the Beats Powerbeats Fit, which led to speculation that these mystery headphones could follow the same path.

For now, Beats isn't saying anything publicly, but if history is any guide, seeing a mystery product hanging from the shoulder of a Beats ambassador is rarely an accident.

[via Macrumors]

Apple may have upgraded its AirPods Max headphones of late – and Sony its WH-1000 series with the WH-1000XX – but there's one pair of wireless ANC over-ears that sit proudly at the top of my list for pure audio performance.

The Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 headphones are the crème de la crème of closed-back, Bluetooth 'phones for me, with audiophile-standard sound and beautiful design. They rightly scored the full five stars in our review last autumn and I take my Warm Stone coloured pair everywhere.

However, a 2026 update is making me think again.

Bowers & Wilkins has recently added another couple of colours to the lineup – Midnight Blue and Pearl Blue – and it's the latter has wowed me once more.

Having now seen and tested the Px8 S2 in Pearl Blue, I think I've been swayed by the new colour. The audio performance is identical and continues to be class-leading, but with a softer, more subtle aesthetic.

What wins it for me is the lighter, silver-like die-cast aluminium elements – the Warm Sand version has a darker metallic shade. This offsets the pastel blue superbly and makes them look quite unlike any other premium headphones on the market today.

AirPods Max 2 do have some interesting colour options, but these look classier.

And that's not all.

Even better-looking than the Pearl Blue PX8 S2 are the new Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 variants in Vintage Maroon. Also scoring five stars in our review last year, the Px7 S3 are almost as perfect in performance as their flagship siblings.

They swap the soft Nappa leather earcups for vegan leather alternatives, and the 40mm drivers are bio cellulose rather than carbon, but the build quality continues to be of a very high standard.

And that is exemplified by the new maroon finish. They remind me of old school Fred Perry twin-tipped shirts of the 80s and 90s – especially when matched with the gold B&W logo. Burgundy and gold have always looked stylish together, and these ooze mod swagger.

Needless to say, I've mainly been listening to The Who, Kinks and The Jam on them.

Both pairs are available now with the Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 in Pearl Blue (and Midnight Blue) available for £629 / €729 / $799, while the Bowers & Wilkins Px7 in Vintage Maroon will set you back £399 / €429 / $479.

They each offer 30 hours of battery life and USB-C charging, plus aptX Lossless Bluetooth support. And they are available from Bowers & Wilkins directly or via multiple other retailers.

It's been an interesting few weeks. Despite obtaining Sony's all-new and most luxurious ever headphones, the 1000X 'The Collexion' (see my full review here), I've had to be very discreet about my possession of these over-ear cans.

That's because I've been using these new headphones wherever possible, with the caveat that they've been under embargo and therefore not for public display. Nonetheless, with other creators and celebrities donning them in the wild, I've been able to test them in a variety of environments too.

Which I've felt has been an important real-world-testing factor for these headphones. After all, The Collexion – the 'X' not being a typo, but a numeral-esque representation of Sony's decade-long endeavour in this space – is positioned above the brand's WH-1000XM6, in a semi-adjacent space to Apple's AirPods Max 2 or Bowers & Wilkins' PX8 S2.

What's interesting, however, is that Sony isn't positioning The Collexion as an XM6 alternative, per se. These are a grade above, offering a brand new 30mm driver, new processor, different active noise-cancelling (ANC) that's designed less for those on the go – and more with the focus being self-indulgent "me time" at home.

It's been a rollercoaster journey with these headphones, therefore, in trying to absorb precisely what they're all about but, crucially, who they're actually aimed at. Has Sony hit a home run in unsettling Apple and Bowers, or is the 1000X The Collexion dubiously aligned with its best intentions?

Pricing

First thing's first: the price. There's no messing around here, as The Collexion, available in either Black or Platinum finishes, will cost you £550 (US and Australia pricing is unavailable to me at the time of writing).

For context, Apple's AirPods Max are £499 / $529 / AU$999, while Bowers & Wilkins' PX8 S2 will set you back £629 / $799 / AU$1,299. The Japanese tech giant has therefore opted to sit somewhere in the middle – which is a message of confidence.

A potential 'hiccup', if I can call it that, is that the brand's WH-1000XM6 headphones cost £399 / $449 / AU$699. As both products have "1000X" firmly in their names, it makes them somewhat more comparable – I'm sure that's how many consumers will see it anyway. Which makes me wonder who's going to see that near-40% jump as the best purchase decision.

Sound Quality

Well, herein lies the argument for that extra spend. The 1000X The Collexion aren't just WH-1000XM6 in disguise, jazzed up to look prettier. They have an all-new driver and have been produced with entirely different consideration.

To cut to the chase: I really enjoy the sound these new headphones produce. Some purists might find them a little too bassy, but the 30mm drivers deployed here have new carbon materials to make for a tauter and therefore tighter bass response.

I'm pleased that's the case in general, as Sony's seeming disarray when making its Ult Wear (read: insanely loose, over-bassy headphones) really made me query what the heck the brand was up to. The Collexion, however, corrects that misstep and puts the brand back on a more sensible path.

There are caveats to the sound, as I'll get to, but much of that is processing-related. In terms of raw audio, including playing nice with Hi-Res Audio sources, The Collexion do a fine job of being very fine headphones indeed. So that's the biggest job succeeded.

Pleasingly, there's a detailed graphic equaliser option within the app. You can select from pre-sets or adjust a 10-band EQ (to +/-6dB per band) to create your ideal sound. Two 'Custom' options can be saved, too, should you have a specific EQ rigour that you'd prefer to apply to specific genres or sources. I love using this.

Upmixing & Adaptive Control

I did say there are caveats, though. Sony seems really proud of its work in using the HD Noise Cancelling Processor QN3 – which was an introduction in the XM6 headphones – in tandem with an all-new Integrated Processor V3 is added for "360 upmixes".

"What are 360 upmixes?", I hear you cry. You might suspect head-motion spatial audio, much like Bose has with the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones. But it's not that. Instead, this feature – available as part of the Sound Connect app (available for iOS and Android) – offers "listening modes" to ape various environments.

There's 'Background Music', 'Game', 'Cinema' and 'Music'. There's also the fact that each and every one is terrible in its attempt at adding movie-soundtrack-esque filtering that's just not needed for a product like this.

Let the music be as it's mixed, not some replica "played out the back of your local cafe" in style. This is the feature I dislike the most about these headphones, because I just can't make sense of it. Even the 'Music' setting will add edginess and crunch that I can't see anyone really appreciating.

Active Noise-Cancelling

Fortunately you needn't care about the listening mode, as it's off by default – and you should just leave it that way. Do so and you've then got the choice of active noise-cancelling (ANC) being on or off, or set to Ambient (many would call this 'passthrough' for hearing people speak).

I must say, Sony has gone pretty light on those options, and I've been a firm user of 'on' at all times. Good job, then, that the 1000X The Collexion are well-equipped for delivering ANC, with 12 microphones – eight on the exterior, four within the earcups for feedback – utilising the same base system as the WH-1000XM6's setup.

However, the XM6 and The Collexion are not the same in their ANC delivery. How you feel about this will either make it more of a 'like' or more of a 'dislike' take – whereas I'm sitting on the fence somewhat. That's because the XM6 have 'stronger' ANC; The Collexion, meanwhile, has a more generous passthrough for higher-end frequencies in general.

Now, that creates a more natural and less 'stuck in a vacuum' experience for listening – ideal when at home. It's more delicate, more Bowers & Wilkins-esque in style.

But when out and about – as I have discreetly been testing on trains and planes – these newer headphones can't deliver the Bose or even Sony's step-down XM6 degree of total cancellation.

The Collexion delivers good ANC, for sure, but it's intentionally different – and that's a key factor you'll need to weigh up in your purchase decision.

Adaptive Control

It's not entirely smooth sailing, however, with another software-induced system presenting further issues. There's a 'Scene' option within the app, whereby the headphones will adjust depending on your actions.

I get and like the idea of it – changing the profile for your gym session, when you're walking or commuting, and so forth – but it's much too abrupt in its adjustment and can't really appreciate that I never want Ambient to be on for my uses.

This also highlights the 1000X The Collexion's lack of minutiae adjustment levels. There's no ANC 'grades', no subtle levels of adjustment. To me it feels too crude an adjustment when chopping between its assumed activity changes. It's feels like an AI feature that lacks the human touch.

Comfort

Those minor foibles voiced, however, and I can't shy away from the fact that these headphones are supremely comfortable to wear. Sony has really dialled in on the design front and delivered an exquisitely light product, created with great materials.

That, to some degree, helps explain the price. Because you can feel the quality in the wearing of these headphones. They don't pinch. They don't get too warm (I've slept in them on a plane already, so would know). They don't feel like a weight upon one's head. It's all very nicely judged.

There are distinguished steps in the design which are very intentional, too. There are no visible screws. The single-piece coverings have no visible seams. The sand-blasted Sony logo that sits apart from the metal part of the headband. There's no paint to be seen here, it's all just raw and treated materials. I totally respect that – Sony has levelled up.

Battery

The last part is both a positive and negative, too. The Collexion has been wise in splitting its battery into two cells, meaning a more balanced weight on the head. But neither of these two cells is especially large in capacity.

I wouldn't say the 1000X The Collexion is lowly in output time per charge, as such, more that other brands are well beyond this level. I've been seeing, roughly speaking, 2.5-to-3 hours per 20% depletion. And circa 14 hours of delivery on one charge is no bad show.

It's just that Sony's claim of "max 24 hours" (with ANC on; it's 16 for calls) seems far away from my reality in weeks of use. And other brands are in the dozens of hours per charge. Some are knocking on triple digits.

Yes, the Collexion is a distance off that. But I'd not want more battery capacity meaning more weight and therefore a less balanced product design, so it's swings and roundabouts. Ultimately, I can understand Sony's decision here.

In Conclusion

Overall, then, I have really loved using Sony’s 1000X The Collexion headphones – and will continue to do so. The fundamentals are absolutely on point: product design, usability, materials, comfort, sound quality.

Despite this, however, I am still left wondering precisely who these headphones are for. With active noise-cancelling (ANC) that's less strong than the brand's XM6 over-ears, the fact the '1000X' name has stuck might be confusing to prospective buyers.

