Beyerdynamic has announced a new affordable pair of wireless over-ear headphones with active noise cancellation at IFA 2026, called the Aventho Y.

According to Beyerdynamic, these closed-back, foldable headphones use 45mm dynamic drivers to deliver “Beyerdynamic’s renowned sound" and have been “designed for long-term ownership”.

The headphones are designed to be comfortable and durable, with components that can be replaced individually. These include a user-replaceable battery, magnetic earpads, aluminium sliders and stainless steel hinges.

The Aventho Y’s ANC system uses two built-in microphones to detect and filter out environmental sounds, reducing “background noise to a minimum”. A ‘Transparency Mode’ is also available, which lets sounds in so you can stay aware of your surroundings.

The headphones support Bluetooth 6.0 with multipoint connectivity, meaning that you can easily switch between two connected devices. Notably, the headphones only support standard AAC and SBC codecs.

In terms of battery life, Beyerdynamic quotes an impressive 60 hours with ANC switched on, which extends to 90 hours with ANC disabled. A full charge takes one hour, but just five minutes of fast charging will provide up to six hours of playback.

That comfortably beats Beyerdynamic's own Aventho 300 (50 hours with ANC on) and the Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless (57 hours with ANC on), although both these models are double the price of the Aventho Y.

Through the Beyerdynamic app, users can customise the sound thanks to a 5-band EQ and genre-based sound presets, as well as receive firmware updates and manage automatic power settings.

According to Andreas Rapp, CEO of Beyerdynamic: "The Aventho Y was developed around a simple idea: audio isn't just something people hear – it's something they use every day to focus, recharge, connect and express themselves. We wanted to create a headphone that delivers the performance people expect from Beyerdynamic while giving them the freedom to make it their own – in both the sound they hear and the style they choose.”

The headphones come with a USB-C charging cable and a soft carry bag. Optional accessories, such as ultra-soft black or grey earpads, a low-latency USB-C dongle and a detachable boom microphone, can be purchased separately for those that want to further customise the Aventho Y's use case with music, gaming, videos and more.

The Beyerdynamic Aventho Y will be available in four colours – Liquid Black, Blue Fusion, Soft Jade and Peach Blush – and are set to cost £129 / €149 / $150.

MORE:

Read our Beyerdynamic Aventho 300 review

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Stay up to date with our pick of the best wireless headphones, tested by our expert reviewers

Just in case you’ve missed the news, Sonos has unveiled a new pair of flagship wireless headphones.

Dubbed the Sonos Ace Ultra, they’re successors to the original Ace, which launched back in 2024 and promise not only new features and a raft of changes inside and out, but improved sound quality too.

But what exactly has Sonos done to try and elevate its new headphones above the old model? We’ll go through all of that and more below.

Sonos Ace Ultra vs Sonos Ace - Price

They might be Sonos’s flagship wireless headphones, but the good news is there hasn’t been a price hike for the new model.

In fact, if you live in the UK, the Ace Ultra are actually cheaper than their predecessors were at launch. The Ultras go on sale on the 29th September and cost £399 / $449 / AU$699 compared to the £449 / $449 / AU$699 of the original model.

Of course, the Ace have been around for a couple of years now, which means you can find regular discounts closer to the £299 / $299 / AU$449 mark if you shop around online.

We’ve been told both pairs will continue to coexist for some time, so we’d expect there could be potential for further price drops for the original over time, especially around peak sales periods such as Black Friday.

Sonos Ace Ultra vs Sonos Ace - Design and build

We haven’t had the opportunity to go hands-on with a pair yet, but on the design and build front, it doesn’t appear that too much has changed from the Sonos Ace.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing as we were fans of the the way the headphones looked and felt in situ.

Looking at pictures of the Ace Ultra, the earcup and headband plastics look the same as before but the new model does use “new rebound foam ear cushions” so it’ll be interesting to see if the pads feel any different when you’re wearing them.

A quick spec comparison does actually show that the new model weighs ten grams more (322g versus 312g) but whether you’ll be able to actually feel the difference remains to be seen.

Sonos is offering two new finishes (sand and agave) to choose from, in addition to the standard black and white options you had with the original Ace.

The multi-function button/slider (also known as the 'control key') makes a return and is your main way of interacting with the headphones and controlling things such as volume, ANC, playback and switching between the headphones and your Sonos wireless speaker.

The big design news is that the Ace Ultra get a brand new Sonos-designed 40mm driver. Sonos hasn’t provided any information on the materials used or how it is improved over ots predecessor but this is obviously huge news as the sound quality on offer will largely be dicteated by how this performs.

Sonos Ace Ultra vs Sonos Ace - Features

While the exterior design and build quality of the Ace Ultra might look familiar, there have been significant changes under the hood.

The key change is the introduction of Sonos’s new “Headphone Engine 2" which is a next-gen wi-fi hardware and software system that lets you link the headphones directly to your existing Sonos system.

It’s a feature that was missing from the originals at launch and will be the first time you can connect the headphones to other compatible Sonos wireless speakers, as well as its current line of soundbars, including the recently announced Beam Ultra. It’s done at the press of a button on either the headphones or app.

Sonos is promising big things on the noise-cancelling front, claiming that the ANC for the Ace Ultra is twice as powerful as that on the Ace.

It’s an adaptive system which should be able to change intensity as you change your surroundings, while it can also take into account any gaps in the seal due to headphones, hair etc. An Aware mode allows for transparency so you can hear the environment around you.

Presumably this is partly down to the fact that the new model boasts ten mics compared to eight used on the Ace.

This should also mean that calls are quieter and that background noise should be easier for the headphones to filter out. Their Sidetone feature should mean you’re able to hear yourself speak naturally while ANC is turned on.

Ace Ultra also get a boost in battery life, up from 30 hours in the old Ace to 35 hours in the new model with ANC activated. There’s a low power mode withing the Sonos app which claims to extend battery life by up to 30% but it isn’t clear whether this can work with ANC on or if you have to sacrifice some features to achieve it.

AptX Lossless is supported once again as the ability to listen over a wired USB-C connection although it’s a shame that sample rate support hasn’t increased from the 16-bit/48kHz of the original Ace.

Sonos Ace Ultra vs Sonos Ace - Sound quality

Although we’re going to have to wait until we get the Ace Ultra in our test rooms and use them out in public to see how they fare in the sound quality stakes, we are at least hoping for a much improved audio performance compared to the original.

In our Sonos Ace review we said the headphones delivered “a simplistic and safe sound – not one we would call exciting or enthralling”. We found them perfectly fine but at no stage did they come close to matching the class leading Bose and Sony rivals for entertainment, dynamics or detail.

The new model comes with a new custom-built driver in tow, which Sonos claims delivers “deep bass, clear detail, and balanced sound with no distortion”. The company has even called upon “award-winning audio engineers” to help tune the sound. Will Sonos be able to deliver? We have our fingers well and truly crossed.

Sonos Ace Ultra vs Sonos Ace - Initial verdict

With the Ace Ultra, Sonos has obviously gone to great lengths to try to produce a sequel that goes above and beyond what it served up with the Sonos Ace.

On paper, it certainly looks like most bases have been covered, and if they can deliver all the features and functionality that Sonos has promised in an intuitive, easy-to-use package, then that will go a long way to winning our test team over.

However, to really make a name for itself in the crowded wireless headphones market, not only will the Ultra Ace need to offer standout features that work, it will need to perform well across the board, whether we’re talking about ANC, call quality or sound quality.

MORE:

Here's our pick of the best wireless headphones for all budgets

Reacquaint yourself with our Sonos Ace review

Sonos Ace Ultra feature all-new drivers, updated ANC, and a "direct connection" to the current Sonos ecosystem

“We know the home, we know audio, we know music” – we speak to Sonos about its operating system rebrand, its "customer-led" focus and app updates

Anker has announced four additions to its Soundcore range, including the Space 2 Pro over-ear wireless headphones, Liberty Buds 2 wireless earbuds and Aeroclip 2 Pro and Aeroclip 2 open earbuds.

We only have limited details, but here’s what we know about the upcoming releases so far.

All of the new products use Anker’s latest 'Thus' chip. The new silicon is a compute-in-memory audio chip, which is designed to run AI calculations within its own memory, rather than splitting processing across several components, for improved efficiency and processing speed.

The new Space 2 Pro over-ear wireless headphones are the follow-up to the Soundcore Space 2, which our reviewers gave a two-star rating earlier this year, citing poor dynamics and detail compared with more talented competition at the price. The Space 2 Pro are £70 / $70 more expensive than the previous model and will cost £200 / $200, so we are hoping Anker has taken note of our reviewers' points.

Outside of this, Anker confirmed the Space 2 Pro have an optimised headband and “soft, skin-friendly ear cushions” for “pressure-free wear”. The headphones have a battery life of 60 hours (30 hours with ANC switched on), which is less than the Space 2, but a significant figure nonetheless.

Personalised audio will also be available in the form of HearID 5.0, which tests users’ hearing in order to provide a tailored sound curve.

Further features confirmed by Anker include adaptive ANC and enhanced call clarity, which are both delivered by eight sensors working in tandem with the AI chip.

Similarly, Anker claims the Liberty Buds 2 deliver “crystal clear calls in noisy environments”, thanks to an eight-sensor array working alongside the Thus chip. The company also says the new earbuds “block out chaos instantly”, using a six-sensor, full-band ANC system.

The Liberty Buds 2 weigh just 4.7g and also feature HearID 5.0 for personalised listening. For the drivers, we are told, the wireless earbuds use a 9.2mm wool paper diaphragm for “high dynamic detail”.

Anker hasn’t yet confirmed the Liberty Buds 2’s battery life.

According to the company, the AeroClip 2 Pro open buds are an “AI note-taker for every need”, thanks to the Thus chip, which captures online meetings and calls and “transcribes, summarises, answers and syncs your workflow.”

“Crystal clear calls” are yet again promised, this time courtesy of four high signal-to-noise ratio MEMS microphones and two bone conduction sensors, paired with built-in AI noise extraction.

The AeroClip 2 Pro use an 11.3mm dual diaphragm driver with ‘AdaptiveTune’ (Anker’s adaptive ANC option), which the company says provides “immersive sound in any environment”.

The open design features no silicon eartips, but promise “comfortable, secure all-day wear thanks to their C-shaped bridge.

A standard AeroClip 2 model will also be available. All we know about the product so far is that it will also use the Thus chip for clear calls and will have an eight-hour battery life.

The Space 2 Pro, Liberty Buds 2 and AeroClip 2 are set to launch on 22nd September, with retail availability in the UK, US and EU. The launch date of the AeroClip 2 Pro is yet to be announced, and Anker says that the product will only be available in the US. Full pricing is as follows:

Anker Soundcore Space 2 Pro: £200 / $200 / €200

Anker Soundcore Liberty Buds 2: £130 / $130 / (EU pricing TBC)

Anker Soundcore AeroClip 2 Pro: $230 (US only)

Anker Soundcore AeroClip 2: £160 / $170 / €180

MORE:

Read our full Soundcore Space 2 review

Our picks of the best wireless earbuds

Stay up to date with our pick of the best wireless headphones, tested by our expert reviewers

Huawei has announced a new generation of wireless earbuds, the FreeBuds Neo.

Positioned as a more accessible sibling to the FreeBuds Pro, the new earbuds share a lot of common features with the flagship range.

The FreeBuds Neo feature a lightweight, mini stem design. Each earbud weighs approximately 4.8g.

Huawei has also updated the eartips, optimising the design across “eight key ear-related surfaces”. While we're not 100 per cent clear what it means by "ear-related surfaces", the work will reportedly make them more comfortable to wear for prolonged periods and ensure they fit a wider range of ears.

An 11mm polymer composite dynamic driver is at the heart of their “turbo drive unit”, which uses a multi-port vent system to balance pressure behind the diaphragm for “smoother, more controlled diaphragm movement”. Huawei says that the driver’s lightweight, high-rigidity diaphragm delivers “clear highs and a realistic sense of presence”.

Standard Bluetooth codecs are supported, as well as higher-quality Bluetooth codecs including LDAC, which allows data transmission up to 990kbps when connected to a compatible source. The buds also support Huawei’s own L2HC codec that allows for higher 2.3Mbps high-resolution lossless transmission, but only with select Huawei smartphones/tablets.

The earbuds have an 'unlimited spatial audio' feature, which uses real-time head tracking to keep audio stable relative to head movements. There is also a fixed spatial audio option, as well as 'pinpoint game audio' – a setting optimised for first-person shooter games, which provides accurate tracking of footsteps and gunshots.

The FreeBuds Neo feature a “dual-channel noise cancellation architecture”, which sees a C-shaped tube and air vent working in tandem to minimise the entry of outside mid/high frequencies into the ear. A third-gen audio chip is used to process and cancel environmental sound, resulting in an average noise cancellation of -30dB across the hearable frequency range.

In an effort to boost call clarity, the FreeBuds Neo use three microphones and a bone conduction sensor, alongside AI processing. The earbuds' "anti-wind" design further reduces airflow interference, allowing users to take calls in noisy situations.

Like the FreeBuds Pro 5, the new earbuds feature tap controls on the stem, and see their antennae upgraded to offer an improved Bluetooth range of up to 170m, alongside enhanced resistance to interference.

The Huawei Audio Connect app can be used to control the earbuds, letting users switch between noise cancellation modes and EQ settings, locate the earbuds and check battery levels. The FreeBuds Neo are compatible with Android, iOS, and Windows and support cross-system dual device connection.

In terms of battery life, the FreeBuds Neo provide 40 hours of charge with their case, and up to 10 hours from the earbuds alone, which falls to 6.5 hours with ANC enabled. Notably, a 10-minute quick charge will give you four hours of playback.

The Huawei FreeBuds Neo will be available in four colours: Stellar Silver, Nebula Pink, Ice White and Starry Black. They are due for release in the UK on 23rd September, costing £120.

Customers purchasing the FreeBuds Neo before the 26th of October will be given a £20 discount.

MORE

Read our full Huawei FreeBuds Pro 4 review

Plus, I thought this simple upgrade would elevate Sony's WF-1000XM6 wireless earbuds – I was wrong

Stay up to date with our pick of the best wireless earbuds, tested by our expert reviewers

The Sonos Ace Ultra wireless headphones have landed, and it looks like good news throughout, with Sonos promising a "direct connection to the Sonos system."

Positioned above the three-star Ace – the brand's first headphones released in 2024 – the new step-up Ace Ultra have been designed from the ground up to deliver the improvements to sound, noise-cancelling and wider compatibility with the Sonos ecosystem that were missing from Sonos' debut over-ears.

At the heart of the Ace Ultra is the "Headphone Engine 2", a next-gen wi-fi hardware and software system that lets you link the headphones directly to your existing Sonos system. It's the feature that we (and Sonos customers) have wanted all along, allowing you to swap audio from any Sonos wireless speaker or soundbar to the Ace Ultra headphones at the press of a button (or via the app), and back again.

Listening to music on the Ace Ultra from your laptop or smartphone is still done via Bluetooth rather than wi-fi, but this is a marked improvement over the original Sonos Ace, where you could only 'swap' audio from select Sonos soundbars.

With the Ace Ultra, this 'headphone linking' feature will work with any current Sonos soundbar and wireless speaker under the Sonos 27 ecosystem, including the Arc Ultra, Ray, Beam (Gen 2), new Beam Ultra, Sonos Five, Era 100, Era 300, Move 2, Play and Roam 2.

The Ace Ultra feature all-new Sonos-designed 40mm drivers, and the sound is tuned with input from the Sonos Soundboard, which features leading figures in music and film (including Grammy winners) to deliver a sound "that stays true to the artist's intent."

Active noise cancellation has been given a boost, with the Ace Ultra promising to be twice as effective in this regard. The Ace Ultra house 10 mics (up from eight on the original Ace), with an adaptive ANC system that continuously monitors your surroundings to deliver the best ANC experience.

An Adaptive EQ also tunes the ANC to adjust to any imperfections in the acoustic seal around the earcups, such as gaps in the fit for those wearing glasses.

An Aware mode, which lets outside sounds in, also returns, as does support for headtracking with Dolby Atmos content.

Battery is up to 35 hours (up from 30 hours from the original Ace) with ANC activated, and you can get three hours from a fast-charge of three minutes. The higher-quality aptX Lossless codec is supported, while native support for 16-bit/48kHz resolution is once again supported via a wired USB-C connection.

The general design of the Sonos Ace Ultra remains the same as before, with soft foam cushions to provide maximum comfort, and physical buttons that include a multi-function button/slider (called the 'control key') through which you can adjust volume, change noise modes and playback, and send music to and from your connected Sonos speakers via the 'headphone linking' feature.

There are three-band and eight-band EQ settings in the app to further customise the sound to your tastes, whereas TrueCinema technology tunes the headphones' sound according to your room's acoustics when connected to a compatible Sonos soundbar.

The Sonos Ace Ultra headphones will cost £399 / $449 and be available globally from 29th September, with pre-orders starting from today, 1st September. The headphones will be available in four finishes: new sand and agave colours, as well as the standard black and white options.

Interestingly, the established Sonos Ace will continue to be available. The Ace are currently priced at £299 / $299 / AU$449, which is a considerable drop from their launch price of £449 / $449 / AU$699. Those in the UK will also get a bonus saving, as the new Ace Ultra will launch for £50 less than the inaugural Ace did.

We have high hopes for the new Sonos Ace Ultra headphones, which seem to address many of the issues we had with the original Ace – such as incomplete features, buggy connections, "average" sound, and ANC quality that didn't compete with strong rivals.

Let's see if they give the current Sony, Bose and Sennheiser class leaders a run for their money.

MORE:

Read our original Sonos Ace review

And our five-star Sony WH-1000XM6 review

Best wireless headphones 2026: reviewed and rated by our in-house experts

As it says on the tin, these are Sennheiser ‘Pro’ headphones, which means they come from the part of Sennheiser which is still fully Sennheiser, designed in Wedemark, Germany, by Sennheiser’s pro-gear people, then hand-assembled in the company’s extensive manufacturing facilities in Romania.

The HD 480 Pros are, therefore, much differentiated from the consumer Sennheiser brand licensed (though currently up for divestment) by Swiss medical company Sonova, which manufactures its consumer lines like Momentum and Accentum noise-cancellers over in Ireland.

In pro circles, as in consumerland, Sennheiser is a respected brand regarded as providing both quality and reliability. And we often comment that there are bargains to be found in professional headphone ranges, as these haven’t faced quite the surge of raging competition that has marked the last couple of decades of consumer headphones. Not all the HD Pro headphones are priced like these 480s: the HD 280 Pro headphones, say, can be found for as little as £83 / $100 / AU$139. The HD 380 Pros are no longer available, but will be familiar workhorses to many; we use a pair as regular headgear for studio and radio work.

Now here’s the new HD 480 Pro, with quite the price differential from the workaday lower cans, but then these, along with the open-back HD 490 Pro, reside at the very top of the 400 series of purpose-built professional audio headphones. They are priced on Sennheiser's own international sites at £339 / $399 / AU$739, but we have already seen the Australian price significantly discounted.

However, we were supplied the slightly-superior HD 480 Pro ‘Plus’ version, raising the price to £369 / $439 / $819, although the ‘Plus’ bonus is entirely an upgrade from a mere carry bag to a hard travel case like the ones you’d get with upmarket noise-cancelling headphones; there is no change to the headphones themselves for the additional Plus pricing.

Design & facilities

As with the hard case of the Plus version, the exterior design of these closed-back cabled headphones veers towards a consumer look: plain oval headshell and pivoting yokes, rather like those used with increasing monotony in recent years on Sonova’s consumer headphones. Previous Pro models were different: the HD 380 Pro had a yoke design which cut right into the shell, while the yokes and cables on the HD 280 Pros almost entirely obscure the shell, stuck to the outer surface like face-huggers.

Here the oval shell is more like that of the Momentums – free, although significantly larger in size, and not flat-backed but interestingly concave, the smooth surface unadorned other than some almost-invisible writing in black on black, like Disaster Area’s spaceship in Hitchhikers’ Guide, reading ‘HD 480 Pro Professional Studio Headphones’ (image below).

The headband extension system is entirely different to consumer cans however, employing a wide flat steel slider with nicely firm ratchets to keep it at your preferred length on either side. The earcups are velour, for our money better than pleathers and their ilk for hot and heavy use, as well as being very comfortable, and easily replaced. And they include a Sennheiser-patented feature for fit, known as Special Axes Geometry, where the mechanical design is supposed to adapt to any shape of head, maintaining equal and comfortable contact pressure.

