• Bose has just unveiled second-generation QuietComfort Headphones
• Introduces two-way USB-C audio, better ANC, Bose Immersive Audio and more
• Costs less than 2023 model, brings not one but two Shrek-y color options

It's been three long years since the Bose QuietComfort Headphones arrived (which were themselves an update on the iconic Bose QuietComfort 35 II, initially released way back in 2017).

And now, the brand has finally updated the series as its more affordable option to the flagship QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen).

These are, as naming experts can probably guess, called the Bose QuietComfort Headphones (2nd Gen). They bring a range of upgrades over the original pair and, most importantly, a lower price. That's right: 2026, aka the year of price hikes, has just thrown us a bone — although only in the UK.

We know the Bose QC Headphones (2nd Gen) will cost $359 / £299 / AU$549.95. For context, the first-gen model cost $349 / £349.95 / AU$549.95, so the discount in the UK is pretty significant. There is, however, a $10 increase in the US, while in Australian they launch at the same price.

The new headphones will go on sale on August 13, and we'll start testing them soon to see how they stack up in a congested market. The thing is, this aesthetic is highly desirable: when I take public transport I see countless pairs of the older model, despite their relative age.

Anyway, let's look at some key upgrades!

What's new in Gen 2

By the sounds of things, the new Bose cans match their predecessors in terms of audio chops. The older siblings had a 40mm driver, though the company hasn't confirmed what size (and type) of driver the 2nd Gen set are packing.

However, there's now Bose Immersive Audio, a feature previously exclusive to the Ultra lineup, which offers some useful presets. One, which Bose highlights, is a Cinema Mode that aims to create a wide soundstage and boost dialogue.

There's now also support for USB-C wired audio, so you can listen to lossless audio from your phone, and boosts to the ANC. Given that the 'Quiet' part of 'QuietComfort' is a pledge of noise cancellation prowess and the fact that Bose essentially wrote the book on ANC, it's good to hear (or, more appropriately, not hear).

Bose has made a few design tweaks on the QCH(2G) too, with comfier cushions and more ovular earcups. The brand also says the sliders are smoother to use, and presumably that refers to the headband sliders or small Bluetooth slider on the top plate of the right ear cup, because the first-gen model didn't have any kind of on-ear volume slider.

And, because you read it in the headline, there's one more change we should discuss. Beyond black and white color options, three limited-edition models are being unveiled. Rosewood Mauve is a bold purplish option — see our glowing Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) review for reference — while Eucalyptus Green, pictured in the main image, will make you look like you're wearing Shrek ears. The third is Dewdrop Mint, with a two-tone pale and dark green. To my eyes this particular finish looks like the hue a pair of kids' headphones would come in.

I imagine that most people might prefer to pick up the black or white models, but Shrek fans out there might differ.

• A user on Reddit shared a solution to stop AirPods from slipping out of your ears
• They switched to liquid silicone tips instead of Apple's standard silicone ones
• The user claims these have solved the slipping issue, and they fit just as well as foam tips

We’ve tested pretty much all the best earbuds out there, and the AirPods Pro lineup always lands in our list of top models — but keeping them tucked securely in your ears can be a bit of a challenge during activities that involve a lot of movement.

If you find that your AirPods Pro slip out while running, or even walking and chewing, you’re not in the minority. Turns out, there’s a whole community of AirPod users out there who are running into the same issues.

I switched from earbuds to using some of the best headphones a while back, but when I had my old AirPods I endured the same frustrations of having to push them back into my ear every now and then. It’s quite annoying, especially if you use AirPods Pro for exercising — but one user has found a fix.

Liquid silicone is the solution (apparently)

In a post on Reddit (see below), u/LatissimusDorsi26 shared that they decided to ditch their Apple-made ear tips for cheap liquid silicone replacements they bought from Amazon (they said it cost them $5 for 4 pairs in XS, S, M, and L). They said the tips ‘permanently’ solved the problem for them and their AirPods Pro 2.

Yes, AirPods Pro come with silicone ear tips out of the box, but they’re not 'liquid silicone', which is what the author of the Reddit post believes makes the difference, detailing the replacement tips’ "sticky/ tacky finish on their surface which makes them stick to your ear canal".

I know what you might be thinking: won't your AirPods then be too big to fit in the charging case?. I thought that too, but according to the poster, they fit just as perfectly as they would with standard Apple earbud tips, and you won’t need to remove the tips for charging.

Since sharing this, fellow AirPods owners flocked to the replies, and it's sparked a deeper conversation about silicone vs foam tips for earbuds.

Though silicone tips are pretty much the go-to for a lot of earbud brands, and not just Apple — the Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro 4 also have silicone tips — a lot of users choose to upgrade to foam replacements from brands such as Comply. There are many reasons for this.

In short, foam tips can provide a grip that’s a lot more snug, and are arguably better for locking in audio and preserving noise cancellation. That said, foam replacements are expensive alternatives and don’t have the same durability as silicone — one user in the replies highlighted that Comply foam tips are the best part of $25 for three pairs, while another said that they still keep slipping out.

That’s not to say silicone tips don’t have their setbacks. By standards, some versions don’t fit quite as tight as foam ones, and transparent ones as shown earlier don’t quite fit the clean-cut aesthetic of the AirPods themselves. But silicone wins on the durability front, and won’t need frequent replacing like foam tips.

Based on this Reddit poster’s hack, it appears that there is a way to solve the pain points on both sides after all. On the one hand the liquid silicone tips stick to the user’s ear canal, providing a secure fit, and are durable and affordable on the other — all from a mere $5 Amazon purchase.

• AirPods with cameras are apparently still coming...
• ... but the next model, due in 2026, won't have them
• In truth, little is known about these new buds (which is how Apple likes it)

For some reason, Apple fans are clamoring for new AirPods with cameras built in, and we've been hearing plenty of rumors that they're on the way. But a new report suggests they won't actually be the next Apple earbuds we see.

According to stalwart Apple correspondent Mark Gurman (via his Power On newsletter), Apple has two AirPods models on the go.

The flagship ice-white buds we've been reporting on are set to have tiny AI cameras — and Gurman has now backed up rumors of their being slated for a 2027 release.

But some models are expected in 2026: Gurman mentions another pair of buds (with a lot less known about them) that are likely to come along the 2026 iPhones at the end of the year.

The coverage doesn't specify whether these are AirPods, AirPods Pro or even over-ears, but the latter seem unlikely, because the AirPods Max 2 are only a few months old.

Could it be a possible Beats release? TechRadar's Jacob Krol recently spent a few days at Apple's Beats HQ and pressed the highly successful Apple subsidiary brand on some much teased Beats headphones, spotted on various occasions at the World Cup recently, but the company remained tight-lipped on those.

For now, we'll have to wait and see.

Are cameras worth the wait?

Questions concerning whether AirPods with cameras would even work aside, Apple faces the question — given the recent backlash over glasses that see — over whether most buyers would even want that.

The point of the tech is, apparently, to let an AI assistant see what's going on around you. The hardware is part of a big AI push Apple is undergoing.

That's despite consumers' appetite for AI dropping as fast as companies' desperation for AI increases. I don't see many AirPods buyers opting for a new pair of earbuds without a genuine reason they'd be useful (and no, smarter Siri doesn't count), especially if their whole schtick is that they're always spying on you.

Often when we see a tech product delayed, it's because it's just not ready yet. But with the camera-toting AirPods, it's more likely that we're not ready yet... or maybe we just don't need them.

When you’re thinking about buying a new pair of headphones, I’d wager that a pair from Sony will undoubtedly come to mind. The tech giant is known for making some of the best headphones we’ve seen heard in the past decade.

In fact, Sony released the uber-premium 1000X The Collexion in May this year to celebrate that decade of being at the top of its audio game, while also giving it an uber-premium price tag to match. Roughly three months since their launch, they’ve received their first discount, bringing them down to a slightly more manageable AU$849 (down from AU$999) for a limited time.

Yes, that’s still a lotta money to throw at a set of headphones, but when Apple’s AirPods Max 2 — the Sony’s main rival — continue to prove popular and cost similar money, then there’s very much a case to be made for a pair from a company that’s been producing top-rated audio kit for over 75 years.

If you’re familiar with Sony’s other headphone exploits, such as the WH-1000XM6 that currently sit atop my guide to the best headphones in Australia, then I must stress that the 1000X Collexion are absolutely not the same pair in a new-look aesthetic.

Sony has gone to great lengths to ensure its latest pair justify their price tag, and that they do more than enough to compete with the AirPods Max 2, with an immediate win for being device-agnostic compared to Apple’s over-ears.

Elsewhere they sport impeccable touch controls, a 10-band custom equaliser and DSEE Ultimate technology for upscaling lower-quality song files up to 96kHz and 32-bit. This technology has previously only been found in Sony’s high-end portable music players, so it’s a big deal that it’s finally made its way into a pair of headphones. Noise cancellation is also excellent, as the Collexion uses the same 12-mic system found in the XM6 over-ears.

No product is perfect, mind you, and as our tester noted in his Sony 1000X The Collexion review that “there are some downsides, such as lower battery life, as well as the underwhelming 360 Upmix modes”.

On those two latter points: battery life is rated at 24 hours, which is down from the 30 hours of the XM6, but still more than the AirPods Max 2’s 20 hours, while the 360 Upmix mode — essentially spatial audio — seemed to have a negative effect on sound quality during our testing.

Listening experience is personal, however and, all things considered, the Collexion are still a fantastic set of headphones that I personally wouldn’t mind spending my own money on if I didn’t already use the Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless. I can’t be sure how long this limited-time discount will last, so if you’ve been keen to invest in Sony’s best, don’t let this opportunity pass you by.

Hard to believe, but Beats by Dr. Dre has officially been part of Apple for 12 years now — and the brand itself turns 20 this year. Suffice it to say, it's a brand that has continued to evolve and drastically improve its quality over the years, all while maintaining its cultural relevance.

That second part is the surprising one. When Apple bought Beats in 2014 for around $3 billion, the conventional wisdom was that it had paid a lot of money for a cultural brand, and that the hardware would eventually be folded into Cupertino and quietly retired. Beats Music did get absorbed, becoming Apple Music. Most people assumed the headphones would follow.

Instead, the opposite happened.

We've all been out and about and spotted the iconic "b" logo on headphones and earbuds, but we've also seen it on athletes, musicians and celebrities alike — and never more so than this summer. An unannounced pair of Beats over-ear headphones has quietly spent months appearing on some of the world's most photographed athletes, first on Lamine Yamal, then across the FIFA Club World Cup on Antonee Robinson, Lee Kang-in, Jamal Musiala, Ritsu Doan, Kobbie Mainoo, Antoine Semenyo, and Nico Paz, before surfacing at Wimbledon on Aryna Sabalenka and, most recently, on LeBron James.

By the time Sabalenka stepped onto the grounds at Wimbledon wearing a pair, an FCC filing had already confirmed the existence of a real product with a real model number. What it didn't confirm was anything else — no name, no price, no release date. Months of conversation, generated by a company that, as of this publishing, still hasn't announced the headphones at all.

So with Beats turning 20 and 12 years inside Apple, I spent two days inside the brand's Culver City campus — the first and only journalist granted access to the offices and the engineering labs — to understand how it keeps creating these moments.

I expected to see more of the surface of Beats: the campaigns, the partnerships, the customs. I found something considerably deeper. Beats has quietly become a brand that kept its cultural identity while evolving into one of Apple's most sophisticated hardware organizations.

Apple didn't replace Beats

The location tells part of the story. What began as Beats' independent headquarters is today part of Apple's Southern California campus, with the original building still home to much of the audio brand’s team. Just steps away are other Apple organizations, including the relatively new Apple Music building, creating a campus where music, design, engineering, and culture intersect. It's a fitting setting in the Hayden Tract, a neighborhood whose history spans Hollywood production, aerospace, and some of Southern California's most ambitious creative architecture.

And Beats clearly has a bench of in-house resources for making a product. Design, engineering, tuning, and quality all sit within a short distance of one another, across two buildings — the main offices and a separate engineering facility built specifically for the brand.

Past security, though, it feels like a modern office. A massive video wall cycles through Beats campaigns featuring athletes, musicians, and creators. Product photography fills the hallways. Open workspaces stretch across the building. It feels creative, colorful, and unmistakably Beats.

More striking than the office itself were the people inside it. Many of the employees I met had been with Beats long before Apple acquired the company, and more than a decade later they're still designing products, building custom headphones, and shaping the future of the brand. The teams are surprisingly small, and there's a passion for Beats that still feels closer to a startup than to one of the world's largest companies.

“Twenty years is a long time for any brand to stay relevant, but what makes Beats unique is that the culture never left it — it grew with it,” said Oliver Schusser, Apple VP of Beats, Music and Sports. “The people, the partnerships, the music, the sport — that's not a marketing strategy, that's who this brand has always been. Our job has been to make sure that never changes.”

That continuity is something Matthew Costello, VP of Hardware Engineering at Apple, has watched from the inside. "We were a young company when we got acquired," he said.

"We were very, very small back then." A lot of the core engineering and operations team who were in the building on August 1, 2014 — the day the deal formally closed — are still in it. "What we've managed to do is sort of combine the teams that existed from Beats and sprinkled in some Apple expertise as well on top of that."

My first stop wasn't engineering, though — it was the customs team.

Spread across the desks were Studio Pro and Solo headphones unlike anything consumers can buy. Some existed as a single pair, made specifically for an athlete, musician, or celebrity. Others were produced in runs of only a few hundred. One pair featured a rough, cement-like texture across the ear cups. Another experimented with entirely different materials for the iconic Beats "b." Every design felt like an opportunity to try something new.

It's a remarkably small team, made up of designers and craftspeople whose job is to experiment — people who hold the relationships with talent, work out what matters to them, and hand that to designers who can play with colors and finishes until there's something worth building.

Chris Thorne, Beats' CMO and head of product, says it runs in both directions. "Sometimes we'll surprise them and say, 'Hey, look what we made for you,' and hopefully blow their mind," he told me. "And sometimes they're in the process, and they come to us and say, 'Hey, I have this idea, this thing's really special to me, is there any way I can make a headphone for that?’"

Upstairs, in a lab of sorts, is a wall holding what I'd estimate is only 10 to 20% of every custom Beats has ever made. There was a pair for Lionel Messi with Inter Miami on one ear cup and Argentina on the other. Another celebrated LeBron James and his son. Others had been built for Kim Kardashian's holiday party.

For Schusser, the wall is proof of something deliberate. "Beats sits at the center of culture, sport, fashion and entertainment, but none of that exists without music as the foundation," he said. "That's the thread that runs through all of it."

Then I spotted something familiar: at a previous FIFA tournament, players wearing Beats had to tape over the logo, since FIFA counts another headphone brand among its partners. Rather than treat that as a problem, Beats leaned all the way into it — and there on the wall were customs with Xs printed over the Beats logo, the restriction turned into the artwork.

That's the pattern, and once you see it, you can't stop seeing it. Beats teased the Powerbeats Pro 2 by putting them on Shohei Ohtani. It's doing the same thing right now with the over-ears nobody can buy. Long before consumers ever see a new Beats product, the company has often been putting it into the hands of athletes, musicians and creators, creating conversation months before a launch event is ever scheduled.

It works because of what the brand has come to mean to those people. "Beats transformed headphones from a purely functional accessory into something much bigger," Schusser said. "They became a global status symbol and a cultural icon. You see them embraced by athletes, musicians, and celebrities, and they've become woven into the fabric of hip-hop, sports, and streetwear as an expression of style and identity."

But the customs room is doing something else, too, and it's the part that surprised me most. Many of the colors, finishes, and materials first explored here eventually find their way into products consumers can actually buy. Thorne describes the team as an incubator — an experimentation platform, in his words, that he thinks is genuinely differentiated in the category.

The one-offs are "amazing in process, experimental, with colors and materials, finishes, and all kinds of different ways of looking at a headphone," he said, "that, over time, lead to consumer products that we launch." A texture that starts as a one-off for a single athlete can end up as a retail colorway years later. The room isn't simply preserving Beats' history — it's a research lab, or an experimental playroom, for what the brand sells next.

Walking out of Customs, it would be easy to think of Beats as primarily a marketing operation, but next up I was treated to an inside look at what goes on under the hood.