I also can't quite get over the name in and of itself, which sounds like the marketing department asked AI "what the cool kids might say". I get the "X" inclusion for its representation, but I just don't see that marketing as an attractive point for buyers of headphones at this level.

The fact is that this market is also very competitive. Apple heads are going to continue loving their AirPods Max. I would personally pay the bit extra for Bowers & Wilkins' PX8 S2 for the real leather and even higher-end design. And if I didn't have that sort of money then, well, Sony's WH-1000XM6 are among the best travel headphone picks you could ever choose.

So, after more than a fortnight of use, I'm as enamoured by Sony's 1000X The Collexion as I am confused by some of the aspects. These are exceptional headphones, which will be 5-star winners for some, but clearly won't be for everyone – and I think a batch of the app's 'upmix' and 'scene' software features need a drastic rethink too.

The situation surrounding Sennheiser at the moment is certainly peculiar. At the end of March, the brand's parent company – Sonova – discontinued its operations and placed it up for sale.

Many feared for the future of one of the audio industries' most significant names. But now – to add even more confusion to the situation – the brand is back with a new model announced.

That's right – today, we've seen the launch of the Sennheiser Momentum 5 headphones. That's the natural successor to the Momentum 4, which earned a five-star review when we tested them back in 2022.

Those employ the same 42mm transducer which the previous generation utilised, and has been tuned for full-bodied sound and dynamic bass in the vein of the HD 600 series headphones. However, this model is pushed forward with Hi-Res Audio, Snapdragon Sound and aptX Lossless, all enabling the user to listen to higher quality content.

There are also a Smart Control Plus companion app, which opens up an 8-band EQ, sound personalisation options and presets, to ensure you've always got the perfect sound for your mood.

Elsewhere, you'll find Spatial Audio, complete with head-tracking capabilities and Dolby Atmos with head tracking where that's supported. That's handy, and should offer another kind of user exactly what is needed for top notch listening.

The model comes with a 700 mAh battery, which is designed to be user replaceable. That should be good for up to 57 hours of playback with the ANC engaged.

Despite all of that, the case itself is around 20% smaller than before, which should make it easy to wear. Plus – while the cans ship with Bluetooth 5.4 compatibility, an upgrade to Bluetooth 6.0 will be possible with a future firmware update.

Those looking to snag a pair will pay £329.90 / €399.90 / US$399.99 / AU$749. However, I can see a lot of trepidation around the launch while things play out. That's a totally fair response, so hopefully things can be sorted out sooner rather than later.

Anker has announced new earbuds under its popular Soundcore brand, that are loaded with AI skills, promising to offer an elevated listening and calling experience – with a host of features packed in.

The Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro series is comprised of the Pro and Pro Max, with both offering the exact same earbuds, but different cases.

While both models have a display on the case, the Pro Max is larger at 1.78-inches, and allows for AI notetaking. The case can record meeting notes for you, using AI to transcribe and identify the speakers, producing a summary and action items – without having to put your phone out on the boardroom table.

While the recording functions of the Liberty 5 Pro Max might make these £199.99 / $229.99 earbuds appeal, the regular Pro buds offer exactly the same sound quality and are cheaper at £149.99 / $169.99, available now from Amazon.

Both benefit from Anker's new THUS chip, which powers a range of AI enhanced audio functions, which is where a Guinness World Record comes in. According to Anker, the Liberty 5 Pro set a world record for call clarity.

That's thanks to the THUS chip doing its work, using data from 10 sensors – including bone conduction – to ensure optimal performance. This separates the speaker's voice from environmental noise to make sure that calls come across clearly.

There's also new active noise cancellation, which Anker says is "2x deeper" than the previous Liberty 4 Pro. It's adaptive, constantly monitoring the environment to make sure that noise is eliminated.

The Liberty 5 Pro series will also create a personalised EQ for listeners, while the AI can replace data lost through Bluetooth compression to restore audio quality. Anker says this will bring back 65% of the quality that's lost, which sounds great, but it's not really clear how that might be measured.

There's support for Sony's LDAC codec for enhanced sound quality and they support multipoint connections.

The IP55 protection means they can withstand a splash of rain, while the battery life comes in a 6.5 hours with ANC, extended to 28 hours with the charging case.

That makes for a fully-loaded set of earbuds, with skills that others can only dream of – however, it's likely to be the display on the case that draws people in.

When it comes to the best headphones, Sony has long been at the top of its game. Indeed, it's been a decade since the brand launched its first 1000X headphones – and that's precisely why 'The ColleXion', on test here, has a numeral central in its name.

However, the 1000X The Collexion isn't just the brand's WH-1000XM6 noise-cancelling champs with a facelift. Far from it. These headphones are all-new, designed from the ground up, with a focus on luxury – and a keen eye on key competitors, from Apple's AirPods Max 2 to Bowers & Wilkins' Px8 S2.

An elevated price point positions these over-ears in a new market space for the Japanese tech giant, though, while the design and feature set is adjacent to what's become typical of 1000X products over the years. The WH-1000XX – as the product is officially coded on Sony's site – is as new as the audience Sony seeks.

I've been using these headphones for three weeks for this review – here are my initial thoughts, highlighting 3 things I like and 3 I don't – putting them through their paces at home, in the office, on long-haul flights, and during train commutes.

So what's the conclusion? Has Sony broken the mould with the WH-1000X The Collexion, delivering unrivalled performance that succeeds in standing apart from the XM6? Or does this new luxury venture bring as many questions as those it answers?

Price & Availability

After its 19 May 2026 reveal, The Collexion is now on sale, priced at £549 in the UK, $649 in the USA and A$999 in Australia. You can choose from Black or Platinum.

That's confident pricing, especially when you consider the AirPods Max 2 is priced at £499 / $529 / AU$999, and the Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 sit at £629 / $799 / AU$1,299.

While Sony won't want comparisons between The Collexion and WH-1000XM6, the naming convention alone makes that hard to ignore. As does the price difference, given the latter's £399 / $449 / AU$699 launch price.

What's New? Design details

It might be easier to ask 'what isn't new?', such is the nature of the WH-1000XX. Despite being part of the 1000X family, The Collexion has a unique design, using distinctive materials and processes to achieve its aesthetic.

The outer frame is all metal, with the Sony logo sandblasted to create a subtle contrast. There's no paint used anywhere. There are no screws or seams visible. Even the faux leather used was tweaked in development over a two-year period before achieving its production status.

The earcups are larger than you'll find on the 1000XM6, meaning there's more room inside for your ears. Despite this, however, the profile of the WH-1000XX is actually less prominent – sitting at 40.1mm on a flat surface, versus 45.4mm – to optimise portability.

That said, The Collexion isn't a folding pair of headphones. The headband's arms are fixed – with silky-smooth and silent sliding adjustment for sizing – so won't collapse, as you'll find with the XM6.

The 1000XX's included carry case – which is a material-clad hard shell – is a work of art in and of itself, though, and I love how it opens and closes with a single latch to the base. So often headphones fail to consider their transport vessel, but Sony's not taken its eye off the prize here.

On the left earcup, The Collexion feature a 3.5mm slot, should you wish to forego the Bluetooth 6.0 norm and wire up for listening (and there's a cable included in the case). There's also an ANC mode adjustment button to toggle between on/off/Ambient, and an on/off/pairing button.

The right earcup houses an open USB-C port for charging – which can't be used for audio, bizarrely – but foregoes any physical buttons. That's to its benefit, though, as there are touch-based controls, which I found to work very well.

Slide a finger up the exterior and the volume will rise, just as sliding one down will perform the reverse function. Press for voice interaction with Google Gemini, if you wish, while auto-pause/play when removing the headphones proves effective – no buttons required.

Sound Quality & ANC

Again, The Collexion isn't the XM6 with a luxe facelift. These new headphones feature an all-new driver, which is 30mm in diameter and features more carbon fibre in its structure. That makes it even more solid to its centre, which is better high-frequency response, while a soft edging allows for extended bass control.

A key component of the 1000XX's sound signature is the active noise-cancellation (ANC), which is binary in its selection of 'on' or 'Ambient' – the latter used for passthrough so you can hear conversational sounds around you with ease. You can also turn it off entirely, should you wish.

Personally, I'm staunchly of the 'always-on' take when it comes to ANC – it affects the sound signature to such a significant degree in giving bass that 'locked in' sensation and greater clarity and width, without distractions from around you. The 1000XX just sound more complete with it activated.

Interestingly, despite the WH-1000XX using the same base ANC model as in the XM6, the result is not the same. Sony has taken the approach that these new headphones are ideal for at-home listening, where ANC needn't be as firm in its delivery.

As such, some higher-frequency sounds pass through to some degree, meaning those looking fundamentally for the best noise-cancelling will find more from the XM6. It's an intentional difference and another consideration for your typical use cases.

I'm still impressed by the ANC overall, though, which has done a decent job in blocking out the majority of sounds in an office space, and dumbing down the roars of London Tube travel or that mid-to-upper 'hiss' frequency on a long-haul flight. It's more comparable to Bowers & Wilkins' 'softer' approach, if you like, which is no bad thing at all – if that's what you seek.

Software

The sound profile is adjustable in myriad ways, too, with Sony's Sound Connect app a great portal for dialling into the product's various settings. My particular favourite is the 10-band graphic equaliser (EQ), which allows you to create personalised Custom saves in addition to the variety of pre-set options. Morphing the 1000XX's sound to your ideal preference is therefore a breeze.

That said, there are areas where I find Sony's software goes off-piste. The addition of a new Integrated Processor V3 – complementing the Sony HD Noise Cancelling Processor QN3 – is said to bring the brains for delivering '360 upmixes', a newly expanded feature within the app.

It's here, however, that I can't fathom Sony's thinking. The '360 Upmix' options of Music, Cinema, Game and Background music all 'squeeze' the sound profile, making for a more metallic, grainy and poorly AI-separated mix with a sense of spatial enhancement. It's a strong 'no' from me – and throughout a variety of genre selections I haven't found it to be of benefit.

Furthermore, the Adaptive Sound Control feature, while a concept that I like in principle, I just don't think works in reality. This auto-switches the ANC to Ambient, depending on what you're doing – with static, walking/running and riding in transport catered for. It's too abrupt in its delivery, I find, marking another software feature that's always off for my use.

Battery Life

One point I didn't make in the design section is that Sony has split the battery of the WH-1000XX into two cells, each 375mAh, for a balanced feel when wearing. I really can't complain on the fit, comfort or weight (320g) of these headphones – which I've worn for many hours at a time to the point I've half forgotten they're even on.

