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:

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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

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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

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There are great headphones, and then there are the Grado SR325x. We're not being hyperbolic when we say that the SR325x are some of the best open-backed headphones we've ever tested, a pair of legends that have continued to scoop Award after What Hi-Fi? Award following their debut in 2021.

In fact, if you're sick of wireless headphones and just want the quality and convenience you get with wired cans, the Grado SR325x have to be on your shortlist. At £199 at Peter Tyson down from £329, they're also at what is possibly the lowest price we've yet seen.

Come on, it's time to start taking your music seriously. It's time to graduate to a pair of Grados.

Best Prime Day Grado SR325x deal

In terms of pure sound quality, wireless headphones are as good as they've ever been, but wired headphones are in a different league, with the Award-winning Grado SR325x continuing to set the standard at their premium price point.

The multi-award-winning open-backs are ideal for home listening, as while they might be hugely entertaining to listen to, they're also extremely leaky. That's just what you get with a pair of open-backed cans.

That shouldn't matter, however, as the SR325x aren't the sort of cans you simply throw in your back to fill some hours during your commute. As we wrote in our review: “The SR325x... are wonderfully expressive dynamically, and lows are agile and tuneful, but there’s still not the outright weight and low-end punch of closed headphone designs".

To get the most out of the SR325x, pair them with a DAC or decent audio source such as a portable music player. Do so, and you'll realise just how insightful and expressive the Grados are, with a fast, sparky yet authoritative signature that really shines when given proper support.

While they boast an industrial design that that might not be everyone’s cup of tea, what you get from these cans is a ruggedness and durability that’s hard to find. Comfort isn't the name of the game here – it's all about audio quality.

Ditch the Bluetooth this Prime Day, and return to the warm embrace of good old fashioned wires. Get the Grado SR32x at Peter Tyson and enjoy true headphone greatness.

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My favourite headphones are now substantially cheaper than when I bought them – but I’m not bitter. Which, considering how tight I am, is a sign of just how good the Sony WF-C710N are.

They can be yours now for £65 at Amazon, which is £10 less than when I bought them in February. Still, considering the use I have had out of them since then, that extra tenner was money well spent.

Best-ever deal on the Sony WF-C710N earbuds

The C710N take everything we loved about their Award-winning predecessors, the C700N, and crank it up a notch: the battery life is an hour longer; the ANC has been beefed up with the addition of Dual Noise Sensor filters; the on-bud controls are now touch sensitive – and very intuitive to use.

They also have auto pause and wear detection, to help when having to interact with people.

But it’s the sound that’s the real highlight. “There’s a weight, solidity and fullness in the bass which makes the WF-C700N sound lightweight and a little top-heavy,” we note in our Sony WF-C710N review. “The new model fleshes things out better.”

They extract an enormous amount of detail from a track, lending notes plenty of texture. And they have Sony’s trademark musicality in spades.

From a personal point of view, the C710N are a great daily pair of earbuds. Their stacked feature-set makes them very versatile, and they have accompanied me on runs, walks, commutes, Zoom meetings and everything in between. If even a skinflint like me would pay more than their current price of £65 at Amazon, you know it’s a good deal.

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I’m sick of recommending them, but this cheap Sony wireless headphones deal is a no-brainer this Prime Day

Discover more of the best wireless headphones you can buy

Prime Day 2026 LIVE: the best headphone, speaker and vinyl deals picked by our hi-fi experts

I've heard a lot of premium wireless headphones in the past few months. No, seriously, when I say a lot, I mean a lot.

The Sony WH-1000XM6, the Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless, the Apple AirPods Max 2, the Sony 1000X The Collexion, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen), the Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2; the list just goes on and on.

And yet, this Amazon Prime Day, I would pick one pair above all others. Those aforementioned headphones are all excellent, sometimes spectacular, in their own respective ways, but one pair stands head and shoulders above the rest: the Sennheiser HDB 630.

At £400 / $500 / AU$1000, they're not cheap, and discounts aren't exactly common, but if you see a drop this Prime Day, across any of the major retailers, I would urge you wholeheartedly to snap it up while you can.

In fact, even if they don't budge an inch, I'd still be urging you to get hold of the best wireless headphones Sennheiser has ever made.

It's going to be a crazy twist of fate if some of the best wireless headphones you can currently buy this Prime Day aren't currently available on Amazon. Well, it's their loss.

In truth, forget Prime Day and Amazon altogether. Forget discounts and price cuts, and even brand loyalty. Just remember one key fact: if you want the best premium noise-cancelling wireless headphones, you want the Sennheiser HDB 630. It's that simple.

Why? Well, mainly because these are sound-first headphones that have pushed the needle for how good Bluetooth over-ears can sound at this sort of price. The HDB 630 are exceptionally smooth and natural-sounding headphones, with a beautifully realised bass reproduction, a sweet, immersive mid-range and a crisp, sharply defined treble.

They're fun, dynamically adept and musically expressive, walking that tricky tightrope between analysis and entertainment with sure-footed precision.

Part of that quality comes from the Sennheiser's super-clever BTD 700 USB-C dongle that you simply plug into your device’s USB-C port to give it aptX Adaptive superpowers.

That means that any source device, including your iPhone, gains aptX Adaptive hi-res streaming up to 24bit/96kHz, even if it wouldn't natively support it. That is, quite simply, an absolute game-changer, and it works terrifically.

Plus, you get wired listening via 3.5mm and USB-C-ended cables, around 60 hours of battery life with ANC switched on, very solid noise cancelling, a luxuriously comfortable fit and very solid voice calls, all of which combine to make an exceptional all-around package.

We get that Prime Day should be all about Amazon and, of course, all about deals, but the HDB 630 are so exceptional that all sort of goes out of the window.

Discounts don't really matter (although they're great to see). Retailers don't matter. What matters is that, if you can, you pick up a pair of some of the best-sounding premium wireless headphones we've ever heard.

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If you know much about wired open-back headphones, you’ll probably be familiar with the talents of the Grado SR325x. The rugged over-ears have been scooping What Hi-Fi? Awards since their 2021 release, delighting us with their exceptional musicality and hugely entertaining presentation. In fact, the SR325x are already a pair of bona fide classics.

Even the all-time greats must move with the times, though, with Grado reimagining the SR325x as the SR325 Classic as part of the brand’s overhaul of some of its most established wired headphones. The new Classic range brings together many of its most recognisable headphones under the same banner, all united by the addition of a new 'X2' driver, with the newer models set to replace all of the ‘x’ versions currently available.

That’s a big deal. With the SR325x soon heading off for a well-earned retirement, they’ve left their successors with awfully big shoes to fill – are the new SR325 Classic up to the challenge?

Price

The Grado SR325 Classic cost £349 / $350, making them a little more expensive at launch than the original SR325x, which came into the world at £330 / $295. The latter pair have dropped considerably in the UK since then, however, tending to hover around the £200-250 mark.

Wired competition at this price is hardly scarce. For less money, you can grab the exceptionally talented Beyerdynamic DT 900 Pro X open-backs for £219 / $299, or spend a little more for the five-star Austrian Audio Hi-X65 for $400 in the US and £300 in the UK at the time of writing.

If you want to spend a bit more, the smooth-sounding Sennheiser HD 660S2 can be yours for £399 / $599.

Build & comfort

Classic name, classic Grado look. The new SR325X Classic sport the industrial, hard-edge aesthetic so familiar to fans of Grado’s established roster of wired headphones, typified by small rounded earcups, aluminium speaker grilles and lean, minimalist construction.

Those aluminium housings are now all black as opposed to the previous silver finish of the SR325x, but this is still the classic Grado design language with which we’re familiar. Nothing here screams luxury, but we’d be confident that, as we’ve found with the established SR325x, these are headphones that will last and last.

While general levels of construction are high, we do have to raise our usual concerns about the cans’ rather unforgiving foam earpads. Grado has never been particularly generous with the padding it provides across its extensive roster of on-ear and over-ear cans, but when you could buy a pair of ultra-luxurious DT 900 Pro X for a similar price, it’s hard not to feel a little short-changed when dealing with the somewhat coarse, slightly scratchy cushions provided with the new SR325.

Yes, the Grados’ light weight helps to offset any potential discomfort, but when the relative leanness of the ear cushions means there’s not a huge barrier between the driver housing and your precious ears, we can imagine that some users will find the SR325 Classic to be more unforgiving than the headphones they’re used to.

Plus, it might just be a bad batch, but the Classics’ removable ear pads do seem to come off incredibly easily on our review sample, so much so that we can remove them from the main body of our test pair with a single finger. That can become a real issue, especially when you’re spending half of your time fiddling to try to reattach the cushions to their housings rather than actually listening to your headphones.

Thankfully, we don’t find too many other gripes concerning usability. Adjusting the headband is done via a simple vertical slider mechanism that responds to a firm push or pull, and we find that the SR325 Classic will clamp firmly – but not too firmly – to your head without too much trouble.

Grado has given other structural elements of the Classic headphones a refresh, such as re-engineering the height rod, junction block and gimbal system for better stability around the headband and earcups. The headband also has more padding than before, while the braided cable has been updated to be lighter and more flexible.

Sound

Improving upon the SR325x was never going to be easy. We’re talking about headphones that have scooped award after shiny award while laying down a sonic benchmark for musicality and verve – improving upon that particular recipe is a bit like trying to add a bonus track to Sergeant Pepper’s.

Yet improvements have been made, that much is for certain. Grado describes the implementation of its new X2 driver as delivering "improved consistency, control, and refinement" alongside "greater clarity, extension, and balance". We couldn’t have put it much better ourselves.

Those 44mm X2 dynamic drivers, built using a Mylar diaphragm and a copper voice call, bring levels of clarity and composure to these Classic cans that the established SR325x can’t match. The Classic are rich, powerful yet precise in their presentation, handling a hi-res recording of Agnes Obel’s Fuel To Fire without a hint of freneticism or fuss.

Such a sparse, delicate and carefully curated composition plays perfectly into the Classics’ hands, exhibiting the over-ears’ talents for overall control and organisation. Instrumental textures blend delicacy and weight beautifully, granting insight and real personality to the dark, mysterious strings on Obel’s The Curse.

Much as we’d like to, we can't listen exclusively to super-talented Danish singer-songwriters all day, so it’s time to kick things up a notch with The Smiths’ How Soon Is Now?. The Grados’ smooth yet open presentation gives the tune a fittingly cinematic presence, while the thudding drums are presented with a satisfying balance of control and brute force.

We spend a great deal of time listening to the SR325 Classic, be it via our trusted Astell & Kern A&norma SR35 hi-res player or plugged directly into a laptop, and there’s no question they benefit from notable improvements over their predecessors, particularly in terms of greater precision, detail and clarity.

So why, then, do we feel increasingly frustrated the more and more we listen? In the back of our minds, we can’t shake the feeling that this ‘Classic’ spin on the SR325 isn’t hitting the spot in the same way as the SR325x.

Much of that owes to a poorer sense of rhythmic drive. The SR325x are far better in this regard, propelling tracks forward with their sparkier, more propulsive temperament. The established Award-winners are more agile and energetic, too, with a brio and enthusiasm which has been somewhat muted on the newer iteration.

Much as we’re impressed with how clean and well-ordered the SR325 Classic are, too often we find ourselves willing them on, like a jockey trying to kick more life into a tiring racehorse. The Classic cans don’t have such a forward feeling of momentum, while the SR325x have a carefree skip in their step that we continue to find utterly irresistible on tracks such as Hans Zimmer’s pulsating Supermarine or Stevie Wonder’s relentlessly funky Higher Ground.

Ultimately, the SR325 Classic seem to have sacrificed verve and excitement for composure and clarity, and to our ears, that’s a shame. Grados are all about fun and panache, but there’s a seriousness – dare we say a standoffish quality – to the SR325 Classic that we can’t help but find slightly disappointing.

Verdict

In some ways, the SR325 Classic are an improvement over their predecessors. They’re undeniably clearer, more rounded sounding headphones, bringing new levels of poise and maturity to an Award-winning Grado recipe.

Yet during our side-by-side testing, we find ourselves yearning more for the SR325x than their newer counterparts. They may be less forgiving and less refined, but the SR325x are simply more entertaining than their slightly po-faced successors.

The Classics will have their fans, but if we had to pick a pair to live with, we’d snap up a deal on the older Grado SR325x before they run out.

Review published: 22nd June 2026

SCORES

• Sound 4
• Comfort 4
• Build 4

MORE:

Read our review of the Grado SR325x

Also consider the Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro X

Best over-ear headphones: wired and wireless pairs tested by our in-house experts

Dan Clark Audio is making some bold claims about its latest wired headphones. It says the Aeon Core set a new standard for closed-back headphones under the £1000 mark, thanks to their new planar magnetic driver, revised tuning and wider compatibility.

Believe it or not, like others in the Aeon line before them, these are the brand's entry-level pair. Which gives you an idea of its prestige.

It also claims that their sound is "unusually open" for a closed-back pair, delivering a "spacious, detailed, articulate and expressive" performance.

At the heart of these cans is the all-new planar magnetic driver stack, which promises efficiency, tonal consistency and unit-to-unit reliability. Dan Clark Audio claims this makes them easier to drive than most planar magnetic headphones, with their sensitivity reaching 97dB/mW making them compatible with portable DAC/amps, dongles and desktop setups, as well as more powerful headphone amps. All you need is 125mW into 16 ohms, and you're away.

This new stack features a new diaphragm material which enhances efficiency and reliability, while the brand's V-Planar tech is found on the diaphragm's surface to reduce distortion, enhance dynamic performance and optimise the frequency response.

The Aeon Core are also the first headphones to be developed using a new variation on the Harman Curve, the industry gold standard frequency response profile that Dan Clark Audio feel is now outdated due to modern sound measuring technologies. Company founder Dan Clark worked with original Harman Curve inventor Dr. Sean Olive to come up with an updated version.

Hence the tuning has been slightly tweaked from previous Aeon models. We're promised a slightly leaner upper bass, gently lifted lower midrange and softer upper midrange.

But from a design perspective, the cans are recognisably Dan Clark Audio. Their new aluminium and dark wood aesthetic combines with the signature Aeon earpads, lightweight titanium headband and self-adjusting suspension strap. At 440g, they might be light for a pair of planar magnetic headphones, but they're still heavier than the AirPods Max 2.

Bundled is a detachable cable with either a balanced 4.4mm, 4-pin XLR or 6.35/3.5mm connector – the choice is yours.

The Aeon Core go on sale in early July for £920 (around $1200 / AU$1700). In the UK, they're distributed by Electromod.

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The best wired headphones around

Sennheiser has expanded its wireless mid-range Accentum roster with a brand new pair of clip-on earbuds.

The new Accentum Clip are the company's first-ever clip-on wireless buds, joining the Accentum Open from last year. They aim to offer Sennheiser's "signature" sound with a more "user-aware" form factor.

The Accentum Clip house is a set of 12mm dynamic drivers tuned "for clarity and punchy bass", with a "smooth treble that is delightful to listen to in long stretches".

The new Sennheiser buds use 'Dynamic EQ' tech, which aims to let the buds maintain sonic balance and prevent distortion, regardless of the volume they're playing at.

Similar to the configuration of the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds or the Huawei FreeClip 2, a flexible silicone bridge connects the main bud body with the battery cylinder. Sennheiser promises a "secure, barely there" fit from the new Accentum Clip thanks to each earbud weighing a measly 6.8g. For runners, an IP54 rating protects against dust and sweat.

Despite their clip-on design, the new earbuds still feature textured touch controls for handling the likes of volume adjustment and voice calls.

The latest addition to the Accentum roster boasts nine hours of battery life from the earbuds and a total of 36 hours with the case. Rapid charge technology lets you enjoy two hours of listening from 10 minutes at the mains.

The new clip-on buds feature Bluetooth 6.0, with standard SBC and AAC sitting alongside the higher-quality LDAC codec for streaming high-res audio up to 32-bit/96kHz from a compatible source device.

For voice calls, each earbud features a dual-microphone system paired with an AI noise reduction algorithm to isolate the wearer’s voice from background noise.

According to Friederike Menking, Accentum Clip's Product Manager: “In creating Accentum Clip, we wanted to elevate the standard of acoustic performance that open earbuds have traditionally struggled with. Whether you are tackling productivity, out on your own adventures, or managing the transitions in between, its thoughtful design empowers you to navigate your world without sacrificing the essence of your music.”

The Accentum Clip are available from 23rd July in Black or Cream colourways, priced at £149 / €179 / AU$290.

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Check out our guide to the best wireless headphones we've tested and rated

In a sea of monochrome black and greige dominating the market, JBL’s Gen Z-friendly wireless headphones stand out by a mile.

Available in a variety of stylish colours – including the bright orange of our review sample – the JBL Live 780NC over-ears offer a playful and youthful contender that still ticks all the right boxes in this heaving market: good design, good sound, good price.

Price

Sandwiched between JBL’s premium Tour series and its more budget Tune range, the Live series of wireless headphones occupy a mid-range price bracket where there is a scarcity of five-star offerings.

At £170 / $250 / AU$300, the Live 780NC are a little over half the price of popular premium wireless over-ear headphones from Sony, Bose, Bowers & Wilkins and Sennheiser, but sit above the stupendously talented and budget Sony WH-CH720N, which can now be found for as little as £75 / $100 / AU$148.

The five-star Austrian Audio Hi-X25BT are available for £129 (around $199 / AU$269), but lack any active noise cancelling, while other headphones at this price – from Philips and Soundcore – haven’t quite made their mark. Plenty of opportunity for JBL to stand out, then.

Build & design

Whereas many affordable headphones around this price can feel rather plasticky and cheap in hand – understandably so to keep costs down – the JBL Live 780NC feel anything but. The materials are light enough to ensure the headphones are comfortable to wear, but also feel pleasantly smooth and high quality to the touch.

There is a mixture of materials and finishes here that could easily have looked and felt garish in less capable hands, but the sheen of the outer earcups and hinges blend with the matte finish of the headband and earcup housings in a subtle, stylish way.

The mix of plastic, metal and silicone here is certainly more premium feeling than the cheaper Sonys and the JBLs look more svelte than the functional Austrian Audios. We particularly like the knurled finish encircling the outer earcups – it’s a nice detail you normally wouldn’t see at this price.

If the orange finish of our review sample is too extrovert for you, there are more subdued green and blue hues, along with sandy, lilac and the standard black and white colours.

The headband feels sturdy, the leatherette earcups are comfortable with ample padding, and the clamping pressure is nicely judged. We perhaps would have liked a little more padding in the headband, but they don’t cause any discernible fatigue over long listening periods.