Their overall weight will certainly seem remarkably low to anyone used to carrying electronics in their earshells: despite being larger than Momentums they are lighter: 274g on our scale versus 295g for the Momentum 4s (Momentum 5 specs say 290g). You can feel a little added weight from the hanging cable, of course, which here connects via a mini-XLR 4-pin plug to a socket on the left headshell. But there’s a little rubber seal over a socket on the right headshell, which you can switch to the left, should you prefer right-sided cable entry. Super handy.

The cable is long and curly, and at the plugging-in end it has a minijack plug and 6.5mm (quarter-inch) adaptor. A coily cable structure can claim to block cable-borne noise for the wearer, but some studio technicians hate coily cables, because they hang down and make audible tapping noises hitting things as musicians nod their heads! Happily optional non-curly cables are available in 1.8m and 3m lengths. A cable for balanced 4.4mm sockets is also available.

As for the interiors, the HD 480 Pro have 38mm dynamic drivers backed by neodymium magnets, their voice coils described as “ultra-light” without any further detail. The shell design promises multiple stages of passive sound shielding, with the interior chambers designed, says Sennheiser, to eliminate unwanted vibration, reflections and distortion in what it calls a ‘Vibration Attenuation System’.

These models are said to be aimed at being versatile for applications in the studio and beyond, but especially for recording, mixing and production; increasing numbers of mixers and producers are now favouring open-backed models like the HD 490 Pro, but those spill sound, so can’t be used in recording rooms and booths where the privacy of closed shells works both ways.

With mixing and studio work in mind, Sennheiser is presumably targeting a neutral response. Its literature promotes two things in particular: long-term comfort, and tight, accurate bass reproduction.

“With closed-back headphones, a good reproduction of the low-end is usually difficult to achieve,” says Sennheiser. “This is where the HD 480 PRO excel… their low-end is super-accurate and realistic.” notes Jimmy R. Landry, Category Market Manager, Music Industry at Sennheiser.

They claim a response down to -10dB from 3Hz to 28,700Hz, and offer a nominal impedance of 130Ω at 1kHz, making them versatile enough to be driven by sources from professional mixing desks and audio interfaces to laptops and even mobile devices.

Listening sessions

Coily cable attached and the HD 480 Pros under the considered control of the excellent headphone output on Eversolo’s DAC-Z10, we settled in for some serious listening. For this we had the quarter-inch adaptor screwed on to the integrated minijack plug, though later we used the minijack alone into a 2026 MacBook Pro headphone output, which now has DC load detection and adaptive voltage output to suit the headphones plugged in. (The Eversolo conducts a similar analysis.)

Both of these put the headphone socket on our left, but we’d been warming them up with use at a radio studio which had the socket on the right; for this we simply detached the cable from the left headshell, moved the rubber grommet and reattached the cables to the right. This is a very convenient system, and sturdily connected with a four-pin miniDIN using a release tab. We would note, though, that it will get heavy use for those moving the headphones around in the hard shell case which comes with the ‘Plus’ version of these headphones, as you have to detach the cable each time you stow them in that case.

The HD 480 Pros achieve excellent relative accuracy for use in studio and mixing scenarios; bass elements in particular are toned and tight, full but not pumped up. Yet they don’t lack emotion; they’re also a very enjoyable listening when you’re simply there to enjoy the music, for their insight especially – we found ourselves analysing the vocal lines on the Madonna/Kylie Love Sensation, listening to separate Mags from Kyls. The HD 480 Pros easily distinguished between the Madonna vocal line, treated and slightly raspy with age, and the subsequent sexier (and better phrased) Kylie lines. Compare Kylie’s kitten version of the line “It’s more than love… yeh!” with an emotionless Madonna-only version (on the third track of the EP release) to hear one queen of pop very much schooling the other… Kylie wins! We didn’t think too much of the song, but these headphones certainly laid out its pumped-up beats and swirly production tricks to their best advantage.

We used Roon to play Nick Drake’s ‘Bryer Later’ at 24-bit/96kHz, the delicacy of the delicious folk-and-strings instrumental Introduction, then the surprisingly rocky Hazey Jane II, driven along by the chugging guitar of Richard Thompson and the solidity of a Pegg/Mattacks rhythm section from Fairport Convention. Even with levels high, everything held solid here, the bass sufficiently present while nimble and clear in pitch and tone, with the drum work almost entirely tucked in a little pocket behind Drake’s unique vocal, while the horn arrangement sit at far left and right extremes.

It’s a joy to sit under a mix like this under headphones of this clarity; it’s not pumpy, it’s not enthusiastic, it’s just on the money. You’d have to go electrostatic or planar magnetic to hope for more in the way of detail, but here you gain the airshifting power of a conventional dynamic driver to underpin it all.

From our MacBook Pro hard-drive we played Pete Townshend’s 2026 ‘remake’ remixes of the 2019 album ‘Who’. Every element of Ball and Chain was laid clear: the opening guitar intro, the crisp piano motif, the distant soaring guitars joined by close-up acoustic plucking, until Daltrey arrives central and strong, rich and more gravelly even than Madonna, though his energy gives little betrayal of the fact he was 74 when he recorded it.

In addition to giving free access to each element in the mix, the headphones presented the track as a cohesive whole, and it was all tonally spot on from the transducers in their geometrically-angled positions, from Daltrey down to the running bass lines that were delivered at full strength from top to bottom.

We played a lossless Apple Music Classical Session by Max Richter, new arrangements of bits from the ‘Hamnet’ soundtrack. See things that others don’t begins with piano so very gentle that its presence is almost outweighed by the sense of an audience trying not to cough or rustle their programmes around the hall acoustic – which was very successfully created by the Sennheisers, then washed through by the entry of simple mournful strings in a kind of well-tempered version of Pärt-style sadness. It’s a short piece, but made beautiful by the HD 480 Pros.

They loved an open mix, so that while slamming home most of the new Stones album, the relaxed country shuffle of Ringing Hollow had the space to again enjoy each element individually, as well as the song as a whole. Steve Jordan’s drums got the space to shuffle, with the kick drum as only the gentlest of underpinning bass taps, but the snare rim shots snapping through.

This album, which is mastered at quite a high level, did occasionally get a little shouty through the Sennheisers when we took the level above their comfort levels. While the sweet spot was plenty loud enough, those liking even more might find there’s a limit to their smooth delivery.

It was similar with Amy Shark’s It’s Kinda Hot (the chorus sounding very Alex The Astronaut): beautifully handled up to the last few stops, then a little overwhelmed by the combination of complexity and sheer level.

We doublechecked these from the Eversolo DAC’s headphone output and found the same effect, also something odd, where the bass pedal imparted about the same energy all the time even as everything else was turned up, as if the pedal just wasn’t going to push any more no matter where we went. In an all-in-one speaker we might think this to be algorithmic speaker feedback limiting output short of distortion, but here it may just be the physical limit of the phones to give that element any more energy.

We found them impeccably comfortable despite their significant size, although we never quite got the hang of putting glasses on while wearing them, despite a special ‘soft zone’ for this purpose, and Gunnar Dirks, Senior Product Manager for professional headphones, saying specifically that they fit every head precisely and comfortably even if you’re wearing glasses. Not that he's wearing glasses on his LinkedIn photo.

These were very small notes against many hours of listening delight. We used them for at least 12 hours during radio broadcasts, and they proved perfect cans for the studio as the closed shells prevented feedback while the sound all came through at their ‘studio’ monitoring quality. We’ll leave the engineers to complain if the curly cable is tapping on the desk…

Verdict

The HD 480 Pros are extremely high-quality headphones, suited to both studio use via their good passive isolation and relative accuracy, and to music listening, where their high frequencies open up a mix to examination and appreciation, while the bass is tight and full but never swampy. They are quite large but super-comfy, so well-suited to long sessions whether making or enjoying music.

No noise-cancelling, no app, no messing with endless EQ options; we found it all rather relaxing, as well as a reminder that if it’s cabled headphones you’re after, then there are two Sennheisers to choose from, and you certainly shouldn’t ignore the Professionals.

• See all our Australian reviews from Sound+Image and Australian Hi-Fi magazines

The Sonos Ace wireless headphones launched back in 2024.

And they were big news for a brand more used to wrestling with multiroom audio than headband and earpad materials.

However, during rigorous testing, we were left underwhelmed for several reasons, all of which added up to a lukewarm three-star rating. (Here's our original Sonos Ace review.)

But, instead of packing it in after its first attempt, if online reports (and an official FCC filing) are to be believed, it looks like Sonos will be giving wireless headphones another go. And I’m all here for it.

Previously, Sonos has hinted that a new product is coming out in September, so if you put two and two together… Having said that, fresh rumours now suggest a new product will be unveiled, but it won’t actually be headphones.

Irrespective of who you believe, the new headphones model is allegedly going to be called the Sonos Ace Ultra. What the word ‘Ultra’ alludes to is anyone’s guess, but you’d automatically think a more premium pair of wireless headphones with advancements in sound quality and onboard tech.

Having reviewed the current Sonos Ace, I can think of at least three things that I’m desperate for Sonos to get right so it can really rival best-in-class models from the likes of Sony and Bose.

Read on for more and let me know if you agree in the comments below!

Improved sound quality

My top wish is quite simple. I want better sound quality. There isn’t anything particularly offensive about the way the Ace sound, but there isn’t anything memorable about them either.

In our Sonos Ace review, we described it as “a simplistic and safe sound – not one we would call exciting or enthralling”. And, in all my twenty-plus years of testing headphones, I can confirm there’s nothing worse than a “safe” sound from a product that fails to pull you in for a closer listen.

At the time, we compared Ace to their main rivals such as the Sony WH-1000XM5 and Bose QuietComfort Ultra, which sounded much more rhythmic and entertaining. You see, ultimately, if a product doesn’t get my feet tapping, I’m tapping out.

It's worth noting that both Sony and Bose have moved on with new iterations of their flagship wireless headphones since then, and the benchmark for performance has also moved up a notch – will Sonos be able to keep up?

More robust software

When we tested the Sonos Ace, they gave off a vibe that they weren’t quite ready for market. We came across a few bugs in the system, including distortion and crackling while switching from the company’s Arc soundbar to the headphones. We also suffered from a couple of lip-sync issues.

Sonos has released new software update since launch to improve functionality, but a product as big as Ace should really work straight off the bat.

I would hope that any new headphones come with more robust software in tow. I’d also want them to be ready to use with Sonos’ complete wireless speaker ecosystem.

At launch, the only product that worked with Ace was the Arc, until a later firmware update also added the Beam Gen 2, Beam Gen 1 and Ray to the list of compatible products

Being able to hand off the audio from one speaker (or soundbar) to the headphones for a more private listening experience is a unique trick which needs to be properly executed.

Wi-fi connectivity for hi-fi sound

One of the big initial rumours about the Ace headphones was that they might be networked home headphones with Wi-Fi, allowing users to stream high-quality, lossless hi-res audio wirelessly.

What we got was CD-quality audio via Bluetooth thanks to the inclusion of aptX Lossless. However, this only works with compatible source devices (i.e. smartphones and laptops), and because Bluetooth doesn't have the required bandwidth, hi-res levels of sound quality are out of reach.

This feature wouldn't be without issues, though, as joining other networks while you're out and about could be quite tricky, but from a home audio perspective, it could really help a pair of headphones stand out in this ultra-crowded market.

Any other business?

Elsewhere, there are a few extra features I think could make a new Ace model even better.

Besides support for a more advanced Bluetooth protocol (the original Ace supports Bluetooth 4), I’d like any USB-C connection to support more than just 16-bit/48kHz sample rates, given that modern streaming services can offer much higher resolution files.

I also think ANC and call quality will need to be better. All of Sonos’ competitors have moved the game along since we originally tested them, so Sonos needs to take this seriously.

We compared the Ultra to the Sony WH-1000XM5 and the original Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones at the time for both ANC and call quality and found the Ace to be lagging behind the pack.

And finally, there's pricing. The Ace launched at £449 / $449 / AU$699 and struggled to live up to their premium price tag. If a new model is just around the corner, it's going to need to offer a lot more at this price point to be competitive.

Of course, everything is pure speculation at the moment, but the rumour mill continues to turn at pace, and we’ll continue to keep a keen eye on any developments as we roll into September!

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There has been much talk recently about the rumoured upcoming release of AirPods with built-in cameras, but a new report from Bloomberg’s chief correspondent for Apple, Mark Gurman, suggests that the most imminent generation of AirPods might be a touch more familiar than anticipated.

According to Gurman’s report, Apple is preparing to launch the 5th generation of the standard AirPods next month. This will be an update on the current AirPods 4 and AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation, which were released in 2024.

The AirPods 5 is set to consist of the same two models – one with ANC and one without.

The report suggests that the AirPods 5 could arrive in early September, coinciding with Apple’s annual iPhone launch event, which is predicted to see several new products including the iPhone 18 series, a new Apple Watch and the first folding iPhone Fold (or iPhone Ultra).

Apple expanded its standard non-Pro AirPods range in 2024 to include the AirPods 4 and AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation. These are the brand's most affordable wireless earbuds and don't come with eartips like the flagship Pro models do, and they were a marked improvement over the AirPods 3 and featured ANC in the 'open' design for the first time.

We awarded the AirPods 4 with ANC a four-star review for their “impressive ANC”, “powerful sound” and an “extensive feature set that borrows from the flagship model”, while criticising poor battery life, earbuds shape that still didn't fit everyone in our review team, and a sound that could do with “a greater dose of dynamic subtlety, solidity and punch".

Given the expected similarities between the upcoming release and the previous generation, we are hoping that Apple will have taken note of these areas and improve the standard AirPods even further.

Will they adopt more of the flagship AirPods Pro 3's features, will the prices for the AirPods 5 change or remain the same, or will Apple make any surprise overhauls of its popular earbuds? In such a competitive market as wireless earbuds, it will be interesting to see if Apple makes any substantial changes to stay ahead, or if the updates will be incremental between the generations. We shall find out soon enough, if the launch rumours are true.

What features or improvements would you like to see in the AirPods 5? Let us know in the comments.

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Sport-centric audio brand Shokz has announced its latest pair of bone conduction headphones, the OpenRun Air 2.

Built for runners, sports-ready headphones use an open design whereby the drivers sit outside of the ear rather than burrowing into the ear canal, so you're always aware of your surroundings. Over-ear hooks and a wraparound stability band keep the headphones in place. Think of the Shokz OpenRun Pro 2, and you're in the right area.

The new OpenRun Air 2 deploy Shokz's 'PremiumPitch' technology, which is designed to offer greater extension to higher frequencies while delivering clearer mids and a deeper bass signature.

The drivers feature a metallic dual-coil design that again aims to deliver clear vocals and a defined low-frequency signature within a balanced, clear sonic experience.

The OpenRun Air 2 are IP67 rated, so sweat and rain shouldn't be a problem. Battery life clocks in at 10 hours on a single charge, with a five-minute boost delivering around two hours of playback in a pinch.

Further features include Bluetooth Multipoint for fast switching between devices, four preset equaliser modes, customisable physical buttons, and a 'Find My Headphone' feature whereby the Shokz will play a loud tone if you've misplaced them.

The Shokz OpenRun Air 2 are available in the US in Black or Ice Blue colourways, priced at $130, with buyers able to choose between Standard and Mini band sizes. We'll keep you updated on future availability in other territories.

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A new pair of Beats wireless headphones is on the way, according to a fresh leak.

The upcoming Beats 360 have been teased before in various formats. But the latest glimpse of the premium over-ears all but confirms the headphones are on the way.

The latest leak stemmed from MacRumours, which discovered a Beats codename in the macOS Tahoe 26.7 software update

This isn't the first time that the 360 have prematurely broken cover. Leaked product listings have already been discovered in the past few weeks, whereas multiple Reddit users found the headphones listed on major retailers, including Amazon, before they were subsequently removed.

The mooted cans have also shown up on US Federal Communications Commission documents, and were even given to various global football stars to wear during the World Cup.

Thanks to these continuing accidental (and not-so-accidental) reveals, we do know quite a bit about the upcoming wireless cans. No release date has been officially revealed yet, but now-redacted listings suggest the 360 are a more lifestyle-oriented pair of wireless headphones designed as much for workouts and leisure wear as for work and commuting.

MacRumours reveals further specifications from previously unearthed product listings, including personalised spatial audio, active noise cancelling, AI-powered voice calls, "all-day battery life" (no official figures have broken cover just yet) and easy integration with both Apple and Android devices.

What about price? This is still a decidedly premium pair of wireless headphones, with prices expected to hover around the $300 mark. That's a lot less than big-hitters such as the Sony WH-1000XM6 ($450) and AirPods Max 2 ($550), and a little more affordable than the Beats Studio Pro we reviewed at $350 way back in 2023.

Colour options include Pink, Black, Sky, and Cloud, with Volt (AKA yellow) and Navy potentially on the menu as well.

With so many recent leaks and so much information about the Beats 360 readily available online – not always released by accident – a proper launch seems imminent.

Will we see the Beats 360 arrive before the end of 2026? We wouldn't be surprised if they did. Apple's launch event is coming in September, which could be the perfect time to launch the 360 alongside the also-teased Apple HomePod Mini 2 and HomePod 3.

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With a legacy stretching back over 80 years, Sennheiser is one of the most storied brands in the audio game today. You might know it for its consumer headphones like the Momentum 5 Wireless and HDB 630, but it also has some serious pro chops, supplying microphones and studio-quality cans to professional musicians the world over.

Now it's working with iconic nightclub Fabric London on a collaboration that includes Fabric-edition headphones and musical performances at the top of The Shard.

In honour of this, we sat down with some of Sennheiser and Fabric London's audio experts to chat about what constitutes great sound.

Like a hi-fi listening room full of people dancing

A lot of nightclubs position themselves as places to be seen – one memorable promo that landed in my inbox years ago advised booking early, as "last week, we had to turn away too many beautiful people". But Fabric has always been all about the sound.

After all, it's not every nightclub that has a sound system from legendary speaker company Martin Audio. As part of its 25th anniversary celebrations a couple of years ago, Fabric upgraded its sound system, and added moving magnet linear transducers under its dance floor, so you feel each bass hit as a haptic vibration.

Given the club's deep association with electronic music, you might expect a 'louder is better' approach. But it's actually much more nuanced than that.

"It's not about loudness," explains Mike Becker, senior sound tech at Fabric London. "It's about dynamics, and clarity, and having a well balanced sub-to-top ratio so that every sound in the mix is valued. Our new system cuts through really well, it gives the club much more of a hi-fi feel. It's like a hi-fi listening room, just full of people dancing, and a lot louder of course, because you're catering to a much bigger audience."

Fabric doesn't just host dance music – bands play there, too. What kind of music is playing will dictate how the system is tuned for a particular night – and the club's engineers are out on the floor doing the rounds every 15 minutes to make sure the system sounds as accurate as possible.

"Drum'n'bass tracks are all maximised, and very mid-rangy," Becker says. "There are no dynamics left. So you have to cut down the mix a little bit, because it can get quite intense. A rock band is totally different. We can do most tweaks from the front of house desk, but every now and then we have to go into the deep end of the system, back of house, and do some fine-tuning. But we will always optimise the sound to the band or genre of music that's playing."

Sorry, beautiful people – this might not be the nightclub for you.

• This listening bar experience made me question whether the trend has gone too far

The best results from different types of headphones

So why has German company Sennheiser chosen to team up with Fabric? According to Adrian Reid, inside sales representative at Sennheiser's Pro Audio division, the two brands have more in common than you might think.

"Fabric shares a lot of the same principles of sound that we do," he says. Sennheiser's aim is to "create a natural, detailed and engaging listening experience that brings you closer to the music", adds Tim Bosmans, Sennheiser's VP marketing & portfolio management.

But while the end goal is the same, how Sennheiser achieves great sound varies depending on the product in question.

Its Momentum wireless headphone range (the latest of which, the Momentum 5 True Wireless, has just launched) is tuned differently to its wired pairs, as it combines acoustic architecture with ANC, DSP, wireless transmission and more. That's a lot of tech to cram into a relatively small headphone enclosure.

Wireless headphones also have more environmental factors to compete with compared to a wired audiophile pair that's tethered to the listening room or studio. "Active noise cancellation is a big part of addressing that, and it means rebalancing the tuning around it rather than simply carrying over a wired sound signature," says Bosmans. "Whereas our wired audiophile products can take a more purist approach, where the acoustic architecture and transducer do much more of the work directly."