However, the battery life's output, which is quoted at up to 24 hours per charge, doesn't live up to that in my use – and the WH-1000XM6 actually lasts longer, which many prospective buyers may find perplexing.

Just how much use am I talking about? I've been seeing roughly 2.5-to-3 hours per 20% depletion. So it's circa 15 hours of delivery on one charge with ANC activated – which is long enough for even the longest of long-haul flights. Turn the volume down and you'll see more, I'm sure.

The question is how much this will matter to your use. Some other brands can deliver dozens of hours per charge, with some headphone products even pushing into triple digits. For me, however, I wouldn't want more battery capacity to result in more weight and therefore a less balanced product design and diminished comfort.

Sony The Collexion review: Verdict

Sony's all-new luxury headphones are a bold statement that largely pays off. The Collexion is delightfully crafted and delivers an enjoyable sound signature that competes with the key competition – even at this price point.

I think the naming convention is ill-considered, though, irrelevant of the decade celebrations, marking out the 1000XX as too comparable to the lower-priced 1000XM6 – the latter offering better battery life and 'stronger' ANC delivery.

All of which leaves me wondering precisely who these new headphones are for. Especially with some of the software features – 360 Upmix and Adaptive Sound, plus no USB-C audio – seeming averse to luxury and audiophile aspirations.

Nonetheless, after these three weeks of use, I can't call out Sony's 1000X The Collexion in terms of comfort or sound quality. These are exceptional headphones that I'll be using for a long time coming, which will be 5-star winners for some – just not everyone.

Also Consider

If you're going to spend this much cash, then just a bit extra will net you the Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 with real leather and, for me, a more intricate and higher-end design.

But if it's active noise-cancelling excellence that you most seek, then saving a bit of cash and jumping on Sony's WH-1000XM6 will net you the best travel headphones instead. Bose's QC Ultra Headphones are a similar alternative.

Other considerations? Apple's AirPods Max 2 look mighty similar in style terms – and those wanting the ecosystem advantages with iPhone and Mac integration may find this of greater appeal.

The Apple AirPods Pro 3 arrived last year with a handful of meaningful upgrades, including improved sound, longer battery life and built-in heart rate tracking. Apple has also redesigned the earbuds, although the changes won’t work for everyone.

After my initial tests, I wasn't 100% happy with the buds' design, and, if I'm 100% honest, I still prefer the AirPods Pro 2 to their successors for long-term wear. However, it's undeniable that the new model is better in almost every conceivable way, from sound to ANC and beyond.

I've been testing the AirPods Pro 3 on and off since its launch, and even though I can't say I'm just as impressed with them as I was with their predecessors, I can certainly see their appeal. Sure, you might often find me sporting my purple Apple AirPods Max 2, but when I need something more subtle, the AirPods Pro 3 will do.

As you've probably already guessed, the AirPods Pro 3 might not be the best of the best noise-cancelling headphones, but I'm confident many people will find what they are looking for in them. Should you upgrade? Let's find out.

Apple AirPods Pro 3 review

Price and availability

The AirPods Pro 3 were launched in September 2025 and are available to purchase now directly from Apple UK, Apple US, and Apple AU, with prices starting at £219/ $249/ €249/ A$429.

They are cheaper than the AirPods Pro 2 were when they launched in the UK. The AirPods Pro 2 originally sold for £249, and the USB-C version knocked that down to £229. In other regions, the price remained the same, at $249/€249/A$429.

Design and build quality

At first glance, the Apple AirPods Pro 3 don’t look radically different from their predecessor, but Apple has made several subtle tweaks to the shape and fit.

Apple says the AirPods Pro 3 redesign was intended to improve fit, comfort and stability through changes such as a deeper nozzle angle, new foam-infused ear tips and revised acoustic architecture.

According to the company’s official launch materials, the new shape was specifically created to improve fit, stability and passive noise isolation. Apple claims the redesign was informed by “over 10,000 ear scans” and “more than 100,000 hours of user research.”

The brand also explained that the internal architecture was “completely re-engineered” to make each earbud smaller internally, while changing the external geometry and ear tip alignment to increase stability during activities like running and HIIT workouts.

In practice, and unlike the AirPods Pro 2, which sat neatly and almost flush inside my ears, the new model protrudes more noticeably and feels bulkier.

As a result, I struggled to achieve the same secure fit as before, especially during movement, with the earbuds feeling less “locked in” than the previous generation.

Swapping to the largest ear tips improves passive isolation and helps the ANC perform better, but introduces discomfort during longer listening sessions.

Build quality, however, remains predictably excellent. The earbuds still feel premium, lightweight and durable, with the same polished Apple finish and pocketable charging case people expect from the brand.

Features

Thanks to the new H3 chip, for the first time on a pair of AirPods, the AirPods Pro 3 lets you record workout heart rate data directly from the earbuds without needing to wear an Apple Watch, immediately making the buds feel more connected to Apple’s wider health and fitness ecosystem.

In practice, the feature worked surprisingly well during runs and gym sessions. I wouldn’t replace a dedicated chest strap or sports watch with it, but for casual fitness tracking and general workout data, it felt accurate enough to be genuinely useful.

Apple also introduced a new Live Translation feature, which is... fine, I guess, but nothing revolutionary. Not yet, anyway! If you think you can pop the buds in and chat with a Spanish-speaking friend on a busy street, you will be bitterly disappointed.

The AirPods Pro 3 hasn't ushered in the Babel Fish moment, but it certainly shows in which direction the technology is headed. Once companies like Apple can reduce response time (e.g., real-time translation) and isolate the voice of the person speaking to you, things will be different.

Apart from this, the ecosystem integration remains as seamless as ever. Pairing is instant, device switching is effortless, and all the small Apple conveniences people expect are present and working flawlessly. If you already use Apple hardware daily, the AirPods Pro 3 slot into that ecosystem almost invisibly.

Audio performance

Apple makes some huge claims about the audio performance of the Apple AirPods Pro 3, saying the earbuds deliver “the world’s best in-ear Active Noise Cancellation” and up to twice the noise reduction of the previous generation thanks to the new acoustic architecture, updated microphones and computational audio enhancements.

In some areas, I can absolutely see where those claims are coming from. Sound quality is excellent here, with the AirPods Pro 3 producing a clean, balanced and detailed sound signature that works brilliantly across different genres.

Apple says the redesigned internal airflow system and next-generation Adaptive EQ improve bass response and instrument separation, and, in practice, the earbuds do sound more spacious and refined overall.

Apple’s Adaptive Audio system dynamically blends ANC and transparency depending on your surroundings, and the effect feels remarkably natural in day-to-day use. External sounds come through with almost eerie realism at times, to the point where I repeatedly forgot I was even wearing earbuds.

Where things became more complicated for me was active noise cancellation. Despite Apple’s confidence about the upgraded ANC performance, I actually found the AirPods Pro 2 more effective in real-world environments.

The new earbuds never formed quite the same seal in my ears, which meant external noise crept in more noticeably during commuting and in busy indoor settings.

I suspect part of that comes down to the redesigned fit rather than the ANC system itself. Apple says the updated shape and new foam-infused ear tips improve passive isolation and stability, but, in my case, the opposite happened. The largest ear tips improved isolation somewhat, but also became uncomfortable during longer listening sessions.

So while the underlying audio tech here is clearly impressive, and the sound quality itself is arguably the best Apple has delivered in a pair of earbuds so far, the overall listening experience felt slightly compromised by the new fit.

Battery life and charging

Apple claims the Apple AirPods Pro 3 offer up to eight hours of listening time on a single charge with ANC enabled, alongside up to 36 hours in total when using the charging case, a noticeable improvement over the previous generation and one of the more meaningful everyday upgrades introduced by the new H3 chip.

During testing, the battery performance largely lived up to those claims. I found myself charging the earbuds less frequently than the AirPods Pro 2, especially during long workdays and extended listening sessions.

The efficiency improvements aren’t dramatic enough to completely change how you use the earbuds, but they do make the overall experience feel less interrupted.

The case supports USB-C charging alongside wireless charging options, and it integrates seamlessly into Apple’s broader accessory ecosystem. Fast charging is still impressively convenient too, with short top-ups delivering enough battery life for several hours of playback.

Verdict

The Apple AirPods Pro 3 are a slightly frustrating product because, in many ways, they’re objectively better than their predecessor.

The new H3 chip delivers excellent sound quality, battery life is noticeably stronger, and features such as heart rate tracking help the earbuds feel more tightly integrated into Apple’s growing health ecosystem. Transparency Mode also remains astonishingly good and continues to set the benchmark for the category.

At the same time, the redesigned fit simply didn’t work as well for me as the AirPods Pro 2. The earbuds never felt quite as secure or comfortable, and that had a direct impact on ANC performance in real-world use. Apple clearly had good intentions with the redesign, but, in my experience, the changes created as many compromises as improvements.

If you’re upgrading from older AirPods, these are excellent earbuds. If you already own the AirPods Pro 2, especially the USB-C version, the decision feels much less straightforward.

Also consider

The Sony WF-1000XM6 are probably the closest non-Apple equivalent to the AirPods Pro 3. They combine excellent audio quality with class-leading noise cancellation, strong battery life and broad Android/iOS compatibility. Unlike Apple’s earbuds, though, you don’t need to be fully invested in one ecosystem to unlock their best features.

If you want premium ANC and a more universally comfortable fit without paying AirPods Pro 3 money, Bose QuietComfort Earbuds 2 are a strong option. They don’t lock you into an ecosystem, work brilliantly across iOS and Android, and deliver a warmer, more immersive sound signature than Apple’s earbuds.

Can you believe it? It was 10 years ago that Sony launched the 1000X – and in the decade since, the brand has gone from strength to strength in delivering some of the best noise-cancelling over-ears available, most recently with the WH-1000XM6.

Now, however, Sony is taking this 10th birthday as an opportunity to widen the 1000X range, diversifying its output and target audience with the new, luxury 1000X 'The Collexion' model (and no, that's not a typo – the 'X' numeral is very much part of the name).

If, at first glance, you're getting an air of Apple AirPods Max 2 about the latest Sony's aesthetic, then you won't be the only one. Long-rumoured and repeatedly leaked ahead of this official reveal, The Collexion more realistically aims to fill a space between Apple's top-tier cans and the Bowers & Wilkins' Px8 S2.

