Best headphones
Whether you’re looking for an over-the-ear, on-ear, or in-ear model, we’ll help you find the perfect pair.
The best headphones are the ultimate tool for intimate listening experiences. Whether you’re listening on your phone, a digital audio player, a disc player, or even a PC or gaming console, when you’re ready to shut out the world and be one with your music, there is nothing better than a great set of cans.
And you probably have multiples of them, since most every smart device and digital audio player comes with a pair; but it’s a safe bet that you’re really not satisfied with any of them. Comfortable high-quality headphones can transform your audio experiences ranging from listening to music and podcasts to watching TV programmes and films.
Whether you prefer the isolation of in-ear headphones, the comfort of an over-the-ear model, the convenience of wireless, or you’re not sure which type is
best for you, we’ll help you find the right ones at the right budget. But before we get started, we take a look at the different types of headphone.
OVER-THE-EAR HEADPHONES
Over-the-ear (aka circumaural) headphones are the audiophile gold standard for high-fidelity, critical listening. And for good reason: this type of headphone fully covers your ear, creating a stable arena of sound.
They come in two designs: closed and open back. Closed-back models help seal out ambient noise and prevent sound from leaking into the environment (and nearby microphones, if you’re in a recording studio). As a general rule, because of their design, closed-back headphones tend to have better, more visceral bass response than open-back designs. Some closed-back headphones from Bose, Sony, JBL and others also feature active noise cancellation (ANC) technologies to greatly reduce ambient noise during air travel or noisy commutes (not if you’re the driver, obviously).
Open-back designs typically have a perforated screen that allows air to pass between the ear cups and the outside world. With an open-back design, you can hear your surroundings and anyone near you can easily hear the music you’re playing. The best place for open-back headphones is in a quite place at home, as opposed to a noisy environment or in library where you’ll disturb others.
Choose an open-back design for a deeper soundstage and a sense of space with musical recordings. These types of headphones liberate your music in
a fashion that’s similar way to listening to free-standing loudspeakers.
The biggest drawback of overthe-ear headphones is their size and bulk. Models that can fold up are still bulkier than on-ear models. Some models don’t fold at all.
We should also note that over-theear headphones tend to feature three different technologies: dynamic driver, planar magnetic and electrostatic. We explain these technologies later on.
ON-EAR HEADPHONES
The smaller cups that on-ear (aka supraaural) headphones use are designed to sit on top of your outer ears. This enables them to approach the sound quality of over-the-ear headphones, but in a more compact form factor. Many models, including the AKG N60NC wireless shown below, fold up for travel.
You’ll do well to test how on-ear models fit. Some models are too tight and others far too loose. While tightfitting models can help reduce external noise, they can become fatiguing and painful to wear for extended periods.
IN-EAR HEADPHONES
In-ear headphones (aka in-ear monitors or IEMs), fit into your ear canal and create a seal with either a silicone or memory-foam tip. Because they’re delivering audio almost directly to your ear drums, IEMs tend to deliver a smaller sound stage than either in-ear or on-ear headphones.
Their compact size make IEMs perfect for travel and exercising, and models that include microphones (either wireless or in the cord of wired models) can be used with your smartphone. Some active-lifestyle models
even feature IPX ratings certifying their water (and sweat) resistance.
Getting a good fit and tight seal with IEMs critical to achieving the best audio performance. An in-ear headphone’s bass response is dependent on the quality of the seal. If the seal is too loose, bass will sound anaemic.
Because of their superior ability to seal, memory-foam tips that expand to the unique shape of your ear canal will not only fit better, they’ll also block ambient noise – in some cases, by 25dB or more – and they’ll increase an in-ear monitors’ perceived bass response (delivering too much of a good thing in some cases).
Memory-foam tips create a superior seal. Some third-party companies, including Comply, sell high-quality memory-foam tips for various brands of in-ear monitors.
Higher-quality over-the-ear and on-ear headphones come with
detachable cables, so you can replace them if they’re ever damaged or simply wear out. That’s not always the case with in-ear headphones; however, some recent IEMs now come with detachable cables that conform to the MMCX (Micro Miniature Coax Connector) standard, so you can use any compatible MMCX cable with them. Replacing a cable is a much better alternative to throwing away an otherwise perfectly serviceable set of headphones.
EARBUD HEADPHONES
Earbuds are similar to in-ear headphones, but they are designed differently. Earbuds sit in the outer part of your ear (the concha, specifically) as opposed to fitting inside your ear canal.
Earbuds don’t block ambient noise, and you might find you need to increase the volume on your source device to overcome the noise floor of your surroundings. This could result in the people around your hearing whatever you’re listening to.
A major benefit of earbuds is that one size fits all. You don’t need to find the just the right silicone or memoryfoam tip to fit the unique shape of your ear. The most common complaint about earbuds is that they fall out of your ears too easily, especially while you’re running or exercising.