The metal sliders are nice to use, and there’s enough flex in the earcups to get a comfortable and secure fit for most of our review team.

You can fold the 780NC up into a ball or lay them flat around your neck, and they come with a soft, if somewhat thin, carry pouch.

You get a mix of physical buttons on the earcups – for power, ANC modes and volume – that are within easy reach, while tapping on the shiny outer cups lets you control music playback, calls and voice assistant. We found them all responsive in use, and you can further customise the touch and button controls in the JBL Headphones App.

One small quirk to remember is that the headphones will go into standby mode after a certain period of inactivity (you can choose the time in the app) if you forget to slide the power button to the ‘off’ position. To reconnect the pairing to your phone or device, simply turn it off and back on.

Features

Don’t worry too much if you forget to power-off the cans, though, as their battery life is massive. With active noise cancelling turned on, you get 50 hours, which extends to a whopping 80 hours with ANC turned off. We didn’t even have to glance at the battery level in the app throughout our testing period, and only charged the headphones out of habit after a week or so. A five-minute charge gives you four hours of juice, which meant we were always topped up.

Even more premium headphones such as the Sony and Bose models can only manage 30 hours with ANC activated, with Sennheiser’s Momentum 5 Wireless the only model to beat the JBL at 57 hours, while the HDB 630 goes further at 60 hours. The cheaper Sony 720N can only muster 35 hours with ANC on.

For wireless connections, the JBL headphones run on Bluetooth 6.0 and feature Auracast sharing and LE Audio, as well as the higher-quality LDAC codec when used with a compatible source device. If you prefer a wired connection, JBL provides a USB-C to 3.5mm audio cable in the box, so you can connect them to a 3.5mm-toting laptop or music player and enjoy a lossless performance. Just remember to power the JBLs on when listening in wired mode.

The headphones feature Multipoint Bluetooth, which allows you to easily switch between two connected devices, and they have proximity sensors to automatically stop playing audio when you take the headphones off your ears.

Head into the JBL Headphone app, and you’ll find a bunch of features and customisation options that you can tweak to your heart’s desire. Along with adjusting the various ANC modes, you can prioritise audio quality or video (the latter to reduce lip-sync issues), enable spatial audio modes, and there’s even a nifty ‘relax mode’ with nature sounds you can mix to create an ambient background for when you need to focus on writing, for example.

There are preset EQ modes as well as a 10-band equaliser to save your own tuning, and there’s a separate Personi-Fi portal that personalises the sound to your tastes further.

A neat party trick is that if you have one of JBL’s latest Bluetooth speakers, such as the Flip 7 or Go 5, you can use the Auracast button to beam music from the speaker to the Live 780NC headphones, with both playing in tandem.

There are plenty of more useful features to explore in the app, and you can also turn most settings off if you don’t want them.

ANC & call quality

The main settings you should explore are for noise cancelling. There are sliders available for the noise cancelling and ‘ambient aware’ modes, allowing you to choose the intensity of the noise cancelling or how much of the outside world you want to let in. You can also let JBL’s six microphones and real-time adjustment take over with the Adaptive ANC mode, which automatically adjusts the noise-cancelling levels to your surrounding environment.

The Live 780NC’s ANC quality is decent, cutting out much of the low-level deep rumbles of passing cars, train engines and exhaust fans. The noise-cancelling effect tends to focus more on those low-frequency noises, as we can still hear a fair bit of higher engine whines, train announcements and the chatter of people around us. These noises that sit in the mid and high frequency ranges are gently softened, but we’re still aware of them in full ANC mode.

It’s not the end of the world, and there is enough damping of the rumbly surrounding noises that the JBLs’ effect feels adequate at this level.

Call quality is decent for this level, too, with voices coming through with enough clarity, detail and solidity to be heard, although there is a slight hard, mechanical edge to the caller’s voice. Dual beamforming mics and an intelligent noise-cancelling algorithm mean voices should be distinctly heard even in windy, busy surroundings, and we found that surrounding noises didn’t intrude much upon our calls.

One neat thing about the JBL headphones is that, in the app, you can tweak the tone of your and the callers’ voices, as well as choose how much of your own voice you can hear in a call. We prefer keeping the voice settings on ‘natural’, but it’s worth exploring these settings if you’re in particularly noisy environments.

Sound

If we could use one word to describe the Live 780NC’s sound, it would be ‘comfortable’. The headphones’ character is easy to listen to, with a smoothness across the frequency range that is appealing from the moment you slip them on. There are no bright or hard edges at the top; the midrange is focused and detailed; the bass is plump.

Any spikiness at the top being smoothed off means you can listen to many hours of shredding guitars and heavy metal screaming without your ears getting fatigued, as we found by spending a long weekend getting reacquainted with Avenged Sevenfold’s back catalogue on Tidal.

This trade-off does mean that some of the crystal-clear high notes of the delicate piano in Birdy’s Shelter or the ferociously brash and dynamic upheavals of Fontaines DC’s Starburster are a little subdued.

There is enough detail on the bones and satisfying solidity underpinning each note to ensure the music doesn’t get neutered, though. Music flows well through them, with the personality and intent of each track – from A7X to Doechii to Hozier – coming through with plenty of expression in the mix.

Voices come through with ample personality when listening to podcasts and are easy to follow in the soundstage without ever sounding muddled.

There is a richness to the 780NC’s sound that feels as though it’s covered in a layer of thick syrup – but in a good way. It leaves us in a pleasant environment where you’re engulfed in the rich, layered textures, and that smoothness doesn’t work our sonic muscles too hard. The JBL cans have a more refined way with detail than the cheaper Sony 720N, but are less analytical than the Austrian Audios.

The headphones’ bass levels are overly enthusiastic, but you can tone them down a touch using the EQ settings. Basslines are not unsubtle or unwieldy though; they plunge deep and there’s enough bounce in their step as we play through our usual test tracks from Massive Attack's Paradise Circus to Dr Dre and Hans Zimmer soundtracks.

Overall, the 780NC have a good amount of rhythmic talent and dynamic expression to keep us listening throughout. The lower mids and bass frequencies simply could do with a leaner diet to give us cleaner, subtler layers with more satisfying punch.

Go wired and, while they retain the same rich, smooth character, everything sounds a little tidier around the edges, with subtler dynamics, greater solidity and more detail unearthed. The instruments in Khruangbin's Maria Tambien are etched more clearly and with crisper, sweeter highs, even if the bass notes are just as dominating.

Verdict

The JBL Live 780NC aren’t too expensive, aren’t too budget – they’re in that ‘Goldilocks zone’ that, while not perfect, comes very close to delivering everything in a good-sounding, well-designed, feature-packed package.

While not gaining the full five stars when it comes to sound, they’re an attractive pair we have no trouble recommending at this mid-price arena that is starved of exciting contenders. If you’re after a comfortable pair of headphones that you could spend hours with, these playful but capable JBL Live 780NC are worth your attention.

Review published: 16th June 2026

SCORES

• Sound 4
• Features 5
• Build 5

MORE:

Read our review of the Austrian Audio Hi-X25BT

Also consider the Sony WH-CH720N

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

Beyerdynamic has revealed its latest pair of wired in-ear headphones.

The new DT 30 IE are billed as affordable in-ear monitors aimed at "musicians who want to get the most out of their performance", with a durable design that has been built "to meet the demands of modern live performances".

The DT 30 IE house a pair of 11mm dynamic drivers to deliver what Beyerdynamic describes as "a balanced sound signature", while the headphones themselves have been designed to offer excellent passive noise isolation to grant performers and casual listeners alike a greater focus on their music.

Each earpiece weighs in at a modest 2.7g to reduce wearer fatigue, while three pairs of silicone ear tips and three pairs of foam tips – both in small, medium and large sizes – are included.

To protect the in-ears from the elements during rainy live performances, the DT 30 IE offer an admirable IP54 certification, which means they should survive water splashes from any direction. A 3.5mm-ended detachable cable further adds to the new in-ears' durability credentials thanks to its robust, Kevlar-reinforced design.

According to Kevin Nietsch, Product Manager for Pro Audio at Beyerdynamic: "With in-ear monitors for live use in particular, we often see compromises between sound quality, isolation and durability. With DT 30 IE, we aim to change that – by consistently bringing this valuable balance to the stage."

The Beyerdynamic DT 30 IE are available now, priced at £99 / €119.

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World Cup 2026: these are the 5 best headphones – wired and wireless – for keeping up with the football

The headphones World Cup: from Beats to Bose, which audio brands are winning over football's elite?

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What do headphones have to do with football? Shouldn't we be recommending you the best TVs for the World Cup, or at the very least, the best songs?

Those things are important, for sure, but a good pair of headphones could in fact make or break your summer of soccer in ways you hadn't previously considered.

What if you need a decent pair of cans to listen to those late-night games in private while the rest of the household is silently snoozing? What if you're following along on the radio, or on the move with your phone? What if you just want a good excuse to upgrade your headphones this summer, especially with Christmas being another six months away?

That's why we've compiled this handy rundown of the headphones, be they wired or wireless, that will help you get the most out of this summer's biggest sporting event. After all you don't just watch the football – you hear it.

SoundMagic E11C

The Soundmagic E11C are ideal World Cup wired earbuds for a couple of reasons.

For starters, they're 3.5mm ended, meaning that you can plug them directly into a radio, such as the portable Roberts Revival Petite 2, and follow all of the action without disturbing anyone else in the house.

Second, they're inexpensive. At around £35 at the time of writing, you're getting a pair of extremely competent wired in-ears for a very reasonable outlay, so that even if you only end up using them for World Cup listening and nothing else, you'll still have got your money's worth.

Finally, if you do end up using the E11C beyond July 19th's final, you'll have got yourselves an excellent pair of in-ears which blend clarity and entertainment to terrific effect. Plus, you'll be keeping up with the times – you know wired headphones are so hot right now?

Røde NTH-100

If you don't really get on with in-ear headphones but you still want a pair of wired cans for enjoying the football, the Røde NTH-100 are the next logical choice.

Like the E11C, they're 3.5mm-ended, facilitating a straight connection with compatible radios, laptops and other audio sources that may be beaming the football. They're also immensely comfortable and easy to get along with thanks to their Alcantara earpads, so it's unlikely that you'll feel fatigued by the time those 90 minutes are up.

Most importantly, the Røde NTH-100 are excellent budget over-ear headphones, and at around £110 / $130, you're getting immense quality for a very modest outlay. If you're in the market for great wired cans, the 2026 World Cup is your perfect excuse to snap up a set of multiple-Award-winners.

Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen)

While it was tempting to choose the Sony WF-1000XM6 or the Technics EAH-AZ100 over the flagship QuietComfort Earbuds Ultra (2nd Gen) as the best premium wireless earbuds, Bose's flagship buds do have a few tricks up their sleeve which make them ideal for following the football.

For a start, their noise cancelling is the best in the business, making them ideal for getting fully immersed in the games you're following – video or audio-only – without being distracted by the pesky outside world.

If you don't want to use pure noise cancelling, you can also give your QC Earbuds Ultra a quick tap to active 'Immersive Audio' to give your games a more cinematic, atmospheric flavour.

They're also some of the comfiest and most secure-fitting flagship buds around, and that makes them ideal for following the footie on the go. It's also a big bonus if you're someone who likes to fall asleep to the football (oh, those late night games) and don't want your precious buds making a break for freedom while you snooze.

Sennheiser Momentum HDB 630

If you're going to get yourself a set of World Cup headphones, you might as well go the whole hog and do things properly.

With that in mind, the Sennheiser HDB 630 are leading the charge as far as premium wireless over-ears are concerned. Their detail-rich sound is deeply impressive, especially when bolstered by the use of the cans' clever USB-C dongle for granting immediate aptX Adaptive powers, while their generously padded ear cushions make for a hugely comfortable fit.

They're also useful courtesy of the fact that the headphones offer both a 3.5mm and a USB-C termination for wired listening, meaning you've got a range of options, both wired and wireless, for how you tune in to the footie.

Sony WF-C710N

As a pair of reasonably cheap and incredibly cheerful pair of wireless earbuds for keeping up with the cup, nothing really comes close to the Sony WF-C710N.

Our current Award-winners in their given price class, the WF-C710N are just so good at squeezing out maximum levels of performance across every metric that really matters. They sound great, they're comfortable to wear, they're laden with features – including around 30 hours of battery life and excellent ANC – and they're built to last.

Our recommendation? Get them for the World Cup and then keep them forever.

MORE:

The headphones World Cup: from Beats to Bose, which audio brands are winning over football's elite?

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Audio-Technica has unveiled its latest ATH-WP900SE wired over-ear headphones, a limited edition spin on the brand's established ATH-WP900 cans.

Aimed at "listeners who appreciate both artistry and performance", the ATH‑WP900SEs take inspiration from classic electric guitar design, with the headphones' earcups featuring a three-tone sunburst lacquer that pays tribute to those classic axes of yore.

At the heart of the new wired over-ears headphones is a newly designed 53mm driver paired with an advanced voice coil, built to produce what Audio-Technica describes as "high-resolution sound across the entire frequency range".

Each pair is built in collaboration with Japanese guitar manufacturer Fujigen and includes a dedicated branded cleaning cloth and a handwritten serial number card, making each unit unique in its own right. Two detachable cables – 4.4 mm and standard 3.5 mm – are also included in the box.

The ATH-WP900SE will be available from the 11th of June, priced at £599 / €699.

This isn't the first time we've seen Audio-Technica produce a pair of wood-clad wired headphones. The ATH-WBLTD from 2024 blended a trio of maple, walnut, and mahogany hardwoods, although at £1599 / €1799 per pair, they'd cost you a good deal more than the new WP900SE.

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Footballers love their headphones, or at least they seem to. Barely a weekend goes by when we aren't greeted by a pre-match image of our favourite players getting off the team bus, inspecting the turf or psyching themselves up pitch-side, all with a pair of their favourite headphones jammed into their ears or hanging around their neck.

It makes sense. You need those tunes to get you pumped up before a big game, and blasting out a bit of heavy metal in the changing room via a Bluetooth speaker might not make you popular with a roster of teammates who prefer a nice bit of drill or EDM. We're not professional athletes, but it seems obvious that locker rooms are like public buses; it's best to keep your music listening private.

With the FIFA World Cup set to kick off this month, the necessity to get hyped has never been so potent for some of our favourite 'soccer' stars as they head to America. From Beats to Bowers & Wilkins, these are the headphones some of the most famous faces in football are taking to the biggest stage of all.

Kylian Mbappe – Loewe

The greatest players need the finest headphones to match. There's no question that Kylian Mbappé is one of the premier players on the planet, so it was unlikely that he would be heading to the World Cup with a tatty pair of wireless earbuds he found for £20 on Amazon.

Instead, we imagine that Kylian might have a pair of £1500 Loewe Leo wireless over-ears stashed in his hold-all instead. France's talisman is Loewe's big-name brand ambassador, modelling not only the aforementioned Leo but the chunky We. Hear Pro portable Bluetooth speaker.

Maybe the latter will emerge in the changing rooms as and when France start winning their group games.

Lionel Messi – Beats

Beats has a remarkable history of celebrity endorsements, especially from athletes.

The brand's marketing strategy throughout the 2000s and 2010s was centred on inserting itself into the public consciousness by having Beats products appear constantly in music videos, at major sporting events, in TV shows and more.

In fact, you couldn't consider yourself a big-name celebrity or top-level athlete if Beats wasn't courting your attention, with the likes of LeBron James, Shohei Ohtani, Tom Brady, Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka all enjoying sponsorship deals at some time or another.

Beats has repeated the trick by nabbing Lionel Messi as a brand ambassador, so expect to see the GOAT with a pair of cans with a big bold 'B' emblazoned on the side when you tune in to watch Argentina.

Virgil Van Dijk and Declan Rice – JBL

It makes sense for JBL to collaborate with the biggest names in the world of football.

The US company has always been pretty good at knowing its target audience and then catering to it in both the way it makes products and how it sells them to its core demographics.

JBL has snagged the services of quite a few high-profile leather-kickers in recent times, with Liverpool centre back Virgil Van Dijk and Arsenal stalwart Declan Rice being two of its major supporters.

Both will feature heavily for their respective nations, the Netherlands and England, during the World Cup, though we'd be surprised if either actually wears a pair of JBL headphones while on the pitch. They'd fall off when you went in for a header...

David Beckham – Bowers & Wilkins

In case you hadn't noticed, David Beckham is no shrinking violet. The England icon lends his visage to Stella Artois beer, Hugo Boss clothing, Pepsi soda and the Shark Ninja air fryer, to name but a few. Slip him £100 and he'll probably turn up at your child's birthday party.

He appears so frequently in the public eye that we wouldn't be surprised if he's cloned himself in a bid to get to as many high-profile events as he possibly can in a single calendar year.

Air fryers and draft beer aside, he is also the handsome face of Bowers & Wilkins' range of premium headphones, including the five-star Px7 S3 wireless over-ears and the Award-winning Pi8 true wireless earbuds, so he's certainly got taste when it comes to audio.

Whether it's by the pitch, at the stadiums or in the mid-match adverts, you're going to be seeing quite a lot of Golden Balls at the 2026 World Cup. Not bad for a man who retired over ten years ago.

Mika Bireth and Falorin Balogun – Bang & Olufsen

Ok, this might be the coolest partnership in all of sport. AS Monaco have always been one of the most glamorous sides in the French Ligue 1. B&Os' reputation for blending high-end audio with luxury design is legendary. Talk about a match made in heaven.

The team houses four big-name B&O ambassadors. Denmark's Mika Bireth and the USA's Folarin Balogun are two of AS Monaco's representatives playing at the biggest international tournament football has to offer. Meanwhile, their Monaco teammates, Paul Pogba and Eric Dier, won't be representing their respective nations this time around, but they are major names who will also be wearing B&O cans, albeit on the sidelines.

Harry Kane – Our Pure Planet

Bless Harry Kane, he really does seem like one of the good guys. He's also pretty handy at football, in case you hadn't noticed.

The English icon has been banging in goals for Bayern Munich at a near-unprecedented rate over the last couple of seasons. Between matches, he's managed to find some time out of his busy net-ripping schedule to partner with eco-audio brand Our Pure Planet, becoming both a company co-owner and big-name global ambassador.

We don't know how Harry's headphones sound or how comfortable they are, but that's not exactly the point. Our Pure Plant's aim is to, according to its website, "reduce plastic, offset carbon, and minimise paper waste "by using up to 80% recycled plastics and metals in its products."