The other half of the story

The engineering building is a separate space, and it's where Beats cements its status as a hardware company.

Schusser put it plainly. "When I talk to people about Beats, they're sometimes surprised to learn how much of what we do is fundamentally an engineering story," he said. "The investment we've made in the hardware — the testing, the tuning, the science behind the fit and the sound — that's not something you see from the outside. But it's the foundation everything else is built on."

There are labs here dedicated to the study of human ears — the same discipline Apple has talked about for AirPods — and the data feeds designs for in-ears like the Solo Buds and Powerbeats Pro 2 as well as over-ears. There's a quality lab lined with machines that test final units and, notably, customer returns. If something's going wrong out in the world, they want to find out why here with a slew of dedicated machines.

And then there are the anechoic chambers. Beats has five of them. Two are full-size, big enough to walk into. Once the door shuts and you're standing on the suspended floor, it's quiet enough that you can hear your own heartbeat. They're used for everything from audio quality and active noise cancellation to voice pickup, and one of them houses a mannequin rigged with components that headphones get placed on. There are smaller chambers too, better suited to testing a speaker like the Pill.

Down the hall is the listening room and the tuning studio, where every Beats product gets its final voicing.

Costello leads engineering and operations across every Beats product — the earbuds, the over-ears, the cables, the cases, and the Pill. He's been doing it long enough to have watched the brand go from an independent company to an Apple one, and when I asked what had changed and what hadn't, he started with the thing that hasn't.

"We've tried to stay true to the roots of the brand," he told me. "As we've evolved the portfolio, one of the things we really focused on was making the products something that both we as Beats and Apple would also be proud of."

The Beats sound, 20 years in

If you've ever dismissed Beats as bass-first, Costello won't entirely argue with you about the early years.

"In the beginning it was super boomy," he said, "and it's sort of evolved from there." The sound signature has moved steadily toward balance since then, though he's clear that it's a negotiation rather than a correction. "It's always balance," he said. "We hear from our customers what they appreciate."

What's changed most, he told me, is the speed of that loop. "That's actually one thing that's changed a lot over the last 15 years, which is the real-time responsiveness of customers and the feedback we've gotten. We're able to adapt quickly."

He described the development process as running in two directions at once. "We have both a forward-looking process, which is like tech forward from Apple, where we kind of know what technologies are coming," he said. "But then also we take the feedback from the customers. It's kind of a forward-looking, tech-forward process and also like a reverse-engineering process, to make sure we're improving things as well."

'Everyone said it won't work'

Ask Costello what he's proudest of, and he doesn't name a flagship, but rather says the wingtip on the Powerbeats Fit — the flexible tip that holds the earbud in place.

"When we started ideating that, everyone kind of said it won't work," he told me. The worry was that it sat awkwardly between an earbud and an ear hook: not stable enough, not flexible enough. He loves it anyway. "It's just super seamless and easy, and it's great for fitness, it's great for all-day wear."

To land on that final wingtip, the team worked through hundreds of variants — and that pattern came up more than once. Shrinking the Powerbeats case while keeping the buds securely retained inside it was, in his words, "a science project."

Then there's the Beats Studio Buds, which featured a custom chip — a first for the brand. The decision started with an idea that initially confused people internally when the team first pitched it.

"We took this bet that we would be sort of the dual ecosystem play," Costello said. "When we first started socializing that concept, people were like, 'Well, what does that mean?' And we said, 'Google and Apple together.'"

It worked, and it did something no custom colorway can. It "expanded our addressable market," as he put it — and it's the clearest answer I heard all week to why Apple keeps Beats around at all. Costello describes the whole portfolio as deliberately built to complement AirPods, a project dating back to 2016, and calls it one of the secrets of the last decade.

Beats sells to Android users. Beats sells at price points Apple doesn't. Beats makes sporty, wing-tipped, brightly colored products. Apple's own brand can't do any of that without becoming something else.

The Studio Buds line produced one more surprise, and it came out of the workshop rather than the roadmap. I spoke with Costello and Thorne together to ask how it happened.

"It actually kind of happened by accident," Costello said. As part of developing any product from the ground up, the team builds a transparent version so they can see what's going on inside. "Both at Apple and Beats, we take both the external form as well as the internals very seriously. So we do a transparent, and we showed it to this guy here, and he had some thoughts about it."

The guy in question was Thorne, standing next to him.

"We kind of take it upon ourselves to ask for the impossible of these guys, and they figure it out," Thorne said. The transparent Studio Buds + he'd been shown "was never made for production or anything," but marketing wanted it immediately and asked whether they could have it as a real product. "It was a very last-minute, crazy ask, but somehow you guys figured it out."

"We had to dial it in," Costello said. "We had to make sure everything was in the right place, and everything looked like it was supposed to look, to make it production, customer-ready. But we turned that in a very, very short period of time. It was really fun."

It shipped and was well received, but more interestingly, it changed what came after it.

"Consumers loved it so much because it was really special and unique," Thorne said. "We had great other colors, but they really loved the transparent for Studio Buds +. When we set out to build Solo Buds, we started from a place of knowing we wanted that."

The earbuds with a case that does nothing

And that brings us to Solo Buds, priced at $79.99 / £79.99 / AU$129.95, and arguably the best example of how the Beats team thinks. The carrying case has no battery, no charging electronics, and no pairing button — which certainly raised eyebrows, both internally and externally. Solo Buds are ultimately the smallest case that Beats has ever shipped, and that Apple has ever made.

"Everyone was like, 'Why would you do that?'" Costello said. "And it worked. The product is great, and the bud life is really all you need for all-day wear."

What I find genuinely clever is that the decision forces every decision after it.

If the case can't recharge the buds, the buds have to last a full day alone — hence a custom cell rated at 18 hours, better single-charge life than most flagship earbuds. And if the case has no electronics, it can't tell the buds anything, including that it's been opened.

So the solution is a physical switch hidden inside the case, which signals the earbuds to wake, pair, and run their checks the moment you lift the lid. Everything that does the actual work lives on the left and right buds themselves.

What you experience is completely ordinary: open the case near your phone, iPhone or Android, and the pairing card appears. It's also extraordinary because it all happens without any electronics in the case.

What Apple actually gave them

Costello is direct about what the acquisition traded.

Beats kept its identity "from a form factor perspective," he said, while gaining Apple's infrastructure underneath it. Reliability, quality, environmental and wireless performance are now tested exactly as Apple's own products are. "I'm amazed at how far you can walk across a room and still get good, solid Bluetooth performance with our latest today," he told me.

"We've learned so much from the teams up in Cupertino, and leveraged the core technologies, the processes, the discipline," he said.

"We've been able to keep our identity and do things unique for Beats, but at the same time leverage the incredible capabilities of the Apple system," he said. "That's been the unlock over the last — now it's almost 12 years."

It didn't happen immediately. "It took some time to sort of find our rhythm," Costello admitted, before adding that the last several years have been the fun ones.

He's also clear about what keeps the team there. "The beauty of being inside of Apple is that it’s a technology marvel," he said. "All the time we are finding new things that we're either exploring and prototyping, or we're able to productize and bring into products."

And what keeps the engineers interested is being handed genuinely hard problems. "Engineers like to solve tough problems," Costello said. "They don't want to do the same thing day after year after year. So we try to find those things that are really landmarks or milestones from an achievement perspective, and then we work backwards from that."

‘Widening the aperture’

The part that seems to energize him most is how far the brand's remit has stretched.

"The advantage we have at Beats is that we can go really wide with different types of explorations," he said. "It makes it a lot of fun to think through different new product categories, new types of products, new products within the category itself. We've got all kinds of crazy ideas."

He put it more simply a moment later: "We've kind of widened the aperture of where the brand can go."

Thorne is more blunt about the appeal of it. "I love to be unexpected, to give something to people, to consumers, that they didn't see coming," he said, pointing to the move into iPhone cases — "I don't think anybody saw that coming, and I love that."

The logic, he said, starts with what people tell them. "Whenever we can make a great product that we think is differentiated from something that's in the market, we talk to consumers about it, we look at insights and data, we hear from them in social — what products are they interested in, what do they feel is missing out there. And when we see that opportunity, we like to experiment there."

He's also clear that none of it has to be audio at all. The brand can move into other areas, he told me, as long as it goes "always through the lens of Beats style, design, and color.”

Beats’ USB-C and Lightning cables trickle down the durability and speed of Apple's own, in fun colors and more sizes. Maybe most importantly, they brought down the price. These are fairly premium cables, with strong woven outers and rigorous testing against snapping, at reasonable money.

What comes next

Now, as this feature publishes, Beats has not said a single word formally about the forthcoming over-ear headphones that have been spotted on athletes and celebrities. When I pressed, Schusser coyly said, "I can't say too much, but what I will say is — we have the ability to introduce our products in ways that are creative and unexpected, and we're very excited about what's coming."

That's not giving much away, but I have my own thoughts on these very customizable-looking premium cans. Given that the Studio Pro is already on the market, Beats is likely setting its sights on Apple's own AirPods Max, Bose's QuietComfort line, and Sony's WH-1000XM6, among several others. It's a crowded market, but judging by the many styles we've seen — and fingers crossed that a bit of the customs team's work is trickling down to consumers — Beats might be poised to deliver its signature sound in an athlete-approved, hopefully more durable over-ear that can be mixed and matched.

I'd also hope these push Beats' audio quality further, doubling down on active noise cancellation and transparency, and potentially taking a page from competitors by powering them with dual chips inside. Time will tell, but considering the teases have already started, I'd suspect we see them before the end of 2026.

And you can bet they'll support both iPhone and Android. Even though Apple owns and operates Beats, it's clear the company wants the brand to continue growing — whether that means catering to its own users who want fun colors, bold sound and unique looks, or reaching people who want something platform-agnostic.

So now, 20 years on since inception and over a decade within Apple, I think it's clear the Cupertino-based tech giant was right about the acquisition. Apple is letting Beats be a cultural brand as much as an audio company, one that still inspires copycats, but that also knows that while it could rest on its laurels, it's being pushed to go further — whether that's entirely new categories like cases and cables, bringing down the price of its signature sound, re-entering spaces it once exited, or starting something fresh.

Time will tell, but I think Beats will let the beat go on, and on.

• Beyerdynamic announces new DT 275 Pro wired headphones designed for use in "challenging" and noisy environments thanks to passive noise reduction
• The have a frequency range from 5Hz to 24kHz, and weigh under 200g, so they're nice and portable — and their 45-ohm impedance means they're easy for devices to drive
• They launch on July 28th 2026, and are priced at £99 (about $131 / AU$188) — as a user of Beyedynamic's more expensive headphones, I'm intrigued

Beyerdynamic has launched a new pair of on-ear headphones designed for audio and video professionals in "challenging" and noisy environments, such as live music venues, location recording and mobile production. The DT 275 Pro promise to deliver professional audio and noise isolation without a premium price tag: they're just £99 (about $131 / AU$188).

I'm a big fan of Beyerdynamics' studio headphones, so much so that they're my go-to for recording, mixing and mastering music (TechRadar's Audio Editor Becky Scarrott loved the Beyerdynamic DT 72 IE earbuds), but I don't have to do any of my music-making things on location or in noisy environments, and these new closed-back headphones have been designed for exactly that.

Beyerdynamic DT 275 Pro: key features and specs

The Beyerdynamic DT 275 Pro have an impedance of 45 ohms, making them easy to drive, and they have a quoted frequency range of 5Hz to 24kHz.

Maximum sound pressure is 125dB SPL, and they reduce ambient noise by a claimed 22dBA thanks to their closed-back, on-ear design.

Despite the slightly chunky appearance, these headphones come in just under 200g, so they should be comfortable for long shifts, and the supplied cable can be attached to the left or right ear cup and locked into place. The cable is 1.5m (4.9 feet).

The rotatable ear cups are made from sweat-resistant leatherette, which makes sense for mobile working — the velvety material used in many of the firm's studio headphone earcups isn't something you'd want to have on your head in the heat of a venue or club.

And key components such as the cup cushions are replaceable so the headphones should remain hygienic and last for a long time.

These are very much a niche product, so if you don't need the isolation and toughness I'd recommend one of the more indoor DT Pro pairs.

But if you need accurate audio when you're out and about, in a venue or on location these look like they'll be just the job — and for far less than you'd expect to pay for pro headphones that I use.

The Beyerdynamic DT 275 Pro will be available from 28 July 2026 with a list price of £99.99 / €119.00 (about $131 / AU$188).

Shokz OpenDots Air: Two-minute review

I've long pointed to the flagship Shokz OpenDots One as the best open earbuds in the clip-style category, so I'll admit that I watched the release of the brand's budget-grade option with trepidation.

All too often, a brand's wallet-friendly earbuds tend to fit poorly, cut too many features, completely miss the mark sonically, or launch at a price point that doesn't make sense. But I'm happy to report that the Shokz OpenDots Air side-step those issues.

In fact, for most buyers, this pair just makes so much more sense than its sibling, the Shokz OpenDots 2. That's despite the set you're here to read about being an inferior model, on paper.

Like the numbered OpenDots, the Air uses dual 11.8mm drivers; you're only going to be able to hear a difference in sound quality if you really need Dolby Atmos or some of the unique Shokz features (which, I'm guessing, most people don't).

The OpenDots Air take a largely similar design too, which means they're just as reliable in your ear on long runs or gym sessions. Now and then, I did find them to pinch a little, which I take to be the fault of a few design tweaks, but it was nothing that stopped me using them.

There's more: the battery life is great, the carry case is nice and small and the connection was reliable. But some carry-overs are a little less desirable: like other OpenDots, the touch controls are finicky to use. And while Shokz offered some of the best-sounding open earbuds last year, the Air (and 2) launch to a much more competitive market.

What sets the OpenDots Air apart from the 2-suffixed set, making them a better buy, is the price; you can get them for roughly 25% less. For most buyers, I'd say that you should save your money and buy the Air... unless any of the other fantastic cuff-style buds (which typically do undercut any of Shokz' options) pique your interest.

After all, the Shokz premium is still in play, even with its more affordable buds.

Shokz OpenDots Air review: Price and release date

• Launched on June 4, 2026
• Sells for $129.95 / £129.99 / AU$219
• Cheaper alternative to OpenDots 2

The Shokz OpenDots Air were released on June 4, 2026, alongside the OpenDots 2. That was about 10 months after the original OpenDots One became available.

You can buy the earbuds for $129.95 / £129.99 / AU$219, so they're markedly cheaper than the $199.95 / £179.99 / AU$339 OpenDots 2. The original OpenDots One also went for that price, though a year on they're easy to find at around $150 / £150 / AU$239 (and even less during sales).

Note also the flagship Shokz OpenFit Pro, (more 'traditional' shell-like open earbuds) which include noise reduction and launched in January 2026, at the significant cost of $249.95 / £219 / AU$399.

I'll continue to refer to the OpenDots Air as affordable cuff-style buds, but that's only in comparison to the OpenDots 2 and the other Shokz options listed above. Remember, Shokz is a class-leader in this category, and you pay for that. You can easily find great alternatives for even cheaper (we've even listed a few at the bottom of this review).

Shokz OpenDots Air review: Specs

Shokz OpenDots Air review: Features

• You'll get 9 hours of listening; 36 with case
• EQ has four presets, 5-band custom mode
• App is pretty light on features

You're getting 9 hours of battery life with the Shokz OpenDots Air; at least, that's the cited listening time, and from my testing, I have no cause to doubt it. That's a hair below the OpenDots One / 2's 10 hours, but the difference is negligible, and it's still a solid battery life.

The case rounds that figure up to 36 hours of listening, including recharges. That's more in line with industry standards.

As with most open earbuds, there's no noise cancellation here. It's a shame, because Shokz is one of the few companies to offer ANC-adjacent tech in open-ears (the OpenFit Pro have 'noise reduction', but we tested it and it's the same thing), and I find it's even more useful in earbuds of the like.

While the OpenDots Air aren't as featured-packed as many other earbuds, downloading the Shokz app lets you play around with what there is.

Possibly the best reason to download the app is the equalizer; there are four presets (standard, vocal enhancement, bass enhancement and an audio leakage reduction mode), as well as a simplistic five-band custom EQ which lets you create your own mix.