But what unites the two product types is the belief that technology is a means to a better listening experience, not an end in itself. As Bosmans says: "Ultimately, whether it’s wired or wireless, we want the technology to disappear and leave you with that feeling of discovering something new in music you already know."

• The inside story of the Ministry of Sound sound system

Changing your relationship with music

So, the collaboration is built on a shared vision of great sound and how to achieve it. But it also challenges the traditional idea of where hi-fi belongs, bringing it out of the listening room and into headphones, living rooms and nightclubs.

"Great sound doesn’t only happen sitting between two loudspeakers in a dedicated listening room," says Andreas Andersson, Sennheiser's regional marketing manager for the UK and Nordic. "It can happen through headphones on your commute, at home, at a live performance or at three o’clock in the morning at Fabric.

"We want more people to have those experiences where great sound changes their relationship with a piece of music."

Of course, Sennheiser doesn't just make headphones. As well as its pro side of microphones, conference systems and studio cans it also makes soundbars – the Ambeo family has a couple of five-star members (the Ambeo Soundbar Max and Ambeo Soundbar Plus), along with the three-star Ambeo Soundbar Mini. Is it planning on having these devices work with its headphones in a way that Sonos is (gradually) doing with the Ace headphones and Arc Ultra soundbar?

Sadly it wouldn't reveal if that is the case, but we would be surprised if it isn't. All it would say is that it's "definitely interested in how different listening experiences can work together more naturally, particularly as consumers move between personal listening and listening in the home", and that it would only connect products together if it would improve the listening experience. Bosmans added that "the interaction between our different listening categories is certainly an interesting space for us".

And for us, especially if it means bringing great quality sound to more devices – and more seamlessly – than ever.

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Sennheiser has revealed the Sennheiser Momentum 5 True Wireless, the sequel to the Sennheiser Momentum 4 True Wireless we awarded five stars in 2024.

Sennheiser describes the Momentum 5 True Wireless as sharing the same "sound-first DNA" that went into their recently reviewed fifth-gen over-ear counterparts, the Momentum 5 Wireless.

The new earbuds house Sennheiser's signature 7mm TrueResponse dynamic drivers, designed to offer both "remarkable detail" and "full-bodied, bass-driven tuning", as well as "exceptional precision, clarity and dynamics".

Bluetooth 6.0 with aptX Adaptive codec support further bolsters the buds' sonic credentials, allowing the transmission of hi-res wireless audio up to 24-bit/96 kHz from compatible sources.

The fifth-gen buds incorporate a revised hybrid noise-cancelling system, working in tandem with redesigned ear tips and a dedicated four-microphone array to maximise ANC performance. For clearer voice capture, the earbuds combine six dedicated microphones, two bone-conduction voice accelerometers and an AI speech-extraction algorithm, all in a bid to isolate human speech in busy environments.

The Momentum 5 True Wireless will offer around 12 hours of playback from the earbuds themselves, extended up to 40 total hours in total with the charging case in play. Be aware that, according to Sennheiser, those figures will drop to around 6 hours from the buds and between 20-25 hours in total when noise cancelling is switched on.

On the subject of batteries, the Momentum True Wireless 5 introduce a new user-replaceable battery system for both the earbuds and wireless charging case. This will let owners quickly replace the power cells in their buds using a screwdriver.

Sennheiser has pursued a "barely there" fit for its latest flagship buds, with the Momentum True Wireless 5 sporting a new aerodynamic shape which aims for a more comfortable, less obtrusive experience.

The buds' new shape and revised ear tips have been designed to improve both passive noise-cancellation isolation and sound quality, with Sennheiser pushing for an ergonomic design that aids a more secure fit. On the subject of ear tips, four sizes are available ranging from extra small to large.

Sennheiser's latest are rated IP54, guaranteeing a degree of protection against dust, sweat and splashes of water, while a perforated microphone plate aims to mitigate against wind interference to improve voice calls and noise-cancelling.

According to Lilika Beck, Sennheiser's President of Consumer Hearing: "Balancing compact size, our signature high-fidelity acoustics, and a replaceable battery is a major breakthrough. With the Momentum True Wireless 5, we are proving that cutting-edge performance does not have to sacrifice longevity.”

The Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 5 will be available from September 3rd in a choice of Graphite, Cream, Copper, Denim or Lavender finishes, priced at £250 / $300 / AU$480.

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Sony's rumoured cut-price reboot of the classic XM4 wireless headphones has leaked again, this time with very official-looking images. There’s also news on the specifications.

WinFuture has posted some images of the cans, which look very similar to the standard XM4 which launched in 2020. The images show the headphones in black, white and violet colourways.

The German site has also seen “excerpts from the manufacturer’s data sheet” which spills the beans on the specs. Bluetooth 6.0 is apparently supported, which is a later version than even that on the Award-winning XM6 (which have Bluetooth 5.3), and matches the premium 1000X The Collexion. Whether this translates to any new or improved features remains to be seen.

Some corners are rumoured to have been cut in order to offer the headphones at a lower price. The NFC logo is missing from the pictures, which suggests Sony axed the easy-pairing feature to keep the costs down. Battery life is also said to be lower than the XM4, at 27 hours with active noise cancellation (ANC) activated, and 34 without (the XM4 boasted 30 hours and 38 hours, respectively).

But, like the standard XM4, they are said to feature 40mm drivers, ANC, and to have a frequency response of 4Hz-40,000Hz. They should also weigh the same as the XM4.

Launch price is said to be €250, which would be lower than the XM4’s original price of £380. Given that the XM4 have fallen to £170 before, however, Sony will have some way to go to make the XM4C a compelling alternative. Having said that, given that the XM4 are no longer on sale, the XM4C could be a tempting budget option for Sony fans unable or unwilling to stretch to the XM6.

They are rumoured to launch in early September – we’ll bring you all the news as soon as we have it.

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While Yamaha’s history with high-end headphones dates back to the 1970s-released HP-1, a subsequent five-decade dormancy in that market implied that the Japanese company’s head-fi journey might well be destined to both begin and end with that iconic model. Fortunately, that hasn’t played out.

The AV legend crawled out of that particular woodwork in 2023 to introduce its first audiophile headphones in decades, launching its ‘special edition’ open-back YH-5000SE (and a partnering HA-L7A headphone DAC/amplifier) to industry-wide acclaim, and putting itself back on the personal listening map.

The following YH-4000 were more affordable, mass-production revisions with a tweaked design and fewer bundled accessories, released to appeal to a wider audience. And, with Yamaha clearly reluctant to take its foot off the gas, we now have a closed-back pair that is even more affordable still. Meet the Yamaha YH-C3000, the ‘C’ denoting their closed-back design.

Design & build

Unlike the two open-back models, which use Yamaha’s sophisticated orthodynamic (planar magnetic) driver, the YH-C3000 are built around a dynamic driver that was newly developed specially for them over the course of a decade.

This ‘armodynamic’ driver – named after the Italian noun ‘armonia’, which refers to musical ‘harmony’ – has a unique three-layer diaphragm design that combines Zylon (also used in the drivers of Yamaha’s flagship loudspeakers) with composite materials such as paper and resin.

Completing the driver design is a clever ventilation system at the rear and a patented Y-shaped reinforced mesh damper for promoting clarity and reducing distortion, plus a pure iron pole designed to enhance speed and punch.

Being closed-back in design and thus having sealed enclosures behind their drivers, the YH-C3000 naturally look pretty different to their open-back siblings, which have perforated ear cups that ‘leak’ the sound that their drivers inherently fire away from the ears.

While the YH-4000’s magnesium ear cups comprise an intricate spider-pattern structure, the YH-C3000’s beech wood housings are ‘marble-like’: round, solid, shiny and smooth.

It’s a comparatively ‘safer’ look – more polished, less industrial-looking – and in tune with the company’s signature glossy black aesthetic, as adopted by its iconic pianos and motorbikes.

The only slight repercussion of this hallmark mirrored finish on such a tactile product is that it is unavoidably a fingerprint magnet.

Thankfully, Yamaha bundles a microfibre wipe cloth into the semi-hard fabric carry case, and giving them a quick polish after each use doesn’t feel taxing when you consider that the same skilled hands that handle Yamaha’s flagship grand pianos and audio components in the company’s Kakegawa factory in Japan have spent hours carefully sanding, painting and polishing multiple layers to achieve the desired finish.

We also like how you can make out the natural beech wood grain beneath it when you hold the headphones up to the light.

Considering the YH-C3000’s dynamic, closed-back nature, it’s also impressive that they weigh only 10g more than the planar-magnetic, open-back YH-4000.

Their 330g structure tips the scales slightly less than the rival closed-back Sennheiser HD 820 and Sony MDR-Z1R headphones, and doesn’t feel like a burden on the top of the head thanks to how effectively the soft pleather head pad spreads the pressure evenly across it.

The stainless steel band hovering above it connects to smooth stepless sliders for easy fit adjustment, although it’s a pity the plastic outer piece somewhat compromises an otherwise luxurious, premium build.

Yamaha has ensured there’s plenty of vertical movement in the ear cups’ swivel rotation axis so that the earpads sit snugly against your head, preventing sound leakage.

The clamp of the silk protein leather-coated memory foam earpads is indeed firm, but not so much that it causes discomfort. During a heatwave, they feel sticky in a way that suede-like alternatives on other headphones don’t, but in normal, cooler conditions they are exceptionally comfortable to wear for our two-hour listening sessions.

Sound

Supplied is a two-metre 3.5mm cable that connects to each ear cup, plus a 6.3mm adaptor, although Yamaha offers a range of balanced cables and a headphone stand as optional extras.

More important for your YH-C3000 setup than those accessories, however, is a quality DAC/headphone amplifier that can reveal the extent of the headphones’ talents – something a laptop, for example, isn’t capable of.

We drive the YH-C3000 using a Chord Hugo 2, and from the very first song we are smitten.

Deep Blue by BrhyM, the joint project of Bruce Hornsby and contemporary chamber ensemble yMusic, is a jazzy, groove-laden flurry of energetic, experimental sound, and the Yamahas do the esoteric collaboration justice.

There’s plenty in the mix to wrap your ears around, from piano and clarinet melodies and Hornsby’s lead vocal to a percussive beat and an array of strings including electric sitar, some of which are woven together in rhythmic patterns while others are more disparate. Everything has room in the soundstage to perform and flaunt its musical purpose.

The YH-C3000 have the top-to-bottom clarity and resolution to grasp instrumental textures and bring minute details and dynamic subtleties to the fore, as well as the precision and organisation to ensure music remains well imaged and coherent no matter how dense.

They’re clean and perceptive, and while leading edges of notes are crisply defined, that always stays within the confines of naturalness, never crossing into hardness. That said, some may find the Yamaha’s directness and top-end bite fatiguing compared to richer, smoother alternatives.

Despite their impressive insight, the YH-C3000 don’t feel in any way systematic. They know how to have a good time. With Eminem’s The Way I Am, the rhythmic interplay between the piano and beat pattern is tight and propelling, while his iconic rapid-fire rapping packs all the attack and conviction we know it to have.

A pleasing combination of low-end weight and agility can meet the challenge of upbeat, bassy bravado like Jamie xx’s It’s So Good, too. They sink to the depths demanded by the club-ready bassline, while affording plenty of headroom and dynamic attention to the rattling percussion, glitchy beats and squeaking synths that dance above it.

We finish with Oneohtrix Point Never and Iggy Pop’s The Pure And The Damned, a piano ballad with a dystopian undertow, and the Yamaha headphones convey the track’s gravitas and the sense of longing that it – and the film it scores – bathes in.

The tectonic droning backdrop anchors the recording, while the piano notes drip through with harmonics intact and can be easily tracked as they move and fade throughout the soundstage. Iggy’s raspy, spoken-word vocals pack an emotional punch, and the celestial synths emerge with a spot-on balance of warmth and sizzle.

Such is the YH-C3000’s completeness that our comparative testing with the veteran Sony MDR-Z1R is rather short-lived. While the recently discontinued Sonys offer a pleasing depth and richness and a nice flow to music, they come second best in clarity, detail and punch, ultimately sounding comparatively muffled, flat and laid-back.

Verdict

So that’s three for three for Yamaha. Rather than rush out a line of models off the back of the inaugural YH-5000SE’s success, the company has taken time to consider and engineer an attractively priced closed-back companion.

Understandably, the YH-C3000 don’t possess the clarity, airiness and transparency of their higher-end open-back siblings, but by setting new standards in their own price and design class, they continue one of head-fi’s greatest modern comebacks.

Review published: 19th August 2026

SCORES

• Sound 5
• Build 5
• Comfort 5

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What’s next for wireless headphones? It’s a tough question to answer for a couple of reasons.

First, predicting the future is always tricky. Even the best sages and farseers, ranging from Nostradamus to Mystic Meg, don’t have a perfect hit rate.

Second, new technologies with the potential to change fundamentally how tech works – including portable noise makers – are appearing on a near-daily basis.

This week, then, we forsake our usual tea-leaf/tarot-card reading strategy and instead ask five experts from major companies just what music fans can expect from the field of wireless headphones in the next five years.

Somewhat to our surprise, they all seem to be singing from the same hymn sheet with their responses.

AI is the next big thing in wireless headphones

For Christian Ern, global product manager at Sennehiser’s parent company, Sonova Consumer Hearing, the answer is simple: artificial intelligence.

“The use of AI-powered sound processing can also create a significant experience difference when used in the right way: for example, allowing listeners to customise their experience and adapt to their own taste or hearing profile,” says Ern.

Outside this, the firm believes there will be gradual improvements to things such as battery life, fit and active noise cancellation, but Ern reiterates it will mainly be the advanced processing power that AI offers that will define the next five years, warning that outside this:

“It's easy to fall into the trap of a feature race, where brands add more and more gimmicky features to show they have a lot – but it's not always relevant to the user.”

Kazunori Otsu, director of headphone business at Technics, shares Ern’s opinion, telling us:

“One of the biggest changes over the next five years will likely be the expansion of AI-driven user experiences. Beyond improvements in noise control and call quality, AI will increasingly enable headphones to optimise audio performance according to the user’s environment and listening situation. We expect a growing range of intelligent features that make the listening experience better.”

Personal tuning isn’t a new concept. Numerous firms, including Nura, before it was bought by Denon, have experimented with the idea. Denon’s true wireless PerL Pro are still on sale and offer “personalised” audio profiles.

The difference here, according to Matt Dever, senior global product line manager at Harman Luxury Audio, is that future headphones will leverage AI processing to push performance even further across the board.

“Integrating AI decision-making into the processing chain will allow even faster results and improve things like adaptive ANC and Awareness functionality. Minimising the latency in those types of decisions will improve the overall user experience,” he says.

“With the increased processing power, the technology will customise the sound of the headphones and tune them automatically to your specific hearing attributes.”

But that’s not all

Despite the focus on AI, the experts argue that there are at least two other areas where wireless headphones will advance in the not-too-distant future.

First, Dever highlights sustainability as a key area that manufacturers will focus on improving over the next five years – “User-replaceable rechargeable batteries [for example],” he says.

“Today, when your rechargeable battery in the headphone has finally lost its chargeability, you must recycle the headphone even though the electronics and driver units may still be functional. Tomorrow, it will be a different story.”

The second is wireless connectivity. While all the experts are sceptical of scalable, lossless hi-res 24-bit/192kHz streaming becoming mainstream, they flag advancements in Bluetooth technology as another key upgrade that will define the next half-decade.

Category line director of headphones at Bowers & Wilkins, Steven Hoyle, flags Low Energy Audio (LE Audio) as a particular milestone he expects will help improve wireless headphones’ performance.

“LE Audio is coming! The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (the central group that owns the standards for Bluetooth, with input from stakeholders across various brands and technologies) is phasing out Bluetooth Classic and only focusing on advancing the Bluetooth standard with LE Audio,” he says.

“Once there are more devices supporting LE Audio, we expect that the functionality will be greatly expanded. The launch features for LE Audio focused heavily on broadcast and Auracast, but LE Audio does allow for higher data rates and therefore could support higher resolution audio. However, we are still at the mercy (in the short term) of compatible source devices.”

The ultimate goal won’t change

Despite the focus on what’s next, all of the experts agree that their core focus when creating wireless headphones will ultimately remain unchanged, regardless of what new tech appears: making them sound as good as possible.

This sentiment is summed up by Yusuke Wada, senior manager at Sony:

“Over the next five years, we believe devices and technologies will change significantly, and more environments will emerge that allow users to enjoy music more conveniently. While adapting to changes in how users enjoy music, Sony hopes to continue delivering the enduring value of bringing the emotion of music exactly as intended by the artist.”

Wada’s colleague Kenji Ide, acoustic Manager at Sony, adds, “Sony believes that delivering the music experience exactly as intended by the artist is of utmost importance, and we continue to pursue headphone sound quality to make that experience possible.”

Do you agree with audio pros’ comments? Are you excited about the prospect of easier-to-repair wireless cans? Or are you against the idea of AI-tuned wireless headphones? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

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Apple’s next AirPods have leaked in an official video from the tech giant itself. And they have a feature we have never seen in a pair of wireless earbuds before: a camera.

The AirPods with a camera have been rumoured for a while now. This leak suggests they will launch alongside the iPhone 18 Pro at the Apple event rumoured for 9th September.

The camera enables a feature called Visual Intelligence, which is basically capturing images to store for later. The video shows a wearer holding up a book to remember for later. The Siri voiceover says:

“With Visual Intelligence, your world becomes savable. See something you like? Just ask me to save it for later.”

The video was found within the latest version of Apple’s desktop operating system, macOS Tahoe, that Apple has just released for public testing. It was spotted by 9to5Mac.

You can also see the new AirPods in question. They look very similar to the AirPods Pro 3, although the stems are slightly thicker.

You can’t see the cameras in the AirPods. But given Apple’s privacy-first focus, they would probably light up to alert anyone in the vicinity that they are being filmed or photographed.

There is no word on what – if any – sound improvements the new AirPods might bring, or whether they would simply be the standard AirPods Pro 3 with an added camera. But we shouldn’t have to wait long to find out.

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The best AirPods for all needs

The best AirPods alternatives for Apple naysayers

And the best wireless headphones full stop

Thought there were more than enough premium wireless headphones around at the moment? Think again.

Samsung could soon be throwing its hat back into the over-ear ring, if recent reports are to be believed. According to a leak from Samsung-dedicated site SamMobile , the Korean company is currently developing a set of over-ear headphones to accompany its in-ear Galaxy Buds models, with a new pair of cans – codenamed 'Galaxy H1' – spotted in the Galaxy Wearable app.

That probably won't end up being the final official name of the upcoming headphones, though it's likely that the word 'Galaxy' will feature somewhere to keep the cans in line with Samsung's established ecosystem of mobile and audio products.

Aside from the headphones being Bluetooth-based, details are thin on the ground. SamMobile predicts that these will be premium headphones designed to do battle with the likes of the Apple AirPods Max 2 (£499 / $549 / AU$999) or Sony WH-1000XM6 (£400 / $450 / AU$699), though as we don't have official pricing figures, we can't be sure exactly where the Galaxy H1 will be positioned within the premium market.

In terms of features, we're once again in the realm of speculation, but active noise cancelling, some form of AI assistant integration, and support for Samsung's hi-res SSC UHQ audio codec from compatible devices would bring the prospective over-ears in line with their in-ear counterparts.

That SSC UHQ codec, for instance, was a key part of the Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro's repertoire, so we'd expect to see it transfer over to the over-ears.

These won't be Samsung's first-ever over-ear headphones. The Korean titan released the 'Level One' back in 2015, but we haven't seen it release much in the way of over- or on-ear cans since then.

That could be set to change. We don't have an official release date for the Galaxy H1, but with most outlets speculating a release date sometime in 2027, it could yet be a while before we see if Samsung can challenge the likes of Sony and Apple for over-ear supremacy.

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I’m excited by the latest Sony wireless headphones rumours – but I have one major worry

These are the best noise-cancelling headphones you can buy

Google hosted its annual Made By Google event last night, in which the spotlight shone mostly on the new Pixel 11 series of smartphones. While there were a couple of additional product reveals, including the Pixel Watch 5 and Pixel Tag tracker, there was also a subtle surprise update that caught our attention.