At a pre-briefing for the headphones ahead of the official reveal, I was told that The Collexion represents "a collection of all of our [Sony's] knowledge and experience to create something really special," adding that it's "not the 'M7', as this [The Collexion] is a different focus entirely."

'Luxury' is the word that Sony really wants to resonate about these headphones. They're lightweight and made of quality materials. The outer frame is hand-polished, then sandblasted to provide the Sony logo a matte relief. Faux leather covers the earpads, cup housings and much of the headband – with no visible seams or screws.

The design isn't just an evolution of the 1000XM6 either: The Collexion features larger earcups, with a bespoke 30mm driver within each, made of a carbon-layered composite for the dome section of the diaphragm. This enhances the rigidity, said to deliver "natural yet delicate" high-frequency expression.

Despite these advances, the whole profile of the headphones is slimmer compared to the XM6. There's more room for your ears in the earcups, greater breathability, yet a more delicate profile. The design doesn't fold, though, so that's something to keep in mind.

The Collexion also builds upon Sony's active noise-cancelling (ANC) expertise by utilising the same base system as found in the XM6 – the Sony HD Noise Cancelling Processor QN3 – but adds a new integrated third-gen processor that enables 360-degree upmixes to audio.

The ANC is intentionally less 'strong' than you'll find on the XM6 – despite using 12 microphones total (eight externally, four internally) – with simple on/off or passthrough options available, but also optional auto-adjustment based on your actions in the Adaptive Sound Control settings.

In terms of quality, there's support for LDAC (Hi-Res Audio Wireless), while DSEE (Digital Sound Enhancement Engine) will upsample compressed audio to 96kHz/24-bit. So whatever the source, you can expect the utmost Sony 1000X quality.

With all this in mind, however, how much will the Sony 1000X The Collexion cost? With a £550 asking price (other regions are TBC) for the launch date later this month, you can pick a pair up in Black or Platinum (white, really). That puts Sony's latest close to Apple's top-tier cans – and will further shake up this increasingly growing luxury headphones market segment.

Marshall just unveiled its newest pair of headphones, and it's taken what's either a surprising approach or a very logical one, depending on how much you know about its market share. While the brand is a pretty iconic one in audio circles, it's not the biggest name in the headphones world, and its fancier headphones, the Monitor III ANC, aren't the biggest sellers in its lineup.

That honour goes to the Major, its latest version being the Major V, which sells in droves thanks to a way more approachable price point and punky stylings that make it perfect for younger folks. So, Marshall's chosen to build on the Major by upgrading it in some important ways and creating the Milton ANC, its newest launch.

These headphones are, crucially, still on-ear – meaning they sit on your ear rather than encapsulating it like a bigger earcup would. Compared to the Major, though, they have softer and deeper cushioning to theoretically make them more comfortable to wear for longer periods.

They also, as the name suggests, bring ANC to the table, a big upgrade. In a first for Marshall, the "A" stands for adaptive, rather than just active noise-cancelling, meaning the amount of cancelling will vary according to the ambient noise around you at any given time.

The Milton ANC have a slightly sturdier design overall, too, with the folding arms that attach the earcups to the headband being made out of more solid metal rather than a frame.

They actually have slightly less battery life than the Major V, likely because of the inclusion of ANC: you'll get around 50 hours with it activated, but 80 hours if you turn it off. The headphones also bring LDAC and hi-res certification when you're listening using the USB-C to 3.5mm cable.

That cable's needed because the headphones only have a single port, and it's a USB-C one for combined charging or audio. Beyond that, the only controls are a customisable black Marshall button and then the stunningly superb brassy control knob that has graced so many of Marshall's headphones so far.

The all-important question, of course, is what the Milton ANC costs. It comes in at £179.99 in the UK, $229.99 in the US and €199 in the EU, which makes for a pretty interesting price – premium enough to be a little more off-putting to some, but also one of the few higher-end on-ear options out there right now.

The headphones should be available to order directly from Marshall today, and they'll hit other retailers a bit later, on 27 May.

Marshall isn't all that secretive about which of its headphone range does the biggest numbers – it's happy to admit that the Major is its biggest seller by far. These dinky on-ear headphones have been fairly iconic for years now, instantly recognisable in a way that few smaller brands can match, but they also have some drawbacks.

Even the most recent Major V couldn't reinvent the wheel, so they're still on-ears with a simple set of features that keep the price down while still sounding punchy. Now, though, Marshall's making a play – it's adding a step-up option above the Major V.

The new Milton ANC looks pretty similar, but offers some important upgrades – with adaptive noise cancelling (ANC) being key. I've had a pair for a few weeks for review purposes, and it's been interesting running the rule over them.

Price and Availability

The Milton ANC is on sale now, and should be available in a whole host of regions and through a bunch of retailers. They're priced at £179.99 in the UK and $229.99 in the US, which makes them around £50 or $80 more than the cost of the Major V at its launch.

As I'll get to, you do get some pretty major upgrades for that money, but the pricing confirms that Marshall wanted a mid-range option for its headphones offering. It already has the Monitor III ANC up at the £300 mark for a more premium option, so this does fill a gap.

I'm still pretty confident that Marshall will bring out a more mid-range on-ear headphone at some point, but for now the Milton ANC is what we get.

Design and Features

If you hadn't seen the Major V in a while, you'd be forgiven for taking a glance at the Milton ANC and thinking it was the Major VI – its silhouette is extremely similar, with some small changes that you can't unsee once they're pointed out to you.

For one thing, the Milton's earcups are slightly bigger and more rounded, and they have far plusher cushioning. For another, its headband is more solidly constructed, too, with its folding mechanism made of solid metal rather than prongs. This all makes the Milton feel much more substantial, based on my testing.

The cushioning on the headband itself is also plusher, and all of this serves one main aim – making the Milton ANC more comfortable to wear for longer periods than the Major V. The older headphones look great, and plenty of people swear by them, but I'm in the camp that finds the on-ear experience sub-par, since it inevitably leads to a cramped feeling on your ear.

True to expectations, the Milton ANC is way more comfortable. The amount of clamping force has clearly been tuned down slightly in the first place, so the headphones don't feel as tight on your head. That cushioning, meanwhile, makes the biggest difference, since it feels a lot softer and nicer on the ears.

That said, though, after a couple of hours at a time with the Milton ANC on my head, I tended to be ready for them to come off, and my ears always felt relieved when I did so. That's basically my way of saying that if you haven't previously felt great with on-ear headphones, there's nothing here that will radically change your mind or your experience.

Still, the rest of the design touches on the Milton ANC are great, if not that new. For one thing, the headphones fold up nice and small, to make it easy to stow them in the included carrying bag. You also get Marshall's best-in-class brassy control knob, for one, which acts as a power button, volume control and track-skipping button all in one. I'm confident that rival headphone-makers must be jealous of what remains one of the best pieces of intuitive design on the market.

That's added to by a flush Marshall button on the other earcup, which can be customised as a shortcut key. Finally, there's a USB-C port for charging and audio using the included 3.5mm-to-USB-C cable. There's no 3.5mm port on the headphones this time, but given the included cable that's no great loss.

The other big features to note are under the hood. For one thing, the Milton ANC offers 50 hours of battery life with ANC on, and around 80 hours with it off. That's actually a little worse either way than the 100-hour battery of the Major V, and the Milton ANC also ditches wireless charging. Marshall told me that it found very few people actually used the feature, which isn't much of a surprise to me.

Of course, ANC can't be skipped over. This is adaptive noise-cancelling, not just active – that means it automatically adjusts to the noise levels around you, and it's something of a big deal for Marshall since all of its previous ANC offerings have been simply active. This means the Milton ANC has visible microphones on its exterior and interior, and I'll discuss its performance further down. You can toggle between ANC and a transparency mode using the Marshall button by default.

One note on the build quality side is that Marshall continues to swerve IP ratings, preferring to leave things a little more ambiguous. It claims the Milton ANC should hold up well in regular use, but doesn't have any specific stats for water resistance, for example. This means that while you should be safe enough using it in drizzle, you don't have any firm guarantees about its level of proofing.

Sound and Performance

So, if the comfort and design of the Milton ANC feels relatively obvious (more comfortable and able than the Major, but less than the Monitor), how does it actually sound? Well, I've been really enjoying its poppy sound signature over a few weeks of testing.

Marshall loves to use the word "loud" in its marketing and branding, and I can see why – the trademark Marshall sound comes from its ear-rending amp towers and therefore does have a powerful edge that lends itself really well to rock music. Pairing the Milton ANC with Queens of the Stone Age's Songs for the Dead produces obviously stirring results, as does some older material from Guns N'Roses.

The sound here is punchy, for sure, but it also has to be – the lack of isolation that you get when using on-ear headphones is striking when you're used to earbuds or over-ears, so you should be prepared for plenty of leakage in both directions.

Of course, that will most likely prompt you to turn on the Milton's ANC, and it is indeed pretty transformative. I've never used on-ears with ANC before, something that I previously would have called a little contradictory, but I've been surprised and impressed with how it performs in the Milton.

Piping in sound to counteract the noise around you, you'll get clearer audio and more of a sense of quiet around you with ANC on, but it can't hold a candle to the best ANC headphones out there, or even "fine" ANC on over-ears. It's also interesting to appraise the "adaptive" part of things.

I found that Marshall's first crack at adaptive noise-cancelling performed solidly most of the time, but over many hours of use, I did notice moments where it seemed to deactivate briefly before popping back on – only ever for a few seconds, but enough times that I noted it. This suggests the system isn't 100% fine-tuned to perfection yet, although firmware updates will doubtless tweak it over time.

Battery life lived up to Marshall's billing in my experience, and pairing was also entirely painless over Bluetooth. Controlling the headphones in the Marshall Bluetooth app was also easy, with a few different tweaks to be made and some equalisation (EQ) options for those who want them.

Marshall Milton ANC review: Verdict

The Milton ANC will be a perfect upgrade for a dedicated slice of Marshall lovers who've stuck with their Major headphones for years. If you want the Major experience but with better sound and comfort, it's a no-brainer of a new option, and it'll be fascinating to see how common a sight it becomes on trendy young things' heads.