The app also lets you turn on Multipoint Pairing, change what the touch controls do, turn on (or off) microphone noise cancellation in calls, and turn on (or off) wear detection.

Admittedly, the list is a little svelte. Beyond review purposes, I only opened the app a single time, and that was to double-check I hadn't accidentally turned gesture controls off (I hadn't, more on that later).

• Features score: 3.5/5

Shokz OpenDots Air review: Design

• Svelte carry case
• Attractive blue marbled design
• Not designed to stick in the ear

They ain’t called clip-on buds for nothing – the OpenDots Air are clip-shaped earbuds with a C-shaped band joining a rounded earbud with an ovoid counterweight. The 'dot' goes in your ear-well, the 'egg' sits just behind it, looping around the lower part of the helix.

The earbuds weigh 6.3g each, with silicone and plastic making up the casework of the earpiece. I tested them at the gym, on cycles and on runs (and in other, less-intensive settings) and never had a fit issue; that’s a benefit of this form factor, and I’ve never had a wobbly clipper.

However I did find that the Air could pinch a little during longer wear sessions, and I was surprised by the relief I felt at removing them after an hour-plus run. On the topic of criticisms, the buds technically have touch controls, but I could barely get them to pick up my touch. You have to be incredibly precise to find the right spot, and I quickly gave up on using them. At this level, it's not a deal-breaker in this type of design (at least not yet), but it's my job to notice.

You can buy the earbuds in black or purple, a choice which carries over to the charging case. They’re IP55 protected, which means they’re safe from dust and jets of water, but you shouldn’t take them swimming.

The charging case is lighter than most I’ve seen, tipping the scales to the tune of 37.3g — that’s without the buds, and you’re looking at a total package that’s under 50g. It’s nice and small too, and I really appreciate case like this that’s lightweight and portable like this: it disappeared in my pockets with no problem.

The simplicity extends to the ports and buttons; you’re getting a USB-C port but no wireless charging, unlike the OpenDots 2, and intriguingly no Bluetooth pairing override. I don’t recall the last time I saw an earbud case without this ‘hope-you-don’t-need-it’ feature, but Shokz apparently thinks you don’t need it at all.

• Design score: 4.5/5

Shokz OpenDots Air: Sound quality

• Dual 11.8mm drivers
• Well-defined treble and bass
• Some premium features missing

Shokz has found an audio set-up it likes and has stuck with it. As with the OpenDots One and OpenDots 2, the OpenDots Air have two custom 11.8mm drivers providing the music. The company is coy on what each of these drivers are actually handling, but I’m guessing at least one is tuned towards low-end, given how much "Bassphere" is mentioned in marketing.

(What’s Bassphere? Um, a marketing word, by the sounds of it, and Shokz is quite light on specifics. I've done my due journalistic diligence in trying to dig through the fluff to get granular on Bassphere, but have been unsuccessful. It seems to be what the company refers to as its two-driver system.)

The OpenDots Air do miss some features of their pricier stablemates. There’s no Dolby Atmos tuning, for one, and it lacks a few other Shokz-designed features, including MirrorPitch (which aims the sound into your ear) and Bassphere 2.0 (like 1.0, but designed to reduce distortion which could arise from the two-driver system).

Okay, I’ve been dancing around the topic; how do the Shokz OpenDots Air actually sound? They’re rather good, for open-ears — they’re not quite on par with the higher-end OpenDots, or some varied rivals, but I enjoyed listening to music with them.

It’s clear to my ear that one of the drivers is dialled into the low end, giving bass a clear scooping distinction that’s often missing in open-ears. Songs like Brian Kelley’s Beach Cowboy or Kasabian’s Superpowers offer clean low-end that sit comfortably below higher-frequency sounds, without blowing it out.

The lack of support for better-than-vanilla codecs such as LDAC, or seemingly any higher-quality streaming, means audiophiles might not find these an enjoyable listen. I can’t pretend they’re on par with ‘standard’ in-ear earbuds costing this much, including ones which are geared towards sports users. But for fitness-first listeners who need their ear canals free to hear traffic, they’re all you need.

Naturally, when you’re out and about, the bass will struggle a little bit — it has a harder time cutting through surrounding noise than treble does. That’s par for the course for this kind of earbud, but it bears repeating for those not familiar with the form factor.

• Sound quality: 4/5

Shokz OpenDots Air review: Value

• Great value for money compared to Shokz roster
• Other cufflinks undercut these

If you’re comparing the OpenDots Air solely to the OpenDots 2, they're great value: you’re basically getting the same earbuds for a sizeable discount. I see the Air being the better buy for most people, out of the two.

But when you look at the wider earbuds market, my recommendation gets a bit more muted. I’ve tested plenty of pairs of clip-style earbuds that hover at, or below, the £/$100 mark, which perform basically the same as the OpenDots Air do. If you’re not married to buying Shokz buds, then you’ll find a few different money-saving alternatives below.

• Value: 4/5

Should I buy the Shokz OpenDots Air?

Buy them if…

Don’t buy them if…

Shokz OpenDots Air review: Also consider

The open earbuds market is incredibly competitive. Here are some others that I've tested and would recommend.

How I tested the Shokz OpenDots Air

• Tested for one month
• Paired with Android phone for Spotify, streaming and games
• Used during multiple kinds of activities

I used the Shokz OpenDots Air for roughly a month to write this review. This ensured they underwent some extensive testing.

This testing included countless runs, several cycles, many gym sessions, loads of walks around my neighborhood, plays on various kinds of public transport, a house move, and a trip to a surf town during a holiday.

During this time, the buds were paired to my Android smartphone. They got most of their use through Spotify, but I also used them for calls, watching some YouTube videos and playing games.

I've tested gadgets for TechRadar since early 2019. Since that time I've reviewed countless earbuds, including loads of open-style ones and the Shokz OpenDots One.

• First reviewed in July 2026

• Read TechRadar's reviews guarantee

• Galaxy Unpacked 2026 was Buds-less
• A new report tips an end-of-year announcement
• Perhaps announced alongside tablets and FE (or 'Fan Edition') devices

Samsung's latest product launch event, Galaxy Unpacked 2026, was uneventful. Well, uneventful for audio fans; there were three foldable phones, two smartwatches and some all-seeing glasses... but where were the much-rumored Galaxy Buds Able?

This is a new pair of open earbuds, which we'd heard would be released alongside the foldables (it didn't). So where are they?

Well, shortly before Galaxy Unpacked, we may have heard our answer. According to a Korean publication called Electronic Times, which commonly reports on industry news, the Able are coming much later in the year.

The report states that the buds will release in 'Q4', though separately says September or October (September is Q3). Either way, expect them later in the year.

That could see the buds come alongside new tablets, or new FE smartphones or earbuds, all of which we're expecting to see before Santa's visit in December.

UnAble to launch?

According to the report, Samsung delayed the launch of the Galaxy Buds Able, implying they were originally meant to release alongside the Folds and Flips.

They're said to be delayed so that Samsung could evaluate "the product's quality and launch timing". The latter point is fair enough; the Galaxy Buds 4 haven't been on shelves for long.

The latter point also implies that Samsung doesn't think the Able is 'there' yet, and that's also fair enough; open earbuds — especially the even newer ear-cuff or clipping kind — aren't as easy as normal buds. The fit and audio architecture is a lot more important, and brands need to figure out a way to ensure audio quality isn't lost as the music is beamed from the buds to your ear.

To compete with big rivals from Shokz and Bose, the Galaxy Buds Able need to be top-quality, and I imagine Samsung won't launch anything until it can hit that bar.

So essentially, pencil in a rough 'September or October' date in your calendar for these new earbuds — and keep following our news coverage. As we know, so shall you.

• Someone used an AirPod to record flying disc throw statistics
• Tested with throws of up to 45mph and no damage
• Strava-friendly export for dedicated disc throwers

One of Apple's most famous adverts opened with "Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently." The text didn't explicitly say "here's to the ones sticking AirPods on frisbees", but I think Steve Jobs would have approved of the Redditor who's done exactly that.

Pavlo Sharhan, aka Disastrous-Body-297, has invented a use for AirPods that I'm pretty sure nobody at Apple ever considered. He used them to upgrade a standard frisbee and to stream real-time data. It can even export sessions to the Strava app.

Why upgrading a frisbee with AirPods isn't completely crazy

As the intrepid inventor explains: "The AirPod streams motion data to the phone and detects/analyses throws in real time. With optional voice feedback into the second AirPod. It measures speed, revolutions, airborne time, throw count. It also measures heartrate (either with latest AirPods or external HR)."

You can try it for yourself: the app is the sports metrics app Kinapod, which the creator says is currently going through Apple's approval process. The AirPod is literally just put through a hole created in the dead center of the disc. Sharhan says "Just punch a hole in the center of the disc and that’s it! You’ll be surprised how reliable it is. The AirPod stem is not entirely cylindrical, it doesn’t slide out."

The result is a lot of data: average speed, maximum spin, total airborne time, and more.

There's a market for that kind of information: as one Redditor, lenfantsuave, joke posts, "Tech disc: I will never financially recover from this." Tech Disc is a company that makes a range of launch monitors for disc golf priced at $299.99, which track multiple metrics and flight paths in order to help players improve their game, and someone from the firm joined in the online conversation to praise Sharhan's ingenuity.

Sharhan's tracker is very much a "fun thing" rather than a serious setup, not least because expensive earbuds aren't the most cost-effective gyro sensors to attach to a frisbee; the risk of damage or destruction is clearly pretty high, although the AirPods have survived so far.

Sharhan is currently chatting with Redditors on forums such as r/discgolf about alternative and more affordable ways of collating data. And in the meantime, the AirPod/Frisbee combination made me and other Redditors happy: "This is very rad," says claybythebay9, while GrandMasterFlex reckons, and I'm including to agree, that "this is sick as hell".

As Apple's ad put it, "while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius." Or as SilverMelodyPrincess says in the Reddit thread: "Apple accidentally made the most over-engineered frisbee stat tracker and I'm here for it."

The original version of this story used Sharhan's old screen name rather than his real name, so we've updated it.

• The European Union is working on tech repairability rules...
• ... except some 'wet appliances' are now exempt now
• This puts 'devices that are worn on the body' in a very gray area…
• …and yes, that probably means AirPods

E-waste worriers (and warriors) like me have been watching the creation of EU regulations with glee, since a selection of them will require tech manufacturers to put replaceable or repairable batteries in their gadgets. But now, there are a few new key exceptions to the rule.

Some major new clarifications, listed on the European Commission's website, mute the positive impact of replaceable, upgradable tech. These exceptions mean that wearables including smartwatches and fitness trackers don't have to be repairable — and I think it's ironic that these are precisely the kinds of gadgets you're more likely to throw out and replace, rather than try to repair.

The EU has moved these products to its "wet appliances" category, for gadgets which can't be kept repairable for safety reasons (ie, because they deal with water). However, no reason was given for why wearables, especially ones not designed for wet use (based on IP ratings) are now exempt.

While the EU's rule change doesn't actually mention AirPods (or earbuds in general), what the wording essentially means is that wireless earbuds, Apple watches and smart glasses reportedly also fall into this specific wearable category. Smart glasses are, to hammer home the point, really not designed for wet use — but their wearer might get caught in a rainstorm by accident, say.

There are two key pieces of information regarding the classification of small devices exempt from adhering to the EU's battery rules, as published in the recent guidelines. The first is that "Wearable devices are portable electronic devices that are worn on the body and often have sensors and connectivity to collect and transmit data. Examples of wearables include smartwatches, fitness trackers, smart glasses or other electronic devices integrated into clothing and other accessories".

The second? It's to do with those IP ratings for water- and dust ingress and whether the addition of a replaceable battery is "compromising safety". It states that if "there is evidence in the product documentation when placing the product on the market that battery replaceability and removability by end-users would compromise the safety of the user or the appliance", the product may be exempt.

So your AirPods 4 with ANC will likely no longer need to feature replaceable batteries because of the EU, including the case itself.

An Apple a day keeps the e-waste away

It's no secret that e-waste is a massive issue: according to the United Nations, the amount of discarded electronics we produce is rising five times faster than our ability to recycle it.

It's why the EU recently pushed through rules to ensure tech is repairable. A pair of headphones that break might just need a new battery; you don't need to buy a whole new pair.

Apple users have been begging for removable batteries in iOS devices, especially AirPods, as we argued back in 2024. AirPods are the best-selling earbuds in the world (and it's not even close), so at least some of them end up in landfill when they stop working, despite Apple's conviction to recycle any that get returned to its stores (Apple doesn't offer any trade-in value for AirPods, but dropping them in for recycling is free).

I believe it's important for all tech to be repairable (see B&O's long-running 'Cradle to Cradle' approach, even buying back and refurbing its own kit, to give it a new life), but doubly so for the ubiquitous kind.

Apple's way is of course a viable way to keep your eco credentials, while disposing of unwanted buds, but it's not the best way. That would be replaceable batteries, small and fiddly though it might be — and it is possible, because Fairphone has been doing it for a little while.

As per the mantra drilled into school kids: reduce, reuse, recycle, in that order. Reusing old earbuds, by repairing them, is much better for the environment than recycling them, and so it's a shame that the EU is giving out exemptions like candy.

If you have any broken tech, be it headphones, earbuds or something else entirely, a repair is always your first port of call before disposing of your existing ones. It's cheaper and quicker than buying new tech and, most importantly, is better for the planet. And if you do need to buy new tech, consider online or physical refurb shops such as Back Market, which repair others' gadgets.

• Skullcandy launches Crusher 1080 ANC, new premium over-ears
• They mark the debut of three Bose-made features in a non-Bose product
• Just launched and available right now, for $280 / AU$399.99 (about £210)

It is as I foretold: after we saw Skullcandy teases about new headphones, the brand has unveiled exactly the pair of cans I predicted. Meet the Skullcandy Crusher 1080 ANC; they're the pair that skate legend (and brand ambassador) Tony Hawk is pointing at in the picture above — yes, it really is him.

These are, according to the brand, its "best-sounding product" (although interestingly, not the most expensive because Skullcandy's Aviator 900 cans are a little pricier) and in case you didn't know, a 1080 in skateboarding involves three complete skateboard and body rotations performed either frontside or backside.

As a new member of its Crusher line-up, part of the draw will be the adjustable bass (see the big dial on the ear cup), but there's a lot more to celebrate besides that.

You can buy the Crusher 1080 ANC right now; they cost $279.99 / AU$399.99 (about £210) so they're a little cheaper than the likes of the $449 / £449 / AU$699 Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (Gen 2) which they borrow features from.

They come in black, gray, brown, and pink, as you can see modelled sans Tony Hawk below. I rate them in the following order: brown, pink, gray, black, though I'd love to see a camo or floral redesign as Skullcandy is wont to do.

Colors aren't why you'll buy the Crusher 1080 ANC, though. No, it'll be because they offer three new Sound by Bose features at a non-Bose price...

That which we call a Bose by any other name would smell as sweet

We've seen Skullcandy headphones with Bose features before, but the Crusher 1080 ANC are the first pair of cans not made by the brand which have three specific features. And these three features are a big selling point of the product.

The biggest will be Bose QuietControl ANC, which is a massive draw within Bose's own products (including the QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds 2nd Gen). The company's noise cancellation is best-in-class, and now that proprietary Bose technology is baked into Skullcandy's headphones too. To many, this could be a reason to buy the Crusher all on its own.

Bose's TrueSpatial audio with head-tracking (for surround sound profiles irrespective of source material) and WaveForm audio engine (for snappy digital signal processing) are also stepping foot off the Good Ship Bose for the first time with the 1080. These will be great little extras to refine and finesse what Skullcandy already offers.

And that's before we even mention the Sound by Bose tuning and SpeechClarity voice pickup, to improve the music you listen to and your call quality. The latter is new to Skullcandy, but we've seen the former on some earbuds like my beloved Method 360.

And what about the headphones themselves, beyond the Bose stuff? Skullcandy hasn't confirmed the drivers, but I'd guess they'll be 40mm and joined by woofer units.