Eschewing massive audio brands in favour of endorsing an environmentally sustainable newbie? He's a good lad, our Harry.

MORE:

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Want the headphones of champions? Read our list of the best wireless headphones

Apple has announced iOS 27 during its WWDC26 keynote, and it comes with a major upgrade for AirPods users.

The latest version of Apple's mobile operating system comes with a revamped interface for AirPods, with a more customisable EQ interface that will allow for greater sound customisation.

Apple briefly showed the new user interface screen during its presentation; included were "recommended" and "custom" options. Below is where you'll find a graph-style interface, which allows users to specifically tweak low, mid and high frequencies.

Apple has also included a note that reads: "AirPods are designed and engineered by Apple to faithfully represent music, TV shows, movies, and calls. If you prefer a different sound profile, you can customise how AirPods represent any audio played."

This signals to us that these EQs will be applied to anything played through your AirPods. Previously, Apple has offered custom EQ options through Apple Music, but these only apply to music played through the service.

Furthermore, Apple has buried a very small selection of pre-set EQ profiles within the accessibility section of the Settings app since iOS 14; but they're more rigid, pre-defined options, including "balanced tone", "vocal range", and "brightness".

While we'll need to wait until iOS 27 launches later this year, it will be interesting to see if this software update will make the five-star AirPods Pro 3 even better, or even improve the four-star AirPods Max 2.

iOS 27 is coming to all iPhones from the iPhone 11 onwards, including the Award-winning iPhone 17.

MORE:

Check out our picks for the best AirPods

As well as our Apple AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation review

And check out the best AirPods alternatives

Noble Audio has announced its latest wireless over-ear headphones, the FoKus Artemis. Expanding on the design of its debut over-ear headphones, the FoKus Apollo – which boasted a world-first design by combining two different types of driver – the Artemis take things one step further, adding yet another driver to the mix.

Priced at £799 / $899 / €949, the new high-end wireless headphones enter the ring against serious competitors such as the Focal Bathys and Dali IO8, both of which we reviewed at five stars.

In this latest design, Noble has used a combination of dynamic, planar and balanced armature drivers to achieve what it promises to be “powerful, spacious and refined” sound.

With support for Bluetooth 5.4 and multipoint connectivity, the Artemis have been designed for easy switching between connected devices. But those of you who prefer wired headphones, worry not, they also support wired listening thanks to a supplied USB-C to 3.5mm adaptor cable.

A six-microphone array within the headphones enables Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) and Transparency Mode for blocking out or letting in environmental sound. Proximity sensors have also been included, which pause audio when the headphones are removed and restart it when they are put back on.

Developed for use alongside Audiodo Personal Sound, the Artemis allow users to create personalised sound profiles to suit their hearing preferences. This is done via guided hearing assessments, all of which, Noble promises, will be integrated into the refreshed Noble FoKus app in time for release.

With a fully self-replaceable battery which Noble claims lasts up to 50 hours – lowering to 35 hours with ANC enabled – the headphones sport decent battery life for this premium price.

The wireless headphones weigh less than 350g and feature a fully rotating design, replaceable ear cushions and magnetic detachable ear pads. They come with an IP52 dust- and water-resistance rating.

The Noble FoKus Artemis will be on show at High End Vienna from 4th June, with pre-orders opening the same day. Shipping is expected in July.

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After the OpenDots One, come the OpenDots 2. But while Shokz's naming convention might have changed, there are plenty of similarities between the two pairs.

The OpenDots 2 once again feature an open earbud design that don't feature eartips, so outside sounds are let in to keep you constantly aware of your surroundings. They also clip onto your ear for a more secure fit, which is handy if you're partaking in a vigorous sport like running.

But there are some improvements, which are welcome, especially given the OpenDots One only scored three out of five in our review.

Notably, they should sound better. Bassphere 2.0 promises sound that's clearer, louder and richer, and with less distortion. Shokz's MirrorPitch tech angles the sound into the ear, making it sound fuller, bassier and more focussed, while upgraded Dolby Audio "creates a more lifelike and spacious soundstage".

There's a dedicated bone-conduction microphone alongside dual air-conduction mics to focus on voices and make calls clearer. Adaptive beamforming and AI noise reduction should minimise background sounds.

There are new controls, too, in the form of force sensor buttons that let you tap, pinch or hold to control your music and calls. You can also switch the earbuds between ears, as the dynamic ear detection automatically adjusts the audio accordingly.

Battery life is impressive. You get 10 hours from a single charge and up to 40 hours with the charging case, though it's worth noting there's no active noise cancellation to sap the battery. That's the same battery life as their predecessors, and way longer than both the Sony LinkBuds Open and Bose Ultra Open Earbuds.

They also have Qi-certified wireless charging, and are rated IP57 (IP54 for the case).

They're joined by the OpenDots Air, which are slightly cheaper, more colourful and have fewer features. They lack the OneDots 2's JointArc structure with flexible nickel titanium plate, the bone conduction mic, have a more basic Bassphere acoustic technology (the OpenDots 2 have Bassphere 2.0), and a slightly shorter battery life.

They come in Daybreak Purple and Black and cost £129 / $129 (around AU$240), while the OpenDots 2 come in Pearl White, Grey and Black and cost £179 / $199 (around AU$340). Both pairs are out now.

We were impressed by the OpenDots One's bass performance, but the low end could have used more subtlety and nimbleness. Let's hope the sequel pairs fair rather better.

MORE:

Read our Shokz OpenDots One review

And our Sony LinkBuds Open review

Also consider the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds

Meze Audio, the Romanian brand responsible for the 99 Classics and Empyrean II, has returned with a new high-end pair of wired over-ear headphones.

The company says the new ARTA headphones are “a passion-project years in the making”, offering the “most immersive” sonic experience it has ever created.

We hope so, considering the ARTA’s eye-watering estimated price of £6000 / $6000. That makes this Meze’s most expensive pair of headphones to date.

To achieve the ARTA’s “warm-neutral sound signature”, Meze has used a high impedance isodynamic hybrid array from Rinaro.

Founded in Ukraine (then part of the USSR) during the Cold War, Rinaro has spent more than three decades developing planar magnetic drivers. This array, which employs Rinaro’s highest-impedance planar magnetic headphone driver to date, uses the company’s significant experience to deliver a “rich speaker-like presentation”.

Meze says listeners can expect “cleaner transients and a more open presentation” from the ARTA, achieved by way of the cans’ grille, which uses angled acoustic blades to minimise soundwave reflections inside the headphones.

The bulkiest headphones in Meze’s roster, these premium cans weigh in at a hefty 495g. But what they might lack in nimbleness, they make up for in beauty.

With their sleek acoustic grille and matte black finish with metallic accents, the headphones are a true feast for the eyes.

What’s more, the ARTA look likely to live up the luxurious feel we so enjoyed from Meze’s other over-ear headphones, with carbon fibre, leather and quality metals used in their construction.

And wouldn’t it be a shame for any of that to go to waste? Certainly, for the price. Thankfully, the ARTA’s earpads, headband, drivers and earcups can be fully disassembled, serviced and replaced as required.

We don’t yet know what choice of cables will be available with the headphones, but we hope to get further details at their public debut on 4th June at High End Vienna.

The ARTA’s market availability will be announced soon through Meze Audio’s official channels.

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Meze's premium over-ears deploy newly-tuned dynamic drivers for an "articulate, emotionally engaging" listen

High End Vienna 2026: all the news and what to expect from Europe's biggest hi-fi show

Renowned for high-end in-ear headphones such as the Kronos, Noble Audio is bringing its boutique approach to a more widely accessible price point with the new Osprey wireless earbuds.

Despite not being as costly as the premium Fokus Amadeus, the Osprey has had no detail spared in its design. It sports a striking marbled aesthetic finish, keeping it in line with the glamour of other Noble offerings. The charging case, which is made of aluminium, further enhances the premium feel.

At the heart of the earbuds’ design is a hybrid dual-driver configuration, which pairs a 10mm dynamic driver with a custom balanced armature to achieve, says Noble, “confident, controlled bass, a natural and expressive midrange, and clean, extended highs”.

Supporting Bluetooth 5.4, featuring the high-quality LDAC alongside standard SBC and AAC codecs, the earbuds also offer multipoint connectivity and TrueWireless Mirroring to allow easy switching between connected devices. They can also be used in conjunction with the Noble Audio app, which offers EQ modes and firmware updates.

The earbuds come with Active Noise Cancellation to block out external sounds, while Hearing Through mode acts as an ambient or transparency mode to let outside sounds in. Integrated clear voice capture technology and dual microphones are used to ensure clearer voice calls.

The Osprey’s battery life is somewhat shorter than its premium counterparts’, offering seven hours of reliable playback with active noise cancellation disabled, and five with ANC on. The charging case extends this total listening time, allowing four additional full charges for 35 hours of playback. A 10-minute quick charge via USB-C will also provide two extra hours of playback.

The Noble Osprey will cost you £199 / €225 / $199, just shy of the five star Sony WF-1000XM6, which is our most highly recommended premium wireless earbuds.

If the Osprey’s ambitious design is enough to tempt you, pre-orders open on 4th June, with shipping expected by the end of the month. The earbuds will also be available to try at the High End Vienna 2026 showcase.

MORE

FiiO teases a trio of new desktop hi-fi products for Vienna High End show

With a whopping 13 drivers, Noble's luxury IEMs have enough firepower to make a samurai tremble

What are the best Bluetooth codecs? aptX, AAC, LDAC and more explained

We’re tempted to call Sennheiser the ‘dark horse’ of wireless headphones.

After all, our best buys have, in more recent times, been stacked to the brim with offerings from the likes of Apple, Bose and, more than any other, Sony, so it has been easy to forget the many qualities that Sennheiser brings to this particular slice of the audio terrain.

Let’s not forget, however, that this is a brand that has been around since 1945, a brand that, when not making the occasional microphone or soundbar, has built its reputation at the sharp end of both wired and wireless headphone production.

Perhaps ‘sleeping giant’ would have been a more apt moniker.

Admittedly, Sennheiser hasn’t quite been as prolific as its esteemed rivals when it comes to the actual volume of products sent to market. And the company’s ongoing search for a buyer since Swiss owner Sonova put its headphone division up for sale has naturally made waters all the choppier. From what we have seen of Sennheiser recently, though, it is still more than capable of taking the fight to the very best in the business.

The sound of success

We wonder if the release of the five-star HDB 630 will end up becoming something of a defining moment for Sennheiser.

Released just a few months before the announcement that the company’s headphone division was going up for sale – with some doom-mongers rather rashly predicting the death of entire brand – the audiophile-tuned HDB 630 now look like a major signal of intent.

We’ve always known that this is a brand capable of excellence in the wired space, though it had been a while since Sennheiser had properly flexed its wireless muscles. The soon to be phased out mid-priced Accentum line, including the Accentum Wireless and Accentum Wireless Plus over-ears, had failed to set the world alight, and it had been almost four years since we’d heard a hint of any addition to the premium Momentum Wireless range.

Rival standards were high, too. The Sony WH-1000XM6 looked unassailable at their £400 / $450 / AU$699 price, while the likes of Bowers & Wilkins, Bose, Apple and Dali were all also vying for the crown. Competition was, is, and probably always will be, incredibly fierce.

Yet the HDB 630 really pulled it out of the bag. Sennheiser’s outstanding cans set a new standard of wireless sound at this level, thanks in part to their clever bundled Bluetooth dongle, with a sonic performance that blew most of their competitors out of the water. Including Sony.

As we say in our review: “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.”

The Momentum 5 Wireless have repeated a similar trick, and while they’re not as boundary-pushing as the HDB 630, their aggressive price tag (£330 / $400 / AU$749) and rich, smooth sound make them a very fine alternative to the Sonys and B&Ws of this world.

Two five-star pairs with a strong focus on stellar sound and plenty of features in tow. If that isn't a warning to rivals to sit up and take notice, we don't know what is.

Take a chance on me

God loves a trier, but He also favours those who take a few risks.

It feels as though Sennheiser has recognised a need to innovate in order to get ahead of a crowded pack, and while the temptation to go in for zippy gimmicks and check-box features must have pulled hard, resisting such inclinations has paid dividends.

As has putting efforts into genuinely constructive innovation. We gave significant attention to the bundled Bluetooth dongle when reviewing the Sennheiser HDB 630 last year, and not without reason: it turned out to be the premium over-ears’ small-but-mighty secret weapon.

Essentially, it’s a clever little USB accessory that gives your phone or other audio source the same high-quality Bluetooth codec the headphones themselves support, meaning you have improved codec-support from devices which might not normally (we’re looking at you, iPhone) have supported them.

That’s a big deal, and as we wrote at the time, the “dongle proves a valuable accessory. When connected to an iPhone 16 and old Samsung Galaxy S21, upgrading their respective AAC and aptX connectivity with the headphones to aptX Adaptive, the presentation gains in clarity and solidity.”

The Momentum 5 Wireless have kept up with the times, too. There’s no dongle to be found, but with extensive codec support, wired listening via USB-C and 3.5mm, Dolby Atmos all on board, Sennheiser’s flagships have kept up admirably with the likes of the Sony WH-1000XM6 and the Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3. 57 hours of battery life with ANC on doesn’t exactly hurt, either.

The new Momentum 5 Wireless don’t necessarily have the most features of any premium pair, but in terms of quality, they’re up there with the best.

A case of re-taken identity

Perhaps ironically, and certainly impressively, Sennheiser seems to have re-found and re-established its identity at a time of not-inconsiderable uncertainty.

While the likes of the Accentum line and the disappointing Sennheiser Momentum Sport earbuds seemed to play it safe with a flat, tonally grey sound, the premium Momentum 5 Wireless and HDB 630 feel like Sennheiser returning to a place where it is the most confident and comfortable.

In fact, when we spoke recently to the German manufacturer about where it saw its future, there was a clear statement that the Momentum Wireless line would be a prospective listeners’ “entry point” into the world of Sennheiser sound.

From there, they could progress to the HDB 630 and beyond into even more premium and high-end wired options. But the message was clear: Sennheiser would be providing audiophile-type performance to proper enthusiasts.

It appears to be a sensible move. Sennheiser does great work when it targets this more audiophile-centric side of the landscape – just see the wired Sennheiser HD 820 for proof – and with so many brands already targeting mass production of cheaper, spec-heavy wireless earbuds and headphones, it make sense to stick to more rarefied territory.

And, from what we’ve heard, it’s what the company seems to rather good at.

Sennheiser’s resurgence feels like a good thing for the wireless headphones industry.

It’s good for customers to have a healthy number of options when picking out a potential product; it’s good for the market not to be strangled for a monopoly; and it’s good for rival companies to compete with one another for supremacy in order to push the needle of quality ever forward.

When working as it’s supposed to, that’s sort of the point of a free market, isn’t it?

Producing two or three excellent pairs of headphones doesn’t suddenly make you the king, especially with the likes of Sony putting out five-star headphones across the cost spectrum, over many successive years. What they do indicate, though, is that Sennheiser feels like a company finding its groove again, and, in the midst of a potentially turbulent time, re-establishing its identity amid a sea of change and challengers.

If a worthy successor to the Momentum True Wireless 4 earbuds also ends up landing later this year, we might end up looking back at 2026 as being the year of Sennheiser.

MORE:

Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless vs Sony WH-1000XM6: which premium wireless headphones are better?

"Sound comes first" – we speak to Sennheiser about German engineering, changing ownership, and 80 years of making music

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

Yamaha’s return to the high-end headphone scene in late 2022 could hardly have gone any better. Its comeback YH-5000SE open-backs made headlines and scooped awards around the world for their extraordinary sound and, yes, price tag.

We called them “exceptional performers” in our YH-5000SE review and decorated them with a What Hi-Fi? Temptation Award. But for all their success, it was hard to ignore the fact that they were only accessible to those who could slap down the price of a second-hand SUV on their next pair of headphones. Cans for every music-loving Tom, Dick and Harry, they are not.

At the time, the Japanese company teased that a more affordable version could be coming down the road, and a few years later it finally delivered on that with the YH-4000 (and closed-back YH-C3000). Much to our delight, the YH-4000 are less than half the price of the YH-5000SE and, even more pleasingly, don’t compromise heavily on the physical design or engineering.

So are they the bargains of the century, or do the pricier OGs justify their premium? As part of our YH-4000 review testing, we compared both pairs’ sound, build, comfort and accessories to find out…

Yamaha YH-5000SE vs YH-4000: price

The Yamaha YH-5000SE launched in December 2022 at £4799 / $5000 / AU$7499, making them some of the world’s most expensive headphones, and that price has held up well.

Besides the headphones themselves, the cost includes a second type of earpads, a 4.4mm balanced cable and a headphone stand.

The YH-4000, meanwhile, arrived in January 2026 at a much more palatable, albeit still high-end, price of £2199 / $2499 / AU$3999.

They forgo the generous array of accessories bundled with the YH-5000SE, sticking to the more typical headphone offering – one set of earpads, a single-ended cable and a carry case. Their price tag puts them in the ballpark of other acclaimed open-backs, such as the Austrian Audio The Composer.

**Winner: Yamaha YH-4000**

Yamaha YH-5000SE vs YH-4000: build & design

We praised the YH-5000SE for being “one of the most comfortable headphones we’ve worn”, owing to their relative lightweight (320g) and a combination of a wide leather headband, large, softly cushioned earpads (one set is made from sheepskin leather, the other Toray Ultrasuede) and a carefully judged clamping pressure.

Within their magnesium open-back earcup housings are Dutch weave stainless steel filters and specially shaped internals that carefully control directivity and manage pressure around the planar magnetic drive unit.

The YH-4000 use the same 50mm orthodynamic (planar magnetic) driver as the YH-5000SE. The only difference is that in the YH-4000, Yamaha has tweaked the damping and revised the internal filter, which balances the pressure inside the earcup.

Neither pair may not look particularly flash – they wouldn’t stand a chance in a beauty contest next to the likes of the Focal Utopia or Meze Audio Empyrean II – but their functional, industrial aesthetic is far from offensive and, most importantly, is built with obvious care to the standards you would expect at this price.

Such is the visual similarity between them and the YH-4000, that a ‘spot the difference’ game between the two pairs would fall under a ‘Challenging’ difficulty level.

The particularly keen-eyed will spot some things, however, such as the YH-5000SE’s brighter steel headband, flashes of silver in the centre of the earcups, and silver (as opposed to black) screws. The YH-5000SE’s single-ended cable also comes with a more advanced design.