WIRELESS HEADPHONES
Wireless headphones are incredibly convenient, and the best will deliver audio performances rivalling wired phones. They’re particularly useful when you’re exercising. If this is the type of headphone you’re shopping for, these are the most important features you’ll want to consider:
Battery life
Wireless headphones use Bluetooth to connect to a source device (smartphone,
digital audio player, laptop, or even a soundbar). They typically rely on a rechargeable lithium-ion battery that can last anywhere from four to more than 20 hours. If the battery runs dry on in-ear and earbud headphones, you won’t be able to use them they’ve been recharged. Most on-ear and over-the-ear models come with a 3.5mm audio cable, so you can plug them into your source device and use them in wired mode. Wireless audio support The audio quality relies significantly on the audio codecs it supports. Codec stands for compression/decompression: digital audio is compressed at the source, so the information can be transmitted to the headphone without wires, and decompressed at the destination, so you can hear it. Some codecs deliver higher fidelity than others, but the codec must be supported at both ends: by the source device and by the headphones. These codecs are among the most common in wireless headphones.
SBC: All Bluetooth devices support the SBC codec, which offers maximum bandwidth of 328Kb/s. While functional, the SBC codec doesn’t support high-resolution audio, and it tends to exhibit high latency. This could result in soundtracks falling out of sync with video.
aptX: A high-quality, low-latency audio codec from Qualcomm that promises to deliver near CD-quality audio over Bluetooth. Qualcomm has more recently developed a newer version of this codec, called aptX HD, that enables audio encoded in up to 24-bit resolution with sampling rates as high as 48kHz to stream over a Bluetooth connection.
AAC: If you use Apple products and services, such as Apple Music, you’ll need support for this codec. You’ll also encounter it in some gaming consoles, high-resolution digital audio players, and in automotive entertainment systems. AAC delivers higher-fidelity audio than the more common MP3 codec at the same bit rate.
LDAC: Developed by Sony, LDAC offers bandwidth of as much as 990Kb/s to wirelessly deliver audio encoded in up to 24-bit resolution with sampling rates as high as 96kHz.
Wireless remote control
Many wireless headphones provide wireless controls. In-ear headphones
typically come with some type of inline remote control, like their wired counterparts, while on-ear and over-theear headphones usually have remote functions on the ear cup.
Make sure the control navigation fits your style: some manufacturers outfit their headphones with physical buttons on the right or left ear cup, in locations that feel natural to your fingertips. Some go further and provide tactile cues, so you can be confident you’re pressing the right button.
Other manufactures provide what’s called a gesture pad, a touch-sensitive surface on one ear cup that responds to taps and directional swipes. Swiping your finger from the back to the front might move to the next track in your playlist, for example, while swiping up or down adjusts the volume. As you might expect, some gesture pads work better than others.
HEADPHONE TECHNOLOGIES
You will encounter lots of other jargon – and no shortage of marketing hype – when you shop for headphones. Here are explanations of some of the most common terms:
Dynamic driver: Most headphones on the market today use dynamic drivers, which are similar to the round cones or tweeters you see in loudspeakers.
Balanced armature: You’ll find balanced armature designs in in-ear monitors. First developed for hearing aids, a balanced-armature architecture relies on an electrical signal to vibrate a small reed or paddle thousands of times per second.
The reed is ‘balanced’ between two magnets, hence the name ‘balanced armature’. Some headphones have multiple armatures, each functioning
within a certain frequency range for better performance. Balanced armature drivers don’t reproduce bass frequencies well. You’ll typically see balanced armature designs using a dynamic driver for the bass frequencies.
Planar magnetic drivers: A planar magnetic design uses an extremely thin and light diaphragm to reproduce sound. A magnetic system drives the entire surface of the diaphragm evenly in a pull-push manner.
Planar magnetic designs are typically found in over-the-ear headphones and have the reputation for being able to resolve fine musical details and creating a sense of space and depth in the music. The drawback to some planar magnetic models is that they present high impedance to the source device and are thus too difficult for some mobile devices to drive. Check the capabilities of your source device before you buy this type of headphone. You can also use them with a headphone amplifier.
Electrostatic drivers: Electrostatic drivers consist of a thin electrically charged diaphragm. The diaphragm is normally suspended between two perforated plates, and an electrical signal is then passed through the plates to move the diaphragm in a push-pull manner towards one of them. Like planar magnetic designs, some electrostatic headphones present high impedance levels to the source and are therefore hard to drive. Here again, check
the capabilities of your source device before you buy this type of headphone or use a headphone amplifier.
NOISE-CANCELLING TECHNOLOGIES
If you travel or find yourself in noisy environments frequently, you might be interested in a headphone that offers noise cancellation. Here are explanations of the three primary means by which this is accomplished:
Passive noise cancellation: This isn’t a technology per se; rather, It refers to how much ambient noise a headphone will block out. In-ear headphones with memory-foam tips and closed-back over-the-ear headphones offer the best passive noise cancellation. They’re also the least likely to colour the music you’re listening to.