The battery life is 60 hours with ANC off and 50 hours with it on, which is pretty impressive; there's a 5-band EQ and other features via the Skullcandy app (not Skull-IQ, which some of the firm's earbuds use). Pictures show a dial on the side of the headphones, amongst other physical controls; I'd wager this is a redesigned bass slider, and given how easy it is to miss this on my Crusher 540 Active, I appreciate the rethink.

Reading between the lines, and having tested the Method 540 earlier this year (a 540 is a one-and-a-half skateboard and body rotation performed either frontside or backside, which I cannot do), I get the impression that Skullcandy is undergoing a push to really level up.

The company doesn't seem to be abandoning the commitment to bass that's defined its products in the past (or its love of athletes as brand ambassadors), but seems to want to bring that into a better-rounded audio package with higher-fidelity music on offer. And if the Skullcandy Crusher 1080 ANC is the culmination of this process, I'm really intrigued to know how they sound.

• The W&O X1 headphones come with a camera attached
• They raise new concerns over illicit recordings
• There is a recording light that turns on when the camera is active

The debate around smart glasses with cameras attached continues to rumble on — and apparently Meta still has plans for glasses that are constantly recording the world around them — and we now have a new pair of bone conduction headphones that lose the spectacles but keep the camera.

They're called the W&O X1 (via New Atlas), and of course they're packed with plenty of AI. This on-board assistant can help you navigate to locations, identify landmarks, look up facts and answers online, and even translate between languages. All this happens through voice control and spoken responses.

In order to provide some of that AI functionality, the W&O X1 headphones are fitted with a 4K video camera supplied by Samsung. It can take photos and videos with a tap or a voice command, which can then be saved and analyzed as needed — and in the interests of privacy, a small recording light shows when the camera is active.

The headphones can also double up as a miniature action camera, grabbing high-resolution video at 30 frames per second with a 130-degree wide angle view, with what looks like some impressive anti-shake technology built in too. Oh and did we mention they can play music and make phone calls too?

"Most headsets are made for listening," explains W&O in the product listing. " X1 is built for seeing, hearing, understanding, recording, translating, navigating, and staying connected in motion. It is a wearable AI system designed for the world outside the screen."

Privacy concerns

The idea of wearable cameras is becoming even more popular now, with the growing capabilities of AI and the continued shrinking of the necessary components. There's something appealing about being able to capture memories instantly, without having to dig out a phone and find the camera app.

At the same time, there are real concerns when it comes to privacy. The smart glasses already on the market make it a little too easy to record surreptitiously, and a tiny camera attached to a pair of headphones is even harder to see. There's even now a BanRay movement calling for smart glasses to be banned from certain spaces.

To be fair to W&O, they seem to be targeting these headphones at cyclists, hikers, and other outdoor types, so it's more for solo photo and video recording. Still, together with other gadgets in the pipeline, it highlights a growing need for proper safeguards to be put around devices with tiny embedded cameras.

The W&O X1 have blasted through their $3,000 funding goal on Kickstarter many times over, and if you're interested in a pair you can put in a reservation for $139 (about £105 / AU$200) — with the usual Kickstarter caveat that crowdfunded hardware doesn't always end up reaching consumers.

There are some decent specs here: IP6X dust and water protection, a lightweight 48 gram build, support for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, and 30 hours of music playback between charges thanks to an integrated 800 mAh battery.

We're just over half-way through the year, and of the 28 pairs of headphones we've had the pleasure of testing so far, there are a number of standout over-ears from both ends of the price spectrum. If you're looking for a new pair of cans, these are the models you should be checking out.

At the affordable end of things we have the Nothing Headphone (a), which manage to be both way better and much cheaper than their predecessors. We praised their "impactful and well-balanced sound, good active noise cancellation" and "excellent and truly useful app". A little pricier but still affordable are the retro-styled and ridiculously comfortable Marshall Milton ANC, and the clear-sounding JBL Live 780NC, with their never-ending battery life.

For true audiophiles with deep pockets, we've tested two blow-the-budget bangers. The Audio-Technica ATH-ADX7000 are the only pair of over-ears to earn a perfect five stars, with their "beautifully precise and engaging audio with exhilarating low-end performance" (here are all the five-star buys of the year so far, if you're interested). We were also blown away by the Grado Signature S750, a pair of handmade, open-back headphones that offer "an exceptional soundstage and excellent clarity", and sound "amazing" on well-produced music.

Scroll down for a comprehensive list of our top-rated over-ear headphones of the year so far — hit the 'View details' button for a summary of the main pros and cons of each one, plus a link to read the full review. Alternatively, head to our general best over-ear headphones list for a run-down of our favorite sets of all time.

Outstanding over-ears

Austrian Audio The Arranger: Two-minute review

The Arranger by Austrian Audio are an attempt to at least begin to fill the gap that exists between the company’s highest-end headphones and its wildly successful entry-level stuff. In case that isn’t a big enough ask by itself, Austrian Audio wants this new gap-filler to be just as convincing as a pro monitoring tool as they are a domestic pair of headphones.

So the brand has come up with a light, comfortable and slightly oddly colored pair of (semi) open-backed headphones that are easy to drive, fold smaller than the norm and are fitted with mildly exotic DLC-coated dynamic drivers that deliver a prodigious 5Hz - 30kHz frequency response. About the only misstep (apart from the finish) is the lack of a balanced cable option — or, more accurately, the lack of a no-cost balanced cable option.

When it comes to performance, though, complaints like this become irrelevant. Without sacrificing anything where detail retrieval, organization or soundstaging are concerned, Austrian Audio has served up a pair of energetic, entertaining and thoroughly engaging headphones that are just as happy to deliver the excitement of a recording as they are to peer deep into the mix and examine it on a microscopic level. As a combination of analysis and enjoyment, The Arranger are very hard to lay a glove on.

Which is not to say they have the field clear, of course. Similarly specified, similarly priced products from brands with similarly credible reputations are, naturally, available among the best wired headphones — and when you’re talking about companies like Beyerdynamic and Meze Audio, you know the alternatives to The Arranger are going to be compelling.

Austrian Audio The Arranger review: Price & release date

• Released June 2026
• Priced $1,299 / £899 / AU$1,899

The Arranger by Austrian Audio are on sale now, and in the United States they sell for $1,299 per pair. They’re £899 in the United Kingdom, and AU$1,899 in Australia. They're intended to fill a gap, but it means they come up against some pretty stiff competition, too.

Austrian Audio The Arranger review: Specs

Austrian Audio The Arranger review: Features

• 44mm DLC-coated dynamic drivers
• 3m cable with 3.5mm/6.3mm termination
• 25ohms impedance, 110dB sensitivity

Passive, hard-wired headphones are seldom groaning under the weight of all their features, and The Arranger are not in any way unusual. The feature-count is short but in this instance, at least, the few features here are all entirely fit for purpose.

The Austrian Audio are supplied with a 3m length of quite sturdily rubberized cable. It fits using the ‘click and turn’ method into the left ear cup, and at the other end there’s a 3.5mm termination that will happily accept the 6.3mm adapter that’s supplied. A 2m 4.4mm balanced cable and a 3m cable with an XLR termination are both available and, rather annoyingly, both will cost you additional money.

The information that travels along the cable is delivered to a couple of 44mm dynamic drivers. They have a diamond-like carbon coating on the diaphragm and also feature a proprietary ring magnet — the aim is superior impulse response, super-low distortion and significant bass extension. Austrian Audio suggests frequency response is 5Hz - 30kHz, which would seem to make ‘significant bass extension’ something of an understatement.

The Arranger are very forgiving headphones — impedance of 25ohms and 110dB sensitivity means they’re not even remotely difficult to drive. A dedicated headphone amp is always a good idea, of course, but even the 3.5mm socket on your laptop should have sufficient oomph to get the Austrian Audio up to speed.

• Features score: 5 / 5

Austrian Audio The Arranger review: Sound quality

• Significant low-frequency substance and variation
• Open, organized and detailed sound
• Tremendous powers of analysis

Austrian Audio, it turns out, was not just talking. The Arranger really do function almost as well as a pair of monitors as they do when asked to simply entertain. In either circumstance, this is a very accomplished pair of headphones.

The (almost) open-backed arrangement means the presentation is spacious and airy, and the soundstage the headphones present is quite expansive, but not at the cost of unity or singularity. Despite being able to open up a recording like Natural Magic’s Galaxy Builder to the point that its constituent parts are individualized and easy to inspect, there’s a togetherness to the way The Arranger present the recording that makes it sound like a performance rather than simply a collection of discrete occurrences.

It helps that frequency response is nice and even, from the deep and almost extravagantly varied low end to the bright, substantial top end. The midrange projects well without forcing the overall response into any kind of ‘V’ shape, and the lack of coloration to the tonality allows every point of the frequency range to sound natural and unforced. Detail levels are high at every stage, and the amount of insight the Austrian Audio have into even quite complex recordings is never less than fully impressive.

As well as body and insight at the bottom end, there’s also unarguable control. The Arranger take a lot of care in expressing the attack and decay of individual bass events, and consequently have no problem in describing rhythms with absolute conviction. This sense of confidence and positivity is, in fact, apparent throughout the frequency range.

As well as being alert to the finest, most transient details that both build a complete picture of a recording and allow an engineer to understand a recording on a sort of ‘building block’ level, The Arranger are more than willing to handle the broader dynamics of changes in volume, intensity and attack. The distance they’re able to put between the quietest and most contemplative passages in a recording and the final all-out crescendo is significant.

It’s by no means an easy trick to entertain with the vigorous and engaging nature of your sound while simultaneously serving as a forensic tool of insight and analysis — it’s so difficult, in fact, that most headphone manufacturers don’t even bother trying. But it’s a trick Austrian Audio manages to pull off with something very much like aplomb.

• Sound quality score: 5 / 5

Austrian Audio The Arranger review: Design

• (Semi-) open-backed configuration
• 320g without cable
• Just one, rather single-minded, option for finish

In many meaningful ways, the design of The Arranger is wholly successful. This is, at 320g without the length of cable attached, a light and comfortable pair of headphones, and thanks to come judicious choices where hanger arrangement, clamping force and padding of the contact points are concerned, it’s a pair of headphones that stays comfortable for hours on end.

The inside of the headband and the ear cups are of medium-density memory foam with a faux-suede covering. It’s soft, and it resists returning your own body heat longer after some alternative designs have started to warm your ears. Some sturdy articulation in the yokes means not only will the ear cups fold flat, but the frame folds in on itself too. This makes The Arranger much more compact in transit, and a far better proposition where portability is concerned.

To my eyes, though, there’s something quite inelegant and rather rustic about the width of the headband and the point where the headband chunkily meets the ear cups. The one available finish — a combination of black, something that thinks it’s gold and something that is unarguably beige — doesn’t exactly shout ‘premium product!’ either. The slats on the ear cups that result in the Austrian Audio being a quasi-open-backed design are a little more successful but, again, the color isn’t helping the headphones look as expensive as they actually are.

There’s absolutely no arguing with the standard of build and finish on display here but, then again, this is no more than you’re entitled to expect when paying over $1,000 for some headphones. The problem for The Arranger, I think, is about perceived value — and it comes up slightly short.

• Design score: 4 / 5

Austrian Audio The Arranger review: Value

• Headphones for every occasion
• Light, comfortable and easy to wear…
• …although not quite as easy to look at

No, $1,299 / £899 / AU$1,899 is not an insignificant sum for a pair of headphones, even a pair from a company with the track record of Austrian Audio.

But when you consider their potency as a tool of analysis, factor in their energetic and enthusiastic attitude when you’re simply listening for pleasure, and then add in the build quality and the comfort that’s a by-product, they become pretty difficult to argue with on a value-for-money basis.

One or two options where finish is concerned wouldn’t go amiss, mind you — in fact, they might help The Arranger to become an even easier sell.

• Value score: 4.5 / 5

Should I buy the Austrian Audio The Arranger?

Buy them if...

Don't buy them if...

Austrian Audio The Arranger review: Also consider

How I tested the Austrian Audio The Arranger

• Connected to a FiiO M15S DAP
• Connected to a full-size system via Eversolo DAC-Z10 pre-amp
• Using music from many formats and of many styles

The FiiO digital audio player features lots of hi-res FLAC and DSD files, and lots of different styles and genres of music within those digital files. The Eversolo DAC-Z10, meanwhile, is the preamplifier for an Arcan ST25 network streamer, a Technics SL-1300G turntable and a Rega Apollo CD player.

Which means that content from internet radio stations, vinyl and compact disc are all available too - which, by extension, means The Arranger by Austrian Audio got about as thorough a work-out as a pair of headphones at this sort of money demands.

• First reviewed: July 2026
• Read more about how we test

Right on cue, Amazon Prime Day in Australia has delivered a much better price on the Apple AirPods Pro 3, dropping Apple’s latest noise-cancelling earbuds to just AU$299.

That’s a mighty AU$130 saving on their AU$429 RRP, and more importantly, it’s the lowest price we’ve seen for the AirPods Pro 3 on Amazon.

Considering they launched at a higher price than their predecessor, this Prime Day deal makes them a far more tempting option for iPhone users who have been waiting for a deeper discount.

I’ve been using the Pro 3 since they launched in September and, while I was initially unsure how much better they could really be than the Pro 2, I’ve had to concede that Apple’s updated earbuds are something special.

The noise cancellation, fit and overall sound quality all make them easy to recommend, and this AU$299 price makes that recommendation even easier.

If you’re a devoted iPhone user, there’s a good chance the AirPods Pro 3 are already on your radar.

If you want a deeper breakdown before buying, our Apple AirPods Pro 3 review covers their features, sound quality and noise-cancelling performance in detail.

My audio-loving colleague Becky Scarrott described them as the earbuds for “iPhone owners who value great, shut-out-the-world noise cancellation”, and that lines up with my own experience.

As soon as you put the Pro 3s in your ears and turn on ANC, they do a remarkable job of cutting out the world around you.

I’ve worn them while walking along busy roads and even while vacuuming at home, and in both cases, the AirPods Pro 3 have made it far easier to focus on whatever I’m listening to.

They’re not the cheapest earbuds around, even with this Prime Day discount, but at AU$299 they become a much more compelling pick among the best wireless earbuds, especially if you’re already deep in Apple’s ecosystem.

I don’t expect this price to stick around once Amazon Prime Day wraps up, so if you’ve been waiting for a proper AirPods Pro 3 discount, this is the deal to jump on.

Quick links to the best Apple deals on Amazon

• Amazon Prime Day: shop the main Prime Day sale
• Apple at Amazon: browse everything Apple in one place
• AirPods deals: check the best AirPods prices
• iPad deals: shop iPad offers at Amazon
• Apple Watch deals: see the best Apple Watch prices
• iPhone deals: check current iPhone deals
• Apple accessories: browse AirTags, chargers, cables and more
• MacBook price checks: find MacBook restocks and price drops

Even more AirPod deals

Amazon Prime Day has come to an end in Australia, and what a week it was. I saw some insanely low prices on some of the best headphones and best wireless earbuds, including an all-time low on the AirPods Pro 3.

As expected, however, many of the best discounts have now finished, but you can still find a good bargain on a new pair if you missed out. As you'll see below, select pairs of Bose and Sennheiser headphones maintain good prices, and I've also found a AU$60 saving on the aforementioned AirPods Pro 3.

If you're happy to wait though, I reckon there will be some excellent prices once again in November's Black Friday sales.

The best Prime Day Australia headphone deals 2026 still live

Over-ear headphones

In-ear headphones

Open earbuds

Wired earbuds

Prime Day 2026 in Australia: all you need to know

• A new leak shows off the Nothing Ear 3(a)
• We see the earbuds in four colors, with the case
• The official unveiling is scheduled for tomorrow

If you can't wait until tomorrow for the official unveiling of the Nothing Ear 3(a), the budget wireless earbuds have now appeared in an extensive leak that reveals the design, colors, and features — so this is pretty much a full spoiler.

The early reveal comes courtesy of WinFuture, and is based on information from retailers who couldn't wait to get their listings live. We can see the earbuds in all four of the already announced colors: black, white, yellow, and pink.

There are a few interesting tidbits here, but when it comes to the aesthetics, there are no dramatic surprises: the look of these earbuds is very reminiscent of previous Nothing Ear models, with the semi-transparent stems and the transparent lid on the charging case.