For those of us who can't quite settle for on-ears, almost entirely because of their comfort compromises and sound leakage, though, it's not a piece of hardware to force a radical conversion. I've been impressed with the Milton ANC, but that doesn't mean I want on-ears with ANC, nor that I think they'll catch on as a major new product category.

Also Consider

The obvious other option for those looking to pick up the Milton ANC is to just stick with the Major V, which can now be found for substantially less money and offers a very similar style of headphone. It doesn't sound as great or feel as soft, but if you want something affordable with a unique design, it's a great pick.

Alternatively, if you want very decent ANC, excellent comfort levels and a more bubbling sound experience, consider the recently-launched Soundcore Space 2 from Anker. It's great value and ticks more everyday boxes than the Milton ANC, in my opinion.

What are Ordo and what do they do?

There’s a built-in 12-megapixel camera positioned on the front of each earbud, which sits outside your ear, held in place by a loop. The product page for Ordo says “we refuse to put a screen between you and your life” and the idea is that you wear the earbuds and treat them like a personal assistant.

You can ask them to save a quote from a book you’re reading, for example, which will appear in your phone's notes app, or to dictate your shopping list as you remember certain items you need. You could also ask them to relay your list back to you when you are in the supermarket, so you don't even need to get your phone out of your pocket.

The Ordo headphones will work with apps you already use too, like Spotify, WhatsApp, Google Calendar and Telegram. And while Ordo is only available to pre-order at the moment, there's a huge price cut for early adopters.

The headphones currently cost $99 on the company's website, instead of $300, and they will ship in Q4 of this year.

You could therefore hold out for a couple more months and see whether Apple does indeed launch a pair of camera-toting. Or If you don’t want to put your money on that happening, Ordo seems to be your current best bet.

Sony is preparing to launch a premium pair of over-ear headphones, with a design similar to the Sony WH-1000XM6. The new headphones are thought to be called The ColleXion, suggesting an exclusive take on the 1000X.

This isn't the first time that we've seen these headphones, as they've been previously spotted on the head of Damson Idris, star of the recent F1 movie.

In that instance the new headphones appeared in almost-perfect images, modelled by a star, with a distinct feeling of planted leak.

Now we have full renders, thanks to Android Headlines, showing the headphones in black and white colour options. There's a distinctly different headband, with a hinge that looks a lot more substantial - although these headphones are not thought to be a folding model.

There's also a shift from the plastics that have been used on recent 1000X models, perhaps with a vegan leather finish instead, more like the original model that launched in 2014.

The shape of the cups, however, appears to be very close to the that last couple of generations of 1000X.

The renders also include the USB-C, but what we can't see are any control buttons, something that the 1000X is known for to manage ANC modes.

In our previous report about these headphones, we highlighted that it's 10 years of Sony's 1000X family, which might be the inspiration of the X in ColleXion. It might also be that these headphones carry the WH-1000XX name, something of a special edition.

Beyond that, we've heard that they will be powered by the MediaTek MT2855 and use Sony's DSEE tech, while it's been said that the battery life will run to 24 hours with ANC, rather than the 30 hours that the 1000XM6 already offer.

That puts them in an interesting position: the move away from folding and the shorter battery life might indicate that these headphones aren't designed to be the ultimate in portability, with the XM6 retaining that position. It's thought that the new model will cost €629.

What we don't know is how the sound profile might change, what the ANC performance is going to be like, and whether they will end up lighter or heavier thanks to material and battery changes.

With a number of leaks appearing, it's likely that we'll soon be learning everything about The ColleXion headphones.

When it comes to the best earbuds, there's no doubting Apple's AirPods for popularity (or, indeed, quality).

But when it comes to unique features, JBL has just revealed its latest earbuds, the JBL Live 4 TWS, feature a charging case with a built-in display.

That's something that Apple, Sony, Bose, et al, don't offer in their current line-ups. The idea is simple, but effective: you can use the touch display to control the earbuds, when your phone isn't to hand.

It's not a brand new idea, as JBL has been pushing this for a number of generations. In the Live 4, however, the screen is larger than previously, for an even more improved experience.

There are other improvements, too. The active noise-cancelling (ANC) – which you can't compete against AirPods unless you're offering a decent alternative there – has been further improved for this generation of JBL buds too.

Quality-wise, these earbuds can cater for Hi-Res Audio from the correct sources, meaning top-notch quality for playback. And if you use your buds for lots of calls, then the six-mic anti-wind design will ensure your voice is clear – with the help of AI enhancement.

The aesthetic is also well considered, with not only a black model, but blue, silver and 'Sand' finishes to cater for all tastes.

Sound more interesting than AirPods? You can get your hands on JBL's Live 4 TWS earbuds for £179.99 (other regional pricing TBC).

However, if you're okay with a smaller screen, then the previous Live 3 model is available in a great cut-price deal right now – check out the widget below, where you can see it's got £100 off the asking price in the UK.

Gen Z is bringing about a resurgence of wired headphones, apparently. But it’s not the only category that doesn’t get enough love. Who’s going to care about home hi-fi headphones if we don’t?

This is actually one area that has seen a bunch of interesting developments in the last two to three years. We’re currently amid the — admittedly pretty quiet — rise of the Wi-Fi headphone. And there’s also Bluetooth Auracast, which allows for super-low-latency streaming, ideal for wirelessly hooking up to a TV.

We’re covering the gamut today.

The Sonos Ace are our high-profile do-it-all headphones that can play the role of portable headphone outdoors, and hook up harmoniously with a Sonos setup at home.

Replacing the classic RF-based headphone archetype, there’s the Bluetooth Auracast-based Sennheiser RS 275 TV. They’re so living room-bound that their wireless dock has an HDMI port.

Or if you have a limitless budget, consider the truly top-tier Hifiman HE1000 WiFI, which bring together the worlds of audiophiles and wireless tech.

Sonos vs Sennheiser vs Hifiman: What's Unique?

These three headphones have fairly different roles. And despite being the most firmly rooted to a proprietary system, the Sonos Ace are the top pair if you want a set to act as your only pair of headphones.

It’s not just because they have all-purpose Bluetooth as well as Wi-Fi Sonos connectivity. They also offer active noise cancellation and a closed-back design that stops sound leakage. The ANC may not quite be Bose-level, but it’s solid. Comfort is exceptional too: real chef’s kiss stuff.

They support head tracking as well, which emulates listening to speakers, intending to make it seem as though the audio position stays as you move your head — a neat tech, although at review we found its implementation could be better.

Right at the other end are the super-focused Sennheiser RS 275 TV. As the name suggests, these are primarily intended to be hooked up to a TV. They include a little transmitter box, which has an HDMI input with ARC support, along with optical and 3.5mm sockets. Buttons on the top of the box let you switch to virtual surround sound and dialogue-booster modes.

This is as near to a latency-free wireless setup as you’ll get — ideal if lip sync issues do your head in. And, in theory, you’ll be able to use the dock with other headsets as Auracast becomes more prevalent. You can also use the pair as a regular Bluetooth set, hooked up to your phone.

The Hifiman HE1000 WiFi, meanwhile, has a somewhat more open version of Wi-FI streaming. They can be used like a Spotify Connect source or with Apple AirPlay 2. And Bluetooth is on board too. The design firmly values sound quality over convenience, mind, with an extremely open-back style that makes the rear part of the driver itself unusually visible.

They leak sound freely and don't really isolate at all, though. You've been warned.

They work well as headphones for a PC too, though, and can be plugged in directly over a USB-C cable. There's no 3.5mm jack input, though.

Sonos vs Sennheiser vs Hifiman: Which sounds best?

You’re not going to be shocked by this one. The Hifiman HE1000 WiFi are the best-sounding of this bunch by some distance. They cost far more than the other pairs, and have the type of cup design that makes it easiest to get the most coherent, open and expansive sound.

They have fantastic bass depth and punch with no boominess, and real three-dimensional imaging, great detail and a more easygoing approach than some Hifiman pairs. There’s some extra weight in the mid-bass that has a crowd-pleaser thickening effect that may not be to all high-end tastes, but it’s a choice, not a mistake.

On first putting on the Sennheiser RS 275 TV, there’s perhaps a slight lack of refinement in the upper mids. They’re not obviously ultra-smooth, with a touch of hardness up there. But you quickly realise this is mostly because they aim for great dialogue clarity when you’re watching TV.

These are also by no means thin-sounding headphones either, with totally respectable low-bass depth and power. You just have to appreciate you’re not getting the classic bulked-up sound of a standard mainstream portable headphone here. But when the expected environment is a relatively quiet living room, not a packed commuter train, that’s no bad thing.

We like the Sonos Ace's audio too, but we find they benefit from some tweaks. They sound good, but improve following from some EQ’ing of the treble to add a bit of missing spark, otherwise they can seem a little flat.

The Ace's app does thankfully offer some EQ customisation, though, even if it isn’t the most fine-grained of sound control. So, yeah, they’re good, but you need to come in with the right expectations. If you are switching from an already high-end Sony, Sennheiser, Apple or Bose pair, it may not be a direct upgrade on the pure sound front.

Sonos vs Sennheiser vs Hifiman: Which one wins?

This is a tricky one as these three serve slightly different audiences. But if you are already a somewhat Sonos-packed house, it’s easy to recommend the Sonos Ace — especially if you often like to watch stuff while the rest of the household has gone to bed. While these aren’t the best-sounding headphones in their class, you can tweak them successfully with EQ. And they’re a real chameleon pair we’ve loved using.

The other two excel in other ways. If you're buying for someone who wants to be able to largely forget the techy stuff, the Sennheiser RS 275 TV are a top pick. Having the pre-paired transmitter box could really solve some potential techy headaches.

And for peak sound quality, it's obviously the Hifiman HE1000 WiFi in pole position. Few are seriously going to consider spending this much on headphones, though.

Honourable mentions

This isn't the most abundant of audio categories, with wireless generally being linked to portable use. Sennheiser has made these pairs for years, though.

There's the predecessor to our top pick above, the RS 175 TV, an old pair that uses RF tech rather than Bluetooth Auracast.

Or if you want something a little more up-to-date that's cheaper, the Sennheiser RS 120 use Bluetooth and came out in 2022.

There's a much lesser-known brand in this field, too – Avantree. It makes sets generally marketed at older folks, headed up by the Bluetooth Auracast-powered Opera Aura.

Apple might be in the process of perfecting a pair of AirPods earbuds with built-in cameras.