Essentially, the less-expensive YH-4000 are physically almost identical to their siblings, with the only truly meaningful difference between the two from a design standpoint being the extra accessories bundled with the pricier pair.

So it isn’t surprising that we also heaped praise on the YH-4000 in our review, calling its fit, finish and material quality “top-class” and “designed to last for decades”.

Such similarity isn’t typical between headphones of such wildly varying asking prices, and value-wise certainly falls in favour of the more affordable pair.

That said, value aside, the YH-5000SE’s extra little touches do edge it, and their bundled accessories will undoubtedly appeal to hardcore head-fi fans.

**Winner: Yamaha YH-5000SE**

Yamaha YH-5000SE vs YH-4000: sound

Even more surprisingly, given the gulf between the two pairs’ prices, it’s another case of comparability when it comes to performance.

While the YH-5000SE do edge the comparison, delivering small advantages in terms of absolute detail resolution and dynamic finesse, the YH-4000 share their sonic character and offer a great deal of their siblings’ talent – certainly more than you might expect considering their relative price.

Value-wise, that makes them the better performance-per-pound (or dollar) proposition.

“Rarely have we come across a piece of hi-fi that’s so capable of putting a spotlight on the smallest of details but still encourages the full musical experience to shine through,” our expert reviewers noted in our YH-5000SE review.

Both pairs are indeed exquisitely detailed and deliver a class-leading level of clarity, but also responsive, precise and agile enough to be hugely entertaining as well as informative.

While some may believe the YH-4000 and YH-5000SE verge on being over-analytical – a view we can have some sympathy for – they don’t lack character for that; they both have excellent rhythm and timing and can carry the ebb and flow of a track beautifully.

They are “organic and fluid in a way that makes most others sound pretty mechanical”, and “never sound flustered, no matter how complicated a piece of music gets,” we said.

They aren’t the most muscular or dramatically dynamic headphones we’ve come across – the aforementioned Austrian Audios have greater punch while the Focal Utopia (2022) drive harder – but their tonal naturalness and the textures and subtleties they can dig up, plus their ability to track each note and convey leading edges crisply without veering into hardness, are where the Yamaha headphones pull well clear of most competitors.

They’re wonderfully articulate performers that deliver a degree of finesse we go as far as calling “spellbinding”.

Again, comparisons between the two pairs highlighted minor discrepancies in the YH-5000SE’s favour. With either model, be aware that sophisticated electronics – something of the Chord Hugo TT2 DAC/headphone amplifier’s ilk, say – are necessary to take full advantage of the headphones’ talents.

**Winner: Yamaha YH-5000SE**

Yamaha YH-5000SE vs YH-4000: verdict

In absolute terms, the YH-5000SE are the slightly better headphones of the two, edging the head-to-head with modest improvements across the sound and design departments. But when you factor in just how much more affordable the YH-4000 are, the value pendulum swings enthusiastically in the other direction.

Indeed, Yamaha has done a fine job of bringing its flagship sound quality to a wider market, even if that market remains thoroughly within the realms of the ‘high-end’. Its engineers went ‘all out’ with the YH-5000SE, spending years successfully crafting a pair that would make a real mark and impression on the established head-fi market and its fans.

The YH-4000, however, somehow manage to be an even bigger achievement given the level of construction and engineering they retain while being much more attainable. Put simply, we haven’t heard anything else at this level that tells us more about the recording.

**Overall winner: Yamaha YH-4000**

MORE:

These are the best headphones, tested by our experts

And our best DAC recommendations

How to choose the right pair of headphones for you

Following the recent announcement of the K17 R2R Pro music streamer, FiiO will be adding three more products to its line-up for this year’s High End Vienna 2026 show.

Its latest teaser will please headphone and speaker enthusiasts alike, with news of the new JT9 open-back headphones, the Class A Headphone Amplifier and Level 1 stereo amplifier.

Leading the announcement is the Level 1 amplifier, a retro-styled and compact high-resolution desktop stereo amp rated at 300W of power. It uses an internal DAC based on a Texas Instruments chip.

Physical inputs include RCA line in, USB, and coaxial, while Bluetooth 6.0 connectivity with LDAC codec support lets you stream wirelessly from mobile devices. FiiO has also included dedicated subwoofer and pre-out connections, alongside chunky bass and treble controls for an old-school feel.

The amplifier comes in a wood-accented aluminium chassis, giving it a high-class look for the price, announced at rather competitive $139 / £139.

Further additions to its desktop range include the new FiiO JT9 open-back planar magnetic headphones, which include a custom 95 x 86mm planar driver and ultra-thin diaphragm. Featuring FiiO’s patented dual-coating and uniform magnetic field design, the JT9 promises enhanced “transient performance and tonal accuracy”.

With a claimed 365g weight and foldable design, the JT9 should be comfortable to wear and easy to store despite that large planar driver architecture. The headphones should be easily compatible with a host of devices, with a sensitivity rating of 95dB/mW and both 3.5mm and balanced 4.4mm cables included in the box.

FiiO is also planning to release its new Class A Headphone Amplifier. Aimed at fans of high-end headphones, this fully discrete design offers two channels of 1000mW output power, with five selectable gain levels and independent bass and treble controls.

The headphone amplifier’s other features include 3.5mm and 4.4mm headphone connections alongside XLR and RCA inputs and outputs.

We don’t have full pricing details for the JT9 and Class A Headphone Amplifier yet, but they are due to be announced at the Vienna High End show on the 4th of June.

MORE:

Read our FiiO FT3 review

Best headphone amplifiers 2026: 7 top picks to boost your personal listening

Tannoy teases exclusive limited-edition speakers to mark its 100th anniversary

In case you hadn't noticed, wired headphones are having a bit of a moment.

Our Editor-In-Chief, Alastair Stevenson, first questioned whether wired headphones were the new vinyl back in February, when a slew of publications reported that young people were embracing the now-retro technology, inspired by celebrities such as Harry Styles, Zendaya and Jacob Elordi.

Any fears that this was a one-off trend were seemingly quashed in May, when it was reported that wired headphone revenue was up 20 per cent in the first six weeks of 2026, and yet more articles flooded the web with images of wire-laden celebrities such as Zoë Kravitz and Lily-Rose Depp. Heck, there's even an Instagram account dedicated to the trend, with wireditgirls now boasting 20,000 followers.

It was enough to convince Lewis Empson (one of our senior staff writers) to trade his Award-winning wireless earbuds for a pair of wired earbuds for the first time in five years, where he wasn't quite converted but did discover some audio and quality-of-life upgrades.

Despite being a similar age to Lewis, this wasn't an experiment I could do – because, well, I never really stopped using wired earbuds.

I'm sure this won't be particularly big news to some in the audiophile community. But for my generation, to rock up to social events as a twenty-something with my wired earbuds plugged in was a bit of a social faux pas that would often lead to some bewildered comments.

Don't get me wrong, I have and continue to use Bluetooth earbuds. They continue to be my listening device of choice, and are invaluable for activities such as exercise or chores. But I've always had a cheap pair of wired earbuds on me too – and with a pair of Røde NTH-100 on my desk as well, I can't see myself ever truly cutting the cord.

The case for wired headphones

As you've probably seen championed here on What Hi-Fi?, one of the biggest advantages of wired headphones is audio quality.

Especially given the number of features expected these days, wireless headphones often have the cost split between several different parts – the drivers, amps, the Bluetooth receiver, the mics, the processor etc. All of which leaves little for manufacturers to spend on the actual sound quality.

Not with wired headphones. Sure, there are fewer features, but what you will get is a product more dedicated to sound reproduction. Gone is the lossy Bluetooth connection, and with a decent pair of wired headphones, you'll get a performance that will beat any similarly priced wireless offering.

And that's what I have with my Røde NTH-100. Sure, it's on the more budget end of the products we test, but the sound is far more revealing than the wireless sets I've owned, especially when plugged into my iFi Go Link Max too.

However, given that the Gen Z wired earbud of choice is £19 EarPods, it doesn't seem likely that audio quality is the main reason behind the recent revival. It seems that intentionally choosing a cheap, everyman, wired pair is part of the appeal, a rebellion against Big Tech and its ever-rising costs.

And I'm inclined to agree. While this may seem like heresy to admit in a hi-fi magazine, I have always had a sub-£10, somewhat disposable pair of wired earbuds as a backup, often the in-ear Blukar K9201. While they're certainly not going to trouble any of our current Award winners, they do actually sound surprisingly musical for their price, with an in-ear design that fits and performs far better than the EarPods in my opinion. And they've been a lifesaver more than once.

Several years ago, I accidentally left one of my beloved Sony WF-1000XM3 earbuds on a train. I had to pay £130 for a new one, while also sending the remaining earbud and case to Sony for several weeks. Not really wanting to shell out much more for a temporary replacement, a wired pair was my cheapest option. And while they quite clearly did not have the musical chops of the premium XM3, having wallet-friendly access to any form of headphones was invaluable.

When an XM3 earbud inexplicably went missing yet again just over a year later, the temptation to give up on wireless altogether was there. For all their faults, losing my budget wired buds in all their tangled glory was proving to be a much harder affair.

In fact, there have been several times when having a wired pair on me has proved beneficial, however budget they were. Every time I've got on a flight, I've never had to use the truly awful complimentary earphones, instead being able to plug in my own and having no issues hearing the in-flight entertainment.

Every time my Bluetooth earbuds have run out of battery, refused to connect or I've forgotten how to pair them, I can quickly whip out my wired pair instead. And if there's been anywhere I've not wanted to risk taking my premium £250 earbuds, whether a night out or a remote backpacking holiday, I've got fewer qualms about taking my reliable budget pair.

They were also rather useful for the Nintendo Switch, which didn't support Bluetooth audio for over four years and even now is still rather laggy.

The case against wired headphones

I'm sure you don't need me to go in-depth on the drawbacks of wired headphones. The ever-tangling wires are restrictive as soon as you need to start moving anywhere, and they lack advanced features such as noise-cancelling and waterproofing.

It's also becoming increasingly hard to find devices with 3.5mm headphone jacks. Ever since Apple removed the audio port from the iPhone 7 in 2016, most smartphone manufacturers have followed suit, essentially forcing most consumers onto Bluetooth. My trusty Asus ZenFone 10 has a headphone jack, but otherwise I'd need to take an adapter with me and choose between charging or wired music.

So am I going back to fully wired? No. But I don't think I'll ever embrace wireless completely either. The beauty of switching between the two means I get the best of both worlds – including when one of them suddenly becomes trendy again.

MORE:

Check out our picks for the best wireless earbuds

As well as the best wired earbuds

And read our full Sony WF-1000XM6 review

Sennheiser or Sony?

It's a tough question to answer, especially when both brands have put out two pairs of premium headphones – the Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless and the Sony WH-1000XM6 – adorned with glowing five-star reviews. How do you choose between two sets of over-ears from two brands working at the top of their game?

That question is only made harder by the fact that the Sennheisers are a chunk cheaper than the Sonys, meaning that price is becomes a new dimension to this already tricky conundrum. The Momentum 5 Wireless are newer, too, so now age becomes a factor to add to the mélange, and that's before we consider the usual aspects of sound quality, features, build, comfort etc.

It's a lot to consider, but don't worry, we're here to help. We've broken down the virtues and vices of these outstandingly capable noise cancelling cans to put you in the best position possible to find exactly what you're looking for.

Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless vs Sony WH-1000XM6: price

Competition at this level is fierce, but the Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless do have price on their side. At £330 / $400 / AU4749, they're cheaper than many of their premium rivals, and a good deal less than the £400 / $450 / AU$699 asking price of the Sony WH-1000XM6.

We'd caveat that slightly by mentioning the fact that the XM6's price can drop a little during sales events, though never so drastically as to come close to the price of the Sennheisers. Not yet, anyway.

In short, a clear win for the Momentum 5 Wireless for value.

** Winner: Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless **

Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless vs Sony WH-1000XM6: build and comfort

We're keen on the build and design of these rival pairs, though not necessarily for exactly the same reasons.

The Momentum 5 Wireless may be the cheaper of the two, but if anything they exude a higher perceived value than their slightly functional-looking Sony WH-1000XM6. Little touches, such as the headband’s attractive fabric exterior, go a long way to making the Momentum 5 Wireless feel more premium, and while the XM6 are well made, they keep things functional and decidedly un-flashy on the aesthetics front.

The fabric exterior of the Sennheisers' headband and carry case grant them a suave appeal, and our only real reservation is that the earcups feel just a little cheap and plasticky to the touch.

The Sonys are made pretty much entirely of plastic too, but their overall construction feels more durable and robust. They have the added bonus of folding away completely, something which the Momentum 5 can't do.

The WH-1000XM6 weigh in at 254g, a good deal lighter than the 290g of the Sennheisers, while their nicely judged clamping force and firm-yet-forgiving earpads rarely put our our ears under any undue strain or causing excess overheating over time.

To be fair to them, the Momentum 5 Wireless are also comfortable. We spend a long time listening to the Sennheiser over-ears, and though we find some mild on-ear heating past the hour mark, we generally don’t suffer with that aching feeling that can make extended listening a miserable experience.

Both over-ear designs feature a combination of touch-capacitative controls on the earcups and physical buttons. In both cases, haptics are expertly implemented, responding quickly and effectively to our commands when controlling playback or activating noise modes. You will, though, enjoy deeper levels of control customisation via the Sony Sound Connect app than via Sennheiser's Smart Control Plus platform.

This is a close one. The Sennheisers are a little more luxurious to behold, but the Sonys win back serious points for their portability, durability and greater control customisation.

** Winner: Sony WH-1000XM6 **

Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless vs Sony WH-1000XM6: features

Two pairs of premium headphones, two premium feature sets to match.

Bluetooth codec support is impressive across the board, with the Momentum 5 Wireless offering SBC and AAC codecs alongside higher-quality aptX HD, aptX Lossless and aptX Adaptive flavours. The Sennheisers currently use Bluetooth 5.4, but an upcoming firmware update later this year will push this to 6.0 and include LE Audio for reduced latency, better battery life and potentially boosted audio quality.

Conversely, the XM6 grant standard SBC and AAC and, of course, Sony's LDAC codec for streaming hi-res music at higher data rates over Bluetooth from a compatible device.

On Bluetooth, Multipoint connectivity is available on both pairs, meaning you can connect to two devices simultaneously.

Both grant app support, with respective platform a pleasure to use. The Sony app isn't the fanciest in the world, but it's certainly one of the most in-depth and customisable around, offering the likes of a 10-band equaliser and access to touch control personalisation. The Sennheiser SmartPlus app isn't quite as in-depth, but outmatches Sony for its usability and ease of navigation, and you're still able to perform useful actions such as tweaking your EQ settings or adjusting the amount of ANC you're getting via a handy slider.

Battery life is reasonably strong for the WH-1000XM6, reaching around 30 hours with noise cancelling switched on. That number is roundly beaten by the Momentum 5 Wireless: a very healthy 57 hours when noise cancelling is on and you’re playing at a reasonable volume is a very nice feather in Sennheiser’s cap,.

If you're into spatial audio, neither set will leave you feeling glum. The Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless have Dolby Atmos on the menu when listening to supported content, with dynamic head tracking to be added via an upcoming firmware update.

The WH-1000XM6 support Sony’s ‘360 Reality Audio Upmix’ tech, although you will have to go through a short set-up and ear scan if you want to make proper use of it.

Happily, you can listen to either pair via a wired connection. The Sony WH-1000XM6 grant wired listening via an included 3.5mm to 3.5mm audio cable, whereas the Sennheisers offer a wired option via either 3.5mm to 3.5mm or USB-C to USB-C, with the latter method capable of handling lossless files up to 24-bit/96kHz.

A good showing from Sennheiser, but Sony's flagship cans do have a few extra tricks up their sleeve. 'Speak-To-Chat', which drops the volume level when you start talking, is available on the WH-1000XM6, as is 'Quick Attention Mode' for letting you hear ambient sounds straight away by placing a hand on the exterior of the right earcup.

The WH-1000XM6 also make use of Sony's DSEE Extreme sound enhancement engine to bring poor-quality digital audio files nearer to high-res quality.

These two are roughly neck-and-neck when it comes to features: Sony might have a few more tricks up its sleeve that make daily portable use seamless, while Sennheiser's substantially longer battery life and inclusion of USB audio are major strengths.

** Draw **

Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless vs Sony WH-1000XM6: ANC and call quality

Sennheiser made a big effort to improve the noise cancelling for its new Momentum over-ears, with the fifth-gen cans using twice as many microphones (a total of eight) as their predecessors.

Those additions pay off. The Momentum 5's ANC doesn't clear the bar set by the Sony WH-1000XM6, but it will keep most noises – traffic, wind, air conditioners – at bay.

The overall effect does feel more like a softening of sounds rather than a complete exclusion, something which the Sonys do more effectively and more naturally. Take both pairs somewhere properly challenging, such as a public gym, and the XM6 will handle the full range of frequencies more effectively than their Sennheiser rivals.

Harsh sounds, such as clanking weights, are more convincingly filtered out by the XM6, and we feel more isolated from noises than when wearing the Sennheisers. Stand by a roadside with both pairs to hand, and the Sonys will all but eliminate those low traffic rumbles – the Momentum 5 Wireless, meanwhile, will soften rather than fully exclude them.

Call quality, meanwhile, is at a high standard no matter the cans you choose. Both pairs are excellent at reducing exterior sounds, especially the swirling bluster of wind noise, all while spotlighting human speech. The Momentum 5 make voices sound warmer and more natural, whereas the XM6 are impressively clear but can sound a tiny bit robotic by comparison.

Excellent call quality on each, but the XM6 have the noise cancelling talents to take this particular round.

** Winner: Sony WH-1000XM6 **

Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless vs Sony WH-1000XM6: sound quality

The Momentum 5 Wireless are excellent premium noise cancelling headphones, and some of the finest wireless over-ears that Sennheiser has produced in recent times.

We hear much of the same sonic DNA from the superb five-star Sennheiser HDB 630 in these more affordable headphones, with the Momentum 5 Wireless sharing the same feeling of clarity, dexterity and richness as their bigger brothers.

Their midrange is arguably their greatest strength. While the Sennheisers can be a touch rich in the lower frequencies, their midrange reproduction is superb, offering a naturalness and insight that gives the Sony WH-1000XM6 a serious run for their money. If anything, they're even better with voices than their Sony rivals, and that's really saying something.

The Sennheisers are rich, smooth and brilliantly precise headphones, with a personality that makes listening a refreshingly undemanding experience, offering levels of poise and maturity that very few comparable alternatives can match.