What we do learn is that the Nothing Ear 3(a) are set to come with a 12-millimeter driver, as well as support for LDAC and Hi-Res Audio Wireless — so while the price is affordable, it seems the audio quality won't be compromised too much.

Touch to record

The leak gives us a glimpse of what seems to be a special feature we haven't seen from Nothing products before: the ability to press the stem of the earbuds to record voice notes, which is something to look out for.

WinFuture also refers back to previous leaks that mentioned a retail price of €99, so it would appear that the upcoming wireless earbuds are going to stick to the $99 / £99 / AU$169 starting price of the excellent Nothing Ear (a).

In our Nothing Ear 3 review, we praised those earbuds for offering "zealous, customizable sound" — though we weren't quite sure about how much value for money they offered, which is something this new pair might move the dial on.

One of the quirks of the Nothing Ear 3 is the 'Super Mic' that's included in the charging case, which you can use for calls and voice notes instead of the microphones on the earbuds — but as yet it's not clear if the Nothing Ear 3(a) will offer the same feature.

• 'Galaxy Able' gets name-dropped in the Wearable app
• These are the oft-rumored first ever clip-style earbuds from the company
• Could launch later in July, alongside two new Galaxy smartwatches

We've been hearing rumors that Samsung is teeing up to release a novel kind of earbuds offering — or at least, the design was novel a few years ago. It's a form factor that's entirely new for the company (though not its sub-brands) and completely unlike the Galaxy Buds 4 series in shape and name. And now, it's all but confirmed.

As spotted by an eagle-eyed Twitter user, an update to Samsung's Galaxy Wearable app has spilled the beans on a slew of upcoming products.

This includes the Galaxy Watch 9 and Galaxy Watch Ultra 2, two products which may not surprise you if you're gifted with numbers and know that 9 follows 8.

But slightly more interesting is word of the Galaxy Able (not Galaxy Buds Able, as we'd previously heard). This naming all but confirms what we'd already thought: Samsung has seen our list of the best open earbuds and wants in.

Galaxy Able? Next up Galaxy Cain?

The open earbuds market moves quickly; it has to, it's such a new product line that even flash-in-the-pan tech AI predates it. If you haven't heard of them, they're earbuds that let in surrounding sound, so you know what's going on around you.

When the form factor began a few years ago, we mainly saw sports hook-style options (they snake around the back of your ear), but nowadays most seem to be clip-style ones that, according to my partner, make you look like a pirate. I prefer '80s New Romantic', because they're like big ear cuffs, but you get the idea.

Anyway, they're big, with a lot of the heavy-hitters testing out the form factor. To name a few, there's the Shokz OpenDots One, Bose Ultra Open Earbuds, Sony LinkBuds Clip, JBL Soundgear Clips, Huawei FreeClip 2, and many, many more. Brands big and small have released options.

That is, except Samsung (and, notably, Apple). The Android-friendlier firm tends to let the audio experimentation play out with its sub-brands, including JBL, Harmon and AKG, releasing only its main series of earbuds under its own moniker. So its decision to release clip style earbuds under its own name suggests the form factor is huge now.

Samsung's traditional earbuds (see the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro) offer great-sounding audio, though you often need a Samsung phone to make the most of them. But open-ears are a different kettle of fish, requiring different tuning and a hardy fit to account for the open style, so I'm curious to see if the brand manages to adapt its strengths to the format.

We're expecting Samsung to announce plenty of new products at some point in July, including the aforementioned watches as well as its next wave of folding phones. So we might be able to bring you a review of the Galaxy Able sooner, rather than later.

Having tested countless pairs of ANC headphones, it takes something special to truly wow me. But today, we’re going to compare two sets of premium cans that did exactly that: Apple’s AirPods Max 2, and Sony’s WH-1000XM6.

If you’re considering which pair of headphones are for you, I’ve got you covered. I’ve spent hours testing both sets side by side, assessing each model on their feature-sets, performance, design, and most importantly, value for money.

The AirPods Max 2 and Sony WH-1000XM6 are both wonderful headphones, and each earned a 4.5 star review and hearty recommendation from us here at TechRadar. They’re different in more ways than you may expect, offering a pretty unique listening and user experience, but ultimately, there’s one set I’d pick over the other. Curious to hear my verdict? The scroll on down to see this clash for the ages to unfurl.

AirPods Max 2 vs Sony WH-1000XM6: price & specs

AirPods Max 2 vs Sony WH-1000XM6: features

Both the AirPods Max 2 and Sony WH-1000XM6 are rammed with features, but there’s one major point of differentiation — Apple’s cans are heavily tailored towards iOS users.

That’s right, the AirPods Max 2 have a lot of features that Android users won’t get access to. Stuff like Spatial Audio, auto-device switching, Siri, and Apple Intelligence integrations. This is understandable, although it’s a shame that Android users have no way to directly alter the headphones’ EQ. Apple users get a fantastic range of options to choose from, though, with stuff like Live Translation and the head-tracked Spatial Audio really standing out.

Sony’s headphones are undeniably more versatile, with myriad features available to both iOS and Android users. They have no end of options, with a 10-band EQ, scene-based listening, a Cinema upmix mode, speak to chat, and mic-mute. This is all controlled by Sony’s Sound Connect app, which is easy to use, although some settings do feel a little hidden in sub-menus.

But how about the main event: ANC? This is a much closer fight than I expected, actually. See, the XM6 offer class-leading noise canceling capabilities, and even when I’ve used them on flights they’ve silenced the sound of the deep jet engines firing or conversations happening around me. But the AirPods Max 2 are genuinely very competitive, even against the XM6. In my office, the sounds of keyboards clacking, colleagues talking, and cars passing by outside were totally crushed. Both headphones are top-tier when it comes to noise cancelling, and I’d argue they even rival Bose.

Another crucial area to explore is battery life. The Sony WH-1000XM6 keep things pretty standard with 30 hours of battery life with ANC on. This is the typical figure you’ll see for headphones in this kind of price range — nothing special, but enough to get you through a fair few days of listening. The AirPods Max 2, however, only supply 20 hours with ANC on. That’s just not good enough, and falls well short of the competition. If you don’t want to charge your cans all too often, then the XM6 are a better pick.

There are a few other areas where the XM6 prevail over the AirPods Max 2 as well, such as their superior call quality and background noise supression, inclusion of intuitive and precise touch controls over Apple’s digital crown, and use of DSEE Extreme for upscaling lower-quality audio files.

So, if you’re an iOS user, the AirPods Max 2 definitely have some snazzy features up their sleeves — including some smart options that the XM6 leave out. Each are great when it comes to ANC, and are on relatively even footing there. But Sony’s cans offer superior compatibility, battery life, and call quality, making them the overall winner in this category.

AirPods Max 2 vs Sony WH-1000XM6: sound quality

This is what you really came here for, right? But before I get into my sound comparison, let’s take a look at a few technical differences.

Like their predecessor, the Sony WH-1000XM5, the Sony WH-1000XM6 use 30mm dynamic drivers, except they’ve been redesigned with high-rigidity carbon fiber for better performance across the frequency range. They also feature Sony’s QN3 processor featuring a noise-shaper, which pre-empts sudden sound changes for a more controlled listening experience.

On the other hand, the AirPods Max 2 use custom 40mm drivers — just as the original AirPods Max did. However, the sequel added a new amplifier alongside Apple’s H2 processor, which is intended to supply more detailed, cleaner sound. Unlike the LDAC-equipped XM6, the AirPods Max 2 have no higher-res Bluetooth codec support, although you can access lossless playback via the headphones’ USB-C port.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s get into my listening comparison. In Journey by Ruze, the differences between the two pairs of headphones were clear. With the AirPods Max 2, I was treated to a spacious, immersive interpretation, with expansive vocals and dreamy synths showing off the headphones’ nuanced soundstage.

The Sony WH-1000XM6 went for a different approach, with a tighter and punchier take. Bass came through with the kind of impact that instantly demanded my attention. Vocals and synths were also really clear and well separated in the mix, but didn’t have quite as much of an expansive quality.

Moving over to something softer with Sakamichi by Yuta Orisaka and it was a similar story again. Vocals were emotive and tonally accurate, and were elegantly separated from strumming guitars. Percussion was also rhythmic and well-defined in the mix, and the broad soundstage exposed the track’s layers with finesse.

The XM6 excelled too, and vocals had excellent clarity in the mix, warped electric guitars sounded brilliantly separated — almost as if they were operating in a separate pocket. Meanwhile, the warmth of the track’s bass came through beautifully, and subtle percussive elements were weighted nicely too. Despite this, there was still a tightness to the sound — the direct and cohesive sound of the XM6 is simply very striking.

So, which headphones sound better? I think it’s a question that’s harder to answer than you may expect. On a strictly technical level, I’d argue that the AirPods Max 2 offer a bit more nuance, thanks to their wider soundstage, which opens up a more revealing and insightful listen. But I really do think there’s a case to be made for the XM6. Their punchier, tighter approach sounds spectacular, and adds a lot of vim and excitement — especially to more energetic tracks.

Ultimately, this one’s down to personal preference. If you want a more intimate sound with the joys of LDAC, then the Sony WH-1000XM6 are for you. But if you’re looking for an ultra-spacious, meticulous soundstage with clean all-round sound, then the AirPods Max 2 get the nod for me. Let’s call this one a tie.

AirPods Max 2 vs Sony WH-1000XM6: design

The AirPods Max 2 and Sony WH-1000XM6 have shown themselves to be very different propositions so far. And that’s reflected in their design as well.

In my view, the AirPods Max 2 are some of the best-looking wireless headphones on the market today, with a super-striking metallic look, an elegant fabric headband, and a selection of eye-catching colors. Sure, they look just about identical to the original AirPods Max, but if it ain’t broke…

The Sony WH-1000XM6 look pretty good themselves, though. They have a sleek, cohesive, and textured appearance, which resembles the XM5 pretty closely. The XM6 have more of an understated selection of colors than the AirPods Max 2 — personally I prefer what Apple’s headphones have to offer, but it’s totally down to personal preference.

I’d argue that the AirPods Max 2 have a more premium look and feel — as you’d hope considering the price difference — I just think they’re more striking. In addition, I prefer the flatter appearance of the earcups on Apple’s headphones to the semi-bulky look of the XM6’s.

But hang on. The XM6 aren’t down and out just yet. Because if we’re talking about pure practicality, they have the AirPods Max 2 beat. The XM6 are totally foldable, making them phenomenally compact if you want to toss them into a small bag, whereas Apple’s headphones are a bit more rigid. On top of that, the XM6 come with a fantastic magnet-lock case that's far better than the bizarre smart case of the AirPods Max 2, which doesn’t even protect the headband.

Overall, though, I’m gonna hand this one to Apple. I do like the case and foldability of the XM6 for sure, but the attention-grabbing, luxurious look of the AirPods Max 2 is undeniable. Yes, they’re also a fair bit heavier than the XM6 too, but I still found Apple’s cans very comfortable in use, meaning they just about edge it for me.

AirPods Max 2 vs Sony WH-1000XM6: value

There’s no hiding the fact that the AirPods Max 2 are significantly pricier than the Sony WH-1000XM6. Apple’s latest headphones typically come in at $549 / £499 / AU$999, while Sony’s have a list price of $449 / £399 / AU$699. But which one actually offers better value for money?

As I noted above, these headphones are very different, so the answer will vary depending on a few factors. The AirPods Max 2 offer more expansive sound than the XM6, paired with an excellent set of features for Apple device users and a luxurious look to boot. They are definitely on the expensive side, though, and although we’ve seen them pop up on sale with a few retailers (even as low as $399 in the US over Amazon Prime Day), they do have some notable flaws for the price.

The battery life instantly comes to mind — 20 hours isn’t very competitive. They also lack higher-res Bluetooth codecs, and their compatibility with Android devices is limited. Still, they’re a great pair of headphones overall, with fantastic sound quality, looks, and iOS functionality.

At $449 / £399 / AU$699, the Sony WH-1000XM6 feel like an easier sell. They offer ANC that’s easily on par with the AirPods Max 2, a more practical design, they sound spectacular, with a punchy yet well-balanced signature, and their broad compatibility is a big win — especially if you own a Windows laptop or Android phone.

These are also on sale fairly regularly, and I’ve seen them drop as low as $380 / £300 in recent times in the US and UK respectively. Sure, if you only have Apple devices, these may not offer the same convenience as the AirPods Max 2, and Sony’s headphones also leave out USB-C audio passthrough and have a slightly less premium look.

It’s closer than I initially thought, but I do think the Sony WH-1000XM6 are better value when all’s said and done. For less money, you get super-engaging sound, top-tier ANC, better battery life, and a more versatile software setup.

AirPods Max 2 vs Sony WH-1000XM6: verdict

So, if I could only choose one pair of these excellent headphones, which would I recommend? In this instance, I’m going to hand it to the Sony WH-1000XM6. Apple’s headphones are undoubtedly fantastic performers, and if you want the most spacious sound and features tailored for iOS, they’ll undoubtedly serve you very well. But for less money, the XM6 are just the slightly better value pick for me. Their combination of S-tier ANC, balanced, yet tight and punchy sound, and more versatile compatibility make them the ideal all-rounders.

Audeze's own Symmetric Linear Acoustic Modulator (SLAM, for short) tech has been a game-changer for the premium head-fi brand.

It's seen a superb boost for all its most recent lines of headphones and gaming headsets that have seen an enhancement to bass, a reduction in distortion, and a mastering of the pressure equalization within a headphone's architecture.

As Audeze describes it on its website, at its core, SLAM is a collection of "precisely engineered channels seamlessly integrated into the ring that connects the ear pads to the drivers."

This physically manifests in headphones as a "structure that you put between the ear part and the transducer that resonates," according to Audeze's chief technical officer, Dragoslav Colich ('Dr C' for short).

These channels relieve air pressure buildup — the air has somewhere to go — and also help with low-frequency response, to the point where it enhances bass significantly. It's proved so good and transformational for the brand; it's one of the biggest upgrades on offer in the Audeze Maxwell 2 over the original Maxwell, for example.

But how did it come to be? Well, basically by accident, as I found out when speaking to Dr C last month when I visited Audeze's HQ in California.

"Well, I started this for one primary reason [and that] was to relieve the pressure on headphones, so we're not breaking diaphragms — that was the first objective," he began to tell me.

This is the characteristic of the SLAM channels funneling air out of the headphone and thus relieving pressure within; imagine the feeling of pushing your palm down on a headphone's ear cup, was the comparison Dr C gave me during our chat.

"Then when we were playing with these things, we kind of found out that we can tune these channels to resonate at low frequencies, and it was a really weird discovery."

It was this accidental finding that then led to a further 'SLAM-dunk' after Audeze discovered what these channels could do when sculpted purposefully: "We didn't plan for it, but I just [discovered by] surprise that when we shape the channels correctly [in terms of] cross section and length, we can tune the headphone chamber ... to whatever we want."

As a result, an even bigger 'SLAM-dunk' was the one-two punch the discovery offered: fixing reliability while tangibly changing and improving the sound output of Audeze headphones.

"What that does [is] basically solve the problem with reliability; diaphragms are not breaking anymore, because when you push it, basically air goes through these channels, there's no high pressure inside, but then we ended up having [a way] that we can tune the bass to get more output, pretty much for free — and it's not just bass, it translates into mid-range and high frequencies, [as] it's all connected to each other," he said, adding, "So, kill a couple of things at the same time: get more reliability, and we're tuning the headphones correctly for low bass extension."

And so SLAM was born. What started out as a means to stop diaphragms breaking "actually turned out into something spectacular," says Dr C, and from my ongoing use with the Audeze Maxwell 2 gaming headset as my everyday driver, and a new set of Audeze MM-520 headphones kept within arm's reach too, I'm inclined to agree.

I had to make sure Prime Day in Australia hadn't already started when I saw this AU$200 saving on the AirPods Max 2, since it's not everyday that Amazon discounts Apple tech. And, if there are any discounts to be found, it's the online retailer's annual mid-year sale that tends to throw them up.

So if you've had your eye on the latest set of Apple's over-ear headphones, then this price cut might just be of interest.