It centres around the Pixel Buds Pro 2, a pair of wireless earbuds that launched back in 2024. Google gave these buds a very light refresh last year; it has followed that up with a similar move for 2026, with a new finish to match the new Pixel devices.

The Buds Pro 2 now come in a pleasing green shade – Olive – but it's what's inside the buds that we are more excited for.

Google is introducing a dynamic active noise cancelling mode this year, which can adjust the strength of the ANC to compensate for “subtle shifts in the seal”.

In practical terms, this means that the buds can now dial up the ANC performance when your earbuds move around in your ears, which can happen when you are walking, exercising, or just generally moving your head.

Furthermore, Google has implemented its Gemini AI assistant to allow for voice-controlled sound tuning. A simple request – Google uses “Hey Google, turn up the bass” as an example – will allow you to tweak the settings and adjust the sound performance of your buds without having to open the companion app.

Finally, Google has added Pixel Watch sleep pairing, which can detect if you have fallen asleep with your buds in and turn off any music and the touch controls, and an update to Live Translation which now supports over 70 different languages.

We have yet to test the Pixel Buds Pro 2, although the first-generation Pixel Buds Pro didn’t blow us away. We have, however, seen the likes of Apple and Samsung make huge strides between their respective generations of earbuds, so Google could join the pack here.

The Olive Pixel Buds Pro 2 are available to order now, and a software update launching in September will bring these new features to new and existing Pixel Buds Pro 2 users.

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Check out our picks for the best wireless earbuds

Read our full Apple AirPods Pro 3 review

As well as our Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro review

If you believe the latest rumours, Sony is preparing to revive a classic pair of noise-cancelling headphones.

According to a leak from French retail publication Dealabs, the tech giant is set to unveil the WH-1000XM4C, a new version of its five-star WH-1000XM4 wireless headphones, which originally launched back in 2020.

The rumours point to a new Lavender finish (to add to the Platinum Silver, Black and Midnight Blue options that Sony used to offer for the originals) and a reduction in battery life from 38 hours to 34 hours, presumably with noise-cancelling turned off.

That’s right, a reduction in battery life. Now the obvious question to me is why would this happen? Is Sony using a new, smaller-capacity battery, or – and I’d like to think this was more likely – is it because the ‘C’ version offers something that the older model doesn’t?

If battery life takes a hit with ANC off, it follows that it will also be reduced with ANC turned on. Which leads me to wonder: has Sony added more power-hungry features? If it has, what could they be? A new processor? New usability features?

Both the original WH-1000XM4 and its successor, the WH-1000XM5, use Sony's HD Noise Cancelling Processor QN1 and Integrated Processor V1.

The more recent WH-1000XM6 flagship uses the QN3 processor – so could there be room for a QN2 processor in the XM4C? I may well be barking up the wrong tree, but it would be interesting to see, should these headphones arrive on the scene.

The original XM4 also had Sony’s Adaptive Sound Control tech; XM5 introduced a more advanced version which could automatically adjust the sound output depending on your listening environment. Could the more advanced version migrate over to a potential new model?

When it comes to call quality, the WH-1000XM5 has Sony’s Precise Voice Pickup technology, with four beam-forming mics and AI-powered noise-reduction, plus wind-noise reduction. Would the lower number of mics on the XM4 (five against eight) make this impossible?

If Sony is preparing a new WH1000 model, probably the biggest question is how much would they cost?

The Sony WH-1000XM5 currently sit at around £229/$200 – which makes a new version of the XM4 even more intriguing. Assuming a new model comes in under the XM5 (the XM4 dropped to around £177/£199 towards the end of their life), how much breathing space will there be between them? Would a new model too close in price kill sales of the WH-1000XM5?

Dealabs is reporting the retail price will be around £219.99, which, if true, would leave a major question mark hanging over the future of the WH-1000XM5.

What appealed so much about the original WH-1000XM4 and gave them cult status was the premium build and feel and the fact that they folded properly for extra portability. We felt the WH-1000XM5 felt less premium, and they only folded flat, so I can see why Sony fans would be excited about a potential revival.

And it’s why I have everything crossed that the rumoured WH-1000XM4C aren’t simply a relaunch with a new colour and shorter battery life. I have no doubt people will be pleased to see them back, but I’m hoping for a bit more. Don't let me down, Sony.

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Sony could be giving my favourite wireless headphones of all time an unexpected revival

Sony WH-1000XM5 vs WH-1000XM4: which headphones should you buy?

Sony WH-1000XM6 vs WH-1000XM5: which wireless headphones are better?

The Sonos event next month will see the firm launch a new pair of wireless headphones, if this FCC filing is to be believed (via Lowpass).

The Federal Communications Commission is the US government agency that regulates digital devices. Firms have to submit their proposals to the FCC before launching a new device.

While the headphones are detailed in diagrams, they aren't named, though they have been dubbed the Sonos Ace Ultra. The device is simply known as 'S52a' in the filing.

While the name isn't confirmed, we do know that the headphones will come in new colours: Greige, Shadow Black, Agave, Blush and Sand are all listed in one document of the filing.

Their predecessors, the Sonos Ace, only come in black and white. Sonos has previously launched its Roam 2 portable speaker in multiple finishes. Given that most Sonos devices only ship in black or white, it could be targeting a younger market with these new headphones.

The filing also suggests the headphones could support wi-fi for pairing straight to a home wireless network (much like Sonos' speakers) rather than via a phone. They could also support Sonos' own voice assistant. Neither feature is confirmed, however.

Sonos confirmed a new product is coming next month during a recent earnings call. Its CEO hinted that AI would play a large part in the company's future success.

The original Sonos Ace only scored three stars in our review – a disappointing score for a marquee brand like Sonos. The company has since been on something of a rollercoaster ride, shedding customers with a botched app update and trying to win them back through a concerted effort to right its past wrongs, even shelving its planned set-top box in the process. The Award-winning Arc Ultra soundbar didn't hurt either.

We've contacted Sonos for comment.

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When we think of wireless headphones, Sony is the first brand that pops into our heads – and given the stellar reputation of its Bluetooth cans, it makes sense why.

In fact, the brand's six-year-old WH-1000XM4 wireless headphones still top my personal list of the best wireless headphones to this day, and I continue to see countless pairs on the heads of commuters daily.

That said, I and our annual What Hi-Fi? Awards list alike have moved on to the current five-star WH-1000XM6; although it looks like Sony isn't quite ready to let go of the old XM4 model just yet.

A new leak reported by French retail publication Dealabs suggests that Sony is preparing to launch a new version of its beloved wireless headphones, which are expected to be called the WH-1000XM4C.

We're not sure what the "C" stands for yet, but we've theorised "Classic" and "Comeback" as potential solutions.

According to the leak, these "new" Sony cans will be practically identical to the existing pair in terms of design, functionality and driver technology, but with reportedly two very minor changes.

Battery life has reportedly been reduced to 34 hours (down from 38 hours on the original XM4 headphones), and this new "C" variant could come in a new Lavender finish alongside the existing Black and Platinum Silver colours.

While we'll have to take this leak with a pinch of salt (nothing is official until it comes from Sony itself), it's worth noting that Sony has extended the lifespan of a previous pair of headphones from its popular 1000XM-series headphones.

It launched the WH-1000XM5SA variant of its Award-winning WH-1000XM5 headphones back in October 2025 (five months after the launch of the XM6), which featured a new soft case and trimmed-down price tag. The WH-1000XM4C could be a similar affair, with a minor cosmetic change to justify an extended lifespan.

These refreshed XM4 headphones are expected to launch on 7th September, and Dealabs reports that they will be priced at £219.99 / €249.99. Interestingly, this would position the XM4C just £10 below the current widely available price for the XM5SA.

However, with their potentially sturdier and more compact design, the XM4C could be the more alluring choice. They could also be a preferable choice for those who are eyeing up Sony's premium headphone offerings, but don't want to spend big on the XM6 or 1000X The Collexion cans.

We'll bring you the any official news of the rumoured XM4C model if and when details are confirmed.

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Check out our picks for the best Sony headphones

As well as the best wireless headphones

Bose has recently revealed the second generation of its noise-cancelling wireless headphones, the QuietComfort Headphones (2nd Gen). The release brings the headphones up to date with Bose’s flagship QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen), which were released at the end of last year.

Among the improvements made to the flagship model were enhanced ANC, more spatial audio features and even the option for wired listening via USB-C. Our expert review team awarded the QC Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) a solid four-star review, but they ultimately lost out on a fifth star due to steep competition at their premium price point.

Bose’s latest release sees many of the flagship’s features and technologies trickling down to the more affordable model, but there remains an appreciable price disparity between the two pairs.

If you’re wondering whether you’ll be losing out by opting for the cheaper pair, we've compared the QuietComfort Headphones (2nd Gen) and the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) by price, specs and features to see which might be the right headphones for you.

Bose QuietComfort (2nd Gen) vs Bose QuietComfort Ultra (2nd Gen): price

• Ultra 2 costs more but are frequently discounted during sales

The Bose QuietComfort Headphones (2nd Gen) launched at £300 / $359 / AU$550, which is slightly less (for UK customers) than the previous standard Bose QuietComfort Headphones, which arrived at £350 / $350 / AU$549. You can now find the original model available at a significantly reduced price, typically costing around £179 / $240 at the time of writing.

The flagship Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen), on the other hand, launched at £450 / $450 / AU$700, which was the same as their previous model in the UK, but $20 / AU$50 pricier in the US and Australia respectively.

Both models have seen discounts take up to £200 off their original price, but there has still tended to be a gap of around £100 between the flagship model and their more affordable counterparts.

At this price point, both headphones land in a seriously competitive bracket. The closest rivals to the QuietComfort Headphones (2nd Gen) are the five-star Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless (£330 / $400 / AU$749), while the QC Ultra (2nd Gen) are more expensive than the five-star Sony WH-1000XM6 headphones (£400 / $450 / AU$699) but more affordable than the Apple AirPods Max 2 (£499 / $549 / AU$999).

Bose QuietComfort (2nd Gen) vs Bose QuietComfort Ultra (2nd Gen): design

• QuietComfort (2nd Gen) feature one more finish option
• Both pairs are foldable
• Ultra 2 feature a more premium design with polished metal materials

Both new models are foldable; a convenient design facet which isn’t always guaranteed at a premium level.

The QC Ultra (2nd Gen) are available in four finishes: Midnight Violet, Driftwood Sand, and Bose’s standard Black and White Smoke colourways. The QC (2nd Gen), on the other hand, come in the regular Black and White Smoke finishes, as well as three limited edition colourways: Eucalyptus Green, Dewdrop Mint and Rosewood Mauve.

We previously noted that the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) had more cushioning along the length of the headband compared to the standard model, as well as thicker earpads. However, according to Bose, the latest QC Headphones have been updated with a new headband, improved clamping force for a “secure fit”, and new oval-shaped earcups with plusher cushioning.

While we haven’t yet had a chance to try the QuietComfort (2nd Gen) Headphones ourselves, those changes sound like they might bring the cans almost up to speed with the QC Ultra (2nd Gen), which we described in our review as “one of the most comfortable wireless over-ear pairs for longer periods of wear that we’ve come across”.

Despite these changes, according to Bose the standard model hasn’t quite caught up with the Ultra in terms of overall design, with the Ultra featuring “a more premium elevated design featuring polished metal materials and more plush cushioning”.

A key technical difference between the two is the capacitive touch strip included on the second-gen Ultra Headphones, which can be used to control volume and customisable settings.

This feature still hasn’t been added to the second-gen QuietComfort Headphones, which have stuck to standard tactile buttons. Still, the latest generation QC Headphones do feature more customisable settings, such as EQ and ANC personalisation, available via the Bose App.

Bose QuietComfort (2nd Gen) vs Bose QuietComfort Ultra (2nd Gen): battery & features

• Ultra 2 has a significantly longer battery life than the new standard QuietComfort (2nd Gen)
• Both headphones support spatial audio

The new QuietComfort Headphones have had their ANC boosted, employing several features available on the more expensive Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen). Like the QC Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen), the second-generation QC Headphones are also compatible with the Bose companion app.

When it comes to battery life, the second-gen QC Ultra Headphones take the lead with 45 hours of charge available with ANC switched off and 30 hours while it is engaged. This figure falls significantly, to just 23 hours, when Immersive modes are enabled (more on those later).

The QuietComfort Headphones (2nd Gen), meanwhile, have a 24-hour battery life with ANC switched on, which falls to 18 hours with immersive modes enabled.

So what are these Immersive modes?

Immersive Audio is essentially Bose’s take on spatial audio, which was first implemented with the brand’s original QC Ultra Headphones from 2023. In our review of the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen), we said we still “weren’t hugely convinced” by the spatial effects, finding the ‘Motion’ setting (which tracks sounds to your head movements) “a little distracting”.

‘Still’ and ‘Cinema’ modes, however, proved useful in certain situations, such as watching movies, but did limit dynamics when it came to playing music. Regardless of our opinion, all three Immersive modes are now available with both the standard and Ultra models.

In terms of wireless connectivity, the QuietComfort Headphones (2nd Gen) support Bluetooth 5.4 and standard AAC and SBC codecs, while also featuring Bluetooth Multipoint for connecting two devices simultaneously, and Google Fast Pair for Android users.

The QuietComfort Ultra (2nd Gen) can do all of those, besides Google Fast Pair, but they also support aptX Adaptive codec, allowing hi-res wireless streaming up to 24-bit/96kHz from compatible sources.

Bose QuietComfort (2nd Gen) vs Bose QuietComfort Ultra (2nd Gen): noise cancelling

• Ultra Headphones (2nd gen) have excellent ANC performance
• Many of the Ultra 2’s ANC features have been handed down to the QC Headphones (2nd Gen)

Given that Bose has built much of its reputation on its class-leading active noise cancelling technology, no side-by-side comparison would be complete without taking their ANC performance into account.

In our review of the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen), we said that the headphones pulled ahead of class rivals for their “outright sound-blocking intensity… eliminating the deepest rumbles and the majority of mid-band hubbub we encounter on our daily travels." We were also pleased that the ‘Immersion’ mode allowed us to dial down the effect within the app, when we wanted a little less isolation.

Both of the latest models of QC Headphones feature Quiet and Aware modes in their ANC settings.

Quiet offers full-fat noise cancellation, while Aware offers a more transparent experience so that you can stay tuned into your surroundings. Both headphones also feature ActiveSense technology, which softens sudden noise spikes in the environment while using Aware mode, a feature we thought worked well when testing the QC Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen).

Between the first and second generations of the standard QuietComfort headphones, Bose says it has made subtle ANC improvements for users with glasses and included the option for ANC to be switched off. ANC adjustments for both models can be made within the Bose App.

As things stand, we know that the Ultra (2nd Gen) headphones have a class-leading ANC performance. We haven’t yet tested the QuietComfort (2nd Gen) model, but given that their ANC features have drawn closer to those of the Ultra, we are hoping they will reach a similarly high standard.

Bose QuietComfort (2nd Gen) vs Bose QuietComfort Ultra (2nd Gen): sound

• Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) have an entertaining sound
• Ultra 2’s spatial audio settings can be hit and miss
• We haven’t yet tested the QuietComfort Headphones (2nd Gen)

The Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) stepped into a formidable arena upon their release.

In our review, we said that, compared with their previous generation, the second-gen QC Ultra Headphones made “meaningful gains”, sounding “more solid and musically tighter and shedding a layer of excess richness”.

We also thought that the second-gen cans retained “the same pleasingly smooth, bass-rich character Bose has long favoured”, but found the headphones’ sonic signature to be “more insightful and precise than ever before.” So, undoubtedly, these headphones have plenty of charm.

However, the difficulty facing the second-generation Bose over-ears was that they were immediately pitted against Sony’s Award-winning WH-1000XM6, which we found were “categorically better sounding, and by a fair margin”. Pair these challengers with other sonically talented rivals like the Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 or Sennheiser HDB 630, and we thought the Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) were a little left behind in an increasingly competitive market.

Further, the headphones' Immersive modes, while entertaining, worked better for some tracks than others – with Cinema mode working particularly well for movies – but primarily left us feeling somewhat distracted, particularly in Motion mode.

Because we haven’t put the new generation of the QuietComfort Headphones through our rigorous testing process, it is hard for us to speculate how Bose’s latest over-ears are going to sound.

According to Bose, the second generation retains the brand’s “high-quality sound and proprietary SoundDesign digital signal processing”, but the company hasn’t shared specifics about what improvements have been made between the generations.

As such, we’ll be keen to try these headphones as soon as our test pair arrives and will update this head-to-head accordingly.

Bose QuietComfort (2nd Gen) vs Bose QuietComfort Ultra (2nd Gen): early verdict

We’ve tested the QuietComfort Ultra (2nd Gen) headphones and awarded them a solid four-star review, noting their “up there with the best” noise cancellation, smart, folding design, effective spatial audio for movies and a punchy, entertaining sound.

Without having reviewed the new standard QC Headphones, it's hard for us to give a definitive answer about which model offers the best value, but with a raft of the Ultra 2’s upgrades set to be handed down to the standard model, the signs are promising. Stay tuned for a full review comparison in due course.

MORE:

Read our full Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) review

Bose QC Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) vs Bose QC Ultra Headphones (1st Gen): which headphones are better?

Bose QuietComfort Headphones vs QuietComfort Ultra Headphones: what are the differences?

Bose has announced the second generation of its popular wireless QuietComfort Headphones.

The QuietComfort Headphones (2nd Gen) were unveiled today and feature several upgrades that have trickled down from the firm's more premium flagship QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen).

Intended to provide a “more immersive listening experience”, these include improvements to active noise cancellation (ANC), as well as new spatial audio features and wired listening capabilities.

When it comes to ANC performance, the new headphones feature an upgraded six-microphone array, which the company claims better compensates for gaps in the earcups' seal. Additionally, a revamped Aware mode is designed to soften sudden noise spikes from your environment more effectively.

As introduced in the flagship QC Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen), noise cancellation can be completely switched off or manually adjusted via the Bose app. Users are also able to create customised noise cancellation modes, which can be cycled using a button on the left earcup.

Bose claims the second-gen model retains the brand’s “high-quality sound and proprietary SoundDesign digital signal processing”, but it hasn’t shared any specific details about what improvements have been made between the two generations, if any.

The second-gen QC headphones also feature wired lossless playback up to 24bit/48kHz via USB-C, with a USB-C to USB-C and 3.5mm to USB-C cables included in the box.

Previously exclusive to the QuietComfort Ultra series, Bose’s TrueSpatial technology is now available to the standard QC model, which features three immersive audio listening modes: Still, Motion and Cinema. These are Bose’s take on spatial audio playback, offering different three-dimensional effects.

The QuietComfort Headphones (2nd Gen) have a quoted 24-hour battery life (18 hours with immersive modes enabled), which remains the same as the first-generation model released in 2023. That figure falls behind the 45-hour performance of the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen). However, the new headphones can be charged while in use, with a 15-minute fast charge yielding up to 2.5 hours of playback.

Additional features include support for the Bluetooth 5.4 and standard AAC/SBC codecs, Bluetooth Multipoint for connecting to two devices simultaneously, and Google Fast Pair for Android users.

The over-ear headphones’ design has also been updated, with a new headband, improved clamping force for a “secure fit” and new oval-shaped earcups with plusher cushioning, promising “a seamless profile and modern look”. The QC Headphones (2nd Gen) will also be available in three new limited-edition finishes at launch: eucalyptus green, dewdrop mint and rosewood mauve, as well as the previous white smoke and black options.

The new Bose QuietComfort Headphones (2nd Gen) are available to preorder now for MyBose members, with global shipping from 13th August. The new headphones cost £300 / $359, which is £150 / $90 less than the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen).

At this price, the new Bose’s main rivals are the Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless (£330 / $400), which we gave a glowing five-star rating in May. We'll be curious to see how the two compare when we get the new Bose QuietComfort Headphones (Gen 2) into our listening rooms. Watch this space.

MORE

Read our full Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) review

Or browse our best wireless headphones 2026: reviewed and rated by our in-house experts

And our best noise-cancelling headphones 2026 – 6 sensational pairs picked by our expert reviewers

Remember when Qualcomm (one of the biggest mobile, wearable and headphone chipmakers in the world) promised we would see a wave of next-generation wireless headphones with significantly improved hi-res audio quality appear “soon”? Well, that was just over a year ago.

That’s a fairly long time in this fast-paced industry. Which is why, once the one-year mark passed, it was time for me to pull out my black book and do a ring-round of all the movers and shakers in headphone engineering to see what’s going on.