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple’s camera-equipped AirPods are in the later stages of development. While still a way off mass production, what the company has in the works right now could be turned into a set we’re sold before too long.

The work-in-progress AirPods use a camera in each earpiece, which lives in the iconic stem section of the earphones.

These aren’t just the earphone equivalent of the Ray Ban Meta Glasses, though. The cameras aren’t there to capture photos or video, but to be the eyes of an Apple Intelligence assistant.

They will let an AI model’s computer vision recognise nearby objects and answer questions about them, effectively taking on the job you might use a phone camera for at present. Of course, there’s a question mark over how good the cameras’ visual acuity will be, given the hardware needs to fit into earpieces, and that their view will presumably be part-obscured by your noggin.

Despite not being there to capture sneaky snaps, there’s talk of Apple employing an LED indicator to show when the cameras are active.

There’s also some early conjecture that the cameras could be used to aid turn-by-turn navigation, by recognising local landmarks, or actively remind the wearer of something when a relevant object appears. You can daydream up your own scenarios for that one.

These camera-equipped AirPods have been rumoured for years, the first major stories on their development arriving in 2024. Gurman claims they have been in development for four years at this point.

Apple tends to announce its AirPods Pro generations in September alongside new iPhone models, but September 2026 is likely a little too early for this more groundbreaking pair.

The AirPods Pro 3 were only announced in September 2025, and this is not a series that gets nailed-on annual updates. Apple released the AirPods Pro 2 in 2022, and only tweaked the design slightly in 2023, by switching to a USB-C case — instead of a Lightning connector one.

September 2027 is a more likely release window for these smarter-sounding AirPods Pro 4 earphones, if they make it to launch.

At some point, they’ll become part of a new sub-family of AI wearables, which includes upcoming Apple smart glasses and a rumoured AI pendant equipped with a camera and microphone.

Apple enters a new era later this year. Tim Cook has announced his intention to stand down as CEO from 1 September, after 15 years in the job, to be replaced by John Ternus. He recently gave his view on AI in an interview with Tom’s Guide.

“We never think about shipping a technology. We always think about, “How can we leverage technology to ship amazing products and features and experiences for our users?” So that’s how we think about AI,” Ternus told Mark Spoonauer.

Later this year, all rumours and reports point towards a new Ultra era for Apple's product lines. That includes the iPhone, MacBook and, it seems, some new AirPods.

Those are the long-rumoured AirPods with cameras, and are said to include IR cameras to allow new Siri features. In essence, those are expected to build a picture of the environment around you, with previous rumours suggesting users could employ hand gestures similar to what you'd use to control a VR headset.

Now, a new report has shed more light onto how those might function. That comes from Bloomberg, and confirms that these cameras aren't meant to capture images or video footage.

Instead, the suggestion is that most of the application will involve supercharging the output from AI platforms. For example, the user could be facing something and ask for details about it, similar to what they can currently do by uploading images to other platforms.

The report also delves into the potential security concerns from a device like this. The solution is similar to how smart glasses solve this issue, with a small LED light built in to signify that the cameras are feeding visual data to the cloud.

Crucially, this report also suggests that the aforementioned hand-gesture support isn't going to be part of the design here. That's at odds with previous reporting, and suggests that both the AirPods and the rumoured Apple Glasses will lack this functionality.

Even without that, this feels like a really compelling product. Sitting above the AirPods Pro 3, the AirPods Ultra look set to open a door to a new format for the earbuds form.

Time will tell whether or not it catches on, but it's certainly refreshing to see Apple pushing the envelope. Hopefully these can garner a little more public appreciation than the Apple Vision Pro which came before them.

Technics has announced a new version of one of our favourite pairs of in-ear headphones from 2025, the 5-star-reviewed Technics EAH-AZ100. Buying a pair even does some good for charity.

All the bits we loved about the Technics EAH-AZ100 remain the same. It’s the Moonlight Lilac finish that’s new, dressing up the earpieces in a part-matt, part-metallic milky purple.

It joins the black, gold, silver and blue finishes that the earbuds already come in.

"10% of the sale proceeds" from this version of the Technics EAH-AZ100 will go to the Teenage Cancer Trust, according to Technics.

This is just one of a number of music-themed tie-ins with the charity this year, headlined by a series of gigs at the Royal Albert Hall back in March, with acts including Wolf Alice, Manic Street Preachers and Garbage.

You may well know the drill by now, but Teenage Cancer Trust "is the only UK charity providing specialised nursing care and expert youth support for young people with cancer".

Back to the earbuds, the Technics EAH-AZ100 are true high-end in-ears that can square up to any you might mention in the same breath from Sony, Sennheiser or Apple.

“No earbuds have ever permanently displaced the AirPods Pro from my pocket as my default personal-use option, but the Technics AZ100 have done just that. These are true 5-star earbuds in every regard,” our reviewer said.

They have powerful active noise cancellation, fantastic sound quality, while a charge lasts up to 10 hours of listening — and that’s with ANC switched on. The charging case provides 28 hours of total listening time before you’ll need to find a charger. It can also be charged wirelessly, using a Qi pad.

The pair use what Technics calls its magnetic fluid driver, a design that helps improve control over the moving parts of the driver’s internals for lesser distortion. We also found they sound a lot more powerful than the step-down Technics AZ80, which are great in their own right too.

Don’t fancy this particular pair, but like the idea of tech buys doing their bit for charity? Technics will soon offer a series of products that come with a charity donation attached, through what it calls its “dedicated charity purchasing program.”

The Moonlight Lilac Technics EAH-AZ100 will be available this month, and are expected to land at £259.

You may have missed it, but a brand new kind of headphone has emerged in just the last couple of years: the Wi-Fi headphone.

The first of them came out in 2023, the HED Unity. Our reviewer thought they sounded good, but had issues. Crappy app, limited features, you know the drill.

Then, in 2024, the Sonos Ace really put this tech under the spotlight. However, they are so tightly wound into the Sonos ecosystem that their Wi-Fi tech arguably does not give you the sense of freedom it might.

Hifiman has now entered stage left with an answer to that in its new series of “WiFi" headphones, and I’ve been trying out the most expensive of them, the £2609 Hifiman HE1000 WiFi.

These are headphones that let you stream audio over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. Or even USB if you think cabled is always best.

There’s no app to rely on, or to artificially shorten the Hifiman HE1000 WiFi’s lifespan when it stops getting updated. Instead you — and this part may make the technophobes feel a little squeamish — log into the headphones’ IP address using a web browser.

Thankfully, this part is largely just there so you can teach the pair your home Wi-Fi's details. You’re not hanging about in there on the reg. And after that, they act a lot like a Wi-Fi home speaker might, simply showing up as a Wi-Fi source in Spotify and other apps.

I’m not sure a pair of dedicated headphones has felt quite as much like a standalone mini computer as the Hifiman HE1000 WiFi. And I'm discounting those Aliexpress sets with a baked-in MP3 player.

It’s all part of what’s now a decades-long (and, let’s be honest, slightly silly) quest to make compromise-free wireless headphones. Because even when you stream Bluetooth audio to a set using a top-quality aptX HD codec or similar, it’s still getting re-compressed as part of the process. And the audio purists don't like that one bit.

The Hifiman HE1000 WiFi will receive your uncompressed PCM music, or your ropey “data saver” Spotify streams, as intended. And it does so with a micro PC’s worth of circuit board that lives a hidden life under the cup's outer cover.

This has nothing to do with why the Hifiman HE1000 WiFi look so, well, weird. These are planar magnetic headphones, a style of driver that uses a relatively massive ultra-thin membrane sat between large magnets. In the early days, these were famed for their low distortion and responsiveness, but they also tended to weigh a tonne. Almost 20 years on from their first pair, Hifiman has managed to, at least, make the HE1000 WiFi feel far more normal than they look. At 452g, they’re hefty, but no heavier than some Hifiman pairs that don’t have nearly as much tech packed inside.

The silver bars you see through the exposed grille on the back of the Hifiman HE1000 WiFi cups are part of the driver enclosure itself. And you need this sort of high-end audio ambition to really justify the kind of ultra-high bandwidth audio the pair can handle. Sorry folks, no matter what you think, the deficiencies of your headphones themselves are probably far more evident than the limitations of a good LDAC, aptX HD or AAC stream.

Do the Hifiman HE1000 WiFi sound good? Of course they do. Hifiman has produced some of the best-sounding open-back headphones for the better part of two decades now, while sets like the Sundara and Edition XS are currently a couple of the best sound-per-pound deals going, anywhere.

You get awesome sound field imaging, exceptional bass punch with zero boom in the HE1000 WiFi. And less fatiguing sound than some of Hifiman’s earlier pairs, without trading away that sense you’re getting loads of insight and detail.

To my ears, the one potential issue is that these headphones have an extra helping of mid-bass. This can often seem to warm up tracks in a pleasant way, but I do find it can hang off vocals like a lead weight, making them seem less well textured, and at times a little clouded.

But are we getting the dream of a compromise-free true hi-fi headphone in the Hifiman HE1000 WiFi? In one aspect, sure, but you are going to have to accept a few compromises in other areas, not to mention the gag-inducing £2609 cost.

First up, these headphones have zero-frills plastic cup outers, no doubt to reduce weight, which feels odd when you’re spending this kind of money. Support for Roon and Spotify streaming over Wi-Fi is described as “unauthorized” and I’ve had mixed success getting steaming to work in other apps. And that definitely feels odd when you’re spending this kind of money.

Sometimes sticking to Bluetooth is a good idea too, as it offers much better battery life (seven hours versus 23 hours) and less audio lag. Plus, as these are open headphones, they're no use for an open-plan office. Public transport? You're dreaming.

Oh, and like all Hifiman headphones, the Hifiman HE1000 WiFi are packed with all the glamour and ceremony of a self-service supermarket checkout.

This probably isn’t the time for the average headphone fan to jump on Hifiman’s WiFi range, then. But once this tech gets affordable enough to reach its tendrils down into the territory of the Hifiman Edition XV or Sundara? We may be in for a good time.

At the time of writing, Hifiman’s WiFi range includes the £2609 HE1000 WiFi and the £1409 Arya WiFi – who knows if this could be the start of something great.

British actor Damson Idris has been spotted wearing a pair of as-yet-unannounced Sony headphones. But they’re not the Sony WH-1000XM7, apparently.