It's no secret that the AirPods Max 2 are among the most expensive headphones we've ever tested here at TechRadar, and with a AU$999 RRP, you can easily spend less on a highly capable pair from the likes of Sony, Bose or Sennheiser.

Apple has thrown everything at the Max 2s though to help justify the high price, and they're easily some of the best headphones on the market right now, particularly if you can make use of their Apple Intelligence features (provided you have an iPhone 15 or newer device).

These features include things like live translate, advanced call screening, gesture control, conversational awareness, and adaptive audio. Pair all of these with a stunning high-end design, class-leading noise cancellation, and fantastic audio quality, and the AirPods Max 2 are definitely worth considering.

As we said in our Apple AirPods Max 2 review, they're the "the best noise-cancelling iPhone headphones on the planet", with a soundstage that's "expansive" and "a noise floor so low that bass frequencies rumble, snap and boom in so much space it's almost a crime".

If you own an iPhone, they're a no brainer.

Should I wait for Prime Day?

That's tricky question to answer. As I mentioned earlier, it's surprising that there's a discount of any sort on the AirPods Max 2. However, it only applies to the blue colourway — could Amazon be teasing discounts to expect when Prime Day rolls around next week, and apply a saving to all colours?

We'll ultimately have to wait and see. I feel the blue colour is pretty inoffensive and should suit most people pretty well — midnight (navy blue) or silver are obviously more ambiguous — so if you've been considering Apple's top-tier cans, but don't want to pay a grand, this is a good opportunity to save a decent chunk of cash.

Cleer Arc 5: Two-minute review

Almost every one of the best open earbuds I’ve tested, has been designed for sports users. They let you hear your surroundings at the gym, remain aware when running in a busy area, and keep alert when cycling on a road. I don’t think Cleer missed this memo – the brand’s intentionally going for something completely different.

The Cleer Arc 5 are open earbuds designed not for sports, but for the rest of us. I was skeptical when I first saw them, but they’ve surprised me — in both good and bad ways.

The presence of Dolby Atmos and THX Spatial Audio means these are suited for watching a TV show or movie on your commute, and their support for a range of better Bluetooth codecs, including LDAC and aptX Adaptive, shows Cleer is aiming for audiophile-quality earbuds here. Those are some exceptional features for a form factor that naturally competes with loads of extraneous background sounds.

Cleer’s app hides loads of other features too, including a posture test which uses the buds’ positional tools, and the ability to set sedentary reminders if you’re too often stuck in one spot.

The design department makes it clear that these aren’t sports buds. Though surprisingly sturdy during a run, the buds are much bulkier than your average svelte runners’ wear. And the presence of an on-case display, full of controls and settings, clearly signposts this as not for active users. When I go to the gym or for a run, the case is always left at home.

Unfortunately, despite the impressive specs and clear focus on listening quality, the Achilles’ Heel of these earbuds is the sound quality. There’s a real lack of expansie through the soundstage, and both treble and bass feel poorly defined. The open-ear form factor doesn’t help here, especially with a max volume that’s simple not loud enough, but many similar earbuds I’ve tested sound a lot better.

It’s a shame that these don’t sound fantastic, and is surprising too when you see the price tag. For some users, I see the feature set trumping the sound quality. The fantastic battery life, health features and spatial audio might trump below-average sound. But it begs the question who these are designed for, if not audiophiles or fitness fans.

Cleer Arc 5 review: Price and release date

• Released in March 2026
• Made their debut at $219 (about £170 / AU$340)
• Some of the priciest within their category

The Cleer Arc 5 were announced on March 16, 2026, only four months after their predecessors. That was a quick turnaround!

You can buy the Arc 5 for $219.99 (about £170, AU$340 — no word on a release outside the US, as with the Arc 4). So these are some of the most expensive open earbuds out there.

To my mind only the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds and Shokz OpenFit Pro cost more, but they’re both explicitly designed for sports, while the Cleer is aimed at an audiophile market.

Cleer Arc 5 review: Specs

Cleer Arc 5 review: Features

• 12-hour battery life, 60 with case
• 8-band EQ, plus presets
• Loads of features including posture test

If there’s an area where the Cleer Arc 5 stand out, it’s in the feature set — it seems that this is what the buds were designed to do.

It starts with the basics: the battery life here is great for open earbuds. You’re getting 12 hours of listening per charge, with 60 hours once you factor in the charging case itself. Beyond a few endurance-focused earbuds, those figures are at the top of their class.

Boot up the Cleer+ app on your phone, and you’re getting a smorgasbord of tools — admittedly in a pretty confusing lay-out. You can use the app to toggle spatial audio, change between EQ modes and create custom ones, change what the touch and gesture controls do, change the case wallpaper, edit what tools are available via the case, and more.

The equalizer is an 8-band one, giving you some control over your sound, though in this day and age I’d say that 10-bands were more common. I preferred using this over the presets, which didn’t have a noticeable impact on a song’s sound.

The “and more” features I alluded to earlier are pretty out-there, hence needing a whole extra paragraph. They’re health ones: you can set up sedentary reminders to get you to move about, add volume limits to protect your hearing, and do a posture test which uses the gesture controls of the buds to evaluate whether you’re sitting straight.

For office workers, this latter is a genuinely useful feature, and I used it to ensure my seat and chair were level when working at my desk. However, for it to work properly, your phone needs to be at eye level too — I messed it up by leaving my mobile o,n my desk, and when I bent over to look at it, the test was ruined.

One feature you’re not getting in the Arc 5 is any kind of noise cancellation. It’s admittedly very rare in the open-ear space, but not unheard of (if you’ll pardon the pun).

• Features score: 4.5/5

Cleer Arc 5 review: Design

• Giant case has a touch screen
• Earbuds are on the large side, but fit solidly
• Only IPX7 protected

Let’s start with the Cleer Arc 5’s big new feature: its charging case. Big literally: it weighs 97g all on its own, and measures 8.3 x 6 x 2cm, making it one of the biggest earbud cases I’ve seen in years.

This size isn’t just to house some pretty big earbuds, but it does that with a few extra twists. It has built-in UV charging for the buds, and a mirror inside the case for some reason. For some reason, the left earbud is housed on the right, and vice versa, which was confusing for a while until I learnt to switch.

But no, the big selling point here is a screen build into the charging case. You can use it to flick between a few menus: battery, music controls, spatial audio settings, general settings, equalizer and remote camera shutter. The interface feels akin to a smartwatches’: very basic.

For changing quick settings like EQ or skipping songs, the case was quite handy: I didn’t need to dig my phone out of my pocket and get distracted by the 120 notifications from that group chat I forgot to mute. But you can’t use the case to change playlists, create an EQ or dig deep into settings, so it won’t replace your phone completely.

The earbuds also have touch controls too, which were quite easy to trigger with a tap anywhere on their body, yet never accidentally picked up an unintentional touch.

I suppose that brings us onto the earbuds. These are pretty huge, and heavy too, weighing roughly 24g each. I haven’t seen an open earbud quite this big, and was expecting them to fit pretty awfully; thankfully, I was totally wrong. I went on many runs with the Arc 5, and not once did they threaten to dislodge, or wobble more than the average open-ear does.

I’d put this down to some smart balancing of the bud and counterweight. They were always comfortable to wear, even if the weight didn’t exactly make them easy to forget.

The Cleer Arc 5 comes in black or white, and I tested the latter. They have an IPX7 rating, which makes them sweatproof but not suited to swimming. I would avoid taking them out in heavier rainfall too, just to be safe.

• Design score: 4/5

Cleer Arc 5 review: Sound quality

• Large 16.2mm driver
• Blunt and indistinct sound
• Max volume is too low for open format

I was expecting the Cleer Arc 5’s sound to be its outstanding feature. Between its 16.2mm drivers, support for LDAC, aptX Adaptive and aptX Lossless, and high price, it seems like these could be some of the best open earbuds yet.

I’m quite surprised to report that I was wrong, and I didn’t really love listening to tunes on the Arc. The quality isn't terrible, but it's not on par with the expectations you'd have from those aforementioned specs.

Music sounds compressed, with neither the high-end nor low-end differentiated in a way that gives any sense of sound stage or distinction. Snare drums lack bite, distorted-guitar walls turn into crunchy puddles, bass wobbles over plenty of other low- or mid- instruments. The buds would perhaps sound better if they were in-ears, but hovering a few mm over your ears, it doesn't fly.

Low-end is poorly defined yet too prominent in the mix: The Human Race by BYRNE starts with a harmony that sounded more like a glitching speaker than a bass singer. This line’s meant to repeat in the chorus with a bass guitar, and it completely overrides the harmony. In 311’s Good Feeling, the bass trips over all the other instruments, replacing the usually-energetic, fun chorus with the sonic equivalent of a stubbed toe.

Also affected is the treble, as vocals and higher lines lose prominence and energy. Take, for example, Morningsider’s Thinking it Over: a string motif is dropped in the mix in the introduction, and completely lost in the pre-chorus.

I’ll concede that if you listen to acoustic or folky music, you may not notice this issue as much. In songs like Caamp’s 26, the reduced instrumentation meant I could still basically hear everything.

Well, I could hear it until I stepped outside. The Arc 5 falls into a common trap with open earbuds: their maximum volume isn’t high enough to compete with noisy surroundings. When I was running near a main road, I could barely hear my songs.

• Sound quality: 3/5

Cleer Arc 5 review: Value

• Features may go some way to justify price...
• ... but audio quality doesn't

The Cleer has quite a few neat features. I really like what the case display achieves, and the fit is solid. Plus, the movie listening features offer tools that many other earbuds don’t.

However that’s a really high price for any earbuds, let alone open-style ones — and especially not for ones that, frankly, don’t sound amazing.

There’s no way that these buds offer you value for money; you can get better audio quality for a lot less, especially if you’re happy to buy non-open-style buds.

• Value: 3/5

Should I buy the Cleer Arc 5?

Buy them if…

Don’t buy them if…

Cleer Arc 5review: Also consider

How I tested the Cleer Arc 5

• Tested for one month
• Tested in a range of indoor and outdoor settings
• Used for music, gaming, calls movies and TV

I used the Cleer Arc 5 for roughly a month before writing this review of them. In that time, they were paired to a succession of Android smartphones, mostly the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra and Moto Edge 70 Fusion.

I listened to the Arc 5 on runs, walks around my neighborhood, office sessions, long trips on public transport and at home. I mostly streamed music via Spotify Lossless, and Apple Music, but also watched movies on a variety of streaming services, played games, and tested a few other music streamers.

I’ve been reviewing gadgets for TechRadar for over seven years now, including testing audio kit for nearly as long. In that time I’ve handled other Cleer gadgets as well as many, many other open-ear buds.

• First reviewed in May 2026

• Read TechRadar's reviews guarantee

When you’re shopping for a new pair of headphones, you naturally want them to sound good, but how often do you actually think about how they look?

As someone who lives and breathes headphones, I think I’m experienced enough to claim that most pairs look the same. A simple, minimalist set of cans, usually available in black or white, and maybe with some chrome or coloured accents.

Pretty boring, right?

That’s certainly not the case with the Nothing Headphone (a) which, along with the flagship Nothing Headphone (1), completely reinvent headphone design for the better — and the former has now received a huge 36% discount at Amazon in the run up to Prime Day 2026 in Australia.

These are Nothing’s second over-ear headphone attempt, and they earned a glowing 4.5-star rating in our Nothing Headphone (a) review. We claimed them to be the “dream tech version 2.0” over the flagship Headphone (1), thanks to improved, more spacious sound, while retaining the same fantastic set of controls to adjust playback.

And then there’s how they look. The Headphone (a) are unmistakably a Nothing product, but the design has been softened a little compared to the flagship pair. The cassette tape look has been subbed out for a solid colour, available in white, pink or yellow. The pink colourway has received the biggest discount of 36%.

The Headphone (1) are still a fantastic pair of cans in their own right. They also come with the bold claim of being tuned by esteemed hi-fi brand KEF. As we said in our Nothing Headphone (1) review, the sound is “reasonably refined, well-balanced, and broadly enjoyable”.

The slight downside is that the Headphone (1) sound a little compressed — I’ve used these headphones and can vouch for that comment. I personally don’t think it’s a huge deal breaker, though, and the amount of personalisation on offer via the companion app more than makes up for it. Plus, as our tester noted, “if they get a price drop, these could be great headphones”, and here it is.

With both pairs now costing similar money, your buying decision could well just come down to aesthetics. Regardless, you’ll be catching looks wherever you go.

For all the iPhone’s talents, there’s still one glaring area that’s plagued it since its launch, and where it’s arguably inferior to certain Android devices: wireless audio quality transmission. More specifically, high-resolution, or lossless, audio.

Yes, despite Apple offering select albums and tracks in up to hi-res lossless audio quality via Apple Music — at no extra charge, no less — no pair of Apple headphones actually supports the format. The AirPods Max 2, and the refreshed first-gen set of Apple’s over-ear headphones, support lossless audio when connected via USB-C, but not true high resolution.

For the majority of music fans it won’t matter that iPhones don’t support higher quality audio codecs. But considering Android devices do support them, and the fact there are genuine audible benefits to higher quality streams, why wouldn’t you want to get them if the option was there?

It continues to be a peculiar oversight by the tech giant, I feel, but fortunately there is a super simple workaround to unlocking the sonic benefits of high-res, all thanks to Sennheiser and a plug-in USB-C adapter. And for the low price of just AU$59.

There are plenty of reasons for wanting to unlock high-res audio from your smartphone. First and foremost, there’s a very good chance it’s already included with your music streaming service subscription. Apple Music, Tidal, Qobuz and now even Spotify all offer higher-res versions of millions of songs. Look at it this way — you’re paying for that quality, but if you’re listening with an iPhone and a pair of AirPods you’re missing out on a vastly superior music experience.

This Sennheiser dongle fixes that, although as previously mentioned, you will need a pair of compatible headphones, and nothing from Apple itself makes the cut. While the BTD 700 can transmit high-resolution, or lossless audio from an iPhone via aptX Adaptive, the AirPods won’t receive it, and will instead revert to inferior AAC or SBC codecs.

If you need some suggestions, there are some top-rated pairs on sale now for EOFY that support either aptX Adaptive or aptX Lossless, or both, that will take full advantage of what the BTD 700 transmitter can offer.

What is lossless audio?

Lossless audio can be a bit of a contentious subject in some circles (here’s looking at you audiophiles). Some claim it’s the best thing since sliced bread, while others claim they can’t hear any noticeable difference in quality.

Throw in myriad codec options that each do something a little different, and it’s easy to see why it’s not only confusing, but also hard to really care about.

In theory, aptX Adaptive and aptX Lossless codecs are capable of carrying more information than AAC or SBC (which the iPhone supports). Lossless audio streams go one better by delivering a bit‑perfect CD‑quality stream.

Even then, however, it’s not fully guaranteed, because you need every step in the chain to be working at its full potential. You first need a good recording that actually contains all the extra information, and then you need a capable set of headphones. And, since we’re talking about wireless transmission here, it can still be susceptible to interference, which can have a negative effect on sound quality.

But if you already own decent Snapdragon Sound cans, the BTD 700 finally lets them run the codec they were designed around instead of being stuck on AAC, which is a genuine quality win — especially from an iPhone.

If you’re keen to reap the benefits of higher quality sound, you may want to jump on this deal. I’ve seen it going in and out of stock on an almost daily basis.

I’ve been reviewing gadgets at TechRadar for years now, and it’s pretty rare that something stops me in my tracks and so violently defies my expectations. But sometimes, a special product comes along and totally stuns me: and that was well and truly the case with the Sennheiser CX 80U.

Now you might be thinking: really? A pair of wired earbuds? But yes, they really were that impressive. See it all comes down to quality vs price, and these earbuds genuinely sound way, way better than I expected given their typical cost of $39.95 / £34.99. If you want rich, detailed sound at a highly-accessible price-point, the CX 80U are all you need.

I’ll drill into the beauty of this product more down below, but the bottom line is: the CX 80U are what I’d recommend to anyone looking to go back to wired earbuds in 2026.

Low risk, high reward

I’ve already touched on the Sennheiser CX 80U’s low price (and they’re occasionally discounted for even less), but let’s discuss what exactly makes them so special.