Sadly, now that I have, it looks as though we are still some way off a key milestone for wireless audio quality: scalable, lossless hi-res 24-bit/192kHz streaming.

The promise of fully scalable, lossless hi-res 24-bit/192kHz

The promise of fully scalable, lossless, hi-res, 24-bit/192kHz streaming has been viewed as the Shangri-La of wireless audio quality for more than half a decade.

Why is it such a big deal? Well, if the stars align and the audio can be delivered wirelessly without chunks missing, the standard could lead to palpable audio upgrades. As Neil Young said, when he railed against “lossy” formats, we could finally hear “the full sound the band created”.

Who wouldn’t want that?

Well, rather a lot of people, according to Christian Ern, global product manager at Sennheiser’s parent company, Sonova Consumer Hearing.

“The broad majority is quite satisfied with the quality and convenience that regular Bluetooth offers,” Ern tells What Hi-Fi? “For example with advanced codecs like AAC or aptX, which are also widely available on transmitting devices.”

Steven Hoyle, category line director, headphones, at Bowers & Wilkins, follows suit, telling us that, while the company has hard data showing that people using its wares do listen at higher quality, it isn’t convinced there is much demand for more, yet.

“Within the Bowers & Wilkins headphone range we already support playback of audio up to 24-bit/96kHz via USB. We know that some owners are actively using this connection instead [of Bluetooth] in order to access higher levels of performance; but that does compromise the ease of use and convenience that you have with a wireless connection,” he says.

“We’ll continue to evaluate the need for 24-bit/192kHz support, but we’ll always view through that lens of ‘what makes sense for the consumer’, within which ease of use and convenience are also critically important factors.”

The words “ease of use” and “convenience” quickly became a theme. Kazunori Otsu, director of Technics’ headphone business, tells us that while audio quality is paramount, it needs to be easy to access too.

And at the moment, getting a consistent, decent experience delivering fully scalable, lossless 24-bit/192kHz wireless audio quality is anything but simple, according to all three experts.

It’s all a bit difficult

As stated by B&W’s Hoyle, even if the headphones were made, it wouldn’t be “easy” for listeners to take advantage of the functionality.

“The biggest challenge is how we make access to better audio simple and straightforward. Having support for higher resolution formats is part of the puzzle, but it is not the only answer,” he says.

“There are plenty of examples where users may think that they cannot tell the difference in the quality between high resolution and ‘standard’ audio, but this is often because of limitations elsewhere in the chain. This is why we try to focus on a whole system view to ensure that any improvements in the source should translate easily to all users.”

There is an ecosystem of factors needed to support lossless 24-bit/192kHz wireless audio. At a broad strokes level, to deliver the promised quality, you need a source transmitting 24-bit/192kHz, a wireless transmission and protocol robust enough to handle it without losing parts along the way and an endpoint (headphones, for the purposes of this article) that can understand and articulate the data it’s receiving. That’s a lot of moving parts, even for an engineer.

The big drawback at the moment is that most networks, codecs and devices aren’t up to the challenge. Bluetooth, the most common protocol used to stream music, can’t support the quality, and even the top-end aptX HD and LDAC codecs for it are fairly lossy – meaning parts are lost during the digital compression and unpacking process. And wi-fi, which is the most stable and fastest option for most people, isn’t as ubiquitous as Bluetooth, and there are issues with how most devices behave when switching between the two.

Qualcomm wants to fix the transmission part with its Expanded Personal Area Network (XPAN) technology. This, it claims, will scale automatically and intelligently depending on network conditions. So in theory it could (eventually) deliver 24-bit/192kHz audio wirelessly when its data connection is good enough, but discreetly switch to lower quality, in a way that doesn’t lead to dropouts or artefacts, when it’s too slow.

Lenbrook’s Airia transmission codec, which itself was an evolution of the SCL6 codec that MQA was working on before the firm was bought by its current Canadian owner, has a similar goal.

That’s all before we get into my, and former What Hi-Fi? editor, Jez Ford’s, explorations of how Ultrawide Band could help wireless headphones, and audio in general, reliably reach the standard. Cliff Notes: this is an alternative protocol some firms believe could deliver the quality with lower power demands, removing Bluetooth from the equation entirely.

It’s this plurality of moving parts that is a big issue for companies, including Sennheiser, says Ern:

“There are many improvements available or on the horizon to improve wireless audio quality. The main obstacle is compatibility. New technologies usually require transmitter and receiver to use the same form of transmission and codec, but most devices only support the usual standards.

“Therefore, using such new standards often requires not only the right headphone, but also the respective transmitter (phone, tablet, computer).”

Technics’ Otsu expresses a similar frustration, noting there isn’t even full interoperability among Bluetooth and mobile devices right now:

“One of the main challenges today is the limited interoperability of high-quality wireless audio technologies across different platforms. For example, while technologies such as LDAC can deliver higher-quality audio, support varies depending on the operating system, device, and chipset.

“As a result, even when advanced audio technologies are available, not all users can easily access or benefit from them. Improving compatibility and accessibility across platforms will be an important step toward bringing high-quality wireless audio experiences to a broader audience.”

What do people want?

All the experts we spoke to also agreed that “mainstream” music listeners don’t necessarily put technical things, including codecs and bitrates, on the same level of importance as audiophiles and hi-fi enthusiasts – which is why they are focusing elsewhere, for now.

Technics’ Otsu sums this up, telling us: “Across the broader market, we believe consumers are increasingly prioritising everyday usability factors such as comfort, ANC performance, connectivity, and battery life.”

B&W’s Hoyle adds that even these are only part of a wider set of priorities, which flip in rank depending on the person, telling us: “I believe that each user has a clear idea of how they are planning to use their headphone and this informs their priority feature list and their purchasing criteria.”

For Sennheiser’s Ern, this is particularly problematic, as the technical implications of raising audio quality would lead to higher prices due to the need for more expensive chipsets and lower devices’ battery lives, due to their higher power consumption.

So does that mean we won’t see the upgrades promised by Airia and XPAN as soon as we had hoped? Not necessarily…

Hi-fi will still find a way

Despite the mainstream headphone makers’ reticence, there was one segment of the market that still thought the effort of making the jump to 24-bit/192kHz, lossless, wireless audio was worth it: luxury and high-end.

Matt Dever, senior global product line manager, Harman Luxury Audio (Mark Levinson’s parent company), tells us that in audio circles there will always be enthusiasts willing to chase audio quality above all else.

“For Mark Levinson, it is very important to achieve that pinnacle of 24-bit/192kHz performance in an active wireless headphone. And we know that the technology giants will help get us there in the not too distant future. There is a market for that level of performance, as well; it will continue to drive the aspirational side of the consumer to better performing products,” says Dever.

He adds that the firm is already looking at XPAN and Airia, as well as a multitude of other technologies to help improve its premium wireless headphones.

“From the Mark Levinson and the luxury/audiophile perspective, our end users crave the best-quality audio experience possible. So, incorporating technologies that bring the highest level of audio quality, be it through the connectivity elements of wi-fi, XPAN, Bluetooth [and the like], or through employing audio codecs like Airia, LDAC and LHDC. These types of elements are paramount in the development of a Mark Levinson headphone,” he says.

“And it doesn’t have to be just one of these technologies; many of these can be employed together to create an even more exceptional listening experience. For example, many of the audio codecs mentioned above scale up to higher levels of performance with greater connectivity bandwidth. The Mark Levinson team is always studying and testing the latest technologies to determine the best path forward to keep us at the forefront of delivering the finest sounding headphones.”

Despite that, he does concede that the firm is hitting many of the same roadblocks as Technics, B&W and Sennheiser, telling us:

“Mark Levinson is not a fan of any of the lossy compression codecs. But with the limitations of bandwidth available, there must be compromises made, at least for today. But the industry goal should be lossless wireless audio reproduction at 24bit/192kHz.”

So, while we may not see “mainstream” next-generation headphones as soon as we had hoped, the high-end is already taking steps towards delivering the audio Shangri-La promised by Qualcomm just over a year ago.

What do you think?

Do you agree with the experts that most people aren’t that bothered about lossless 24bit/192kHz wireless audio and that it makes sense only in the high-end market? Or, do you think it’s up to brands to do a better job of educating users about the jump ahead of delivering it? Let us know in the comments below!

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Nothing's budget sub-brand CMF has announced its first pair of open-earbuds, the Clip Pro, which are designed to deliver a listening experience "that feels as natural as it sounds".

Billed as ideal for wearers with busy or active lifestyles, the Clip Pro incorporate an open, clip-on design built around CMF's three-point configuration, wherein a slim 'C-bridge' hooks around the exterior ear and is anchored on each side. The result, says CMF, is a secure fit that remains comfortable through work, commuting and exercise.

Each earbud harnesses physical on-unit controls, while an IP54 rating means that sweat, water splashes and dust shouldn't be a problem if you're taking your new buds outside for a tough workout.

At the heart of the new Clip Pro is a 10.8 mm dual-magnet dynamic driver, tuned to produce what its maker describes as "full-bodied audio with powerful bass, detailed vocals and crisp high frequencies".

To compensate for the bass loss associated with open-ear designs, CMF has incorporated 'Ultra Bass Technology', designed to intelligently enhance low-end reproduction while reducing treble distortion for a more balanced frequency response

In addition, the Clip Pro are support Sony's LDAC Bluetooth codec for hi-res wireless streaming up to 32-bit/96kHz, alongside standard AAC and SBC codecs.

The CMF Clip Pro grant up to 10 hours of listening time on a single charge, rising to around 32.5 hours of total playback with the charging case in play. If you're short on time, a quick 10-minute fast charge provides up to 4 hours of listening.

Further features include Bluetooth Multipoint for more seamless switching between connected devices, as well as a 'Low Latency Mode' designed for gamers. Google Fast Pair is also on the menu with compatible devices, and Clip Pro wearers will be able to customise their experience via the supported Nothing X app.

The CMF Clip Pro will be available in a choice of Dark Grey, Light Grey or Coral finishes, priced at £79 / $99.

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If you think of earbuds as cutting you off from the outside world to isolate you in a bubble of music, prepare to have your preconceptions flipped on their head. The Shokz OpenFit Pro are part of a new breed of wireless headphones with an open design, that let your music mingle with your environment – but at the same time, they offer noise reduction technology that dampens down the most distracting sounds.

Add in the upgrades to sound performance and premium design, and you’ve got a whole new type of wireless headphones.

Open to new ideas

Open earbuds take the traditional approach to listening on the go and flip it completely. Instead of blocking your ear canals with intrusive earbuds, the earbuds sit on your ears and play music into them. Not only does this make the wearer more aware of their surroundings – like a colleague trying to talk to them or a car horn beeping – many people also find it a more comfortable way to listen.

Allowing the sound to mix with your environment also makes for a more natural-sounding performance, helped, in no small part, by Shokz’s upgraded sonics. The OpenFit Pro feature Shokz SuperBoost, a dual-diaphragm driver housed inside a reinforced acoustic structure. Not only does this go louder than traditional closed earbuds, but – crucially – it’s also more precise.

This enhanced precision improves stability, producing a cleaner and more consistent sound foundation, while also extending the frequency response up to 40 kHz for greater fine detail reproduction.

The result? Rich detail, smooth highs and deep lows. The premium silicone and aluminium dome caps minimise distortion so that bass remains smooth and punchy, adding real low-end heft to your playlists and work calls alike.

They’re also Optimised for Dolby Atmos spatial audio with dynamic head tracking, which makes the sound appear as if it’s coming from a fixed point in your environment, making for a more realistic, more immersive listening experience.

Devoid of distractions

But the enhanced sound quality is only one string to the OpenFit Pro’s bow. They also offer Open-Ear Noise-Reduction technology, which works in tandem with the Shokz SuperBoost to make for an even more impressive listening experience.

With SuperBoost creating a flatter, more predictable mid-to-high frequency response, the headphones are more accurately able to discern between music and other sounds coming from the environment around you, like the background chatter of an office or the pumping gym soundtrack. Because the frequency response is more stable, unwanted sounds stand out more clearly, allowing them to be targeted – and suppressed – with surgical precision.

The three-mic system is able to capture sounds from multiple angles, building a more complete picture of both voice and environment. This works hand-in-glove with an ear-adaptive algorithm that’s been trained on tens of thousands of tests using different ear shapes and sizes, wearing angles and real-world scenarios to help it adapt dynamically in real time. It’s constantly optimising the sound output whether the headphones sit slightly higher, lower, or the angle changes. They’ll also perform the same if you share them with a friend or loved one, no matter their ear shape, giving the same bravura performance for each and every listener.

Buds for work, rest and play

That’s the insides taken care of. But what about the outsides?

As befits a pair of flagship open-ear earbuds, the Shokz OpenFit Pro are crafted from premium materials for a marquee finish that‘s built to last. The soft silicone finish is hardwearing yet comfortable, while the ultra-thin titanium alloy ear hooks deliver outstanding comfort levels while remaining hardy.

All of which make the Shokz OpenFit Pro the perfect pair for work, travel, exercising and more. They’re open-ear earbuds without the distractions.

Buy the Shokz OpenFit Pro with a 10% discount using code WHATHIFI_10

We've been waiting for a sequel to the outstanding Sony WH-CH720N noise-cancelling wireless headphones for some time, and it looks as though our prayers may finally be answered in the coming months.

According to an often-reliable inside source, thewalkman.blog, recent import filings have revealed that a new pair of headphones is set to replace the Sony WH-CH720N, and will be called the "Sony WH-CH730N".

The filing also reveals the new colours for the upcoming sequel, with 'Black', 'White', 'Pink', 'Blue' and 'Beige' all listed. That's broadly the same as the finishes found on the established WH-CH720N, with 'Beige' representing the only new addition.

We don't have many details regarding the headphones' hardware or specifications. It remains to be seen what drivers they will implement, which chipset they will use, or what their prospective battery life figures will be.

We've had no word on price either, but as the WH-CH720N launched at £99 / $129 / AU$259 back in 2023, we'd hope to see an RRP that didn't rise too much beyond that.

So when could we see these new wireless cans finally arrive? According to thewalkman.blog, the FCC confidentiality end date is on October 20th, so there's a good chance we could see the WH-CH730N arrive at around that time.

The WH-CH720N landed in March 2023, but as we're well beyond that point in 2026, it appears that Sony may be shooting for a release that's somewhere towards the final quarter of the year.

For us, the sooner the better. The more we've had time to listen to and often live with the WH-CH720N, the more we've come to appreciate them as being some of the best sound-per-pound wireless headphones you can get. For sheer value, we're struggling to think of many that do so much for such a modest price.

They're not perfect, and when we speculated as to the four things we'd love to see from the then-speculated WH-CH730N, we hoped for a little less bass and for the new headphones to fold away fully, for a bit of added portability and convenience.

The WH-CH720N are lauded Award-winners, but a few new features, such as on-head wear detection or support for Sony's higher-quality LDAC codec, would be lovely additions for when a sequel materialises.

Whatever the case, the WH-CH730N have big shoes to fill. We dubbed the WH-CH720N as "dependably made, enthusiastic-sounding headphones that...deliver good ANC and a strong feature set to the very affordable end of the wireless headphone market", so any prospective sequel will have its work cut out to improve on such a potent combination of performance and sheer value.

Can Sony manage it? We'll be keeping our ears to the ground for any further rumblings regarding the WH-CH730N, and will keep you updated as and when any new information comes to light.

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I thought this simple upgrade would elevate Sony's WF-1000XM6 wireless earbuds – I was wrong

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Anyone who has read my Sony WF-1000XM6 review will know I’m a big fan of these premium wireless earbuds.

However, as I’ve also written about previously, I don’t think they’re perfect. Put simply, I’m not the biggest fan of the eartips that come supplied with them.

If you’re new to my moaning (or what I like to think of as constructive criticism), I don’t find them particularly pliable, or super comfortable when in place.

If there was only one thing I could change about these five-star earbuds, it would be the material used and possibly the shape/sizing of the replaceable tips. After all, I think the buds’ sound quality, call quality and noise-cancelling skills are second-to-none.

So, in the name of journalism (and comfort), I’ve been on the hunt for alternatives.

I have been using the WF-1000XM6 since launch, and now I think my pair are in need of some attention, especially as the tips currently attached to them are starting to break up, which can be the case with foam designs. It’s like your favourite slippers when the soles have lost their grip and your heels start to wear through the furry surface.

The world of aftermarket eartips won’t be a surprise to many, but as someone who tends to believe that the manufacturer knows best when it comes to product R&D, it’s not something I’ve really looked into until now.

Hop on Amazon, and your choices are seemingly endless, whether you want memory foam or silicone, domed or flanged. Shapes and styles vary, as do prices. (Special mention to whathifi.com reader cyclonaut for bringing my attention to a couple of the popular brands in the eartip world)

I settled on four different options, one of which, Comply, actually reached out after reading one of my articles on a different pair of earbuds. Here’s what I picked and what I thought of them…

Comply Truegrip Pro £20 (L/L/L)

The Comply memory foam tips are a tiny bit shallower and more domed than the Sonys, with more of a pronounced tip. Their opening is larger, and like the Sonys, they have a mesh in the middle to protect from any debris.

I didn’t find them as comfortable as the silicone designs, and when it came to music, although they allow for an open, expressive and powerful delivery, I think they sacrifice subtlety, and there was less space between the different elements of tracks.

Buy the Comply Truegrip Pro at Amazon

AZLA SednaEarfit Max £27 (M/ML/L)

These were my favourite silicone tips. They feel premium and smooth to the touch and are easy to slide onto the tubes of the XM6 buds. There’s a nice balance between the flexible silicone dome and the more robust silicone nozzle.

I didn’t have any issues with fit or comfort, and I also like the fact that they have a built-in mesh guard. However, they don’t isolate as well as the Sony or Comply tips. They promote a balance which sounds more open but lacks the solidity and focus of the memory foam alternatives.

Buy the AZLA SednaEarfit Max at Amazon

SpinFit Omni £12.49 (L)

These looked and felt the most interesting tips. Their diameter was slightly smaller than the Comply and Sony alternatives. It was more of a struggle getting these onto the Sony tubes, but the tight fit means they won’t be slipping off any time soon.

The lack of any mesh in the tip would make me nervous that debris could make its way into the Sony tubes and potentially impact sound quality. Like the AZLA tips, they promote an open, airy sound, but it’s still a leaner balance, and the isolation wasn’t great.

The design includes a patented ‘spinnable core’ which claims to improve comfort. The silicon used here feels tackier than on the other pairs, which gives the impression it’s going to help with the seal. I didn’t have any issues with comfort or fit.

Buy the SpinFit Omni at Amazon

SpinFit Neo £11.49 (x1 L)

I found the sound quality of both SpinFit models to be very similar – there’s good detail and edges of notes sound crisp and precise. But, as has been the case with all the silicone tips I tried, music just doesn’t have the natural warmth or solidity as it does when heard through either of the memory-foam pairs.

The Neo tips were easier to fit than the Omni, requiring less force to slide them on. Comfort levels were very good, but once again, there’s no mesh protector in the nozzle to protect from wax.

Buy the SpinFit Neo at Amazon

Verdict

So, what did my eartip encounters tell me? The main conclusion I took away was that the Sony tips performed the best.

Is that a surprise, though? Sony must have spent a lot of time and money on research, learning about ear shapes, trying different materials, sizes, and fits. For me the WF-1000XM6 just sound better balanced, more subtle, and more natural when using their own tips.

But I can certainly see the appeal of trying something different. I don’t love the tips that currently come with the XM6, so if there was something more comfortable out there that didn’t sacrifice sound quality, then it would be foolish not to try to track them down.

I can see why some people might like a silicone alternative – there is something a bit more open and forward about the sound, giving the impression it’s more exciting – but for me, you are shifting the sound away from what Sony intended and what makes them arguably the best wireless earbuds on the market right now.

Not only does sound quality take a hit, but the switch to any of the silicone tips has a major effect on isolation and therefore noise cancelling. This is a big problem, because the eartips and earbuds will have been designed to work together.

Not only will the extra density of the memory foam give you more isolation just through the choice of material, but one would assume Sony will also have factored in which frequencies its tips are isolating and formulated its ANC to take this into account.

During testing, I found a track of ambient cafe noises, and the amount of information the silicone tips were letting through would seriously put me off using them long-term, especially in crowded environments or on places like the London Underground.