Active noise cancellation: A sound wave is similar to the ripples in a pond. Toss a pebble in the pond and then introduce inverse ripples and you’ll effectively smooth out the pond’s surface. Active noise cancellation (ANC) works in a similar manner. Microphones mounted on the headphones analyse ambient sound waves and then produce inverse sound waves that will cancel them out.
As you might expect, the ANC technologies from some are incredibly effective; others, less so. We’ve tested models from AKG, Bose, JBL, Libratone
and Sony, and found them to be very good. Some individuals find that ANCenabled headphones exert pressure on their ears, creating a similar sensation to being under water. If you find ANC headphones to be uncomfortable, you’ll prefer a model with good passive noise cancellation.
Adaptive noise cancellation: You might think of this as a smarter form of active noise cancellation. It operates on the same principles, but adapts to your surroundings to apply more or less of the effect and to even bring in sounds from the outside world.
Some adaptive noise-cancelling solutions even take into account how fast you’re moving, the air pressure around you, and whether you’re likely in a plane, taking a walk, or holding a conversation. Many operate in conjunction with a mobile app on your smartphone.
BEST OVER-THE-EAR HEADPHONES Beyerdynamic Amiron Home
Price: £449 from fave.co/3jSlThy It seems Beyerdynamic didn’t get the memo that analogue jacks are out and wireless streaming and Lightning ports are in. The company’s £449 Amiron Home headphones tether you to your choice of musical source and practically insist that you stay put and take your music seriously.
And thank goodness for that. Instead of producing a mediocre pair of headphones following the latest trend, Beyerdynamic has delivered an astoundingly great-sounding headphone that’s sure to please anyone who cares about playing their
music with the energy and dynamics of the original performance.
Steeped in tradition
In 1924 in Germany, Beyerdynamic’s founder Eugene Beyer started making loudspeakers for movie palaces (aka cinemas) during the transition from silent to talking films. In 1937, the company began production of the first dynamic headphones, the DT 48 (which remained in production until 2012) and hasn’t looked back since. The Amiron Home follows in that tradition and is the successor to the company’s model T90.
The Amiron Home are an open-back, circumaural design with an impedance of 250 ohms, making them easy to drive with today’s mobile devices. The claimed frequency response for these dynamic driver headphones is an astounding 5Hz to 40kHz. Those aren’t just some numbers on a spec sheet, these headphones delivered some of the best and authoritatively clean bass I’ve heard out of a headphone priced less than £1,000.
Don’t look for Bluetooth. These are strictly wired headphones. And what a wire it is. The included 3m, rubbercoated cable is perfect for plugging into a home headphone amp or computer and reclining in your favourite chair. But its thickness and length render it awkward to walk with or to bring with you on the road. I had to curl it around my neck like a shawl if I wanted to walk around the house with the headphones. You can order a shorter, 1.4m cable directly from Beyerdynamic, but that will set you back around £88.
The Amiron Home are headphone amp friendly too. The included cable has a threaded collar that will accommodate the included
1/4-inch adapter, which has a threaded female receptacle so that you get a good, tight fit.
The headband and ear cups are plush even though there’s no leather. They are made of soft Alcantara microfibre and microvelour. I cringed a bit when I saw this. Many velour-style ear pads make my ears hot and sweaty.
Beyerdynamic says that the ear pad materials have temperature-balancing and moisture-regulating effects. Whatever tech Beyerdynamic uses worked surprisingly well throughout my review period. Even after hours of listening, my ears weren’t sweating a bit; and since the cans weigh in at just 340g and apply minimal compression, I hardly noticed I was wearing headphones at all.
The Amiron Home are unapologetically audiophile headphones. The ear cups are so large that dance along the borders of your cheeks. That cavernous expanse pays off in spades with a deep and spacious
soundstage that more closely resembles the sensation of free-standing speakers.
Just be aware that those big ear cups don’t fold, so the carrying case is huge. If you want to take these cans outside your house, assume you’ll be slipping them into a backpack.
The Tesla tech driving the Amiron Home’s sound
Beyerdyanmic’s Tesla technology lies at the heart of the Amiron Home. Named after the famous engineer and physicist, Nikola Tesla, Beyerdynamic says the eponymous tech brings a powerful magnetic drive, clean reproduction, and low total harmonic distortion that enhance the performance of the headphones.
Previously, neodymium magnets lay at the heart of the company’s dynamic headphone system. Now the magnet is mounted as a ring that encircles the coil. Beyerdynamic says this allows the headphone to provide more energy to the membrane. The sonic benefit? Rich detail and greater dynamics. I don’t know how Beyerdynamic has done it, but after many weeks of listening I couldn’t agree more.