These buds use a USB-C connector with a built-in DAC, opening up lossless audio — something that’s not truly possible over Bluetooth, which is an inherently lossy technology. By using USB-C as a connectivity method, the CX 80U aren’t only optimized for modern smartphones, tablets, and laptops, but they also won’t need to be charged like their Bluetooth counterparts — and I often keep them with me in case I forget to juice up my Sony WH-1000XM6 headphones or LG Tone Free T90S earbuds.

But as practical as the CX 80U are, the real highlight is their performance. They show impeccable attention to detail, and can easily illuminate elements such as subtle percussion or delicate vocal intricacies. However, they also nail the fundamentals, with well-balanced, agile bass, clear mids, and vivid treble.

Speaking of treble, I found this to be a real highlight on the CX 80U — highs have an impressive sense of space, and often sound as if they’re operating in a well-defined pocket, giving percussion in particular plenty of space to express itself. But during my time testing the CX 80U, I was impressed with their quality right across the frequency range, and regardless of what genre I threw at them, they delivered an enjoyable and entertaining listen each time.

As well as sounding great, the CX 80U manage to provide surprisingly substantial passive noise cancellation, and they come with various-sized eartips, so you can find the perfect seal. Whenever I use them, I also find that cable noise is pretty muted, and they’re comfortable to wear, even for longer listening sessions.

One more thing I love about the CX 80U is their build quality. They look more premium than their price suggests, and I’m drawn to their rounded buds, slim wires, and enticing silver details. Classy.

So, if you’re on a budget but looking to get into the wired earbuds game, then it really doesn’t get much better than the Sennheiser CX 80U. Go on, give ‘em a go!

Sennheiser Momentum 5: two-minute review

The Sennheiser Momentum 5 are noise-cancelling headphones with lossless connectivity, spatial audio, and a promised battery life of 57 hours of battery life per charge with ANC engaged. They also offer heaps of sound personalization features, a smooth sliding scale between 100% noise cancelling and 100% transparent and customizable Sound Zones that allow you to automatically apply sound profiles and ANC settings when you enter predefined locations.

The Sennheiser Momentum 5’s look is clean overall, even if it’s not that adventurous a design, with a build mostly fashioned from plastic with metal highlights. The cushioned headband and faux leather ear cups do feel super comfortable, although I did find the slight ridge inside the cup made my ear to ache during long listening sessions. Otherwise though, they fit well and feel solidly built.

I’ve got to be honest though: when it comes to performance, I found the Sennheiser Momentum 5’s sound out of the box to be on the disappointing side, compared to the best headphones out there. Bass feels decent enough — I dropped Listen by Pola & Bryson & goddard. and not only did that distorted, snarling bass sound substantial, but the synths felt well rounded and there’s some good sub there, especially if you slip the headphones Bass Boost on.

However, when it comes to higher frequencies, the Momentum 5 too often felt like they were pulling punches. Rosewood by Bonobo sounded unusually muffled in the higher mids, with the usually punchy percussion and hats sounding really inert to me. Meanwhile, treble is similarly milquetoast, with the rhythmic static loops of The Gloaming by Radiohead lacking the crispness I’d expect and feeling unnecessarily rolled off.

Fortunately, this is something you can fix, thanks to the Momentum 5’s powerful EQ tools. There are eight EQ presets to choose from, including everything from Rock to Hip-Hop, but I found I was able to get far better results out of whipping up my own tunings.

Both Sound Check presets and Sound Personalization started the same way, allowing me to pick my favorite tweak by listening to three alternative tunings five times. Where they diverge is how you tweak the resultant profile, with the former letting you adjust it based on an eight-band EQ and the latter a matrix that lets you independently boost or duck bass and treble. With the latter I was able to get pretty great sound out of the Momentum 5, feeling warm in the low end while feeling crisp and dynamic in the high end — I just wish it didn’t require so much tweaking to get the Momentum 5 to sound their best.

On the plus side, the Momentum 5 offer an excellent soundstage. They give real breadth even to stereo mixes, with each instrument meticulously well positioned in the stereo field. And the headphones deftly handle Dolby Atmos — don’t get me wrong, some masters still feel a little hollow in this kind of spatial format, but Sennheiser’s cans do a fine job of situation each element in the space around you.

Speaking of being surrounded by sound, another area the Momentum 5 didn’t quite live up to my expectations was their noise cancelling. Now, not every set of headphones can quite live up to the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones’ commotion-quashing capabilities but I found Sennheiser’s often struggled to fully hush everyday conversation or completely stifle traffic noise. Sadly, they can’t compete with much of the market on this front.

Elsewhere, though, the Momentum 5’s features are more impressive. Connectivity is strong — they’re Bluetooth 6 ready, with the standard due to to come to the headphones in a future update, and they offer aptX Lossless, which means those with compatible phones can effectively stream CD quality sound on the go. And Sennheiser's Sound Zones is also a fun feature, allowing you to set the Momentum 5 to switch to certain EQ and ANC profiles automatically based on your location.

One last thing that warrants a special mention is the Momentum 5's battery life. While the Sony WH-1000XM6 offer a decent 30 hours and the AirPods Max 2 offer a pretty disappointing 20 hours with ANC on, Sennheiser's headphones blow right past them, offering up to 57 hours. This was consistent with my testing, meaning you can absolutely rely on these cans to last you days and days without needing a top up.

All told, the Sennheiser Momentum 5 are a solid set of noise-cancelling headphones, with some impressive features, long-lasting battery and spacious high-quality sound. But they’re also frustrating, as without certain missteps like their unbalanced default tuning and weaker ANC, they could be something truly remarkable. As they stand, they’re a good pair of headphones for their price, particularly once you’ve tailored their sound to your taste, but they won’t topple the best noise-cancelling headphones out there.

Sennheiser Momentum 5 review: price and availability

• Launched June 16, 2026
• List price of $399.95 / £329 / AU$749
• Available in Black, White, and Denim

Launched on June 16, the Sennheiser Momentum 5 are available now. They’re available for a list price of $399.99 / £329 / AU$749 — that definitely puts them in the higher-end bracket, although they’re obviously nowhere near as premium as the $549 / £499 / AU$999 AirPods Max 2 or the $649 / £550 / AU$999.95 Sony 1000X The Collexion.

They come in three colorways: Black, White, and Denim. Before you get too worried about having to match that last one to your outfit, don’t: it’s really just a dark indigo hue. All three colorways look decent enough to me, although I definitely think Sennheiser could have given us a little more choice here — at least one stand-out option like mauve or mint might have just helped provide an option for those that like to stand out from the crowd.

Sennheiser Momentum 5 review: specs

Sennheiser Momentum 5 review: features

• aptX Lossless compatible — but no LDAC or ALAC
• Versatile EQ & sound personalization
• Sound zones

First off, let’s take a look at what they’ve got going on under the hood. The Momentum 5 are rocking the same 42mm transducers as their predecessor — that’s a considerable step up compared to something like the Sony WH-1000XM6’s 30mm dynamic drivers and even an improvement over the Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2’s 40mm. Hopefully that should mean the Momentum 5 can muster up more substantial bass and a broader soundstage.

Connectivity is very strong on the Momentum 5 too, especially if you’re listening from an aptX compatible device. Not only do they currently run Bluetooth 5.4, they’re Bluetooth 6.0 ready, with it due to arrive by a future firmware update. It’s compatible with AptX Lossless, which gives you access to near CD-level quality playback — although sadly not ALAC or LDAC, which means you won’t be enjoying lossless audio on your Apple or Samsung device.

The Momentum 5’s touch controls are easy enough to use and feel pretty intuitive. A single tap to play / pause, swiping forward and back to skip forward and back, up and down to increase / decrease the volume, each control is intuitive and easy to activate… in fact, possibly too easy to activate. As can often be the case with headphones that rely on touch control, it’s really easy to trigger functions on the Momentum 5 when you’re adjusting them or removing them from your head and I’d often pick them up from my desk and realize I’d already set them playing.

The touch controls aren’t the only way to control the Momentum 5 though. Once you’ve paired them with your phone, Sennheiser’s SmartControlPlus app gives you more granular control over many of the headphones settings. As well as switching Dolby Atmos content on and off, you can also use it to tailor noise cancelling to your preferred level — it offers a smooth slider that allows you to gradually shift from 100% ANC to 100% transparency, as well as offering a toggle to turn on Anti-Wind mode in ANC.

You can use one of eight EQ presets from Dance to Jazz or you can create your own using its eight-band EQ. More unique though is Sennheiser’s Sound Check EQ presets: basically it allows you to pick which you prefer out of multiple different profiles like an eyetest for your ears. After you’ve selected your preferred option five times, it shows you the resultant preset. This feels like a really neat idea, allowing people who aren’t au fait with tweaking audio frequencies to still create their own custom sound.

But even more flexible in my eyes is Sennheiser’s Sound Personalization feature, which has been carried over from the Sennheiser Momentum 4. It runs you through the same setup as the Sound Check EQ but rather than presenting you with a range of EQ bands to adjust after, it instead presents you with a matrix that allows you to independently boost or reduce the bass and treble frequencies to polish your own preferred sound profile. That feels nicely intuitive and seems far easier to tweak on the fly than a standard graphic equalizer.

Lastly, the inclusion of customizable Sound Zones isn’t unique to Sennheiser’s cans — for example, being offered by the last few generations of Sony’s WH-1000 line — but it still feels like a pretty neat feature. Being able to automatically set noise-cancelling to maximum when I hit the office, switch up to a bassier sound profile when I hit the gym or increase the transparency when I’m out of the house saves a lot of effort. While it’s not necessarily trailblazing, it’s useful and really helps to make the Momentum 5 feel very fully featured.

Finally, the Momentum 5’s battery life is seriously impressive, with Sennheiser claiming they’ll last you up to 57 hours with ANC enabled. To test out its claims, I set the Momentum 5 to play music continuously with ANC on at 50% volume for six hours, during which time their battery dropped just 10%. As a back of the envelope calculation, that would put their total life at 60 hours — even though battery discharge curves are rarely linear, 57 hours seems very credible to me.

All in all, the Momentum 5 has a very strong feature set. Perhaps none of them are truly groundbreaking but when taken together, they make these cans feel very well appointed and ensure that you’re getting a great user experience.

• Features score: 4.5 / 5

Sennheiser Momentum 5 review: sound quality

• Disappointing default tuning, with weak treble
• Impressive soundstage and Dolby Atmos
• Ineffectual ANC

As an audiophile, I’ve been a loyal user of Sennheiser’s headphones for years. A good part of the reason for this is that the brand’s cans are known for having a reliably balanced frequency balance, meaning that whether I’m listening to music or producing it, I’ve come to trust that Sennheiser headphones will give me a largely accurate picture of how recordings should sound.

In light of this, I’m a little surprised at how uneven I find the neutral tuning of the Sennheiser Momentum 5. I know preferences vary and some like more bass or more treble, say, but for me this goes beyond simple differences in taste. The default sound here feels like it has some actual deficits, which I find odd from a brand of Sennheiser’s pedigree.

Let’s focus on the most positive stuff first. Bass is pretty creditable here: for example, when listening to No Skin by Frameworks & Mild Minds, I found that the Momentum 5 gave its sustained bassline some wonderful warmth and while there wasn’t quite as much sub as you’ll get from the most premium headphones, it still felt dynamic and punchy enough, especially with the Momentum 5’s bass booster on.

Higher up in the spectrum though, things feel more unbalanced. Playing You Can Call Me Al by Paul Simon, all of the elements are present and correct but feel slightly muffled — particularly the toms and the exuberant brass section feel slightly rolled off, with their upper-mid frequencies feeling like they’ve been sanded off. And this is even more noticeable in the treble range: in 236e jour by Marc Leclair: the bouncing, scrape-edged synths end up feeling far duller than they should, while the shuffling hats just lose a little of their cut through.

Now you can obviously go someway toward ameliorating this using EQ. While I found Go Your Own Way by Fleetwood Mac to be pretty dull in places on the neutral tuning, with the vocals in particular feeling totally enfeebled, I was able to cast around in the EQ settings to improve it. The Rock preset, if anything, made the problem worse, making the sound even more baggy and focused around the middle. But creating a Sound Check EQ profile, I was able to crisp up the high-end a little and reintroduce some of the presence it had lost.

By far the best results I achieved though was when using Sennheiser’s Sound Personalization algorithm. After running through the five steps, sound already felt a little more balanced — but it was during fine tuning that I was able to add a bit more warmth to the bass and a soupçon more brightness to the treble. The difference was like having my ears syringed: Outside (Parra for Cuva Remix) by Henry Green suddenly sounded like the sustained bassline was more resonant and satisfying, while the snare and hats punctured through the mix far better.

So the Sennheiser Momentum 5 can absolutely sound strong for their price, if you’re prepared to put the work in. But I do find it a little frustrating that they require you to spend so much time redressing sonic missteps in their engineered sound when other headphones in this price bracket like the Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 put their best foot forward with their default sound.

Once I’d found a sound profile I was happy with though, my experiences of the rest of the Sennheiser’s audio quality was far more positive.

For example, the audio feels very clear and expressive, even over lower quality connections. Even using the lossy AAC codec via Apple Music on my MacBook Pro and iPhone 16 Pro, the vocal, strings and piano of Wasting My Young Years by London Grammar shared the spotlight graciously, avoiding sounding over-compressed. But when listening to it using aptX Lossless via Tidal, it feels like there’s even more dynamic range, allowing far more space for that gorgeous vocal to rise up above the rest of the mix without smothering the rest of the instrumentation.

The Momentum 5 also have a really impressive soundstage, even compared to headphones like the Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 that are known for their agile handling of mixes. When I listened to Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi, The Four Seasons: Spring 1 (2012) by Max Richter, Daniel Hope, Konzerthaus Kammerorchester Berlin & André de Ridder, the way the stirring, dancing strings are spread out across the stereo field is stunning. It genuinely does feel a lot like being sat right in front with the orchestra pit spread out in front of you.

And this extends to their handling of Dolby Atmos mixes. For example, Blue Monday (2023 Digital Master) by New Order sounds appropriately immersive, with its drum rolls scattering around you and its riser-style FX before the final drop swirling a full 180 degrees. All in all, its spatial audio effect is probably even more pronounced than that of the AirPods Max, although the latter doesn’t succumb to the one shortcoming of the Momentum 5’s Atmos: a slight void that opens up in front of you, a not uncommon effect on some headphones when elements from a stereo mix are spatialized.

So the Momentum 5 do still have some serious talents when it comes to making noise. However, it’s a shame that they’re not as talented at its antithesis: nixing background sound. Their ANC can just about cope with typing noise or reducing my boiling kettle while I’m streaming content while cooking. But riding the bus home from work a few days ago, I was subjected to every detail of a conversation about the sex lives of some of my fellow passengers’ colleagues. C’mon, Momentum 5: you’re supposed to protect me from things like this.

This isn’t an isolated event either: I can often overhear fellow TechRadarian’s conversations in the office, even with noise cancelling dialed up to 100%. Even the AirPods Max, not known for their unimpeachable noise cancelling, recently totally saved me at a festival by silencing the enormous Funktion-One rig I was camped 100 feet from, whereas the Momentum 5 struggle with conversations some 50dB quieter.

• Sound quality score: 3.5 / 5

Sennheiser Momentum 5 review: design

• Refined if unadventurous looks
• Super-flat profile
• Wearing for long sessions made my ears ache

Unlike the huge redesign from the Sennheiser Momentum 3 to the Momentum 4, there’s not been a massive revolution when it comes to the Momentum 5’s looks. The oval-shaped groove that ran around the exterior side of the earcups has been banished, giving them a cleaner look. Meanwhile, Sennheiser’s logo has been updated with a circular badge, while the grilles covering the ANC mics have been picked out in metal. But if you’ve spent any time with the Momentum 4, you largely know what to expect here.

Broadly speaking, I really like the look of the Momentum 5. Don’t get me wrong: they’re not going to win any prizes for originality, having a slight whiff of Sony’s WH-1000XM6 about them. But this is a common trope in the headphones space — if you disagree with me, see how you get on with our spot the difference between the Sonos Ace and the Sony 1000X The Collexion. And the Momentum 5 still have the most refined look Sennheiser has given its wireless headphones to date, so I’m definitely here for it.