In conclusion it looks like I’m going to have to stick with a like-for-like replacement for my eartips for now, but that still won’t stop me asking for a slightly comfier design from an WF-1000XM6 successor.

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In case you missed them, the over-ear Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro X were some of the best mid-range wired headphones we tested last year. We liked them so much, in fact, that we bestowed upon them a coveted What Hi-Fi? Award for their troubles.

Now, Beyerdynamic is bringing its considerable wired expertise to a more affordable end of the market with its new on-ears, the DT 275 Pro.

Conceived as a compact monitoring pair aimed at engineers, mixers, creators and DJs, the new cans house a set of 40mm dynamic drivers, combining "neutral sound tuning and long-wearing comfort" with a "lightweight, travel-friendly design".

Weighing in at 200g, the new on-ear cans feature faux leather ear pads and a flexible headband for improved comfort, even during extended wear. All of the cushion components can be replaced, too, meaning you won't have to part ways with your headphones as soon as they start to show signs of wear and tear.

While they don't feature active noise cancelling, the DT 275 Pro have been designed to offer "outstanding passive noise isolation" for professionals working in noisy studio environments.

According to Martin Stahl, director of Beyerdynamic's 'Pro' division: “The most common and costly mistakes happen when critical audio decisions have to be made in loud environments. The DT 275 Pro were designed to give creators and audio professionals the confidence to make critical monitoring decisions wherever their work takes them.”

Each pair of DT 275 Pro on-ears comes with a 1.5m locking cable with a 3.5mm jack, a 6.35mm adapter, and a drawstring carrying bag.

The DT 275 Pro are available for £99 / $150 / € 119.

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We are more than half-way through the year, so it seems like a good time to take a step back, survey the sonic landscape at our backs and take stock of what we’ve heard during 2026.

More specifically, which headphones we have had the privilege and often pleasure of hearing throughout the year. As somebody who works on the audio side of the great hi-fi/AV divide, I spend a lot of my time listening to headphones and earbuds, thanks in part to the fact that so many brands are desperately trying to make this massive market their own.

Whether it has been for reviews, comparisons or my own personal interest, these have been the headphones that have impressed – and occasionally frustrated – me over the past seven months.

A hero’s return: the Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless

At last, the Momentum Wireless have returned. The fifth iteration of Sennheiser’s heralded Momentum over-ear line has been a long time coming, so when they arrived earlier this year, expectations were high.

Happily, Sennheiser has managed to deliver the goods. The Momentum 5 Wireless are excellent premium over-ears, acting as a timely reminder to the likes of Sony, Bose and Apple that Sennheiser is still here, and, crucially, still up for the fight.

They are a little different to their competitors, especially in the sound department, prioritising a rich, smooth and refined presentation that can take a little while to warm up to. Once you click with them, though, you’ll find this to be a deeply rewarding pair of over-ears, especially if you like the sort of expressive, detailed midrange the premium Sennheisers so effortlessly exhibit. Oh, that midrange…

The earcups could feel a little more luxurious, the noise-cancelling isn’t Bose-beating, and having them fold away completely would be nice, but this is a five-star return for a brand that was just slightly in danger of being forgotten by the mainstream market.

Rivals, take heed: Sennheiser is back, and it means business.

The sonic standounts: Sennheiser HDB 630

Technically, technically, we reviewed the Sennheiser HDB 630 last year; but the supremely gifted premium headphones only landed on my desk in 2026, so I think I’m still on relatively firm ground when I say that they are, unequivocally, the best wireless headphones I’ve heard this year.

Scratch that: they might be some of the best wireless cans I have ever heard, full stop. They might not look particularly special, but the sound they produce certainly is.

£400 / $500 / AU$1000 isn’t pocket change, I grant you, but our entire test team is rarely so effusive when it comes to heaping praise upon a product. From top to bottom, we are huge admirers of the HDB 630 – and if you hear them for yourselves, you’ll understand exactly why.

They are fun, dynamically adept and musically expressive – all ingredients that make listening to any set of over-ears a joy – but it’s the amount of textural detail and sonic precision the HDB 630 exhibit that really leaves us feeling bowled over. These are headphones that make the masterful Sony WH-1000XM6 sound almost vague and a bit slipshod by comparison, and that’s really saying something.

Part of that signature comes from Sennheiser’s clever BTD 700 USB-C dongle that you plug into your device’s USB-C port to give it aptX Adaptive powers. This means that any source device, including your iPhone, gains hi-res streaming up to 24bit/96kHz, even if it wouldn’t natively support it. Really clever stuff.

Add in 60 hours of battery life, very solid noise cancelling and a luxurious fit, and the HDB 630 are 2026’s headphones to beat.

The tricky second album: Apple AirPods Max 2

I didn’t end up testing the Apple AirPods Max 2, but I did spend a good deal of time listening to them when making comparisons with the likes of the Sony 1000X The Collexion (below) and similar premium contenders.

And you know what? They’re pretty good. The AirPods Max 2 give you that familiar Apple signature which blends smoothness and refinement with a crisp, sparkling treble that lovers of the original Max will recognise, all boosted by better punch, dynamics and precision than their predecessors.

They are also incredibly easy to use if you have an iPhone, thanks to their native integration within the iOS ecosystem, and they still have that look and feel of a premium product that you would be proud to own. We can see why the Max continue to enjoy such a stellar cultural cachet – they just look the business.

They’re not perfect, admittedly. The Max 2 are better than the originals, but they have fallen behind more recent rivals for dynamic punch, rhythmic precision and overall insight. Plus, we just cannot abide that ridiculous carry case, and rather wish that the battery life had been boosted a bit beyond 20 hours. The Sony WH-1000XM6 give you 30 hours, after all.

The thing is, the AirPods Max 2 feel like six of one and half a dozen of the other. They are certainly some of the best headphones, in objective terms, ever made by Apple, a brand that has only relatively recently started to trouble the class leaders when it comes to pure sonic performance.

On the other hand, the Max 2 had a chance to close the gap on their rivals. Instead, it feels as though that chasm has widened a little. For their failure to properly keep up with the pack, some might see this as a missed opportunity for Apple.

The in-ear kings: Sony WF-1000XM6

I have such a complicated relationship with the Sony WF-1000XM5 and, now that there’s a sequel, it is carried over to the Sony WF-1000XM6.

On the one hand, I really like them. I love how detailed, refined and musical Sony’s flagship buds are. I admire that Sony continues to push the sonic boundaries for its flag-bearing buds, and that it seems to improve their capabilities with every passing generation, both in terms of sonic performance and accompanying features.

The WF-1000XM6 are, in so many ways, the apex of what Sony can do from a form such as this, with a sound so textured and rich it practically glitters inside your ears.

My problem remains that fit. I couldn’t get the WF-1000XM5 to stay inside my ear holes, and I can’t get the WF-1000XM6 to do so either. Sony revamped the design of its sixth-gen buds, offering up a new charging case and dropping the teardrop design of the older model in favour of a more rectangular, boxy configuration; but it kept on with its memory-foam eartips.

It might be a personal thing, but I just cannot get them to stay put, especially if I’m walking, gymming or, heaven forbid, going for a run.

Fit issues aside, the XM6 really are something special. Of all the buds I have heard in my time at What Hi-Fi?, they rank somewhere towards the top, outshining the likes of the Technics EAH-AZ100, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) and the Apple AirPods Pro 3.

If you can get them to fit, breathtaking sound will be your reward.

The missed opportunity: Sony 1000X The Collexion

Ah, what could have been.

Sony billed its super-premium wireless over-ears as being “the best-sounding headphones it had ever made” when it lifted the lid on the 1000X The Collexion (£550 / $650 / AU$900) earlier this year. While there's an extent to which we agree with that statement, there’s also a lot we find hard to endorse fully.

These are some of Sony’s clearest and most spacious-sounding cans – we’ll give The Collexion that. I spent weeks with the premium headphones clamped over my ears, and their clarity, textural refinement and cinematic soundscape impressed me every single time I booted them up for a listen.

For that clean, open ‘hi-fi’ sound, these really are among Sony’s finest, and that’s before even mentioning their admirable noise cancelling and excellent voice calls.

Across all parameters, though, are these Sony’s best-ever wireless headphones? I’m not so sure.

When you can get the Award-winning Sony WH-1000XM6 for less money (£400 / $450 / AU$699), and get a good deal more punch, dynamism and rhythmic spark thrown into the bargain, not to mention a similar battery life and better noise cancelling, it becomes hard to see exactly how to justify buying the more costly Collexion cans.

For the What Hi-Fi? team, The Collexion are a great concept, but we can’t quite square the execution with the elevated price tag. Like England at every major international tournament, we are left wondering what could have been.

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Technics has launched a new Rolling Stones-themed variant of its five-star EAH-AZ100 wireless earbuds.

The announcement has been made to coincide with the release of The Rolling Stones’ new album, Foreign Tongues.

The limited edition earbuds come in a gift box, which houses Technics’ flagship EAH-AZ100 earbuds in a black finish alongside an exclusive rubber case embossed with the band’s lips and tongues logo.

The rear of each pair’s protective case also features a laser-engraved serial number from 0001-5000. Technics says that serial numbers cannot be pre-selected.

The Technics EAH-AZ100 feature a wealth of cutting-edge hardware, including a magnetic fluid driver, which places an oil-like liquid filled with magnetic particles inside the driver’s voice coil to reduce distortion and improve bass reproduction.

We previously awarded the EAH-AZ100 a five-star review for the earbuds' “superb detail and clarity”, “expressive, spacious and engaging sound”, and “Bose-bothering ANC performance”.

But, rockers, take note: If you’re feeling tempted, you’ll need to act fast, because the earbuds are limited to 5000 units worldwide.

Exclusively available to buy online, the EAH-AZ100 Rolling Stones limited edition earbuds can be yours today for £259 / €299.

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A new pair of Bose over-ear headphones could be arriving very shortly.

That's according to French outlet Dealabs, which reports that Bose has leaked a second-generation iteration of its QuietComfort Headphones, slated for release in just a few weeks.

Bose's QuietComfort Headphones line isn't to be confused with the more premium QuietComfort Ultra Headphones. The QC Headphones are to the QC Ultra Headphones what the more affordable QuietComfort Earbuds (2024) are to the range-topping QuietComfort Earbuds Ultra (2nd Gen) – a lower price tag in return for slightly fewer features and not quite top-of-the-line performance.

That said, the new over-ears promise a full-blooded refresh over their three-year-old predecessors, with Dealabs' leak suggesting a new design, revamped controls and better sound quality could all be coming to the second-generation model in a bid to see Bose make a play for the competitive mid-range market.

Quite a few premium features could be about to trickle down from the premium QC Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen), including Bose 'TrueSpatial' spatial audio, lossless playback via USB-C, and a host of new listening flavours, including 'Cinema Mode' for making video content more, well, cinematic.

Many existing features and functionalities are set for significant improvements. Bose's 'ActiveSense' technology works to take the edge off unwanted noise peaks when listening in 'Aware' mode, while improved call quality comes courtesy of more effective ambient noise reduction.

The headphones' on-cup controls have been revamped, with Dealabs teasing more intuitive button placement on the earcups themselves.

Wholesale improvements haven't been made to every aspect of the incoming QuietComfort Headphones, however. Battery life will likely remain the same as the soon-to-be outgoing model, with the second-gen over-ears again set to max out at a reported 24 hours of listening with ANC switched on.

That revamped design is set to feature more on-ear padding alongside a more oval earpad shape and a wider headband, all designed to improve wearer comfort over time.

A veritable Delux colour wheel of new finishes could also be set to arrive, including Black, White Smoke, Rosewood Mauve, Eucalyptus Green, Dewdrop Mint, and Hazelnut Taupe.

What about prospective price? Figures are slated as £300 / $359 / €350, which represents a £50 / €50 drop for UK and European buyers respectively.

We never tested the original QuietComfort Headphones when they launched around three years ago, but we have reviewed both the QC Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) and QC Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) in recent times.

Bose isn't quite dominating the premium wireless headphones space when facing competition from Sony, Apple and Sennheiser, but the upcoming QC Headphones' slightly more affordable asking price and bolstered feature set might help Bose claw back ground lost to its estimable competitors.

Dealabs claims that Bose's latest cans will arrive on August 13th. We've contacted Bose for comment, and will keep you updated with developments as they arise.

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Sennheiser has been enjoying a good few months.

The HDB 630 made its debut in late 2025 to acclaim from our reviews team, who dubbed them some of the best wireless headphones they had heard at this premium level. A few months later, the Momentum 5 Wireless landed and, at their slightly lower price, matched their bigger brothers in earning the full five-star haul.

Great news for Sennheiser, then. But, with both premium wireless headphones accumulating significant plaudits, which do you go for? To make the decision easier, we have broken down each pair’s strengths and limitations across a range of parameters so that you can be sure you’re getting the Sennheisers that suit your needs.

Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless vs Sennheiser HDB 630: price

These are both premium wireless headphones, so you’re not going to be able to pick up a pair for the same price as your morning coffee order. Well, unless you happen to frequent a very boujee coffee shop.

At £330 / $400 / AU4749, the Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless are the cheaper of the two, with a price that undercuts that of many of the established cans at this level.

At £400 / $500 / AU$1000, the HDB 630 are slap bang in the middle of what we’d call classic premium territory – not overpriced, but certainly par for the course in the world of flagship wireless over-ears.

Still, they are undeniably more expensive than their younger siblings, so it’s the Momentum 5 Wireless winning this one.

**Winner: Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless**

Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless vs Sennheiser HDB 630: design and comfort

Sennheiser tends to have a pretty distinct design language, one that’s very much on display with both of these premium pairs.

The large oval earcups of the Momentum 5 Wireless and HDB 630 will be familiar to anyone who has seen a pair of recent wireless Sennheiser over-ears. Little touches, though, such as the attractive fabric exterior, do make the Momentum 5 actually seem a little more premium than the rather plain HDB 630.

The Momentum 5 Wireless are also a little smaller and lighter than their bigger brothers, weighing in at 290g compared with the 311g of the HDB 630. Much of that weight is housed in the HDB 630s’ earcups, which are chunkier and sport a deeper profile than those of the fifth-gen Momentums.

Comfort isn’t a problem on either pair, though. The Momentum 5 Wireless do cause some mild on-ear heating past the hour mark (many premium headphones of this type do), but we rarely experience that dull aching that you might suffer from with rivals sporting heavier weight or higher clamping pressure.

They are secure and stable, too. Even when we’re walking pretty briskly with the Momentum 5 Wireless clamped over our head, there’s little on-ear rocking or instability thanks to the headphones’ well-judged clamping force.

In fairness to the larger HDB 630, they are hardly a chore to wear either. Yes, they’re heavier overall, but the more costly cans do have slightly plusher ear padding, as well as a nicely cushioned headband, making for a comfortable, amply sealed listen.

Both pairs use touch controls rather than a predominantly button-based system, and we struggle to find any complaints with how they are implemented. We like that every touch action is acknowledged with a sound, that controls can be switched off via the app, and that our commands are responded to promptly whenever we tap or swipe on the right earcup.

It’s a tricky one. The Momentum 5 Wireless are lighter and more appealing to look at, but the HDB 630 do win back marks thanks to their slightly more luxurious earpads and headband. A tie seems like a fair result.

**Winner: Draw**

Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless vs Sennheiser HDB 630: features

Let’s start with the basics.

Sennheiser has gone big on battery life both both its premium players, with the Momentum 5 Wireless squeezing out 57 hours when active noise cancelling (ANC) is switched on and the HDB 630 just pipping them to the post with 60 hours under the same conditions.

On both, Multipoint Bluetooth is available for connecting to two devices simultaneously.

If you want spatial audio with the Momentum 5 Wireless, Dolby Atmos is on the menu when listening to supported Atmos content, with head tracking to be added via an upcoming firmware update. Be aware, conversely, that the HDB 630 don’t support spatial audio.

Dolby Atmos can be toggled on and off via the Sennheiser SmartPlus app, a platform which we find ourselves really admiring the more we use it. It’s clean and orderly, and we like the levels of customisation on offer, such as the eight-band custom equaliser and a slider for dialling up and down the strength of the ANC.

For the Momentum 5 Wireless, Bluetooth codec support is impressive, with support for the routine SBC and AAC codecs alongside higher-quality aptX HD, aptX Lossless and aptX Adaptive flavours. The cans currently use Bluetooth 5.4, but an incoming firmware update later in 2026 will push this to 6.0 and include LE Audio.

With the HDB 630, codec support comes down to the inclusion of the headphones’ included Bluetooth dongle. The HDB 630 bundle in a BTD 700 USB-C dongle that you simply plug into your smartphone device’s USB-C port to give it up to aptX Adaptive superpowers, even if the source device natively doesn't support a higher-resolution codec.

That means you can stream in aptX Adaptive quality from the usually-AAC-only iPhone, for example. You can check the quality of the signal path in the Sennheiser Smart Control Plus app’s settings, and you’ll want to ensure the ‘Audio mode priority’ is set to ‘Hi-Res 24bit/96kHz’.

You don't get Dolby Atmos with the HDB 630, but there is a ‘Crossfeed’ feature to blend left and right channels for what Sennheiser calls a “more natural sound” with certain recordings. A bass-boost button, which does exactly what you think it does, is available for both.

A close one again, with solid showings across the board. But we feel that the dongle, plus a slightly better battery life, tip things over into the HDB 630s’ favour.

**Winner: Sennheiser HDB 630**

Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless vs Sennheiser HDB 630: ANC and call quality

Noise cancelling is acceptable on both the Sennheiser HDB 630 and the Momentum 5 Wireless. It won’t be troubling the likes of the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) or the Sony WH-1000XM6 class leaders, but each outshines the rather weaker efforts of the Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3.

In fact, there isn’t a huge amount to choose between the two Sennheisers. Each pair is capable of dealing with the basic humming of an air-conditioning unit during a hot day in May, all but blocking out that droning sound so that it doesn’t intrude upon our listening in any meaningful way.

Traffic noises prove a little trickier, but again, there isn’t a huge difference between the two. We feel that the HDB 630 offer a little more passive isolation due to their larger, plusher earpads, but standing next to a busy road sees both pairs dampening, not eliminating, the swooshing of cars as they pass by.

Low-frequency rumbles are perceptibly reduced, but again, they don’t disappear entirely, while high-end sound such as tweeting birds will often pass through.

Call quality is excellent no matter your choice. We take the Momentum 5 Wireless out for a chat on a blustery day, and our headphones effectively reduce intrusive wind and traffic noise while making human speech sound clear and natural.

The HDB 630 do a similarly fine job, and once again, voices come across as articulate and human rather than mechanical or robotic. Isolation is decent, too, so no need to worry about having to shout to be heard over surrounding noises.

**Winner: Draw**

Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless vs Sennheiser HDB 630: sound quality

If you like rich, smooth-sounding headphones that dig out plenty of detail and strike a fine balance precision and authority, the Momentum 5 Wireless could well be for you.

As we wrote in our review, the fifth-gen Sennheiser over-ears are “rich, smooth yet strikingly precise and detailed headphones, with an audio signature that makes listening a refreshingly undemanding experience. Sugar’s If I Can’t Change Your Mind can sound overly urgent or shrill... but the Momentum 5 Wireless have the poise and maturity to bring order to... chaos.”

If you’re after headphones that shine a sweet spotlight on your music’s midrange, the Momentum 5 Wireless demand an audition. The bass is full and a little on the rich side, but that poised midrange is a real highlight, offering a naturalness and insight that gives even more premium alternatives a run for their money.

Their qualities are further amplified when we use a wired connection, especially if you’re listening via USB-C for handling files up to 24-bit/96kHz. A wired connection lends further fullness and depth to instruments, while that outstanding midrange sounds sweeter and even more starkly defined.

In truth, the Momentum 5 Wireless never fatigue nor frustrate, instead letting music unfold naturally and precisely no matter the genre.

As you would perhaps hope, the step-up HDB 630 do take things up a notch. They’re a chunk more costly, but you’ll be rewarded handsomely by the sonic dividends that extra outlay grants.

In fact, these might well be the best-sounding premium headphones currently available – and that’s even before that clever Bluetooth dongle is in play.

Here, precision and analysis go hand in hand with drive and vigour, making for the most informative and entertaining sound we’ve heard from wireless headphones at this price, with or without the use of the dongle for higher-quality streams.

The HDB 630 are hugely natural and dare we say sophisticated-sounding wireless headphones, with a poise and precision that demands to be heard. As we wrote at the time, these Sennheiser premium cans are “wonderfully smooth and natural sounding headphones, full of shape and dynamism across the frequency range”.