The F1 movie star was papped ahead of the Met Gala wearing what are expected to be called the Sony WH-1000XX The ColleXion according to a bunch of leaks.

It’s a 10th anniversary set, marking a decade since the original Sony WH-1000X appeared in 2016.

The concept here is of a slightly more upmarket and more expensive pair than we usually see from the WH-1000XM line. There’s greater use of polished metal, and a little more weight as a result, according to previously leaked specs.

Sony’s WH-1000XX are expected to weigh 312g, up from the 254g of the current WH-1000XM6.

These somewhat more exclusive-sounding headphones are reportedly going to cost £549 ($649, 629 Euro), a hefty increase on the £399 WH-1000XM6.

Just as contentious as the higher price, the Sony WH-1000XX may return to the non-folding design last seen in the WH-1000XM5. That one ruffled some feathers among the audio crowd.

We reportedly still have a couple of weeks to stew on this one before the WH-1000XX get a rumoured official unveil on 19 May, but previous leaks already tell us plenty about what the pair will likely offer.

The Sony WH-1000XX The ColleXion are expected to come in black and white shades, and have a battery life of up to 24 hours, with ANC enabled. And they likely have a 12-microphone array just like the XM6, and share that pair’s QN3 processor.

If you’re wondering why we’re getting these and not a full generational upgrade with a Sony WH-1000XM7 pair, it’s because we’re a bit early for that in 2026. Just look at the release dates of the previous pairs in this family for proof:

• Sony MDR-1000X: October 2016
• Sony MDR-1000XM2: September 2017
• Sony MDR-1000XM3: September 2018
• Sony MDR-1000XM4: August 2020
• Sony MDR-1000XM5: May 2022
• Sony MDR-1000XM6: May 2025

Sure, the early years of this series were annual releases. But as progress in ANC effectiveness and battery tech slowed, and the audience became increasingly tapped out, that annual schedule likely stopped making so much sense.

An early 2027 release for the Sony WH-1000XM7 is more likely, not to mention having a pleasing numerical confluence.

But coming back to the Sony MDR-1000XX The ColleXion, it’s all eyes and ears on the pair’s sound quality and ANC effectiveness, as their upmarket pricing means they might cost even more than the Apple AirPods Max 2.

For many years now, the AirPods Pro have represented the pinnacle of the brand's earbud offering. That platform has debuted its newest and brightest features, like the introduction of Live Translation via Apple Intelligence last time out.

Now, many rumours are suggesting that the 'Pro' moniker may soon play second fiddle to a pair of earbuds dubbed the AirPods Ultra. That's the model with built-in cameras, which has been the subject of leaks for a long time.

The idea, it seems, is that the AirPods Ultra will pack in IR cameras to enhance AI-powered experiences with visual intelligence. It could support hand gestures, for example, to allow for an almost VR-like experience, without the need for a big device on your face.

So, why the Ultra branding? Well, that's more of an educated guess at the moment, but it's one that certainly makes some sense.

As suggested by 9to5Mac, the brand looks set to go all in on the Ultra branding this autumn, with the foldable iPhone and the redesigned MacBook expected to come to market as the iPhone Ultra and the MacBook Ultra, respectively.

With that in mind, the report suggests that a new pair of AirPods called the AirPods Ultra would fit in well. It's not wrong, either, and would even go further as an explanation of the rumoured delay of the base model iPhone launch.

It has long been reported that the iPhone 18 launch was being pushed back to the spring of 2027, meaning that the Pro-level devices would arrive ahead of the base models. That's never really made any sense, but if the Pro's are being used as a jumping off point for a new Ultra range of devices, the reasoning suddenly looks more sensible.

With only a handful of months to go before the new devices are expected to launch, we shouldn't have to wait long for answers.

Although AirPods work as Bluetooth headphones with all devices, many of the features have been locked away for Apple users only. Thanks to the free LibraPods app you can now get a more fully-featured experience when using an Android phone.

While the best earbuds provide plenty of options for Android users, if you're switching from an iPhone or just want to join the AirPods gang, then the experience has always been a bit basic.

The LibraPods app wants to change that, now getting a full release via the Google Play Store, so it's easier than ever to use.

The app will bridge the gap with your Android phone to support features that aren't natively supported by the existing Bluetooth functionality, like giving you access to ANC modes, adaptive transparency, ear detection, head gestures and more.

Getting to this point has been something of an obstacle course, however, according to Android Authority. LibraPods has been available for some time, but was previously available from Github and needed a rooted device.

That raises a lot of barriers because it's not simply a case of installing it – it would need to be sideloaded and many people aren't happy to root a device. But the rooting was only needed because of a bug in Android that's now been patched.

All that should pave the way for a more seamless experience for AirPods use with Android phones – and with all the functions that Apple originally designed.

It's not uncommon for there to be companion apps for earbuds: indeed, Google supports its own via the Pixel Buds app, while Samsung, Sony and others have apps too.

Much of this is about owning the experience and perhaps Apple should have released its own app. Still, thanks to a little developer ingenuity, that piece of Apple's walled garden has been knocked down.

Who knows, perhaps there will be a rush of Android phone owners rushing out to buy AirPods, which could be a good thing for Apple – but do check compatibility first.

When it comes to consumer audio, JBL is a name with generations of trustworthiness in its back pocket. I've been lucky enough to test almost all of its recent headphone and earbud offerings, and there's a significant upgrade coming to the most recent unit.

First things first, there's a stunning new colour added to the JBL Tour One M3 headphones catalogue. That's dubbed classic green, and will remind most of us of the iconic British Racing Green hue.

It's accented with patches of gold on the headband and the mic covers, and the whole thing just looks fantastic. I really didn't think it was possible for the unit to look any better, but I'm very happy to be proven wrong.

It's not just a new colour, either. The new model comes with an update to the sound curve, which is based on the industry-leading Harman Curve. That debuts here in the green model, but will also come as an over the air update for the existing suite of models.

The new curve will offer more natural bass, alongside subtle changes in the mid- and high-range frequencies. The result, they say, is clearer, more balanced and truer to that of the artists intention.

Those who enjoy the brand's signature earbuds – the JBL Tour Pro 3 – also snag an update of a different nature. The brand has reworked the interface of the case display, which is designed to make interactions faster and more intuitive.

The new menu makes use of both horizontal and vertical systems, which should make it quicker to get to the things you need. It also snags enhanced graphics and larger icons, which should make everything feel a little more premium.

All in all, it's a big suite of updates for the range. While there's nothing wholly groundbreaking, it should all come together to make the system look, feel and sound even better.

Apple surprised everyone earlier this year by launching the successor to its flagship headphones, the AirPods Max 2. The new cans looked and sounded similar to the original, while introducing just enough changes to get people excited about the update.

This is classic Apple. The company made iterative design the norm in the tech industry, with each iPhone and Apple Watch adding only a few changes that accumulate over time but might not prompt people to upgrade year after year. Some people still do, of course.

The company took this approach to the next level with the AirPods Max 2. The cans launched five years apart, yet they use the same chassis, button layout and headband. The noise-cancelling headphones added the H2 chip, enabling some features, and the sound signature has also been reworked, so there is new stuff.

The number that refused to budge

One thing that hasn’t changed is battery life. It’s a bit of an inside joke between Apple and the tech journalist crowd, with Apple refusing to improve battery life on some of its products (e.g., Apple Watch) and us journalists criticising the company for it. Not changing the battery at all for five years is a ballsy move.

That said, I don’t mind the lack of battery-life improvement. 20 hours with ANC on is plenty long enough and allows me to listen to music for almost a week. Not continuously, of course; just on and off, like most of us. Sure, some rivals can last three times as long (Sennheiser Momentum 4), but in my case, 20 hours feels like enough.

My gripe isn't the battery life itself, but that you can’t turn the headphones off to conserve it. Again, this is nothing new; the original AirPods Max – and the USB-C version introduced a couple of years ago – all have this. The AirPods Max 2 never fully turn off, which can lead to unnecessary battery drain.

Instead, the headphones offer low-power and ultra-low-power modes. If you set them down, they’ll automatically enter low-power mode after 5 minutes and ultra-low-power mode after 72 hours (3 days!). You can speed this up using the Smart Case, which immediately puts them in low-power mode. It also triggers ultra-low-power mode quicker, in a mere 18 hours.

A case of control

By not letting us turn off the headphones, Apple effectively forces the same user experience on all of us, regardless of our technical expertise. I understand this; the company is famous for not letting people tamper with the intended way of its products.

If you could turn off the AirPods Max 2, it would take longer for them to reconnect to your iPhone, which could create inconsistent experiences. Apple also assumes – rightly so, I may add – that most people won’t understand what’s wrong, and an on/off button might lead to support issues (“my headphones keep disconnecting!”).

From Apple’s perspective, the system works “well enough”: it keeps battery behaviour predictable and avoids user error. Makes sense, right? If it ain’t broke, why fix it? People are happy with their AirPods Max 2s, so let’s continue offering the same experience.

Apple might also have an ulterior motive. The Smart Case is designed to be the intentional trigger: if you could set ultra-low-power to kick in instantly, the case would become less important. Apple clearly wants a physical, reliable action (putting them in the case) instead of a software tweak.

Strangely enough, the brand doesn’t seem to sell Smart Cases on its website. Apple does sell replacement cushions for a premium (another running joke is the price of Apple accessories), so the lack of official Smart Case replacements is puzzling, especially knowing how essential they are for conserving battery life.

A simple fix hiding in plain sight

Even if Apple doesn’t want us to turn off its headphones, it would be great to allow us to manually trigger ultra-low power mode, or at least set the automatic process to activate faster in the settings. It would be an easy win, as we could force ultra-low-power faster when travelling, for example, avoiding battery drain if we forget the case.

The AirPods Max 2 could also take advantage of something the iPhone already does: geolocation. How nice would it be to tailor the headphones’ behaviour to how you actually use them (desk vs commute vs flights)? For a £500+ pair of headphones, that level of control doesn’t feel unreasonable.

All these could be hidden in the settings to avoid casual users from changing them and ruining their experience. To change anything about the AirPods Max 2, you have to go into the main iPhone settings, which is probably as hidden as it gets for people who aren’t tech savvy. A simple toggle like “Enter ultra-low-power after 5 / 15 / 30 minutes” would go a long way for people like me who prefer more control over battery life.