A revelatory listening experience
I used the Amiron Home headphones for more than a month with a variety of source devices, including Astell&Kern’s AK70 and Pioneer’s XDP100R hi-res music players; a phone and a laptop; and an Anthem AVM 60 using the pre-processor’s headphone amplifier. I played mostly highres FLAC, ALAC, and DSD files as well as some lossy AAC files downloaded from the Music app or from Apple Music.
Make no mistake, these are incredibly musical headphones in just about every sense of the word. I was smitten from the first notes that emanated through the Amiron Home, and I think you will be too.
The Amiron Home have a few distinct sonic characteristics. First, these have a bit of a relaxed presentation, while other headphones tend to be more intimate and forward. If you don’t like a relaxed presentation, then the Amiron Home’s sonic signature might not appeal to you.
Second, the soundstage explodes deep and wide as soon as you put them on. The 24-bit/96kHz FLAC version the Chesky recording of Tchaikovsky’s Waltz
of the Flowers from the Nutcracker is a good example. The harp is beautifully recessed with the varied horns and strings layered into the soundstage. The 24-bit/176.4kHz version of Spanish
Harlem, by Rebecca Pidgeon, was magnificently layered with Rebecca’s vocals forward and the piano and other accompanying instruments situated farther in the background.
Third, the ability for the Beyerdynamic to bring out details and resolve complex musical layers was a marvel. You don’t typically get this kind of detail in a dynamic headphone at this price-point. While listening to Adele’s Rolling in the
Deep I could clearly and distinctly make out every backup vocalist and hear exactly what they were saying – down to the last syllable – every time. All the while, Adele’s vocals were placed at front with pitch-perfect clarity. Slow it down to the 24-bit FLAC version of The Beatles
Abbey Road and you’ll be amazed by the Beyerdynamic’s ability to bring the legendary album to life. The Amiron Home played Here Comes the Sun with timbral accuracy, airy highs, and an open mid range.
Fourth, the bass is beautiful and its extension and control are just downright uncanny from an open-back design. At
times – if not every time – it was like the bass was coming from a high-end sub. You’ll hear and feel new-found sounds you never knew existed in tracks you’ve listened to dozens of times. The heartbeat on the opening of Pink Floyd’s Speak to Me from
Dark Side of the Moon pulsated with clarity and dynamism with the attack of each beat starting and stopping on a dime. The deep, synthesizer bass lines on Sarah McLachlan’s Perfect Girl from Afterglow Live, Bonnie McKee’s
Trouble, and Lorde’s Royals were remarkable test tracks.
The Amiron Home’s one-twopunch of deep bass and lightning-fast transient response made percussion instruments pop and snap with the kind of realism you get from live music instead of those polite thuds that are all too common. In fact, the Amiron Home rendered Sade’s Soldier of Love with the best musical energy and clarity I’ve ever heard from a pair of headphones.
Beyerdynamic wanted a headphone that can bring audiophile sound to today’s mobile devices, and they succeeded. The Amiron Home sounded superb with every source I used – including the phone and laptop. But, if you really want to see these headphones shine to their full potential, plug them into a dedicated headphone amp and then sit back, relax, and enjoy the music. There was an odd anomaly when I paired the Amiron Home with the Anthem AVM 60, however; bass energy became too intense to the point where it produced resonances within the ear cup. I never experienced this with any other device – only the Anthem.
Verdict
Beyerdynamic’s Amiron Home dynamic headphones don’t have Bluetooth, active noise cancellation, a gesture pad or even an inline microphone. And you know what? I couldn’t care less. What the Amiron Home lacks in high tech it makes up with stunningly beautiful and dynamic music reproduction from the deepest bass notes to airy highs without ever becoming fatiguing. If you care about getting lost in the music again and again, night after night, you need to check out these cans. Highly recommended. Theo Nicolakis
BEST NOISE-CANCELLING HEADPHONES Sony WH-1000XM4
Price: £349 from fave.co/34P4TV7 Two years ago, when I reviewed Sony’s WH-1000XM3 active noisecancelling headphones, I said that Sony had finally eclipsed Bose in this category. And I wasn’t the only one to say it. Now, the company is back with the all-new WH-1000XM4. While these new cans don’t advance the ball by a lot, they nonetheless are my new top recommendation for music lovers looking for great-sounding headphones that also deliver terrific noise cancellation. Sony made some small refinements to its already amazing ANC headphones.
Key improvements include a proximity sensor that automatically toggles play/pause when you put the headphones on and take them off, support for Sony’s LDAC high-res audio codec (a common feature on highend digital audio players), and multipoint connection via Bluetooth 5.0 (so you can connect to two sources at once). Sony made other very small improvements to the hardware and software, too; but for the most part, those are just tweaks to a winning foundation.