As we said in our review: "We could spend days on end listening to the Momentum 5 Wireless and feel neither frustration nor fatigue. While words such as 'undemanding' or 'relaxed' might otherwise be used synonymously with 'boring' or 'bland', we in fact find that these are headphones that strike a great balance between refinement and fun."

That said, if you've got the money to spend, it's definitely worth seeking out the WH-1000XM6 for a proper step up in audio quality. The XM6 don't have the midrange sweetness of the Sennheisers, but they're a punchier, more entertaining pair with ample talent across the board.

As we enthused in our review, the WH-1000XM6 "deliver the most detailed, dynamic, precise and open sound we’ve heard from a wireless Sony flagship. The headphones just seem capable of diving into any track you play and extracting an unbelievable amount of information".

Precision meets power to thrilling effect, and leading edges of notes are sharply drawn and hit with precision and force. The XM6 are great at breaking things down so that you hear each individual element of a song, but they also make sure to put everything back together again into one cohesive, thrilling whole.

While their midrange isn't quite as sweet as the Sennheisers, and they might be a touch more fatiguing to listen to over longer periods, the XM-1000XM6 are the more entertaining, musically talented of the two. Their dynamics land with more verve and contrast, while their rhythmic abilities can make the Momentum 5 Wireless sound just a touch sluggish by comparison.

The Sennheisers are superb, but the WH-1000XM6 justify their extra outlay. For us, they're the sonically superior pick if you have a bit more cash to spend.

** Winner: Sony WH-1000XM6 **

Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless vs Sony WH-1000XM6: verdict

The five-star Momentum 5 Wireless are a great reminder that Sennheiser is more than ready to take on all-comers in the premium wireless headphones space.

Their sound is easily worthy of its five-star accreditation, bolstered by a very healthy feature set, a huge battery life, and, perhaps most importantly, a lower price tag than that of the Sony WH-1000XM6. If you can't stretch to the more premium Sonys, the Momentum 5 are the logical step down.

If you do have the cash to spend and you want a great value return on your not-inconsiderable investment, we still recommending going for the Sony WH-1000XM6.

Not only are they more sonically exciting and engaging than the Sennheisers, but their massive bag of class-leading features, not to mention their effortlessly ergonomic design for daily portable use, make them the complete package. They're our current What Hi-Fi? Award-winners for a reason.

**Overall winner: Sony WH-1000XM6**

MORE:

Read our review of the Sony WH-1000XM6

Also consider the Sennheiser HDB 630

"Sound comes first" – we speak to Sennheiser about German engineering, changing ownership, and 80 years of making music

Sony and B&W are two of the biggest names in the wireless headphones market, and with Sony recently launching its ultra-premium 1000X The Collexion headphones, there is little doubt that it had the B&W Px8 S2 squarely in its sights.

We’ve already put each of these headphones through their respective paces, with both gaining very respectable four-star reviews, but if you’re thinking of spending upwards of £550 / $800 on your next pair of headphones, where is your money best spent between the two?

We’ve put them head to head in a battle of the flagship wireless cans to help you decide – read on to find out which pair comes out on top.

Sony 1000X The Collexion vs Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2: price

We already know that these two pairs of headphones don’t come cheap – after all, they are the premium options in their brands’ respective wireless lineups.

However, the B&W Px8 S2 are still a chunk of change more expensive than their Sony competitors at £629 / $799, compared with the Sony’s asking price of £550 / $650.

You probably aren’t considering either of these headphones if budget is a prime concern, but an £80 saving between the two is still not to be sniffed at. The win goes to the Sony The Collexion if you’re keen to save a bit of cash, but there are listeners who will find value in the extra outlay for the B&W. More on that below.

** Winner: Sony 1000X The Collexion **

Sony 1000X The Collexion vs Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2: design and comfort

There’s one big difference between the design of the 1000X The Collexion and the Px8 S2 which is likely to divide opinion, and that is their materials. Sony has chosen to play it safe with a faux leather across the earcups and headband, while B&W has decided to revert back to animal products for its premium line, and use Nappa leather.

There’s not a lot of difference in the feel of the two, and you probably wouldn’t know the Sonys weren’t leather, or vice versa, if we hadn’t mentioned it. Still, we’d say B&W’s over-ears edge it as the more premium-looking of the two, with their signature aluminium plates on the earcups and exposed cable design on the arms giving the classy cans a higher perceived value than the Sonys.

We also worry with the Sony 1000X The Collexion that their faux leather exterior can be prone to marking and scratches, something we found when trying out our test pair.

Sony uses aluminium on the arms and over the top of the headband for its rival over-ears. They still look smart and nicely finished, but are bulkier (even though they’ve been slimmed down compared with the WH-1000XM6) and are just a little plainer overall.

However, Sony gains back some points when it comes to actual wear. The Sonys are very comfortable, and put hardly any pressure onto the ears or the top of the head while listening. There is also a bigger space inside the earcups, so they are more accommodating to larger ears. They are actually a touch heavier than the Px8 S2, at 320g compared with B&W’s 310g, but you wouldn’t know that from wearing them.

The B&W Px8 S2 are by no means uncomfortable, but do offer a slightly snugger fit across the board, and that just makes you more aware of them during longer listens. This does make them feel a bit more secure than the Sonys, though, which can feel a touch unstable and prone to movement on smaller heads.

As for controls, the B&W Px8 S2 goes all in on physical buttons, while the Sony 1000X The Collexion offer a mixture of touch controls for playback and call control, alongside a couple of buttons for switching between sound modes and noise cancellation.

We did find the B&W controls slightly awkward to use at first, but it’s always a learning curve with any on-ear controls, so users might find themselves acclimatising over time. The touch controls on the Sony, conversely, are responsive and slightly easier to use on the go, and we would generally find their system preferable to the one found on their rivals.

It's a close run on this one, with plenty of positives – and indeed drawbacks – on both sides. Considering the use of leather could write the Bowers & Wilkins cans off for a whole section of listeners though, we’re going to label this one a draw.

** Winner: Draw **

Sony 1000X The Collexion vs Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2: features

Sony’s headphones tend to have some of the richest feature sets of any wireless headphones we test, and 1000X The Collexion are no different. The premium over-ears use Sony’s Sound Connect app, which is packed with ways to make the headphones sound your own.

As usual, alongside the standard noise cancellation and customisable ambient sound settings, Sony offers Adaptive Noise Cancelling mode, which can alter your noise cancellation level automatically depending on what you are doing. This has long been a great feature of established Sony headphones, such as the WH-1000XM6, and one we do find ourselves using pretty regularly.

Another useful feature is Scene-based Listening, which can have the headphones play music when the app detects you’re doing certain things, such as walking, running or on your commute home.

There are other features that we don’t turn to as often. There are now three spatial audio settings for ‘Music’, ‘Cinema’, and ‘Game’, plus a ‘Background Music’ setting for making your music sound like it’s playing in the distance – supposedly to better aid your concentration while working.

These are fun to play around with, and we did enjoy testing the ‘Cinema’ setting while watching movies, but we envision these will be ‘nice to haves’ rather than anything you’ll find ourselves using daily.

Bowers & Wilkins’ app is much more straightforward, with options for noise cancellation or ambient sound, the ability to turn on wear detection and a 5-band EQ. By comparison, Sony offers a 10-band offering (and a number of presets) on The Collexion. There’s no spatial audio support on the Px8 S2 either, nor is there Bluetooth LE as there is on The Collexion, though there have been promises for these in the future via a firmware update.

Both headphones support the standard SBC and AAC codecs, as well as higher-quality codecs for compatible devices – that’s LDAC for the Sony 1000X and aptX Lossless and aptX Adaptive for the B&W Px8 S2.

B&W’s Px8 S2 do grant the better battery life at 30 hours with ANC on, compared with the Sony 1000X’s 24 hours, the latter of which feels a little stingy.

Still, for the pure amount of features offered on the Sonys, they take the win here.

** Winner: Sony 1000X The Collexion **

Sony 1000X The Collexion vs Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2: ANC and voice calls

Sony’s over-ear headphones have offered some of the very best noise cancelling you can buy for some time, and although Sony has said sound quality has taken precedence over the very best ANC here, it’s still really good.

The 1000X use the same QN3 chip and 12-mic array as found in the WH-1000XM6, and we find they do a great job of suppressing noise throughout the frequencies.

The noise cancelling on B&W’s Px8 S2 is a little disappointing by comparison. They still block out a good chunk of background whirrs and rumbles, but higher frequency noises are more prone to cutting through – much more than we notice on the Sonys. We imagine that’s at least in some part down to the fact the B&W have four mics fewer than the Sony, offering eight in total.

Call quality is good across both pairs, with a decent level of noise reduction and callers sounding clear and detailed. Our callers largely reported the same, though they did say there was more richness to our voice through the B&W Px8 S2, with the Sony cans sounding ever so slightly thinner.

Overall, the better noise cancelling on the Sony 1000X The Collexion is the biggest win here, so we’re giving this one to them.

** Winner: Sony 1000X The Collexion **

Sony 1000X The Collexion vs Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2: sound quality

Behind both of these headphones’ respective performances are optimised drivers that were created especially for them. The 1000X The Collexion use a bespoke carbon composite 30mm drive unit, adapted from the one found in the WH-1000XM6, with a soft edge and hard centre.

The Px8 S2 uses a new 40mm carbon cone driver, also adapted to have a stiffer chassis, alongside a new motor system and voice coil.

The Sony 1000X exist to deliver a performance worthy of a 10^th birthday celebration, promising more refinement, detail and maturity compared with the standard XM6 – and they do live up to that promise. They have a wide open presentation, excellent detail levels and incredible clarity and insight, all complemented by a powerful yet controlled low end.

To be fair, all of that can also be said of the B&W Px8 S2, but we are particularly impressed with their handling of low frequencies, with plenty of power and authority in the bass. In our review, we also highlighted how engaging they are when listening to Keane's Everybody's Changing, writing: “The rise and fall in dynamics is handled superbly. The instruments deliver enthusiasm and life but the Bowers also communicate the tinge of sadness that comes from the lyrics".

While there’s a greater sense of scale on the 1000X over the B&W Px8 S2, it’s how these headphones make us feel that is perhaps the biggest difference between the two – and it’s here that the Sonys fall down.

The Sony 1000X simply aren’t as explicit or dynamic as we’d like, which makes them sound more removed and ultimately not as engaging as the B&W.

In our review, we described them as “standoffish”, and said that they “trade off some of that signature expressiveness we’ve heard in other Sony headphones for greater openness and detail, something that reduces the extent to which we feel truly involved with our music”.

In absolute terms, that means the Px8 S2 are just more interesting to listen to long-term, and we feel more emotionally connected to our music when we are listening to them. For that, they take the win.

** Winner: Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 **

Sony 1000X The Collexion vs Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2: verdict

If you’re considering spending this much money on a pair of headphones, you want to make sure you’re spending wisely. Thankfully there are clear winners across our categories, and which pair you ultimately pick will depend on your given priorities.

The B&W are the more expensive, but they do at least justify this by being the more premium feeling of the two. The compromises here are that they come with minimal features for customisation and good-but-not-great noise cancelling, all of which is worth considering if you like your headphones to be the complete package.

For those who are looking for more in those aforementioned areas, the Sony 1000X The Collexion make a solid case for themselves, thanks to their decent build and handsome feature set.

This is backed up by a spacious, detail-rich sound – plus they’re a bit cheaper. Yet for the better sound quality of the two, we recommend the B&W Px8 S2 for their rich, detailed and more engaging personality.

** Overall winner: Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 **

MORE:

Sony WH-1000XM6 vs 1000X The Collexion: which premium wireless headphones should you pick?

Apple AirPods Max 2 vs AirPods Max: what are the differences?

The best noise-cancelling headphones you can buy

Sennheiser has announced the latest entry in its Momentum wireless over-ear headphones range.

The Momentum 5 Wireless follow the five-star Momentum 4 Wireless, and offer a host of sonic upgrades that should see them really challenge the ruling Sony WH-1000XM6.

Sennheiser says it has refined the experience "without straying from the formula" that made the M4 Wireless a favourite among the What Hi-Fi? team.

At their heart, you get the same 42mm transducer as in the previous model, which is tuned for "full-bodied sound with dynamic bass." But added to that are Hi-Res Audio certification and Qualcomm's Snapdragon Sound.

The former is an official seal of approval from the Japan Audio Society (JAS) that the cans have a frequency response of at least 40kHz and support 24-bit/96 kHz hi-res audio.

Snapdragon Sound is a blanket term for a few different technologies from Qualcomm that work together to optimise how smartphones and tablets transmit sound to audio devices like headphones.

The Momentum 5 supports the aptX Lossless Bluetooth codec for higher-quality listening, though sadly, there's no adapter like with the five-star Sennheiser HDB 630 that ensures your audio source is up to scratch on the quality front.

But you can tweak the sound using the Smart Control app, which has a new 8-band equaliser, bespoke presets and an intelligent Sound Personalisation engine.

The active noise cancellation (ANC) has also been improved. There are now twice as many microphones assigned to ANC duties – four per side.

We're promised "across-the-board improvements," though you'll have to read our Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless review to see if that's true.

Dolby Atmos with head-tracking will provide a more immersive experience when listening to spatial audio content, and updates are in the pipeline to further improve the cans' capabilities. A future firmware update that will add Bluetooth 6.0 and LE Audio (they ship running Bluetooth 5.4) has been confirmed, for example.

The Momentum 4 Wireless set a new standard in wireless cans with a 60-hour battery life. The Momentum 5 Wireless can't quite match that, but still last a very impressive 57 hours with ANC on. And the battery is removable, so you can swap it for a new one when it degrades in years to come.

The case, too, has had a refresh, and is now 20 per cent smaller and made with plastic-free packaging.

The Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless are out on 30th June in Black, White and Denim colourways. They cost £330 / $400 / AU$749, which is £30 / $50 / AU$200 more than their predecessors at launch. You can read our review (linked to below) to see if they're worth the extra cash.

MORE:

Read our Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless review

Check out the best wireless headphones we've tested

"Sound comes first" – we speak to Sennheiser about German engineering, changing ownership, and 80 years of making music

The ones to beat: Sony WH-1000XM6 review

Well, it’s been a while, hasn’t it?

If you can believe it, the Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless made their debut in the second half of 2022, meaning we’ve been waiting nearly four years for a fifth-gen sequel. In wireless headphone terms, that’s a long wait, especially when you consider that most manufacturers tend to update their premium lines every two or so years.

Think of the premium wireless headphones that have been released since the Momentum 4. The Sony WH-1000XM5 and the WH-1000XM6. The Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones and their second-gen successors. The Apple AirPods Max 2. The Dali IO-8. The Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S2, Px7 S3, Px8 and Px8 S2. That’s a lot of very impressive premium alternatives.

It might have been a long wait from one generation of Momentum Wireless to the next, but we know that Sennheiser can still compete with the best – just look at the benchmark-setting Sennheiser HDB 630 over-ears for proof. The Momentum 5 Wireless are a notch cheaper than their more audiophile bigger brothers, but if they share similar sonic talents, they might well make the case for the old adage that slow and steady really does win the race.

Price

As you might have gathered, the Momentum 5 Wireless have a lot of competition, but most of it comes at higher prices. The Award-winning Sony WH-1000XM6 are £400 / $450 / AU$699, while the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) started life at £449 / $449 / AU$700 but often drop to £349 in the UK.

Let’s not forget about the five-star Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3, which will cost you £399 / $499 / AU$699 at full price, whereas the Apple AirPods Max 2 are a step up at £499 / $549.

Build & comfort

We’ve occasionally criticised Sennheiser headphones for looking a little bland or functional in the past, but that’s not an accusation we could level at our stylish ‘Denim’ blue test pair.

True, the overall design language typified by those large oval earcups will be familiar to anyone who has seen a pair of recent wireless Sennheiser over-ears, but little touches, such as the headband’s attractive fabric exterior, go a long way to making the Momentum 5 Wireless feel more premium. They’re certainly a lot more desirable-looking than their rather plain HDB 630 siblings.

To hold in the hand, the Momentum 5 Wireless don’t impress quite so much. That headband exterior looks and feels the part, but the earcups feel just a little cheap and plasticky to the touch. They’ll swivel horizontally without much trouble, but unlike the Sony WH-1000XM6 or the Bose QC Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen), they don’t fold up entirely.

Having earcups with large exterior surfaces does have its advantages, particularly when it comes to touch controls. Sennheiser’s system – customisable via the Smart Control Plus app – is really well implemented, and we find them to be intuitive and easy to manage. Whether we’re swiping up on the right cup to increase volume or across to switch tracks, everything responds crisply and quickly to what we want.

Controls aside, how are the Momentum 5 Wireless to wear? At 290g, they’re not the lightest premium wireless headphones you can find – the Sony WH-1000XM6 weigh just 254g – but they are comfortable. We spend a long time listening to the Momentum 5, and though we find some mild on-ear heating past the hour mark, we generally don’t suffer with that aching, ‘squashed ear’ feeling that can make extended listening a real chore.

They’re secure and stable, too. The Sennheisers accompany us on quite a few dog walks and the occasional trip to the shops, and even when we’re striding purposefully with our eager Labrador in tow, they don’t often feel as though they’re rocking on our ears thanks to the headphones’ well-judged clamping force.

Inside, the Momentum 5 Wireless house a pair of 42mm dynamic drivers, inspired by those found in Sennheiser’s HD 600 series of wired headphones and tuned for what the German manufacturer describes as a “full-bodied sound with dynamic bass”.

Features

When we visited their research and development labs, the team at Sennheiser described themselves as a “sound-first company". That may be so, but we’re pleased to see that Sennheiser hasn’t forgotten that wireless cans need a few mod cons to keep up with the times. As a result, we’re not left cursing a barren features list.

Bluetooth codec support is impressive, with the Momentum 5 Wireless offering SBC and AAC codecs alongside higher-quality aptX HD, aptX Lossless and aptX Adaptive flavours. The cans currently use Bluetooth 5.4, but an upcoming firmware update later this year will push this to 6.0 and include LE Audio for reduced latency, better battery life, and potentially improved sound quality.

Speaking of Bluetooth, Multipoint tech is available for connecting to two devices simultaneously, with our test headphones switching easily between an iPhone 15 and our work laptop without much fuss.

Battery life is a highlight, reaching a very healthy 57 hours when noise cancelling is switched on and you’re playing at a reasonable volume. For comparison, the Sony WH-1000XM6 and Bose QC Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) generally top out at 30 hours with ANC in play. A nice feather for Sennheiser’s cap, then.