Instrumental textures are replete with both depth and shape, and the HDB 630 are remarkably insightful at teasing out the emotional heart of our testing catalogue. Songs are conveyed with conviction and gusto, and the Sennheisers seamlessly switch emotional gears as they tackle our tunes with gusto and grace.

Yes, the Momentum 5 Wireless are detailed and well organised, but the HDB 630 really take things up a notch in practically all sonic departments. That becomes only truer when the dongle is called into action. And you’ll notice tangible gains in clarity and solidity when upgrading from, say, a standard AAC stream to full-fat aptX Adaptive.

However you listen, the HDB 630 are genuine benchmark-setters. The Momentum 5 Wireless are great, but the HDB 630 are ‘Great’ with a capital ‘G’.

** Winner: Sennheiser HDB 630 **

Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless vs Sennheiser HDB 630: verdict

If you can’t stretch to the HDB 630, the Momentum 5 Wireless are the logical step-down choice. They still provide excellent sound quality and bring plenty of high-performance features to enjoy, all while saving you £80 / $100 in the process.

That’s not an inconsiderable amount of money, so we completely understand why money-savvy buyers would – indeed should – pick the Momentum 5 Wireless over their bigger brothers if costs are a factor.

If you’re happy to spend more, however, go for the Sennheiser HDB 630. They are essentially in a sonic class of one at the moment, outshining not only the Momentum 5 but practically anything else we can think of at their level.

If sound is your top priority, there’s no real excuse for not checking them out.

** Overall winner: Sennheiser HDB 630 **

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Skullcandy has released new premium wireless headphones, the Crusher 1080 ANC.

But rather than go it alone, the firm has enlisted the help of a powerful ally in a bid to get its latest cans competing with the best in the business.

That ally, in case you hadn't guessed already, is Bose.

The Crusher 1080 ANCs' extensive feature set is powered by 'Sound by Bose' technology, meaning the new headphones boast 'QuietControl' noise cancelling and 'TrueSpatial' sound design.

These let them deliver Bose's Immersive Audio, and 'SpeechClarity' features for, as you might have guessed, clearer voice calls.

You even get Bose-tuned EQ modes to more accurately tailor the sound to your specific preferences.

That's a lot of Bose-made tech, but what about how the Crusher 1080 ANC actually sound?

As you might have gathered from the name, the new over-ears promise "bass you can feel", complemented by "a rich, balanced sound" with plenty of "immersive detail", all aided by Bose's 'WaveForm' audio engine for improved signal processing.

The Crusher 1080 ANC boast a very impressive 60 hours of battery life with noise cancelling switched off, dropping to around 50 hours when ANC is in play, while a 'Rapid Charge' facility will grant four hours of battery life from a 10-minute boost.

Elsewhere, a decidedly premium feature set includes Google Fast Pairing, Multipoint Connectivity and Auracast audio sharing technology, as well as a low-latency audio mode for gaming and movies.

Outside of the Bose tech, the headphones also feature Skullcandy's patented 'Crusher Bass' technology, which allows you to use the Skullcandy app or a dedicated 'Crusher wheel' to dial up your lower-end reproduction and "create a physical bass sensation that adds impact and immersion to music, movies, and games".

The Skullcandy Crusher 1080 ANC are available now, priced at £220 / $280 / AU$400, in a choice of Brown, Pink, Grey or Black finishes.

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This is a lovely name for a pair of wired earbuds.

Sivga has introduced its new Lyrebird wired in-ear headphones, designed to produce "a high-end listening experience at an accessible price point".

The in-ears feature a quad-driver, hybrid driver array, consisting of a 10mm polymer dynamic driver handling the bass frequencies alongside a dedicated balanced armature unit designed to produce vocals with "exceptional clarity and detail".

A micro planar driver seeks to add a "smooth treble extension", while a 9.2mm multilayer ceramic driver rounds things off, dealing with "the finest high-frequency nuances".

Each earpiece is constructed using a handcrafted wooden faceplate, treated with resin to improve durability and, says Sivga, help reduce unwanted resonances for a cleaner, more refined audio signature.

The wooden faceplates combine with precision-machined aluminium alloy housings in further pursuit of an elegant yet durable aesthetic.

Included with the Lyrebird is a 4.4.mm balanced-ended cable combining silver-plated copper and gold-plated conductors, designed to help preserve the earbuds' "smooth, detailed presentation". The new in-ears also come with a leather carry case and a selection of silicone ear tips.

The Sivga Lyrebird are available now, priced at £149 / $149 / €167.

We reviewed another bird-themed pair of Sivga headphones – the over-ear SV021 Robin – back in 2024, and while their sound didn't quite take flight, there was enough evidence to suggest that Sivga's fledgling talents could one day see the brand soar.

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Japanese manufacturer Final has announced its new flagship closed-back headphones, the DX10000 CL, which the company calls its “most ambitious headphone project to date”. And we should hope so, too, considering that the standard edition’s pricing begins at £7499 / $8499.

So, what justifies the cosmic pricing of these high-end headphones?

Well, to start with, at the heart of the DX10000 CL is Final’s newly developed 40mm True Diamond diaphragm dynamic driver.

According to Final, diamond’s high rigidity and strong internal damping allow the diaphragm to maintain pistonic motion, reducing diaphragm deformation and suppressing residual vibrations after the signal is cut, for faster transient response and lower distortion.

A similar degree of care has been taken inside the headphones’ silver-accented, high-rigidity aluminium-magnesium alloy housing. Unnecessary material has been removed to reduce weight, and the resulting cavities have been filled with acoustic damping to minimise internal reflections.

The earpads are made of ultrasuede (a blend of ultra-fine polyester and elastic plastics), which Final says achieves the “intended acoustic response” through carefully controlled air permeability while ensuring “long-term comfort”.

According to Final, the DX10000 CL are “a closed-back flagship designed to sound powerful and immersive without losing the openness, clarity and natural tone expected from the highest level of personal audio”.

The headphones use screws rather than adhesives throughout the construction, which ensures that components can be replaced and serviced throughout their lifetime.

Included with the headphones are two silver-coated cables: a 1.5m cable with 4.4mm connection, and a 3m cable with XLR connection. 6.3mm adapters for each cable are also included for use with a wide range of sources.

The Final DX10000 CL are now available to pre-order, with shipping expected by the end of July.

The first 150 pairs of these high-end headphones are available as a limited collector's edition, which have gold-coloured accents, and include a presentation box, a silk pouch and a CNC-machined aluminium headphone stand for an extra £500.

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Sony has unveiled its latest pair of wired in-ear headphones, the IER-M500.

Developed in collaboration with monitoring engineers, Sony bills its latest in-ear headphones as being the perfect partner for musicians and performers who require "reliable and accurate in-ear monitoring" for both performance and practice.

The IEMs' fully sealed structure, combined with a large acoustic chamber, offers outstanding sound isolation, even in noisy live environments.

A set of 5mm dynamic drivers are complemented by a large acoustic chamber in pursuit of "deep, controlled bass", while the headphones' optimised internal structure has been designed to give a more refined high-frequency reproduction.

Designed to blend comfort and stability, the IER-M500 feature what Sony calls "fitting supporters".

This is a loop at the top of each earpiece which nestles under the inner ear ridge to anchor the IEMs in place. To further facilitate a better fit, four sizes of noise-isolating ear tips are included, as is a 1.6m detachable cable with a 3.5mm jack.

While they don't carry an official IP certification, Sony pledges that the IER-M500 are capable of handling moisture, such as splashes of water or human sweat, without too much trouble.

The IER-M500 will be available from August in a choice of Clear, Black and Red & Blue finishes, priced at £99 / $120 / €115.

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After more than five years of daily use, my AirPods Max recently stopped working.

I can't really complain. Between commuting, international travel and a house move, they'd spent years being stuffed into backpacks and suitcases before emerging to soundtrack thousands of hours of music and movies. They'd had a pretty hard life.

Rather than rushing to repair them, though, I saw an opportunity.

In the five years since I'd bought the AirPods Max, loads of exciting new headphones had launched. This felt like the perfect excuse to break away from Apple's ecosystem and find out whether anything could finally replace them.

Over the next couple of months, I spent time with headphones from Sony, Bose, Sennheiser and Bowers & Wilkins. Their relative strengths varied, but all of them sounded very accomplished with music. In the case of Sony's superb WH-1000XM6, I'd even argue the overall musical performance is better than that of the AirPods Max.

But this period of headphone flirtation had a surprising effect: my movie-watching almost ground to a halt.

For years now, I've used my AirPods Max at least as much for movies as for music. In fact, they've quietly become an essential part of my home cinema setup.

Once the rest of my family had gone to bed and it was no longer neighbourly to keep my Dolby Atmos system rumbling away, I had a simple routine. Rather than switching on Night mode and flattening every explosion, gunshot and orchestral swell, I'd put on my AirPods Max, tap the pop-up on my Apple TV 4K and carry on watching exactly where I'd left off.

The combination of the AirPods Max and Apple TV 4K remains astonishingly good. Their Dolby Atmos implementation, delivered through Spatial Audio with dynamic head tracking, creates an experience that's surprisingly easy to forget is coming from a pair of headphones. It doesn't simply sound spacious; it sounds uncannily natural.

And that's the bit I hadn't appreciated until the AirPods Max disappeared from my life. Every alternative I tried excelled with music, but none recreated that movie experience.

The closest I came was pairing Sony's WH-1000XM6 with the Bravia 8 II TV. It produced an impressively open and fairly cinematic presentation, but because the connection relied on standard Bluetooth, what I was hearing was ultimately a cleverly processed stereo signal rather than the sort of binaural Dolby Atmos experience that Apple's solution provides.

The difference wasn't night and day, but it was enough that I found myself missing the AirPods Max every time I settled down to watch a film, and that had a surprisingly big impact on my viewing habits.

If the family was asleep, I simply wasn't getting the experience I wanted. I wasn't about to hobble my main home cinema system with Night mode, but neither were the alternative headphones convincing enough to tempt me away from it.

Whether it's children, a partner or simply considerate neighbours, I suspect lots of people end up watching films after the house has gone quiet, and losing that window meant the number of films I watched absolutely tanked over the following weeks. I missed loads.

The good news is that I'm now making up for lost time, because I've managed to get hold of another pair of AirPods Max.

The whole experience taught me something I wasn't expecting, though: I'd quietly built my entire late-night movie-watching routine around one Apple feature.

That's not to say Apple has the only solution. Sony, for example, offers the little-known WLA-NS7 wireless transmitter, which promises a similar binaural Dolby Atmos experience with compatible headphones. I'll be testing that very soon.

But until something else can recreate what the AirPods Max and Apple TV 4K achieve together, they'll remain my favourite headphones for movies – even if some rivals have at least matched them when it comes to music.

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If recent rumours are to be believed, Samsung is about to jump on the clip-on trend with its latest pair of wireless earbuds.

We've not had official confirmation yet, but one rather sharp-eyed Twitter / X user noticed an update to Samsung's Galaxy Wearable app which, among other things, listed the term 'Galaxy Able' in reference to a new pair of earbuds.

This tallies with earlier reports that Samsung is set to debut an entirely new product line – separate from its Galaxy Buds and Galaxy Buds Pro ranges – this year.

According to Forbes via Android Authority, earlier leaks using the moniker "BUDSABLE" and the model number SM-U6000 had confirmed that a new pair of buds could be on the way. Leaked artwork then suggested that a clip-on design could be the direction in which Samsung was headed.

Dedicated Samsung site sammyguru.com, also alleges they might even use bone conduction technology, similar to the tech used in the sport-centric Shokz OpenRun Pro 2 from 2024.

It certainly wouldn't surprise us if Samsung ended up jumping on the ever-growing open and clip-on wireless earbud trend.

Recent clip-on offerings have included the likes of Huawei FreeClip 2 and the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds, as well as the open-style Sony LinkBuds Open and the Apple AirPods 4 with ANC, all of which eschew traditional in-ear configurations in pursuit of a more comfortable, out-of-ear design.

Those rivals are all born from big-name brands, so it wouldn't be beyond the realms of possibility if Samsung moved to match its competitors by offering an open alternative to keep its Galaxy-focused fans happy.

Samsung's recent Galaxy Buds 4 Pro are some of the best buds we've yet tested from the Korean giant, so it might be in the perfect position to start rivalling its competitors in this emerging corner of the market.

Samsung has its annual Unpacked event slated for the 22nd of July, so there's a good chance we might get a proper unveiling of the new buds – and its next-gen foldable phones – when we attend in a few weeks time.

Naturally, we'll let you know what we discover.

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These are the best cheap wireless earbuds on the market

Nothing is back with a brand new pair of affordable, colourful wireless earbuds, the Ear (3a).

The latest addition to the brand’s more affordable, fun-centric (a) series, the new buds blend “immersive listening” with a “playful design” at a price that won’t exactly break the bank. They also have a rather intriguing feature up their sleeve…

Before we get to that, the Nothing Ear (3a) use a set of 12mm dynamic drivers designed to deliver “deeper bass and greater detail” than their previous generation antecedents, while a lightweight PMI diaphragm aims for “clear, detailed highs”.

Bolstering the buds’ new hardware is support for LDAC, the Sony-developed codec which allows for hi-res audio transmission up to 24-bit/96 kHz from a compatible source.

Noise cancelling is also available, with the Ear (3a) using an improved acoustic mesh and a more advanced ANC algorithm to keep you even more shielded from the sounds of the outside world, with Nothing promising nearly 20 per cent better performance when compared with their predecessors.

The Ear (3a) deliver up to 10 hours of playback from the buds and up to 42 hours with the charging case when noise cancelling is switched off. With ANC enabled, they offer up to six hours from the earbuds and a total of around 25 hours in total with the case in play. When things get low, a quick five-minute charge provides around one hour of playback in a pinch.

What was that intriguing feature we mentioned earlier? The Ear (3a) offer ‘Audio Snapshot’ technology, letting users instantly clip media they are listening to, be it a an online lecture, a call or a voice note, by pinching both earbuds to create an “audio screenshot” for posterity.

Nothing’s ‘Static’ spatial audio tech is also in the mix, while a three-mic array on each earbud promises clear calls, even in busy environments.

The Nothing Ear (3a) are available now, priced at £99 / $99 / €99, in a choice of Black, White, Yellow or Pink finishes.

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These are the best cheap wireless earbuds on the market

What do you think of when you hear the word “liberty”? Perhaps the triumphant motto of the French Revolution which pledged liberty, equality and fraternity for all, or perhaps the Statue of Liberty with her torch aloft welcoming newcomers to New York via Ellis Island? The Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, perhaps, or The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance if you’re into your black and white Westerns?

You may not think of a pair of mid-price wireless earbuds, but could that be about to change? The Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro are already imbued with a certain grandeur by virtue of their very name, but a name alone does not make a pair of earbuds.

Anker’s sub-brand Soundcore must face off against the likes of JBL and Sony to make a dent in this mid-range field, and while this isn’t the most densely populated segment of the wireless earbuds landscape, there are still a handful of hurdles for the Liberty 5 Pro to overcome.

Price

At £150 / $170 / AU$280, the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro are committedly mid-range wireless earbuds. For this kind of money, the JBL Live Beam 3 can be yours for around £120 / $150 / AU$150, while the more affordable and Award-winning Sony WF-C710N can be picked up for £75 / $80 / AU$128 at the time of writing.

The likeable Apple AirPods 4 with ANC, conversely, sit around the £179 / $179 / AU$299 mark.

Build & comfort

Hooray, a pair of wireless earbuds that fit snugly and securely in our ears! This isn’t faux surprise or mock celebration: it’s remarkable the number of in-ear headphones – wired or wireless – that fall at what should be the most basic of hurdles.

We rarely have such an issue with the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro. The mid-range contenders use a similar configuration to the more premium Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen), with an outer stem attached to a main body accompanied by top-mounted fins designed to sit under the ear’s inner ridge and facilitate a more stable fit. Those fins are fixed to the buds directly, however, so it’s something of a one-size-fits all arrangement.

They may be small, but the difference they make is profound. Those fins are firmer than the ones found on the second-gen Bose QC Ultra Earbuds 2, but in acting as an anchor to keep your buds in place, they really do the trick. We took the Liberty 5 Pro to the gym and even on a short 5 kilometre run, and not once did they come loose or make a bid for freedom.

During everyday use, the Liberty 5 Pro are easy to get along with. Their silicone ear tips fit snugly and securely, yet it isn’t often that we feel fatigued by the buds as we clock up the minutes of wear. Better still, Soundcore has been kind enough to offer five tip sizes ranging from XXS to large, so you’re likely to find a set to suit your needs, and there is an ear-tip test on the app to further help you on your journey to achieving a decent seal.

We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the Liberty 5 Pros’ charging case, which uses a narrow front-mounted screen to display your buds’ vital statistics. The idea of a smart screen that essentially does the job of a companion app on your phone can be a bit of a divisive one, but we do appreciate being able to see our buds’ battery life at a mere glance.

Features

If you want something that will last and last, the Liberty 5 Pro’s battery life is decent, but they aren’t quite the Duracell Bunny of the mid-range earbud world. You’ll get around 6.5 hours from the buds and up to 28 hours total from the case with noise cancelling switched on, falling short of the 9-10 hours (buds) and 48-hour total of the rival JBL Live Beam 3.

Even the cheaper Sony WF-C710N squeeze around 8.5 hours from the buds and 30 hours with the case in play, leaving the Soundcore earbuds lagging rather behind their main rivals.

The Soundcore buds support Dolby Audio with head tracking, something they implement with reasonable competence. Do be aware that switching on Dolby Audio will switch off Soundcore’s ‘AI Sound Enhancement’ algorithm, resulting in a modest but perceptible drop-off in audio quality as a result.

The Sony-developed LDAC Bluetooth codec is also on the menu, something we wouldn’t necessarily expect to find with a pair of earbuds at this price – the cheaper Sony WF-C710N, for example, don’t support it at all. Considering LDAC allows you to stream high-resolution audio streams up to 32-bit/96kHz at up to 990kbps data rates from a compatible source, that’s quite a feather in the Liberty 5 Pros’ cap.

Touch controls work well, with Soundcore’s system operating primarily via either a series of taps or swipes depending on what you want your buds to do. Our test pair are responsive to our various commands, and we’re particularly impressed by the levels of customisation on offer from the accompanying Soundcore app.

On the subject of the app, Soundcore’s is generally a good one. There are plenty of useful features, such as an eight-band equaliser, ANC mode toggling, touch control customisation, and a handy fit test, but some users might feel that some additions just get in the way, such as a ‘Discovery’ comments forum and a ‘Soundspace’ section filled with free meditations and various flavours of white noise. For us, such additions aren’t particularly necessary, although they may have their fans among users keen for an app with all of the bells and whistles.

Noise cancelling & voice calls

Soundcore has put a lot of effort into the Liberty 5 Pros’ voice calls, packing the buds with 10 sensors and powering it all with a new ‘Anker Thus’ AI chip, which draws on large audio datasets and uses a configuration whereby the chip’s CPU and memory are fused together for a more efficient and powerful performance when handling audio and calls.

Human speech is nicely spotlighted and impressively clear, although voices do sound a little artificial and robotic. The Soundcore earbuds do isolate speech admirably from environmental noise, so much so that traffic, wind and birdsong are barely audible as we natter away without distraction. The Sony WF-C710N sound more natural, but the Liberty 5 Pro have a cleaner presentation.

Noise cancelling is similarly capable. The Liberty 5 Pro keep up with their rivals as they suppress the general ambience of a busy cafe, making a decent fist of softening exterior noises if not completely eliminating them.

Higher frequencies, including some human speech or the clank of weights in a busy gym, will still penetrate through, as will the deepest of deep rumbles, but this isn’t a poor performance at this mid-price level. If you want a proper step up in terms of pure noise isolation, you’re going to have to spend more cash and seek out the premium Bose QC Ultra (2nd Gen) or the Sony WF-1000XM6 instead.

Sound

It’s been a reasonable showing thus far, but sound is ultimately where the race is won or lost, and it is here where the Liberty 5 Pro trip and stumble. From the outset, we’re impressed with the muscle and weight they bring to their respective renditions of Slipknot’s Left Behind and Nine Inch Nails’ As Alive As You Need Me To Be, but a lack of clarity and overall sonic precision limit the extent to which we’re truly involved in our music.