Best of all, the feature could be introduced with a simple software update. No need for hardware changes; Apple wouldn’t even have to change how the buttons operate on the AirPods Max 2. Quietly, the company can send out an OTA update and sort this out for us. Will it ever do it, though? It’s Apple, so you never know.

It’s not like the brand is unyielding, and maybe with an engineer-turned-executive taking over, we might see more updates introduced to key product categories. We’ll just have to wait and see, I guess.

If you've got cash burning a hole in your pocket and a hankering to spend it on a pair of luxurious headphones, you'll probably come across Bowers & Wilkins. The British audio brand is widely regarded as one of the best around, offering a popular selection of earbuds and over-ears.

Now, the brand has brought its Px8 S2 headphones to market in a new range a finish options. The two new colours – Midnight Blue and Pearl Blue – offer two different personalities for the model, which should offer more opportunity to match with your aesthetic.

Both of the new finishes maintain the brand's high standards in terms of materials and construction. You'll enjoy luxurious Nappa leather on the earcups and aluminium detailing on the outside to offer contrast.

The additions take the number of finishes in the Px8 S2 range to five, with these two, Onyx Black and Warm Stone, and the McLaren Edition model which launched to celebrate a decade-long partnership between the two brands.

Once you add that to the range of finishes offered on the brand's other models – like the Px7 S3 and the Pi8 – the current offering includes 21 different models. That makes the current suite the most extensive range of colours ever offered by the brand.

It's a testament to the Bowers & Wilkins approach, which suggests that top tier audio must always both look and sound excellent. The range is comprehensive enough to ensure there's something for every taste, which is really important when you're dropping this kind of cash.

Speaking of which, the two new colours will be available for £629 / €729 / US$799 (approx. AU$1,190), which is in line with the price of previously available finish options. All in all, it feels like another gentle reminded of why this brand is so well loved. If you're interested in investing in your audio, this seems as good a place as any to start.

Beats is returning to one of its most successful recent celebrity tie-ins with a new version of the Beats Solo 4 – JENNIE Special Edition, this time in Onyx Black.

The new launch follows last year’s Ruby Red release, which was a big hit for the brand and is now listed as sold out at Beats.

This latest version keeps the fashion-led formula intact, but swaps the bold red finish for a darker, more understated look that feels closer to JENNIE’s more polished, monochrome styling.

The Onyx Black model comes with two attachable black bows, one UltraPlush ear cushion decorated with symbols inspired by JENNIE’s music, and a matching carrying case.

The launch is also tied to a new campaign video that gives fans an early listen to an unreleased track, continuing Beats’ habit of turning product campaigns into soft music rollouts.

Technically speaking, the new collab is still the standard Beats Solo 4, which means you are getting personalised spatial audio with dynamic head tracking, lossless audio over USB-C or 3.5mm, and up to 50 hours of battery life.

Better still, despite now being Apple's in-house brand, Beats' on-ears are compatible with both iOS and Android, giving them broader appeal than many celebrity-endorsed tech products.

The Beats Solo 4 – JENNIE Special Edition in Onyx Black goes on sale on Friday, April 24, for $200 (~ £148 / €170 / AU$280).

These days, you can often buy the standard Solo 4 for half as much. For example, the Black version is down to £99 at Currys right now. All you'll miss out on are the little bows.

In the UK, sales begin at 4 p.m. BST via Apple’s online store, with select online retailers also set to stock the headphones, according to the press release you shared.

You can find out more about the new headphones at Beats' collaboration page.

If you're a lover of good quality audio, you'll definitely have stumbled upon Sony's range of headphones. Currently headed by the Sony WH-1000XM6, the range celebrates ten years on the market in 2026.

If you were wondering whether the brand was going to mark that occasion, it looks like your questions have been answered. A recent leak from Sony itself suggests that an anniversary limited edition model is coming.

As reported by The Walkman Blog, the leaks come directly from the brand's regional sites in New Zealand and Australia. Those sites didn't showcase any photos, sadly, but they do confirm the model name, and the 'master the art of listening' tagline.

While the site may lack an image, it certainly doesn't lack an alt text description, which reads, "A man in a black coat stands against a brown gradient background, wearing white 1000X The Collexion headphones."

The report goes on to list some of the specs which have already been rumoured about the device. That includes two colourways – black and white – as well as noise cancellation.

Inside, a Mediatek MT2855 chip is expected to feature, while there's also confirmation of the inclusion of DSEE Ultimate. The notes also suggest that there will be metal hinges which do not fold, which will be an interesting change of design.

It also suggests a 'premium build quality', though there's no word on exactly what that means, and an expected price tag of around €629 (approx. £550 / US$740 / AU$1,035). That's significantly more costly than the standard version, which means these will need to have a pretty big USP to see people make the switch.

Of course, there's every chance these will be limited, which might just be enough to garner a few sales. Regardless, with the model expected to go on sale in around one month's time, we'll have to keep our eyes peeled for more information.

It's arguably a faux pas to admit this, but I've been obsessed with a bit of audio analysis around the best headphones from another big tech site for quite a while now.

Back in September last year, Wired UK got a bunch of audiophiles to blind test headphones and rank them, and the completely unexpected winner was Anker's Soundcore Space One Pro, the cheapest pair of headphones in the test by a long way.

I really liked the Space One Pro when I reviewed them about a year before that, and their outrageous comfort and great sound for the price have lived long in my memory, which made me excited to try out the latest launch in the line, the Space 2.

These drop the "Pro" name because they're intended to be the new default Soundcore Space experience in over-ears, and I've had them for a few weeks to see how they stack up to the far pricier competition.

Price and availability

The Soundcore Space 2 are available globally now (starting 21 April 2026), so you'll find them live on Amazon and directly through Anker. The headphones are priced at £129.99, which is $129.99 in the USA.

That positions the product among the more affordable end of the headphones scale that we test at T3. But while it undercuts much of the active noise-cancelling (ANC) competition, it's worth noting that it represents a price hike compared to the Space One, which cost $100 at launch.

Design and Features

The Soundcore Space 2 have a very familiar silhouette if you've ever laid your hands on the Space One or Space One Pro – they're clearly from the same design background, which is no bad thing.

The headphones come in three colours: white, black and the nice pale green I've been testing. They're constructed almost entirely out of soft-touch plastic externally, with most of the headband covered in pleather, and there's a good amount of cushioning under that band.

The outside of each earcup houses a fairly subtle Soundcore logo, and there are controls on each. The right earcup has a play/pause button along with volume controls, while the left offers up a power and pairing button, a noise-cancelling toggle, a USB-C port for charging, and a 3.5mm jack for wired audio.

Inside that same earcup you'll also see a sensor that activates on-head detection, so that your media can pause when you take the headphones off, which is nice and handy.

The crucial figure here is that they weigh just 265g according to my scale, which sees the Space 2 come in as another incredibly comfortable pair of headphones from Soundcore.

I happily wore them for hours at a time without any clamping or discomfort, and they have enough flex that that should go for most people, I'd hope. They also fold when you're not using them (albeit not quite as neatly as some others), making them easier to store or pack.

Battery life is another strong point, coming in at a quoted 50 hours on a charge with active noise-cancelling (ANC) turned on, and 70 hours with it turned off. Whichever you choose, that's enough to get through multiple days of non-stop use, which is great to see.

Plus, from a codec perspective, the Space 2 has Hi-Res Audio certification both wirelessly and wired, as well as LDAC support, which means it should be a solid choice even if you're branching into more high-spec audio files, thanks to its 40mm drivers and compatibility.

Sound and Performance

When you're looking to score a bargain in the world of the best noise-cancelling headphones, it's often not really important how classy the design notes are or how lightweight the cans feel – it's more about what sort of sound and ANC you get for your money.

On that front, there's no doubt the Space 2 are a really solid entry from Anker and Soundcore, and I suspect they'll rack up plenty of fans over the next couple of years. For this money, I don't have a single complaint to levy about the sound quality on offer.

It's decently warm and detailed, and the sound stage is pretty solid, too. Starting off with a bit of Dire Straits' Making Movies, it's impressively easy to pick apart the different instruments in cleanly produced tracks. On Samm Henshaw's recent It Could Be Worse, the blending of choral backing tracks with main vocals is great, layered just as I'd hope it would be, although there's perhaps a slight surfeit of depth to the richness of the album's low-end notes.

I don't come to headphones at this price point expecting them to outclass sets two or three times their price, though. Besides, for the price that Anker is asking, I think the Space 2 are pretty great – and the ANC picture makes them even more compelling.

I've used the headphones with a few types of background noise and found them impressive in a bunch of scenarios. With ANC turned on, the amount of isolation you get is genuinely great – I found that it tuned out robot vacuums and train engines pretty terrifically on the whole.

If you're ever tempted to turn ANC off to eke out more battery life, though, I'd recommend that you don't. The Space 2 seems to toggle between ANC and a transparency mode by default (rather than simply turning all processing off), and the latter isn't amazing. Use it without any music and you'll hear a telltale static sound that makes the world feel a little odd, but with audio playing it's still leagues away from what the likes of Apple and Sony can do with their earbuds and headphones.

Still, I strongly suspect that the vast majority of users will keep ANC on at all times, so this really won't be a problem for most people. Plus, 50 hours is still a great bar to clear with ANC on, and I found the headphones did indeed last for days and days when testing, making regular charging basically a non-issue.

Verdict

Anker's new headphones are a really great new option for those looking to keep their budget low – as they're priced sensibly, despite a slight rise compared to the last generation.

Plenty of pricier headphones than these have felt less comfortable in the actual wearing and listening, too, which is another point in their favour. The generic design doesn't drag things down, because it doesn't bring any real issues.

Overall, the Anker Soundcore Space 2 deliver good sound with really solid active noise-cancelling (ANC), at a price way below many competitors. So if you want a new set of headphones that don't cost a fortune, with minimal compromise, these are a winner.

Also consider

Keeping on top of your budget for new headphones can generally mean that you don't have the option to pick up anything with a genuinely interesting design, but Nothing has bucked that trend with the Headphone (a), which feel more premium and look way more interesting than the Soundcore 1 – but won't be to everyone's tastes.

Of course, if you do find some money down the back of your sofa or decide to just splash out a little bit more because you're worth it, the best over-ears I've tried in recent years are Sony's WH-1000XM6, which continue to get regular use whenever I travel, and have never let me down.