For spatial audio fans, Dolby Atmos is on the menu when listening to supported Atmos content, with head tracking to be added via an upcoming firmware update. We test the tech out using a few Dolby Atmos tracks on Tidal – The Rolling Stones’ Gimme Shelter and Jimi Hendrix’s Crosstown Traffic to name a few – and there’s no doubt that the Sennheisers are able to harness their Dolby powers to craft a more three-dimensional listening experience.

Dolby Atmos can be switched on and off via the Sennheiser SmartPlus app, a stable and easily navigable platform which we find a pleasure to use. We’re particularly keen on the amount of customisation on offer, be it dialling in the amount of ANC we want to experience or tinkering with the eight-band custom equaliser.

ANC & call quality

Sennheiser has stated that, in response to customer feedback from the Momentum 4 Wireless, it has made a big effort to improve the noise cancelling for its fifth-generation follow-ups, with the new cans using twice as many microphones (a total of eight) for what Sennheiser describes as “three times” better midrange noise cancellation.

Those improvements add up to a pleasing experience. The Momentum 5’s ANC isn’t on the same level as the excellent Sony WH-1000XM6 or Bose QC Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen), but it’s a good performance which keeps most noises – traffic, wind, the hum of air conditioners – at bay. Sennheiser does keep its promise of better midrange cancellation, with the Momentum 5 doing well to exclude the chatter of external voices.

The overall effect does feel more like a softening of sounds rather than a complete exclusion – something which the Sony and Bose manage more effectively – but it’s still a capable showing. Taking the Sennheisers to the gym, the ANC results in a softening of the hubbub of a busy public space, even if harsher noises, such as clanking weights, can penetrate through.

Happily, call quality is right up there with the best. We take the fifth-gen Momentum out for a test chat on a blustery day in May (thanks, British weather), and our headphones effectively reduce intrusive wind and traffic noise while spotlighting human speech. Voices are clear and natural, even making the WH-1000XM6 sound a little mechanical and bright by comparison.

Sound

For something a little different, let’s start with what the Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless don’t necessarily do quite so well.

The headphones’ bass reproduction is on the richer side, something which makes itself apparent when listening to Hans Zimmer’s Like A Dog Chasing Cars, and while it’s still of a high quality, some listeners might prefer a tauter reproduction at the lower end.

Further, songs with a propulsive central rhythm don’t quite clip along with the same sense of ‘momentum’ when playing via the Sennheisers as they do when switching to the more expensive Sony WH-1000XM6. Load up Radiohead’s Burn The Witch or Kid Cudi’s Day 'n' Nite, and you’ll hear what we mean – the Sonys have a forward-focused urgency to them, while the Sennheisers favour a more relaxed presentation.

Costlier alternatives, such as the WH-1000XM6 or HDB 630 will undoubtedly take things up a notch sonically, but if you’re not willing to spend that extra £80 / $50-100, the Momentum 5 Wireless are an excellent pick thanks to their plentiful sonic virtues.

Their midrange, for instance, is a real highlight. While the Sennheisers can be a touch rich in the lower frequencies, they are right at home in the midrange, offering a naturalness and insight that gives even more premium alternatives a run for their money. Marvin Gaye’s crooning on Mercy Mercy Me comes across as rich, smooth and soulful, with the Momentum 5 crafting a wondrous feeling of emotive intimacy as Gaye bemoans that “things ain’t what they used to be”.

Let’s be clear, however, that these are more than just midrange specialists. These 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 via lesser alternatives, but the Momentum 5 Wireless have the poise and maturity to bring order to what could, in the wrong hands, have quickly descended into chaos.

Those qualities are only amplified when we listen using a wired connection. Both 3.5mm and USB-C options for wired audio are provided, with the latter capable of handling files up to 24-bit/96kHz. A physical connection adds fullness and depth to instrumental textures, and that lovely midrange becomes perceptibly sweeter and even more defined when we return to Mercy Mercy Me via USB-C.

Wired or wireless, dynamics are teased out ably, and the Sennheisers are subtle and delicate in the way that they communicate those key tonal shifts, with the Momentum 5's precise temperament bringing out small scale dynamic shifts superbly.

All told, we could spend days on end listening to the Momentum 5 Wireless and feel neither frustration nor fatigue. While words such as “undemanding” or “relaxed” might otherwise be used synonymously with “boring” or “bland”, we in fact find that these are headphones that strike a great balance between refinement and fun.

Verdict

With the HDB 630 and now the excellent Momentum 5 Wireless, Sennheiser has reaffirmed that it is still a key player in the premium wireless headphones space, with the Momentum 5 Wireless serving as a timely reminder of the quality the brand can produce.

If you’re willing to spend a touch more, it’s well worth considering either the Sennheiser HDB 630 or the Sony WH-1000XM6. If your budget doesn't quite stretch that far but you’re still keen on stellar sound, the excellent Momentum 5 Wireless are an obvious choice.

Review published: 25th May 2026

SCORES

• Sound 5
• Build 4
• Features 5

MORE:

Read our review of the Sony WH-1000XM6

Also consider the Sennheiser HDB 630

"Sound comes first" – we speak to Sennheiser about German engineering, changing ownership, and 80 years of making music

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

If you’re after a pair of wireless headphones for around £150 / $150 / AU$200, your choices are roughly as follows.

You’ve got the excellent Austrian Audio Hi-X25BT if you don’t need noise cancelling, or you could go for the four-star Philips TAH8000E if you want ANC powers and don’t mind taking a bit of a hit on the sound side. Apart from that, it’s pretty slim pickings in what appears to be a strange market hinterland between budget-friendly cans and their premium, plus-£300/$300 counterparts. Or, you could spend a good deal less and buy a pair of our budget favourites, the Sony WH-CH720N for around £75 / $100 / $AU259.

At £130 / $130 / AU$220, the Soundcore Space 2 seem to fill this gap nicely, at least on paper. With the Hi-X25BT failing to provide ANC and the TAH8000E’s sound not quite reaching five-star heights, the path is open for the Space 2 to stick their flag in this potentially vacant soil. Let’s find out how they perform.

Build & comfort

Both to look at and wear, the Soundcore Space 2 are a well-made, sensibly designed pair of wireless headphones.

They play things reasonably safe on the design front, opting for simple circular earcups, an amply padded leather headband and some functional plastic on-cup buttons, but it would be hard to accuse the Space 2 of feeling cheap. They don’t have the boundary-pushing aesthetics of the more costly Nothing Headphone (1), for example, but this is still a neat, simple yet fairly classy pair of over-ears at a nice price.

They’re rather comfy, too. At a very reasonable 264g, the Space 2 don’t weigh a huge amount, meaning they’re rarely burdensome to wear over extended listening periods. The padding on the earcups and headband is a little on the soft side – some may prefer more firmness – but we don’t feel starved of comfort during our tests.

That headband is easily adjustable via a fairly smooth mechanism which grants roughly an extra inch of wiggle room, while the earcups will rotate from side to side and, even better, fold away fully to make carrying them in a bag easier.

In terms of general usability, it’s a standard, simple showing from the Space 2, and we don’t necessarily mean that as a criticism. The budget cans opt for the same general configuration as many wireless headphones of this type – including the Sony WH-CH720N – with noise cancelling and power buttons found at the bottom of the left earcup, and volume and Bluetooth controls on the right.

They’re not exactly luxurious, and actually finding the buttons when they’re hidden at the bottom edge of your headphones’ exterior requires some acclimatisation – but again, there’s little to really complain about here.

Features

The Soundcore Space 2 go big on battery life, offering around 50 hours with active noise cancelling switched on, and up to 70 hours if you turn ANC off and don’t listen at ear-splitting volumes. We used ours throughout a busy two-day press trip and barely made a dent in their battery. Better yet, a hurried five-minute charge will grant around four hours of standard playtime in a pinch.

For context, the Austrian Audio Hi-X25BT offer around 30 hours from a single charge, while even the Sony WH-CH720N’s 50 hours (ANC off) and 35 hours (ANC on) can’t keep up with the Soundcore.

Bluetooth codec support includes the standard SBC and AAC codecs, while those with compatible sources get the bonus of the higher-quality LDAC codec too. There’s also a 3.5mm to 3.5mm audio cable for wired listening, but no direct support for USB-C audio.

Spatial audio is provided, in a sense at least. Soundcore’s spin on the tech is dubbed ‘3D Sound’, and, as the name suggests, it’s designed to make stereo audio sound more three-dimensional by expanding the soundstage. There are hints of the tech working well here, and while it’s not going to challenge Dolby Atmos, we do get a sense of instruments being set further away from our ears a little more noticeably when using the mode.

If you do want to have a go with ‘3D Sound’, the best way to find it is via the Soundcore app. It’s a neat app bursting with features – even its own AI chatbot called “Anka” – and there is plenty to discover. You get an eight-band equaliser, ANC mode toggling and even some on-cup button customisation living alongside quite a few ambient sound options.

While you’re on the app, it’s worth taking advantage of Soundcore’s ‘HearID’ hearing test, which assesses your listening abilities and preferences and then purports to construct your own personalised sound curve. How much of this actually pays off is debatable, but it’s nice to have the option at this level, and we do find ourselves conducting much of our testing with our personalised hearing profile switched on.

ANC & call quality

It’s time to find out how the Soundcore Space 2 handle noise cancelling, and what better way to test out their ANC capabilities than with a quick flight over to Germany? No, we didn’t book the flight just to test out a pair of wireless headphones – we’re committed to our jobs, but we’re not that committed.

Both the flight and the busy airport give us the perfect opportunity to discover what the Space 2 can do, with noise cancelling available in its standard active form as well as a Transparent Mode for letting the world in.

Considering the price you’re paying, both settings are competently realised. The general hubbub of a busy airport terminal is softened nicely, even if peakier higher frequencies can tend to pierce through, while the rumbling and swooshing of an airplane in flight are diminished ably as we take to the skies with the Space 2 clamped over our ears. At this price, we’ve very little to take issue with.

It’s tricky to take voice calls on a plane, so that’s a test for when we’re back on terra firma. The Space 2 harness a 3-mic array and AI-powered algorithms in a bid to give calls sufficient intelligibility, and while speech comes through clearly enough, voices can sound a touch robotic and mechanical when compared with the more natural-sounding Sony WH-CH720N.

Still, the Space 2 are capable of blocking out exterior noises really rather well – perhaps even more so than the WH-CH720N – so that the swirls and whooshes of wind on a particularly tempestuous day barely register. All in all, a box ably ticked on the voice calls front.

Sound

Given the Space 2’s solid performance across other areas of our testing, we’re disappointed that the same levels of talent haven’t translated over to how the headphones actually handle music. In short, there’s very little about the Soundcore cans which we find engaging or exciting, and even less which has us wishing to return for repeat listening sessions.

They are, all told, rather bland performers. True, there’s something to be said for a pair of undemanding, composed headphones if you want to avoid that weary sense of fatigue that can often occur with more over-eager alternatives, but the Space 2 go too far the other way. Where is the excitement when we play Michael Jackson’s Smooth Criminal? Where is the drama of Kate Bush’s Cloudbusting?

We pick out Bill Withers’ Ain’t No Sunshine, and while we discern a decent amount of clarity and cohesion, as we listen we find there’s a real lack of emotional involvement, which mars our enjoyment. Withers’ voice is fairly robust yet lacking in any emotional heft, and the strings introduced at around the 30-second mark don’t have the free, swooning effect we might have hoped for.

Part of those strings’ uninvolving presentation owes to the headphones’ flattened dynamics. Muse’s Panic Station is next, and though the Space 2 are able to bring some cohesion and restraint to proceedings, we don’t discern much contrast between each deep bass pluck or the alternating percussive thumps of that key bass-snare drum pattern. Again, a compressed, flat sound prevents things from taking full flight.

Digging out the cheaper, Award-winning Sony WH-CH720N confirms our reservations. Okay, the Sonys sound a little flavoured at times, and their bass can be a little over-eager, but they’re far more entertaining and insightful across the various songs we play. Panic Station immediately pulses with more verve than the Soundcore cans manage, whereas those varying instrumental textures on Goose’s funky So Ready are more fleshed out and have the authenticity and personality we’ve been craving. The Sonys made music sound musical – the Soundcore, conversely, made it sound dispiritingly mechanical.

The similarly-priced Austrian Audio Hi-X25BT also provide an impressive benchmark which the Space 2 cannot match. They’re not as punchy or vicarious as the WH-CH720N, nor do they offer as much bass weight, but these are evidently far clearer, more delicate and more detailed headphones. Switching back to the Soundcore Space 2 simply makes the latter sound lacking in proper detail and bite.

It’s moving over to these five-star rivals that further makes us realise what has been missing from the Space 2s’ presentation. Balanced and reasonably clear they may be, but Soundcore’s over-ears don’t have that je ne sais quoi – be it the expressiveness of the WH-CH720N or the delicacy of the Hi-X25BT – to set our hearts aflutter.

There’s something to admire about how organised and unfussy the Soundcore cans sound, even as the music becomes more demanding and complex, but rarely do they make us feel in any way involved with or excited by the various songs we feed them.

Verdict

While we had hoped that the Soundcore Space 2 might have filled a gap in the mid-priced wireless market, we’re instead struggling to see how they fit into the current landscape.

Yes, a healthy arsenal of features does give them a potential competitive edge, especially with regard to their impressive battery span and comfortable fit. But when they’re sonically outmatched by finer – and cheaper – alternatives, they don’t quite seem like a viable option in comparison with the class leaders.

Review published: 22nd May 2026

SCORES

• Sound 2
• Build 4
• Features 5

MORE:

Read our review of the Sony WH-CH720N

Also consider the Austrian Audio Hi-X25BT

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

The Sony WH-1000XM6 have been the brand's most premium wireless headphones for the last couple of years, with the flagship, What Hi-Fi? Award-winning pair our firm recommendation as the most entertaining wireless headphones around.

There is now a fresh pair of premium Sony over-ears in town, with Sony marking 10 years of its 1000X wireless line with a completely new addition: the Sony 1000X The Collexion over-ears, which offers a distinct sound, design philosophy and materials from the XM6, and all for a significantly higher asking price, too.

We can predict your next question already: is the WH-1000XM6 still the best pair to go for if you want stellar Sony performance in the upper echelons of the wireless headphones market? Or do the new 1000X The Collexion offer a better performance for their higher price?

To answer those queries, we've broken everything down so that you can see how the two overlap, where they differ and, crucially, which is the right pair for you.

Sony WH-1000XM6 vs 1000X The Collexion: price

The Sony WH-1000XM6 are priced at £400 / $450 / AU$699, although discounts will often knock up that official RRP down a little during sales events.

The 1000X The Collexion will set you back £550 / $650, making them the costliest wireless Sony headphones yet, and the closest that Sony has ever come to operating within the more rarefied area of the market currently occupied by the likes of the Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 (£629 / $799) or the Focal Bathys (£699 / $799).

£150 / $200 is quite a considerable jump to The Collexion from the WH-1000XM6, so if you're keen to save quite a few pennies, it's the What Hi-Fi? XM6 Award-winners we'd pick for outright value.

**Winner: Sony WH-1000XM6 **

Sony WH-1000XM6 vs 1000X The Collexion: design and comfort

Considering that what we have here are two premium pairs of Sony headphones, you'd be within your rights to assume that they would be cut from a very similar aesthetic cloth.

You would, however, be misguided, because design-wise, there's plenty to distinguish one pair from the other.

Externally, the 1000X The Collexion are classier cans, with a clean, minimalist exterior and oval earcups adorned with a few metallic physical buttons on the left cup. Think of a slightly more prestige spin on the look of the Sonos Ace and you'll be in the right sort of ballpark.

Everything on the 1000X The Collexion is made either from metal or faux leather, contrasting with the predominantly plastic construction of the XM6. The latter don't have the same premium look or feel as a result, but their smoother edges are less susceptible to marks and scratches than the faux leather surfaces found on The Collexion cans.

We sense that the more expensive The Collexion over-ears are designed as much to be admired as listened to, whereas the WH-1000XM6 feel more durable and practical for day-to-day portable use. That said, neither set have an official IP waterproof rating, so we'd urge you to be cautious when taking either out in wet weather.

Still, the XM6 fold away completely, something their more premium stablemates can't do, and offer a lighter overall weight: 254g against the 312g of their counterparts.

That light weight makes the XM6 a pleasure to live with, with a nicely judged clamping force and firm-yet-forgiving earpads rarely putting our our ears under any undue strain or causing excess overheating over time.

In fairness to The Collexion, they're still comfortable and easy to wear, even with their slightly greater mass. The headphones' slimmer profile does help to mitigate their on-head weight somewhat, with the width of the earcups measuring around 40mm from inside to out, compared with the 45.4mm of the WH-1000XM6. However, some members of our review team found The Collexion didn't clamp over their head as snugly as the XM6 do.

Both over-ears use a predominantly touch-based control system accompanied by a few on-unit buttons. In both cases, haptics are expertly implemented, responding quickly and effectively to our commands and offering ample levels of control customisation via the Sony SoundConnect app.

The 1000X The Collection sport the more luxurious, premium aesthetic, but if you want a pair of headphones capable of surviving the rigours of everyday use, the WH-1000XM6 are the ones to pick.

**Winner: Sony WH-1000XM6**

Sony WH-1000XM6 vs 1000X The Collexion: features

There's not much to choose between our rivals here, with both sets of wireless cans offering generous, high-performing features to keep you satisfied beyond the bounds of mere sound. There are, however, some key distinctions to be aware of.

If you’re a fan of spatial audio, both offer support for Sony’s ‘360 Reality Audio Upmix’ tech. This comes in the form of a ‘Cinema’ mode for the XM6, expanding out to 'Music' and ‘Game’ iterations with The Collexion. Those settings add varying degrees of spatial processing depending on your content, and we find that they grant you a more open, immersive experience as a result.

Both the 1000X The Collexion and the XM6 support standard SBC and AAC codecs alongside higher-quality LDAC for streaming hi-res music at higher data rates over Bluetooth from a compatible source device.

You can listen to either set via a wired connection thanks to an included 3.5mm to 3.5mm audio cable, though note that your headphones will have to be switched on to do so. Be aware, however, that there's no wired listening via USB-C on either set; the USB-C port is for charging only.

Sony’s Speak-To-Chat feature, which drops the volume level when you start talking, is available on both, though we found that, with the 1000X The Collexion in particular, the headphones can often confuse human speech with other sounds. If you don’t want your cans to keep cutting out every few minutes, you can turn Speak-to-Chat off via the companion Sound Connect app.