To their credit, we do get a sense of a pair of earbuds that are trying to entertain us. These aren’t bland or lifeless performers, with the Soundcore bringing enough robustness and power, especially at the lower end, to grant our tunes some proper wallop. Corey Taylor’s relentless performance on Left Behind is suitably ferocious, yet subtler quirks and vocal textures are lost amidst the earbuds’ somewhat clouded presentation.

Ultimately, there’s a lack of real refinement to go with all of that undeniable eagerness. The bass may be powerful, but it is both ill-defined and overdone, while a peakiness and lack of treble refinement haunts the upper frequencies. While doing a bit of tinkering with the provided in-app equaliser can help to rectify some of that excessive eagerness, it can’t do much to infuse any real quality into the resulting reproduction.

It’s an issue that really stands out whenever a track has plunging bass tones, which ultimately end up sounding amorphous, rumbly and lacking in sufficient definition. Boot up the opening of Noisettes’ Never Forget You or the first few bars of Agnes Obel’s The Curse, and you’ll hear what we mean.

A loose low-frequency reproduction is not the only issue. While the Soundcore buds do have decent weight and impact, they’re not as crisp or as well-disciplined as their rivals. The cheaper Sony WF-C710N are equally full-blooded, yet they have the punch, precision and propulsion to go with that muscularity. The C710N are a pro boxer’s powerful, clean leading jab; the Liberty 5 are a sloppy haymaker thrown on a booze-fuelled Saturday night.

The mid-range buds’ lack of rhythmic momentum is highlighted on tracks such as Ghost’s Satanized, during which a poor sense of timing and squashed dynamics conspire to make the whole thing sound both flat and sluggish. The JBL Live Beam 3 are better in both regards, while the supremely entertaining C710N are, frankly, streets ahead.

Verdict

Despite their secure fit and ample feature set, the Soundcore Liberty Pro don’t have the sonic talents to trouble the best mid-range buds. If sound quality is a priority, seek out the well-rounded JBL Live Beam 3 or the sonically superior (and cheaper) Sony WF-C710N instead.

Review published: 7th July 2026

SCORES

• Sound 3
• Features 4
• Comfort 4

MORE:

Read our JBL Live Beam 3 review

Also consider the Sony WF-C710N

Best wireless earbuds: 7 sensational pairs reviewed and rated by our experts

We’re only on day one of Amazon Prime Day in Australia, yet it’s already delivering in a major way where discounts on hi-fi, home cinema and all manner of AV tech are concerned.

Nowhere is that more evident than with headphones. And while there are literally hundreds of pairs to sift through, I’ve found 8 What Hi-Fi? Award-winning pairs — including our current Product of the Year — on sale with discounts of up to 39%.

So, if you want to make sure the pair you buy is going to give you the best possible performance, look no further.

• Check out all the latest Award winners

As I mentioned earlier, there are plenty more pairs of headphones available during the Prime Day Australia sales, alongside a solid selection of hi-fi components and Bluetooth speakers.

Remember, the majority of these deals are likely to come to an end when Prime Day finishes at 11.59pm on Monday, July 13. You’ll also need to be a Prime member to nab most of them. If you’ve not been a member before, you can sign up for a free 30-day trial.

Fancy something for the weekend? Well Sony has just the thing. Its Award-winning WH-1000XM6 headphones have just gained a new firmware update that enables an ultra-low-latency mode.

The update is also available for Sony’s 1000X The Collexion.

The update adds support for the Bluetooth LE Audio Gaming Audio Profile (GMAP). This reduces latency (the time that a sound takes to reach your ears) to less than 40 milliseconds.

As the name suggests, this will predominantly be of interest to gamers.

GMAP has four signal profiles (A-D) depending on whether speed or stability is the priority. Profile A is the quickest, while D is better suited for areas with lots of interference. GMAP is part of the Bluetooth specification laid down by the Bluetooth SIG, and so can work on other wireless headphones too.

In order to hear the benefit, your audio source also needs to support GMAP.

The new feature is available now via the 3.1.5 firmware update for the XM6 and 1.3.0 for the 1000X The Collexion. You can install the updates for both pairs of headphones using the Sony Sound Connect app.

MORE:

Read our Sony WH-1000XM6 review

And our Sony 1000X The Collexion review

I spent 10 hours on trains listening the Sony WH-1000XM6 – here’s what I learned

Growing up in rural Wales, I spent my adolescence desperate for noise.

As a teenager, roaming the serene forests that surrounded my home in search of something – anything – to do, I was invariably accompanied by a headphone-rattling playlist of punk, rock and industrial music. My natural gravitation at the time was towards anything that shook things up, that challenged the serenity of my environment, and would, I suppose, give my folks a headache.

As I became an adult and my taste diversified, I nevertheless sought out places to live that fell in line with that desire for chaos. Naturally, London was my first choice: loud, relentless, sometimes frightening.

By that time, I was enjoying everything from Fela Kuti to Chopin, but amid the blaring interruptions of tube trains, traffic and street-preachers, I simply could not hear quieter tracks in my music library.

Inexplicably, I never considered seeking out noise-cancelling headphones. Having embraced the city’s clamor as an inalterable feature of my circumstances, I took up the habit of listening, almost exclusively, to music that was loud enough to drown London out. Back to punk, we go.

That all changed once I started writing about audio equipment for a living.

Within my first few weeks as a new staff writer at What Hi-Fi?, I took home a pair of Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless headphones.

A heatwave was in full force when I swapped my cheap earbuds for these more premium over-ear ANC headphones, and on the crammed train home from work, the air con was going hell for leather. Above the bustle and groans of commuters sweating through their work clothes, the AC was all but shrieking with the effort it took to cool the carriage down.

Usually, the cacophony would have droned through my music, even at full volume; but placing the Momentum 5 Wireless over my ears and then enabling their full active noise-cancelling mode, I was astonished to discover how completely the world fell away.

In our five-star review of the Momentum 5 Wireless, we mention that Sennheiser has taken pains to improve on the ANC of the Momentum 4 Wireless, using twice as many microphones (a grand total of eight) to achieve what it describes as “three times” better noise cancellation, particularly in the midrange. In our view, the improvements were a success, keeping “traffic, wind” and, crucially, “the hum of air conditioners” at bay.

As I’ve fallen into the habit of listening to music through the Sennheisers during my daily commute, an unexpected side effect of their excellent noise-cancelling has been that my appetite for sonic carnage has subsided.

In its place, I’ve started listening to classical music on a regular basis. I wasn’t formerly much of a classical listener, but with environmental sound cancelled so effectively, I have found myself enjoying the newfound ability to pick out the finer points in classical arrangements – and while commuting, at that. Needless to say, if not for trying these headphones, I would have remained oblivious to these details.

These days, among my daily listens are Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major, M.83: II. Adagio assai and Debussy’s La damoiselle élue, L.62: Prélude.

To my ear, each of these musical discoveries has been complemented by the Sennheisers’ sonic signature, which we describe in our review as “rich, smooth yet strikingly precise and detailed”. In La damoiselle élue, the reverberant piano conveys a striking sense of scale, giving you a sense of the space in which the piece is played, which only grows as the notes are struck harder.

But even at the gentlest touch, the Sennheisers remain expressive, thanks to the “naturalness and insight” of their midrange performance. Listening to these recordings, I even find that their bass reproduction, which we describe as “on the richer side”, lends a pleasant and proportionate weight to every note.

So, where once you might have found me blasting Black Flag, Einstürzende Neubauten and Swans, I will instead be exploring – and what’s more, thoroughly enjoying – the back-catalogues of Debussy, Wagner, Ravel, and even some ambient albums such as Thomas Köner’s Permafrost.

That’s not to say I’m ditching the punk, I get the feeling that our love affair isn’t quite at its end. But who knows, perhaps, thanks to excellent noise-cancelling and performance from headphones such as the Momentum 5 Wireless, I’ll get to keep my hearing intact for a few more moshpits yet.

MORE:

Read our Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless review

Best noise-cancelling headphones 2026 – tested by our in-house review experts

FiiO's noise-cancelling wireless headphones want to challenge Sony for entry-level supremacy

There’s just something about a pair of Grado headphones.

While they’re an acquired taste for some, the Brooklyn-based brand’s roster of over- and on-ear cans has helped to shape the current headphone landscape, from the wood-clad RS1x to the innovative GW100x wireless open-backs and the perennially outstanding SR325x.

Grado knows headphones, with five-star reviews and What Hi-Fi? Awards becoming par for the course in recent times.

We’ve generally found the brand's ample roster of rugged cans appealing for a few key reasons. For a start, Grado tends to put sound above all other considerations, and as we're a publication that also places audio performance at the top of the hierarchy of needs, that tends to go down well in our test rooms.

Grado headphones tend to ride that line between analysis and entertainment so effortlessly, digging into the details while bringing out the essential musicality of our favourite tunes. Results inevitably vary, but it’s safe to say that some of the finest wired headphones we’ve heard over the past decade have been born in Brooklyn.

Further, this is a brand with a real sense of identity. Its products tend to look and sound distinctive, and while that can be alienating for those not in tune with this given sonic and aesthetic philosophy, it can be pure heaven to anyone with similarly aligned priorities.

Grado has always felt like a no-nonsense outfit: few frills, no gimmicks, just an unerring focus on (mostly) great sound.

Substance over style?

That philosophy, however, can be something of a double-edged sword, and as is often the case in life, the thing that offers the greatest appeal can also end up becoming a brand’s most burdensome failing.

Strikingly minimalist as most Grado cans appear, they rarely ride high in the comfort stakes. We’ve tended to temper our reviews of the Grado's headphones with the same caveat about user comfort, especially with regard to its continued use of rather thin, often scratchy foam ear cushions.

Grado’s continued allegiance to its lean, on-ear designs is admirable, and we’re aware that much of that commitment comes from a desire to aid sonic performance, but we wonder if a better balance could ultimately be struck. From the SR325x to the high-end Grado GS3000x, we’ve raised concerns that comfort was often lagging behind performance.

Take the recently reviewed SR325 Classic. They’re lightweight and sturdy in terms of their general fit, but the ear cushions are so lean, unforgiving and scratchy that it will inevitably put some prospective wearers off, especially when you could get the more luxurious and comfortable Beyerdynamic DT 900 Pro X for a lower price.

The new SR325 Classic's headband is also pretty thin on padding, as is Grado's wont, although this has rarely been as much of an issue as the ear cushions.

Grado quite reasonably argues that its ‘F’ cushions aid the SR325 Classics’ “immediate and energetic presentation”, but when the over-ear DT 900 Pro X manage to nail comfort without compromising on sound, all for a lower price, that excuse only goes so far.

These are not cheap headphones – the SR325 Classic cost £349 / $350 at launch, while the supremely comfortable DT 900 Pro X are around £200 / $250 at the moment. We know which pair we’d prefer to wear for hours at a time, and while we accept that the SR325 Classic are an on-ear design rather than over-ear, again, that excuse only goes so far.

We also found that the Classics’ ear cushions came off so easily on our review sample that we could remove them from our test pair with a single finger. It might just have been a bad batch that we received with our test sample, but given our extensive history with Grado, that’s a rather charitable interpretation.

Is our patience wearing thin?

The problem for Grado is that, while it may be reasonable to make the defence of being a ‘sound-first’ company, or argue that such ear cushions are conducive to getting that signature Grado experience, those arguments tend to hit rockier ground when a given pair fails to perform on the audio front.

The SR325 Classic might have won our affections had their sound quality lived up to the standards of the SR325x across the board. We found that while the new pair are clearer and more articulate, it has poorer sense of rhythmic drive than the older model. In light of this, a somewhat Spartan approach to comfort is much harder to forgive.

We previously raised concerns that the premium GS3000x's ear cushions “feel a little scratchy” and pointed to the need “to find a classier alternative at this premium price level”, with the five-star cans only getting away with it because they’re some of the best sounding cans Grado has ever made.

When performance fails to meet those lofty standards, however, we’re much less willing to be so forgiving of inescapable drawbacks in other areas.

We’re not expecting Grado to completely throw the baby out with the bathwater. The way its headphones are a huge part of the brand’s hard-edged, industrial identity, while those sonically-minded ear cushions are designed, at least in part, to aid in granting that familiar Grado sound and look.

Like all things in life, balance is key, and we just wonder the extent to which Grado can justify skimping so much on comfort and, in the case of the SR325 Classic, overall quality.

It’s all well and good when you’re really nailing things in terms of audio performance, but when five-star alternatives are able to offer competitive audio and greater comfort for a similar price, it might be time for Grado to concede that would-be buyers are choosing headphones not solely for what they're like to listen to, but how they feel to wear.

MORE:

Read our Grado SR325 Classic review

Closed-back vs open-back headphones: which design is better for you?

Read our guide to the best wired headphones

FiiO has unveiled its latest pair of wireless headphones, the EH13.

The new over-ears are conceived as a pair of budget-friendly cans that go big on features while keeping costs to a minimum, aiming to give would-be buyers "high-quality audio at an accessible price".

The EH13 feature a set of 40mm dynamic drivers fitted with sapphire-coated composite diaphragms, while support for the Sony-made LDAC codec allows for hi-res Bluetooth streaming up to 32-bit/96kHz.

Despite their modest price, the EH13 offer hybrid active noise-cancellation, while five built-in microphones and advanced 'Environmental Noise Cancellation' algorithms aim for clear voice pickup and reduced surrounding noise during calls.

The EH13 grant up to 45 hours of playback with ANC on, rising to a whopping 75 hours when noise cancelling is switched off. Further, Multipoint Bluetooth allows for connecting the FiiO over-ears to twin devices simultaneously.

The new headphones house a 3.5mm input and come with a provided cable if you want to hook up directly to your chosen music source, while a fully foldable design makes the budget cans easier to transport.

If you want to tinker with your listening experience, including altering your EQ settings, you can do so via the provided FiiO Control App.

The FiiO EH13 are available now in a choice of black or beige finishes, priced at £49 / $49 / €49. That sort of money puts them in direct competition with the budget Sony WH-CH520 (tested at £49 / $59 / AU$79) that we've so often praised since their release in 2023.

MORE:

Want cheap wireless headphones? Read our Sony WH-CH520 review

These are the best wireless headphones you can buy

Best wireless earbuds: top pairs tested by our reviewers

No cap, wired earbuds are #themoment, so if you're looking to soundmaxx your life, get on the trend and slay.

Don't worry if you didn't understand a word of that. Wired earbuds might be coming back among Gen-Z listeners and celebrity influencers, but this is a trend that everyone should be a part of. Wired in-ear headphones are convenient, cool and, most importantly, sound far better than their wireless counterparts.

If you're keen to hear what all of the fuss is about, might we suggest the SoundMagic E11C as a great place to start. The E11C are £35 at Richer Sounds, dropping by £15 from their initial £50 test price, and at this level, not much comes close. As our current What Hi-Fi? Awards winners in their class, this is a bit of a no-brainer.

Best Prime Day SoundMagic E11C deal

The SoundMagic E11C are no-fuss budget wired headphones that punch well above their weight. If you're looking to get on board with the wired trend (and you should be, by the way), they're the perfect place to start.

Budget they may be, but the E11C are surprisingly well-made, with a solid, sleek design complemented by a choice of small, medium and large silicone tips and an in-line remote.

In case you need reminding, they have the standard 3.5mm headphone cable connection, so you’ll need a dreaded dongle for connecting to USB-C or Apple Lightning ports. That's part of the 'retro' charm, right?

In terms of sonic performance, the E11C are a delight. They're sparky and peppy headphones that go big on detail and clarity, offering an entertaining sound that really delivers when it comes to putting the pep into your music's step. At this kind of price, we can't think of much better, though the SoundMagic E80D are also worth considering if you want a USB-C-ended alternative.

As we concluded in our review: "The E11C in-ears continue the fine work of their predecessors and deliver an entertaining, upfront sound, complete with a remote control and mic".

Grab them at Richer Sounds and feel young again.

MORE:

Hi-fi speaker deals are thin on the ground this Prime Day, but I've tracked down six of the best worth a closer look

Stay up to date with Prime Day 2026 LIVE: our hi-fi experts choose the best speaker, headphone and turntable deals

Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 vs Pi6: which B&W wireless earbuds should you choose?

A pair of Sony headphones for £100 off? Normally we'd be recommending that you throw caution to the wind, boot up that laptop, stretch your clicking finger and get those cans into your digital basket, because that sounds, on paper, like a Prime Day deal worth taking.

This is one of the rare instances, however, when we'd advise you to look elsewhere. The Sony ULT Wear are a rare misfire from Sony, and while they're down from £180 to just £88 on Amazon, we just don't feel that they're worth your time. Save your cash and pick up a pair of five-star alternatives (listed below, obviously) instead.

Sony ULT Wear deal

Hooray, a pair of heavily discounted Sony headphones! They’ve got noise cancelling, a comfortable design, loads of high-performance Sony features and a majorly knocked down right, so what exactly isn’t there to love?

The problem is that the ULT Wear don’t sound as good as we had hoped. In fact, they are a rare sonic misfire for Sony, with a sound that sounds either too enthusiastic and bass-heavy, or simply too lacking in the basics of dynamics and detail to have us singing their praises. Great Sony headphones abound at the moment, but sadly, the ULT Wear are quite a long way from greatness.

Consider these alternatives instead

MORE:

I've handpicked the 12 best-value Prime Day home cinema and audio deals – all under £200

Amazon Prime Day 2026 Live Q&A: personalised hi-fi and home cinema buying advice, direct from our experts

Discounts galore! These are the best Amazon Prime Day Bluetooth speaker deals

I have been happily rocking a pair of the four-star Beyerdynamic Aventho 300 as my go-to pair of wireless headphones for a while now.

For me, they’re great, and I am more than happy with them. But, after a few readers got in touch asking if they should take advantage of Amazon’s current Aventho 300 deal, which lets you grab a pair for £239 (saving £120), my answer is, probably not.

Instead, I would point most people to Amazon’s current deal on the five-star Sony WH-1000XM6, which lets you pick up a pair for £236 (save £164).

That’s not because the Aventho 300 and I have fallen out of love and are on a break. They are fantastic, wonderfully unassuming headphones with a sonic profile that will truly delight any listener who values composure and balance, even if it means they might be a little clinical. That’s why I love them.

For most people, however, there’s a reason we scored the Sony WH-1000XM6 higher and gave them a What Hi-Fi? Award. Their sonic profile is more entertaining and packed with detail, and will please a wider audience of listeners than the Aventho 300.

They also offer better ANC, which again is a big factor that gives them more mass appeal. We said as much in our reviews of the two headphones.

For example, here is our WH-1000XM6 verdict:

“Sony’s wireless headphones deliver a performance more than befitting a flagship pair of wireless headphones. Comfort levels are great, they’re nice to use, ANC is excellent, call quality is class-leading, and sound quality can match anything at this level. Simply sensational.”

Whereas in our Aventho 300 review we reported:

“The Beyerdynamic Aventho 300 won’t be for everyone [...] That said, these are really solid performers for the money, that resist the urge to impose their will on your music and instead step back and allow your tunes room to shine.”

We stand by those statements. Which is why, generally, I recommend that most buyers should opt for the Sony WH-1000XM6, even though I am personally very fond of my Aventho 300.

MORE:

Check out our Prime Day 2026 hi-fi deals live hub

These are the best wireless headphones we have reviewed

Our picks of the best wireless earbuds

This Prime Day is the perfect time to find your latest pair of wireless headphones or wireless earbuds. Prices are dropping faster than Scotland's World Cup chances, and good deals are becoming great ones thanks to ever-plummeting RRPs. There's no time like the present to snap up a bargain.

This Prime Day has seen major discounts on a massive variety of headphones, but we're limiting this rundown to those which fall under £150. Times are tough right not, so the products we've listed below, be they in-ear or over-ear, are all designed to elicit maximum satisfaction from the lowest cost possible. Nice.

Wireless earbuds

Best mid-price: Bowers & Wilkins Pi6

Best noise-cancelling: Sony WF-C710N

Best entry-level: Sony WF-C510

Over-ear headphones

Best entry-level: Sony WH-CH520

Best budget noise-cancelling: Sony WH-CH720N

Best budget wired: Røde NTH-100

MORE:

Prime Day 2026 Live: all the top TV, soundbar and projector deals handpicked by our home cinema experts

Discounts galore! These are the best early Amazon Prime Day Bluetooth speaker deals

Amazon Prime Day 2026 Live Q&A: personalised hi-fi and home cinema buying advice, direct from our experts