That app, by the way, is the one you'll be using for both pairs. No, it doesn't exactly look particularly swanky, but what you do get with the Sound Connect platform is excellent customisation for your headphones. From a ten-band equaliser to touch control personalisation, Sony does a fine job of ensuring you can enjoy your cans your way.

Both headphones offer some form of Sony's DSEE digital upscaling tech, although the given flavour depends on how much you're spending.

The more affordable WH-1000XM6 support DSEE Extreme to help improve poor-quality digital audio files to near high-res quality, but The Collexion take things a step further with DSEE Ultimate. Essentially an even more powerful iteration of Sony's patented software, The Collexion are the first Sony wireless over-ears to make use of the tech.

Battery life is the one area where The Collexion headphones fall behind, with 24 hours on offer with ANC switched on (extending to 32 hours with ANC off). You'll get a fair bit more from the XM6, which offers 30 hours of playtime with ANC turned on.

**Winner: Sony WH-1000XM6**

Sony WH-1000XM6 vs 1000X The Collexion: ANC & call quality

These are two areas where we can't see either Sony pair letting you down. That's not to say both are identical, but we're dealing with very capable operators when it comes to voice calls and ANC.

The WH-1000XM6 feature 12 microphones in total, with six on each earcup bolstered by various noise cancelling algorithms and an adaptive noise cancelling optimiser which constantly adapts to changes in your environment as you’re moving around.

Across noise cancelling and voice calls, the XM6 are superb. ANC is natural and immensely effective, damping down bass and midrange rumblings with ease, and while some might prefer the cocoon of isolation provided by the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen), the Sony cans' natural, subtle handling of external sounds really is up there with the best.

Voice calls are similarly outstanding. Three exterior mics with beamforming AI concentrate audio on your voice, resulting in precise, natural-sounding conversations which all-but entirely shut out background noise.

While Sony warned us that noise cancelling wasn’t such a focus for The Collexion as it was for the WH-1000XM6, the costlier cans are still very good in this particular arena. Much of the same tech from their established siblings is on-hand, including a QN3 processing chip and 12 mics to capture surrounding noise.

The Collexion do a fine job of suppressing noise throughout the frequencies, and while you might get the slightest hint of a shrill bird tweet just about breaking through that barrier, middle and lower range sounds are filtered out nicely. It isn't quite as effective as the XM6's noise-cancelling talents, but it still works at a reasonably high level.

Call quality is excellent, too. The Collexion house six beamforming mics complemented by a wind noise reduction structure for enhanced vocal clarity and reduced external sonic intrusions, with voices coming through as clear, articulate and emotive.

Background sounds, meanwhile, rarely intrude on our conversations, even in rough weather or near to rumbling traffic.

Great showings from both, but the WH-1000XM6 have the edge here thanks to their top-notch ANC.

**Winner: Sony WH-1000XM6**

Sony WH-1000XM6 vs 1000X The Collexion: sound quality

Dispel the notion that, because these are both premium Sony headphones, they're going to sound all but the same. Quite the contrary: the XM6 and The Collexion are from the same family, but they take different approaches to how they deliver music to your ears.

Okay, there are some core similarities. Both are hugely detail-rich, teasing out lavish helpings of textural detail and providing instruments with ample body and clearly defined leading edges. Both trade heavily in sonic precision thanks to how sharply they draw out each note, and both have sufficient punch and power to lend proper grunt to their excellent levels of insight.

Listen a little more, though, and the differences become clear. The Sony WH-1000XM6 boast excellent detail and clarity, yes, but they're also irrepressibly entertaining to listen to. They're not quite as fun-focused as some of their predecessors (see the super-punchy WH-1000XM4), but their authority, spark and fantastic sense of rhythmic drive still make listening a joy.

In fact, the XM6 strike a marvellous sonic balance. To quote from our review: "You get to enjoy every element individually, but it all gels together cohesively. The undercurrent of piano, the rumble of the drums, the strings and the texture of the subtly bellowing bass notes in the soundfield all combine to draw you in."

Sony's established Award-winners are great at bringing out the essence of the tracks you feed them, switching gears intuitively depending on the mood and feel of the music being played. Quiet ballads have genuine intimacy and refinement, yet when the time comes to switch gears and swing for the fences, the WH-1000XM6 are more than capable of bringing the metaphorical thunder.

The new 1000X Collexion, on the other hand, are more even handed in their approach, opting for a slightly removed, stepped-back presentation which, while not necessarily as thrilling, allows you to see the big picture as your music plays.

The more premium Collexion trade primarily in spaciousness, detail and clarity, with a cinematic sound that really delivers when you want to sit back and see tracks laid out before you with the utmost precision.

They're immensely well-organised, too – play Massive Attack’s Atlas Air and you'll feel the full force and punch of the tune’s full-blooded drum hits, and while the bass is separated from the overlaid synth sounds above, it's never to the extent that the composition lacks a sense of cohesion between the frequencies.

Such a gratifyingly composed approach does have its drawbacks, though. As we said in our review: "These Sonys really are impressive performers, but they appeal more to the head than to the heart, trading off some of that signature Sony expressiveness for greater openness and detail, something that reduces the extent to which we feel truly involved with our music.

"Talented as they are, there’s something slightly removed, almost standoffish, about their reproduction".

The Collexion's sound unquestionably has its place, especially if you're all about picking your music apart and analysing those nitty gritty details, but they don't have the verve and natural musicality of the XM6.

In straddling the line between analysis and entertainment, the WH-1000XM6 are incredibly hard to beat, and sound-wise, are the headphones we'd recommend to most of the people, most of the time.

**Winner: Sony WH-1000XM6**

Sony WH-1000XM6 vs 1000X The Collexion: verdict

There’s much to admire about Sony’s 1000X The Collexion over-ears.

We can see the poised, detailed and more open sound appealing to some listeners, along with their classy build quality, but they aren’t quite the across-the-board success we might have hoped for at this higher price.

As a more well-rounded set of headphones, the WH-1000XM6 do everything so well that they don't have any real blind spots, and while they don't sound as refined or analytical as the 1000X The Collexion, their spark, punch and overall musicality make them the more entertaining of the two.

If we had to pick a 'one-size-fits-all' pair, it would be the more practical, durable and entertaining-sounding WH-1000XM6.

**Overall winner: Sony WH-1000XM6**

MORE:

Read our full Sony WH-1000XM6 review

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The best noise-cancelling headphones you can buy

Call quality is often overlooked in a pair of wireless earbuds, but not by us – we include it as part of our thorough testing process. And Soundcore's two new pairs could be some of the best performing yet, if the official accreditation is anything to go by.

The Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro and Liberty 5 Max earbuds have been officially recognised by Guinness World Records as being the world's clearest earbuds for calls.

This is made possible by parent company Anker's new Thus AI chip. This uses a 10-sensor matrix with eight mics for capturing noise and two bone conduction sensors to detect skull vibrations so that the voice can be captured and transmitted. This helps separate the caller's voice from background noise, making for "whisper-clear" calls even in noisy environments.

We're promised more advanced active noise cancellation, too. Both pairs offer "up to 2x deeper" noise cancellation than the Liberty 4 Pro. Soundcore claims that the 'buds process audio data up to 384,000 times per second to monitor for both external and in-ear sounds, against which they can adjust the noise cancellation curve accordingly. So as you pass from loud to quiet environments, the impact on your music listening should be minimal.

There's a transparency mode for hearing your surroundings, and an Easy Chat mode for brief interactions – ordering a drink, say – before resuming playback.

Of course, we're most interested in how these wireless earbuds sound, and here Soundcore offers a personalised listening profile courtesy of its HearID 5.0 tech. This gives you the same kind of hearing test that's common to wireless earbuds like the AirPods Pro 3 and Sony WF-1000XM6, and produces a personalised EQ profile based on the results.

The buds also support the higher-quality LDAC codec, and uses an AI Sound Enhancement system that fills in detail that's lost during Bluetooth compression.

Voice controls are onboard, letting you speak to adjust volume, skip tracks, take or hang up on calls and change the noise cancellation mode.

The cases are pretty smart, too. Both models have small screens for access to certain settings (similar to the JBL Live Beam 3), though the Liberty 5 Max's is slightly bigger and uses an OLED display rather than the TFT LCD of the Liberty 5 Pro. The Max buds can also take notes during meetings – it'll generate a transcription, identifying speakers and produce action items. Both models can translate using AI, too.

You'll get 6.5 hours of use out of each pair, and a total of 28 hours battery life using the charging case. They both have Bluetooth Multipoint too, for connecting to two devices at once and seamlessly switching between them.

Both new Soundcore earbuds are available now. The Liberty 5 Pro are £150 / $170 (around AU$280) and the Liberty 5 Max cost £200 / $230 (around 380). The Pro come in blue, white, black or pink finishes, while the Max are available in black or gold.

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Sennheiser is at a fascinating, potentially pivotal moment, in its history. The established German brand's headphone division is currently up for sale, with its current owner – Swiss hearing care company Sonova – looking to offload its stake in order to focus on its core market.

Sennheiser isn't some novice or niche brand that has failed to carve out much of a reputation. The 80-year-old company deals in microphones, soundbars and, most famously, headphones, and while that latter market has never been so richly competitive, Sennheiser has scored numerous recent successes to indicate that it is, in fact, more than ready to tackle the competition head-on.

Its stunning Sennheiser HDB 630 wireless headphones, for instance, set a new benchmark for wireless sound at their price, and when you're competing with the likes of Sony, Bose, Apple and Bowers & Wilkins, that's some achievement.

This is a brand, then, which clearly has the talent and resources to compete with, and even overcome, its key rivals, but with aspects of its future still uncertain, how it continues to compete and the resources it has available to do so remain somewhat up in the air.

To get a clearer picture, we headed over to the company's Hanover headquarters to see how Sennheiser operates, delve its working philosophy and, perhaps most importantly, find out where it is headed.

'German engineering' – what is the Sennheiser way?

Since its founding way back in 1945, Sennheiser has been guided by a principle which continues to guide its working culture: the idea of what head of research and development Stephan Lietz dubs "German engineering".

This being a German company – the story begins in a farmhouse near Hanover in 1945 and the production of the brand's first-ever microphone – you'd be forgiven for simply labelling this as a slightly jingoistic term espousing the superiority of Teutonic technical prowess.

Quite the opposite. German engineering isn't tied to a nation, but rather, it's an idea which refers to a pursuit of certain standards which transcend any particular place or person. In short, it's a desire to make everything better, all of the time.

As Lietz explains: "For us, we have a modern interpretation. You're never satisfied. You always strive for the best, and you look at all the different details. We have three locations, and in the R&D department, we have fourteen different nations, that means we are not a German group of people. This is about our culture and the way we work".

It's hard not to get that impression as you walk around the Hanover facility and chat to the company's engineers, most of whom reiterate, quite unprovoked, their relentless desire to make a good product better.

Much of the company's research and testing takes place in Hanover, but there's also a Sennheiser factory in Tullamore, Ireland, the main facility for manufacturing transducers found in the brand’s audiophile headphones which we visited back in 2023.

Having a taste of the precision that goes into assembling the HD 820/800S and the HD 650/660S2 wired headphones in Ireland, and then seeing the precise laser measurements required to ascertain minute variations in a drivers' air displacement in Hanover, it's easy to see how the concept of German engineering can transcend the bounds of mere geography.

"Sound comes first" – the Sennheiser philosophy

No, we're not expecting an established audio manufacturer to say that sound doesn't matter, but when we hear multiple Sennheiser employees, from engineers to high-level executives, enthusing that this is a "sound-first" company, it's hard not to feel relief and quiet pride in equal measure.

Stephan Lietz is again the one to emphasise this shared philosophy, but it's something we hear time and again as we tour around the Hanover facility: "High quality sound comes first. (We are discovering) new materials, new ways of using transducers – there is still a lot to do".

If, as we did, you get the chance to try out the iconic Sennheiser HE 1 headphones system, it's easy to see how that sound-first philosophy translates to actual production, albeit taken to the extreme in terms of performance and price. Sennheiser's integrated electrostatic headphone-cum-amplifier system costs north of £60,000, but as an expression of just how much detail you can squeeze out of a pair of headphones, there's not much else that comes close.

We dig a little deeper, keener to discover if there's a signature sonic philosophy acting as a North Star for how the German brand tunes its headphones. Again, it's gratifying to hear that Sennheiser's criteria for production correlates rather nicely with what we look for on the listening side.

That desire to reveal emotion clearly underpins all headphone and audio production, but what's interesting is how much wiggle room there is from product to product. As Lietz explains:

"It's always different. Let's say you're designing something like the HD 800, you assume the environment where the user is using this device. You have your studio, your amplifiers, your chair, you lean back, close your eyes and listen. This means the experience needs to be different".

"Momentum's use case is people on the move or sitting on your computer or couch, and therefore you have to tune differently, but haptics and materials also play a role. It should be comfortable all the time. Use case very heavily influences how you design the product".

There's an understanding, then, that different headphones serve different requirements, and while Sennheiser continues to view the Momentum line as an "entry-point" into the company's wider range, certain aspects of their tuning have been adjusted to accommodate a slightly different audience.

"If you look at Momentum, there's a lot more bass when compared with other audiophile headphones? Why? Because the user expects this and the typical music played back is mixed for this type of headphone, so our tuning is different".

Sound comes first, then, but the type of sound? That can vary enormously from headphone to headphone, person to person, use case to use case.

What is Sennheiser and where is it headed?

This is the subject that seems to rear its head time and again when chatting to the kind folk at the Hanover office: how Sennheiser communicates its identity, philosophy and vision to the customers to whom it wants to appeal.

In a world of Apples, Boses, Sonys and B&Ws, how does Sennheiser stand out for the crowd and, more importantly, ensure that it is finding a way of meeting its desired customers in the middle? It's all well and good producing great headphones, but making sure you're directing your customers to the products designed for them is a major challenge.

Much of that challenge lies more in education rather than merely marketing. As Tim Bosmans, head of portfolio management and marketing explains, there are so many potential customers who don't necessarily understand the major sonic gains available to them beyond their iPhone's tinny speakers or their £30 pair of cheap wireless earbuds.

"It's not just a matter of can we make the sound better, it's can we make it more accessible. That's where we need to play a part, and ultimately, it's about educating our consumers".

It's not an easy trick, and Bosmans is open and honest about the challenge of communicating exactly what a good pair of headphones will grant any potential customer. Better branding? More transparency with customers? Social media? Live events? Even we have to admit that, from the other side of the fence, we're sometimes left frustrated by 'proper' audio's struggle to communicate its benefits to the average person on the street.

Lilika Beck(President, Consumer Hearing) agrees, but hopes that once customers experience Sennheiser sound, there is, and increasingly will be, a clear path forward for experiencing better and better audio:

"You want to start with Sennheiser? You start with Momentum. Then for some consumers, we want to create a pathway to move into the audiophile journey. We will have more and more options from Momentum upwards".

Those are the customers to whom Sennheiser is keen to appeal, and the brand's strategy going forward looks set to realign to reflect its heritage as an audio-first manufacturer.

As Beck says: "We made the strategic decision to refocus the business on our core competencies – we are a leader in audiophile (products). There's this huge opportunity to build this for the next generation...who aren't yet introduced to these audiophile products".

What about the more affordable side of the market? It's no secret that the Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless over-ears started life at £300 / $350 / AU$550, with the more mid-range Accentum line – including the £160 / $180 / AU$300 Accentum Wireless cans – filling the gap as some of the cheapest headphones Sennheiser has made in the last few years.

For Beck, Sennheiser's future lies in the more premium sphere, with lower-end manufacturing representing too many unwanted challenges:

"It's red ocean. It's a lot of competition and you need a certain level of scale. There are very low margins (and) it's all about volume, so there's higher return rates, and I find that very difficult from an environmental point of view. For us, this (premium market) seems like a very natural focus.

"I think our brand has a reputation of being more premium. We want to return to that positioning".

We're fascinated to see what happens next for Sennheiser. As one of the most established names in all of headphones, be they wired or wireless, this is clearly a brand with immense knowledge, resources and, most importantly, talent at its disposal, something to which recent successes, such as the HDB 630 over-ears and Ambeo Soundbar Max, attest.

New ownership is potentially on the horizon, and with that change in owners can come a new direction.

Certainty and stability are not bad things – neither is a potential injection of capital – but with Sennheiser seemingly getting so much right on the development side, the team recognises a need to make sure that it communicates its virtues to a wider audience.

As Tim Bosmans reiterates: "If we look at our campaigns, the one thing Sennheiser hasn't done enough recently is that we need to get out there to help people understand how much is out there and how much quality you can get out of your devices".

"We're looking for someone who is very interested in the consume audio space and what we will bring to our target consumers", says Lilika Beck. That someone is yet to be decided, but whoever those new owners end up being, we hope that they stay true to Sennheiser's principle aim: to keep putting sound first.

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Check out our guide to the best wireless headphones we've tested and rated

After weeks of teasing, Sony's new premium over-ears, the 1000X The Collexion, have officially launched, and they have one simple aim: to be the best-sounding wireless headphones the company has ever produced.

That's a tall order considering this is the brand which, in recent years, has given us the Sony WH-CH720N, WH-1000XM5 and WH-1000XM6 Award-winners, not to mention a raft of class-leading wireless earbuds.

The Collexion have been released to celebrate 10 years of the 1000X line, and sit above the WH-1000XM6 as the brand's new range-topping headphones. While these may be ‘celebratory’ headphones, they're a fully fledged product in their own right, not a limited edition one-off model.

The new over-ears feature a bespoke carbon fibre 30mm drive unit, constructed using soft edging and a hard centre in pursuit of an “exceptional frequency response”. Sound has been optimised using Sony’s Walkman technology and a low phase noise crystal oscillator, while premium components and circuitry shoot for an improved signal to noise ratio to reveal exceptional levels of detail and provide a wide, open soundstage.

The 1000X The Collexion support standard SBC and AAC Bluetooth codecs alongside higher-quality LDAC if you have a compatible source device – most recent Sony smartphones should do the trick.

These are the first Sony headphones to make use of DSEE Ultimate for improving lower-quality digital audio files, while three flavours of Sony’s ‘360 Reality Audio Upmix’ tech – ‘Music’, ‘Cinema’ and ‘Game’ – are available for adding spatial audio processing to your content.

Battery life clocks in at around 32 hours with ANC off and 24 hours with noise cancelling switched on, which is a little less than the 30-or-so hours (ANC on) of the WH-1000XM6.

While Sony has warned that noise cancelling isn't such a focus for The Collexion as it is the WH-1000XM6, the pricier cans share much of the same tech as their Award-winning siblings, including Sony's QN3 processing chip and 12 built-in microphones to monitor surrounding noise.

Pretty much everything on the new headphones is made using either stainless steel or faux leather, with The Collexion boasting a slimmer, lighter profile than the WH-1000XM6.

Unlike the XM6, however, they don't fold away – though you do get a carry case, complete with a hollowed-out handle, for taking your cans out and about.

The Sony 1000X The Collexion are available now in a choice of black or platinum finishes, priced at £550 / €630 / $650. Are these really the best sounding wireless headphones Sony has ever produced? Read our full 1000X The Collexion review now to find out.

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Check out our review of the Sennheiser HDB 630

Also consider the Sony WH-1000XM6

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

Stop what you’re doing – there’s a new pair of Sony wireless headphones in town.

The 1000X range has been Sony’s flagship wireless series for a whole decade, and the brand has decided to mark this anniversary with a completely new addition to its established line-up: the Sony 1000X The Collexion over-ears.

These may be ‘celebratory’ headphones, but think of The Collexion as a fully fledged product in their own right, rather than a limited edition one-off designed for the sake of novelty or sentimentality. These are headphones which exist separately from Sony's WH-1000XM6 – with their own unique sound, design philosophy and materials – and sit comfortably above their stablemates in price.

In fact, Sony has focused on sound above all else for The Collexion cans, for what it has dubbed “the best sounding headphones we’ve ever made”. When you consider some of the absolute gems the Japanese brand has produced in the past few years, that’s a mouthwatering claim. We’d be letting you down if we didn’t give them a listen…

Price

While the 1000X series has always remained a decidedly premium line, Sony had always resisted the urge to move up into the sort of ‘high-end’ territory occupied by the likes of the the Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 (£629 / $799) and the Focal Bathys (£699 / $799), but with the 1000X The Collexion clocking in at £550 / $650, these are the closest Sony has ever come to operating within that more rarefied area of the market.

With the B&W and Focal rivals above them, the new Sonys have the likes of the Apple AirPods Max 2 (£499 / $549) and Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) (£449 / $449 / AU$700) sitting just below.

If you need reminding, the What Hi-Fi? Award-winning Sony WH-1000XM6 are priced at around £400 / $450 / AU$699, even if discounts are now knocking a few pounds or dollars off that RRP, while the five-star rival Sennheiser HDB 630 will set you back around £400 / $500 / AU$1000.

Build & comfort

Get hold of a pair of Sony’s latest and, if you squint your eyes a little, you might be fooled into thinking that you’d picked up a pair of Sonos Ace instead. The Sonys have the same clean, minimalist exterior as the Ace, as well as similarly designed oval earcups adorned with a few metallic physical buttons on the left earcup.

Sony’s engineers describe 1000X The Collexion as a pair of cans that should both look good and make you feel good when you wear them, and for the most part, that aim has been achieved. Everything on The Collexion is made either from metal or faux leather, with a nicely padded headband designed to spread pressure evenly for extended user comfort and slightly firmer ear padding than found on the WH-1000XM6.

We don’t have an issue with the look or feel of the faux leather, though our test pair are more susceptible to marks and stains than the smooth plastic of most of Sony’s other headphones. That faux material adorns pretty much the whole exterior of the earcup, so grubby fingers, not to mention the rigours of everyday use, do end up making their mark after a time.

A slimmer profile does help to add lightness, though, with the width of the earcups measuring around 40mm from inside to out, compared with the 45.4mm of the WH-1000XM6.

That does make for an appreciably lightweight and unobtrusive wearing experience, and though The Collexion actually weigh more than their XM6 counterparts – 312g against 254g – rarely do we feel that extra weight.

Some of our testers did experience some rocking and instability from the earcups when walking from place to place, but if you’re stationary, the new Sonys often simply melt away into obscurity as you forget you’ve got a pair plonked on your head at all.

While there are a few physical buttons to be found, touch controls are the main way of controlling your Sony over-ears. They work as well as you’d expect, responding quickly and effectively to our various commands, with ample levels of control customisation available via the useful Sony SoundConnect app.

Unlike the XM6 over-ears or the Bose QC Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen), these aren’t headphones which fold up into a ball, but their flattened profile and accompanying carry case – with its hollowed-out handle putting us in mind of a small handbag – mean they’re still relatively portable.

Features

Sony has very much positioned its new premium cans as sound-first headphones, but the 1000X The Collexion’s feature set matches the same generous level as that found on the do-it-all WH-1000XM6.

Battery life clocks in at around 32 hours with ANC off and roughly 24 hours with noise cancelling switched on, and while that’s down from the 30-or-so hours of the WH-1000XM6, it’s still a reasonable lifespan. The AirPods Max 2 only manage around 20 hours, although the Sennheiser HDB 630 are streets ahead with a whopping 60 hours with noise cancelling in play.

If you’re a fan of spatial audio, you get three versions of Sony’s ‘360 Reality Audio Upmix’ tech – ‘Music’, ‘Cinema’ and ‘Game’ – each of which add varying degrees of spatial processing depending on the media content. They’re fun modes to play around with, and we particularly enjoy the more immersive ‘Cinema’ setting which just about lives up to its billing by providing a more open, cinematic experience when watching movies.

On the subject of signal processing, these are the first Sony headphones to make use of its DSEE Ultimate tech for improving lower-quality digital audio files. In the app, you also get access to a 10-band equaliser for tweaking the sound alongside several simple presets, or you can deploy ‘Background Music’ mode to make it seem as though your tunes were playing in the distance to better aid your concentration.

The 1000X The Collexion support standard SBC and AAC codecs alongside higher-quality LDAC – which lets you stream hi-res music at higher data rates over Bluetooth from a compatible source device, such as Sony’s latest smartphones. Bluetooth LE Audio is also on board for lower power consumption and better-quality sound. You can also listen to the Sony headphones wired, thanks to the included 3.5mm to 3.5mm audio cable, though note that the headphones will have to be powered on when listening through a physical connection.

Sony’s Speak-To-Chat feature, which drops the volume level when you start talking, also returns, though we’d caution that the headphones can often confuse human speech with other sounds, particularly wind. If you don’t want your cans to keep cutting out every few minutes, we’d suggest switching Speak-to-Chat off when you’re outdoors and it’s a bit blustery.

ANC & call quality

While Sony has warned that noise cancelling wasn’t as much of a focus for The Collexion as it was for the WH-1000XM6, it’s still operating at a decidedly high level. Much of the same tech from the XM6 is on-hand here, including the QN3 chip and a total of 12 mics to capture and monitor surrounding noise.

When working in full noise-cancelling mode, Sony’s latest over-ears do an excellent job of suppressing noise throughout the frequencies, and while you might get the slightest hint of a shrill bird tweet just about breaking through that barrier, middle and lower range frequencies are filtered out expertly. The ANC quality on the WH-1000XM6 is still Sony’s best, but it’s very unlikely that you’ll feel short-changed by the noise cancelling on offer with The Collexion.

Call quality is excellent, too. The Collexion house six beamforming mics complemented by a wind noise reduction structure for enhanced vocal clarity and reduced external sonic intrusions, and it really pays off. Voices are clear, articulate and emotive, while background sounds rarely, if ever, intrude on our conversation as we stand next to a busy motorway on a decidedly blustery day.

Sound

Let’s reiterate what we mentioned in our introduction – the 1000X The Collexion are distinct headphones in their own right, with a sound, says Sony, which prioritises refinement, detail and maturity over the punchier, more flavoured personality of the WH-1000XM6.

To achieve this, The Collexion headphones feature a bespoke carbon composite 30mm drive unit, constructed using soft edging and a hard centre in pursuit of an “exceptional frequency response”. Sound has been optimised using a low-phase noise crystal oscillator, while premium components and circuitry, including advanced gold-containing solder, aim for an improved signal to noise ratio to reveal finer musical details and offer a wider soundstage.

That’s a lot of tech under hood, but how does that translate to the real-life listening experience?

Well, in many ways, the Sony 1000X The Collexion do live up to their billing. Just as described by Sony, they’re headphones that deal primarily in spaciousness and clarity, qualities which suffuse nigh-on every track as we bounce from Max Richter’s Never Goodbye to Radiohead’s Everything In Its Right Place.

That latter track sounds particularly good – The Collexion’s wide, open presentation grants the track a broad canvas on which to play, like an epic drama unfolding on a lovely big widescreen TV.

Detail levels are excellent, and when you have a pair of over-ears that offer clarity, textural insight and spaciousness to this extent, it’s hard not to be impressed. The elegiac strings on Never Goodbye are rich and mournful, while the piano on Debussy’s austere Sarabande strikes a wonderful balance between rich intent and subtle delicacy.

For all of their openness and delicacy, the Sonys don’t lack musical muscle. Think of them as being like a pro ballerina – nimble and graceful, yes, but strong and immensely robust when the time calls for it. It’s a nice balance to have, all aided by a deep, powerful yet controlled lower-end reproduction.

Bass tones are expertly handled, something that really comes across when we load up Massive Attack’s Atlas Air and feel the full force and punch of the tune’s full-blooded drum hits. That bass is nicely separated from the overlaid synth sounds working away above, yet not to the extent that the composition starts to lack any sense of cohesion between frequencies.

These premium Sony headphones really are impressive performers in so many aspects, but they appeal more to the head than to the heart. They certainly trade off some of that signature expressiveness we’ve heard in other Sony headphones for greater openness and detail, something that reduces the extent to which we feel truly involved with our music. Talented as they are, there’s something slightly removed, almost standoffish, about their reproduction.

That’s not something of which we’d accuse the outstanding, and cheaper, Sennheiser HDB 630. The Sennheisers have a more natural fluidity, especially with how they handle dynamic shifts, which makes them a more engaging listen. For us, the Sennheisers seem to strike that balance between naturalness, entertainment and analysis a touch more acutely than the Sonys.

Their rather aloof personality also robs the Sony cans of some of their intimacy. Listen to the first 30 seconds of Black Veil Brides’ Saviour II, and there’s a greater feeling of closeness to the opening guitar and vocal lead when listening via the costlier Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2. When the track opens up as the chorus hits, however, The Collexion show their hand, allowing it to blossom and reveal its gothic grandeur with more scale than the rival B&W cans.

Verdict

There’s much to admire about Sony’s 1000X The Collexion over-ears. It’s impossible to ignore their poised, detail-rich performance, while that ample feature set and classy construction make them tough to resist.

There is a ‘but’, however. In pursuing a particular sonic signature – namely, one that goes after scale, detail and clarity – it’s hard not to feel as though Sony has slightly thrown the baby out with the bathwater.

Yes, these are seriously talented performers, but deep down, they feel like headphones which were built to impress rather than entertain. As a result, we find ourselves admiring them rather than completely falling in love.

Review published: 19th May 2026

SCORES

• Sound 4
• Build 4
• Features 5

MORE:

Read our review of the Sony WH-1000XM6

Also consider the Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2

Read our Sennheiser HDB 630 review

Sony WH-1000XM6 vs 1000X The Collexion: which premium wireless headphones should you pick?

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

It may seem like JBL unleashes a never-ending stream of products every year, and this is partly true.

Just this year, the American brand – which is also celebrating its 80th anniversary this year – has launched the Xtreme 5 and the Go 5 Bluetooth speakers, along with a new Live 4 wireless earbuds range, and the over-ear 780NC and on-ear 680NC noise-cancelling headphones – all in a variety of snazzy new colours.

There's also a brand-new JBL Sound Curve tuning announced for the flagship Tour One M3 headphones, which refines the sound quality to be more balanced and forgiving – and less bass-focused – to adapt to listeners wearing the headphones for longer and prevent them from getting fatigued.

And that's before we even get to the hugely popular Party Box speakers – not a core What Hi-Fi? category, but a big deal for JBL, which dominates 90 per cent of that particular market.

World domination – for the portables and headphones market in particular – is clearly on the brand's mind. I spoke to Jurjen Amsterdam, Harman Lifestyle's director of product marketing (EMEA) at JBL's HQ in Amsterdam (no relation), about the recent launches, anticipating trends, their target demographic, and market domination plans.

Despite the sheer number of products, there is method behind the launch madness. Jurjen Amsterdam says: "We try to manage product lines on a two year cycle. So last year we did the Charge 6 and Flip 7; this year it's Xtreme 5 and Go 5 for portables."

"Next year, most likely, it's going to be two other models... it looks like a lot, but it's always a two-year cycle."

It's an aggressive strategy that points to the brand's ambitions, but even then, JBL seems cautious about simply making products for the sake of it. The product cycle isn't necessary like clockwork, and it relies on the latest technology available, too – and the team also has to decide what not to include. For example, the interval between the JBL Charge 5 and Charge 6 was a good four years (albeit both available in April of those years), and new technologies such as Auracast sharing made way for the whole line-up to be refreshed.

Conversely, the new JBL Sound Curve – an adaptation of parent company Harman's target frequency curve – is currently only reserved for the Tour One M3 to signify their premium status, and hasn't been trickled down to the mid-priced Live range headphones/earbuds to ensure a clean delineation between the ranges.

The regular product cycle also allows JBL to keep its pulse on the ground and adapt to their target audience, as well as keep up with the demands of customers, who "expect us [JBL] to drive the competition and come up with new things".

Fresh new colours of green and orange standout against a sea of greige, black and even blue of its rivals, with some noting that the particular shade of orange chosen by JBL for the Live 780NC/680NC headphones matches the latest iPhone 17's orange finish.

That's not by accident. The product team (which also includes marketing and commercial working in a "triangle") tries to "forsee trends long enough in advance", says Jurjen. "Design trends, technology trends – all the colours that you see in the Live series, they don't have this colour just because we like them. This is part of a longer trend that we're trying to watch in terms of colours."

Despite the proliferation of JBL products, the brand doesn't like making products just for the sake of it.

"No – we don't want to make products because we can. We want to make products because we want to address a certain need from end consumers."

For the Live range, what JBL really wanted to focus on is "lifestyle", and the target demographic is aimed towards "Gen Z and up" – he drills down further to say 15 to around 30s is the target age range.

"It's most likely the price that people want to spend on a [pair of] headphones that will decide whether they go for a Live series or a Tour series."

Not everyone can splash out for the €349 for the Tour flagships, he says, and the gap between the budget Tune range and the Tour is quite a big one. This is where the middle-ground Live comes in: "This is the ultimate compromise of great quality, great noise cancelling, super comfortable and looks really nice," declares Jurjen.

The styling is an important part of the Live headphones and earbuds.

"Of course, a lot of people will buy the black finish," he says, "but we also want to give people the opportunity to buy in white, in blue, in green, in orange, in purple..." As we speak, Jurjen points to the younger influencers around us at the launch who are relishing wearing the colourful headphones and taking photos, as evidence of the brand's target demographic crowd that is "young, energetic, social" and likes sharing music.

"It literally fits the JBL brand – it's the core of the JBL target audience."

Even JBL's Headphones app opens to a montage of faces that run the gamut of identities. It's welcoming, diverse and youthful, but without ever trying too hard. You'd never guess the brand was pushing 80.

Passing the new Live 780NC over-ear headphones – which I decided to nab in its bright orange finish – to my colleagues in the What Hi-Fi? office, the general consensus seems to be that the colourful shade and styling stands out from the sea of plain, rather functional designs we see from other brands, even premium models from Sony and Bose.

Whether JBL's new mid-range model can reach the heights of five-star sound quality their more illustrious rivals achieve remains to be seen, of course. But it's an area what JBL is absolutely gunning for.

"In headphones, we would love to dominate."

Jurjen puts the headphones market into context. "Headphones is way bigger than all of the other things that we do put together. This is a 4 billion market in Europe. If we add portable audio, party box, gaming, wireless speakers, soundbars – if we add that all together, it's still less than headphones."

"In headphones, we're at 10-11 per cent market share. Of course we would like to grow that."

The headphones market is exceptionally tricky as there are over 300 brands vying for a piece of the pie. It's a big market dominated by one key player (Apple, particularly in wireless earbuds, with Sony and Bose in over-ears) that a lot of people spend a lot of money on.

"So we know, even this target audience we're aiming for, we know they have money to spend – because we see that they spend money on some of the higher range models."

"But the aim is to create credibility," he says. "Sony is a great example of that – you get five star reviews a couple of years in a row, nobody thought that Bose would ever lose that position. Sony now has that position. We believe that we equally have a good quality product."

I ask Jurjen if there's any particular trend that surprised him for this current cycle of products, that consumers were clamouring for?

"No. Not really; it's all about audio quality. It's all about design. It's all about wearing comfort." Ultimately, he says, the Live headphones and earbuds are a "very good alternative to what's out there in the market".

We certainly hope that's the case, as we still find there is a general dearth of really great recommendations in this £100-£200 mid-price range. We're currently testing the Live 780NC wireless headphones (£170), so stay tuned for a full review in due course.

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The JBL Live 4 earbuds have a better case, new high fidelity drivers and enhanced noise cancellation

Marshall has announced its latest pair of wireless on-ear headphones, the Milton ANC.

Blending handy portability with long-lasting battery life and Marshall's signature styling, the new headphones tease "dynamic audio with rich detail" thanks to their 32mm dynamic drivers.

As you might have twigged, the new on-ears offer active noise cancelling, with a standard flavour sitting alongside transparency mode and adaptive ANC, the latter of which analyses your surroundings and adjusts the level of noise cancelling in real time.

An adaptive loudness feature, meanwhile, can be used to raise your music's bass and lower mids whenever unwanted noises intrude upon your listening.

The Milton ANCs' major headline-grabber is their stated battery life, with Marshall promising up to 80 hours of wireless playtime with noise-cancelling off, dropping to a still-whopping 50 hours with it enabled.

The Milton ANC offer Bluetooth 6.0 with LE Audio for more efficient wireless transmission, bolstered by support for the standard SBC and AAC codecs alongside higher-quality LDAC.

The new on-ear headphones deploy memory foam ear cushions designed for comfort over extended listening sessions, and can be folded away completely for greater portability.

According to Evelina Lindström, Product Manager at Marshall: “With Milton ANC we have created a premium, yet durable headphone that is easy to bring with you wherever life takes you. The combination of adaptive ANC with 80 hours battery life is guaranteed to take on the go music listening sessions to the next level".

The Milton ANC are available now, priced at £180 / $230 / €199.

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