Both the padded faux leather ear cups and cushioned headband feel pleasantly soft, while they have sufficient clamping force that they felt stable on my head without applying excessive pressure. Adjusting their fit is also super easy, even while they’re on your head — their arms extend smoothly and can cater for a wide range of head sizes, whether you’re more new potato or pumpkin-headed.

However, an ongoing issue I have with Sennheiser’s headphones is that they tend to make my ear cartilage ache during extended wear, thanks to odd lumps on the inside of the earcup, and the Momentum 5 are no different. None of the mid-range headphones from other brands I’ve used over the last five years have suffered from this issue, so it does make me wonder why Sennheiser continues to stick weird ridges and hard lumps on the inside of its cans.

I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with headphone cases. They seem to veer wildly between the neat — the Sony WH1000XM6’s handy magnetic holder — and the ridiculous — the AirPods Max’s ludicrous handbag. So when I say I’m a big fan of the Momentum 5’s case, know that’s high praise indeed.

Like the AirPods Max, the Momentum 5 don’t so much fold up as fold flat, but, thanks to the earcups’ low profile, that is really rather flat indeed. As a result, even though they don’t concertina up into a compact package, their case has a very slim profile, making it much easier to slip alongside your laptop and tablet in your bag. It doesn’t have loads of padding, so you might not want to be slinging your bag around like it contains a bunch of bricks, but the case should protect your headphones from most damage.

• Design score: 4 / 5

Should I buy the Sennheiser Momentum 5?

Buy them if…

Don’t buy them if…

Sennheiser Momentum 5 review: also consider

How I tested the Sennheiser Momentum 5

• Tested over two weeks
• Tried them out with a wide range of genres
• Tested different bit-rates and listened to multiple Dolby Atmos mixes

I tested the Sennheiser Momentum 5 over the course of several weeks. When it comes to sound quality, I made sure to test them out with a range of different quality streams, from aptX Lossless from Tidal to AAC from Apple Music. To get a sense of how they performed with a wide variety of frequencies, I made sure to try them out with a wide variety of genres across the TechRadar testing playlist and my own go-to testing tracks, whether that’s rock, EDM or classical.

To try out the Momentum 5’s features, I spent a lot of time trying out different EQ and sound personalization profiles with different artists. I assessed Dolby Atmos performance by listening to a variety of Spatial Audio tunes from Apple Music, and I tested their noise cancelling in a range of settings, from TechRadar’s chatty offices to walks along busy roads. Finally, I tested their battery by playing music constantly with ANC on for 6 hours and using how much battery they lost to extrapolate how long they could last.

In terms of personal experience, I’ve spent years assessing the performance of audio gadgets, with a particular focus on headphones and speakers. On top of this, I produce music in my free time, which has given me a keen understanding of balancing frequencies and how to assess the dynamic performance of audio.

• Read more about how we test
• First reviewed: June 2026

OneOdio Studio Max 2: Two-minute review

Despite the number in the name, I’ve taken to considering the OneOdio Studio Max 2 to be more like a ‘pro’ version of the originals rather than a completely new pair of headphones. I’ve been testing them for several weeks, and the experience doesn’t feel hugely changed (even though the price is).

The originals upon which they are based were released in early 2025, and after I finished my review, I found myself using them daily. They’re always plugged into my guitar amp or keyboard for when I want to do some music practice; a few select features made them uniquely handy for making music.

The OneOdio Studio Max 2 are, mostly, a very similar proposition. They’re not designed for audiophiles so much as DJs, studio musicians and other music-makers — but they have enough of a consumer-friendly bent that they’re not just for the studio. If you’re an amateur musician or music producer, and want cans for the task in hand but also for general use, you’re the target audience.

Like their predecessors, I wouldn’t strongly recommend these for general use, though. They’re big and chunky, so I felt self-conscious wearing them in public, and the fit was unreliable, so they shook when I was walking. On top of that, the audio quality is pretty poor, and you won’t get noise cancellation. There’s a reason the old pair stayed tethered to my instruments.

That sounds like a deluge of criticism, and an odd one given the score above, but the Studio Max justify themselves with their tools for professionals or music creators.

These puppies connect to other devices in four ways: there’s both a 3.5mm jack and a 6.35mm one, so you’ve got more cable versatility than most other cans. Of course, you’ve got Bluetooth, but there’s also an audio transmitter included in the box that can connect to any analog source.

With the transmitter, you can get 9ms latency between the headphones and audio source. This is OneOdio’s pitch for why they’re great DJ headphones — with no transmission delay, you won't miss your bass-dropping cue. OneOdio isn't the only brand to offer this feature, but crucially, its headphones are the cheapest to do so.

Upgrades to this transmitter also form the main upgrades over the original Studio Max. The latency has been halved from 20ms and the bitrate has been increased, but the transmission distance has been halved to 10m. Given that the price has increased, though, it might not be a tempting upgrade for many buyers of the original.

For music producers or performers, the foldable form factor is appreciated, as is the massive 120-hour battery life over Bluetooth (and the battery life when using the transmitter has been doubled to 50 hours in this model). I can see it being particularly useful for touring musicians for this reason, who can’t charge regularly — although IEMs will still rule supreme for that.

More so than most headphones I test, the OneOdio Studio Max 2 are situational, and niche. I wouldn’t recommend them to people on the market for the best headphones for general use, nor would I suggest professionals buy them over specially-designed studio kit.

But there’s a small overlap in the Venn Diagram between those groups, in which the cans may find appreciative buyers. That's included me, as a dedicated user of the original model — but check the price of the original OneOdio Studio Max 1 before you buy, though, because if it gets price drops, it might be the better-value buy.

OneOdio Studio Max 2 review: Price and release date

• Released in May 2026
• They sell for $189 / £179 (about AU$360)
• Come with carry case as well as cables and transmitter

The OneOdio Studio Max 2 were unveiled on May 11, 2026 — that’s a year and three months on from the release of their predecessors.

The official price of the Studio Max 2 is $189 / £179 (about AU$360, but they don’t seem to have enjoyed an Australian release at the time of writing).

In the box you get the headphones, transmitter, various cables (loads of cables) and a handy carry case. It’s the complete package, and I’ve never felt the need to root around in my drawers for other wires.

For context, the original Studio Max released for $169 / £135 / AU$275, so there’s been a price hike here, which varies quite a bit by region.

OneOdio Studio Max 2 review: Specs

OneOdio Studio Max 2 review: Features

• No noise cancellation, and basic phone app
• Massive 120-hour battery over Bluetooth
• Many connection options including low-latency transmitter

Let’s address the elephant in the room, or lack thereof: there are some features missing here, which some music listeners might miss. There’s no active noise cancellation, for example, and the app is quite barebones. It has three EQ presets (normal, monitoring and bass), and a 10-band custom mode, as well as a few extras such as wear reminders, volume limiters, and a way to pan the sound to the left or right ear cup only.

What you do get is pretty rocking though. Take the battery life: 120 hours equates to five straight days of music playback. No, not five hours. Five days. That figure matches the original pair, and I can’t name another option which lasts that long.

Another key feature is the range of connection options. Naturally, you can connect them via their 3.5mm port, or the 6.35mm jack so they can connect to professional audio kit easily. The Studio Max 2 support Bluetooth 6.0, allowing for more reliable wireless connection than the old pair.

But perhaps the key selling point here is the transmitter, which comes included in the box. Using OneOdio’s RapidWill+ 3.0 technology, this transmitter lets you cut the response time between your source and the Studio Max 2 to just 9ms. It uses 2.4GHz connectivity, and all you need to do is plug it into your output device, and your headphones can pick it up.

All the cables you need are included in the box, so it's a plug-and-play style situation. The transmitter needs to be charged via USB-C, and lasts for 50 hours per charge.

• Features score: 4 / 5

OneOdio Studio Max 2 review: Sound quality

• Uses 45mm drivers
• Music is muffled and tinny
• EQ doesn't help fix things

OneOdio has used a 45mm driver in each Studio Max 2 cup, and the headphones are certified for Hi-Res Audio and Hi-Res Audio Wireless, with LDAC compatibility too. Unfortunately it's not quite the recipe for success it would appear to be on first glance.

The Max 2 sound muddy and muffled, with rumbly and ill-defined bass stomping over over lines of a song. Any semblance of a soundstage is forgotten, instead presenting your music as one amorphous sonic boulder.

Glorious by The Hoosiers is presented like a confused mush of synths, and the bass in Charlie Mars' She Ain't Coming Back veers between drowning out everything else, and being inaudible.

They also offer a sound that's tinnier than anything else at this price point, with noticeably compressed hi-hats and distorted guitars that really shouldn't be distorted. I'd usually cite a song here as an example, but you can basically insert any song that has instruments here.

Usually I'd turn to an equalizer to try to fix problems like this, but you've got three options: the default, a Bass Mode (that's not going to fix the problem), a custom EQ and Monitoring Mode. Those latter two both gave music a crunchier feel, so I stayed far away.

It's worth noting that criticism I levelled here, I also put against the Studio Max 1. As far as I can tell, the sound hasn't changed much.

• Sound quality: 2.5 / 5

OneOdio Studio Max 2 review: Design

• Industrial look
• Rotatable cups and foldable arms
• Plenty of ports and dials

Don’t buy the Studio Max 2 if you’re looking for svelte, lightweight or fashionable over-ear headphones. They’re bulky and large, with a design that’s quite industrial. You’ve seen the pictures, you know what they look like, and I felt self-conscious wearing them outside the house.

The cups and headband are pretty soft, yet they weren't too comfy to wear, perhaps because of their 353g weight. At least they're good at at catering for different shapes of head, thanks to how versatile they are: the cups rotate around different angles. This also makes them easily-foldable for bags, and handy to form for review pictures.

However, and likely as a natural side-effect of the size, they didn't stick in place reliably. If I was walking, they'd sway a tiny bit, and I imagine they'll wobble if you're an active DJ enjoying your own set.

Adorning each Studio Max 2 cup is a range of buttons and ports. The left cup has a 6.35mm port, while on the right you're getting volume up, volume down and power buttons, a 3.5mm jack, a slider to toggle between Bluetooth and ultra-low latency, and a USB-C port for charging too.

Two things to point out that images don't convey. Firstly, these things creak quite a bit; I'm used to this being a symptom of cheap plastic used in the design, but it doesn't feel like the case here. I think the many moving parts are to blame. Secondly, the back of the cups are grooved to resemble vinyl records; a neat touch, but if my previous pair are any indication, they can be huge dust magnets.

• Design score: 3 / 5

OneOdio Studio Max 2 review: Value

• Too expensive to be consumer cans
• Value for money if you need transmitter

If you’re looking at the OneOdio Studio Max 2 as consumer-friendly headphones, it’s hard to argue that they offer you good value for money. There are great cans for music fans at a third of the price — from OneOdio itself, as well as other brands.

That’s also true if you’re looking for general studio headphones, for that matter.

What you’re paying for is the transmitter, to allow for low-latency wireless music from any source, including instruments. If you need a gadget like it, the Studio Max 2 undercuts its rivals — if not, then these aren’t the cans for you.

• Value: 3.5 / 5

Should I buy the OneOdio Studio Max 2?

Buy them if…

Don’t buy them if…

OneOdio Studio Max 2 review: Also consider

How I tested the OneOdio Studio Max 2

• Tested for one month
• Tested alongside PC, guitar amp, synth, smartphone
• Used all connection options

I used the OneOdio Studio Max 2 for roughly a month before writing this review.

During the testing process, they were connected to a wide variety of devices including my guitar amp, my keyboard, my PC and my smartphone. Across this board, I used every connection option possible.

Mostly, the testing was done for music playback, but I also used it for a variety of other tasks including audio mixing, video editing, playing my own music and, for one weekend, audio recording alongside a field recorder and boom mic.

I've been reviewing gadgets for TechRadar since early 2019, and in that time have tested plenty of audio products including the original Studio Max 1 (the number is in the name, I've not added it!).

• First reviewed in May 2026

• Read TechRadar's reviews guarantee

• Upcoming Beats headphones show up, again
• They have appeared around neck of World Cup player, again
• Fans are trying to come to terms with that color

When currently-unannounced Beats headphones were spotted in social media posts from Spain player Lamine Yamal ahead of the 2026 World Cup, I said "there's a good chance we'll see more of them". Well, I called it, because it happened again.

A series of Instagram posts from South Korea midfielder Lee Kang-in, posted to celebrate the team's 2-1 victory over Czechia in its first match of the tournament, gives pride of place to the same Beats headphones as we saw before.

This time though, instead of a rose hue, they come in white and... a neon yellow I'll politely not refer to as 'Sourz vomit', although it looks like the result of one too many alcopops. How to describe it other than 'slime' or 'puke' though?

I know what you're thinking: maybe they gave it to Lee to match his team's colors? Nope, South Korea plays in red and black, with an occasional violet-slash-lavender away kit for the 2026 World Cup.

Some commentators are using this peculiar color combination as evidence that the cans will have replaceable cups, clearly hoping that Beats will let them ditch the pads for something else, but that feels like grasping at straws.

There's no actual evidence of this, and the faint hint of a yellow headband behind Lee's neck suggests that these are just two-tone cans, instead of it being a choice on his part.

The vantage gives us a better look at the rounded build of these new cans, which swaps out the noughties-chic of Beats' previous cans with a CMF Headphone-looking tiered build. Beyond the choice color options, they actually look pretty suave.

The most appealing part of the redesign to me is the band, which looks much thinner than before, and circular, so it'll potentially be much more comfortable to wear. We'll have to see, but a launch will likely come hot on the heels of this World Cup catwalk.

Has anyone outside of a World Cup squad used them yet?

Just like when we saw them alongside Lamine Yamal, Lee Kang-in doesn't get snapped actually using the new Beats headphones, although he does keep them closer to his person.

While Yamal kept them at arms' length, hooking them to his bag and only being photographed with them around his neck once, Lee has them around his neck several times.

Neither of these soccer players has been seen actually using the new Beats headphones. Maybe owning, but not actually using, headphones is the fashionable thing to do. Or maybe they saw our critical Beats Solo 4 review and want to keep the new pair at arms' length.

It's unlikely that Apple has chosen two specific players out of hundreds to give its headphones to, so as the group stages of the World Cup progress, we'll probably see more sightings of the Beats.

We've glimpsed pink, and white-yellow, and hopefully we'll see a few more color options show up.

It’s tax time in Australia, and while that means the prospect of a nice rebate on the horizon, it also brings a wave of EOFY deals and discounts across a huge range of products.

Nowhere is that more evident than in headphones, which are often among the easiest categories to score a serious saving on during major sales events. While they might be tricky to justify as a work-related expense, if you’ve been considering an upgrade the current EOFY sales have provided some excellent opportunities to save when doing so.

As TechRadar Australia’s resident headphone fiend, I’ve trawled the sales pages of the country’s biggest retailers to uncover six standout deals I think are worth your attention. And if none quite hit the mark, I’ve included links so you can browse the full ranges at your own pace.

Retailers with EOFY headphone deals

• Amazon
• The Good Guys
• JB Hi-Fi
• Sennheiser
• Sonos

Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro: Two-minute review

Anker's Soundcore sub-brand may not have a reputation for releasing the best earbuds that everyone raves about, but they tend to be solid pieces of kit. We gave the Soundcore Liberty 5 (yes, take care, because that's not these — and there's also a Pro Max to swerve in favor of these) a 3.5-star score, and that tends to be par for the course. Until now, that is.

With the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro, there's been a change: it really feels like the brand is coming into its own, and it knows what buyers really want.

These are incredibly feature-stuffed headphones, with an app that'll boggle your mind given how many tools it offers. And they're all useful too: the ANC is very good, the listening test is handy and the array of array of little extras is impressive.

Particularly special is the quiet calling feature, so people you're speaking to on the phone can't hear what's going on around you. I hear many brands boast about their buds’ quiet call quality, with algorithms and microphones designed to wipe background sound from your voice in calls. Most of the time it’s bluff and bluster, but the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro are the real deal.

I know this because, part-way through the review process, my mother called me while I was in a busy coffee shop. I apologized for the pop music being blasted over the speakers – I could barely hear myself think for Outkast’s Hey Ya! – and she asked me what music I was talking about. She’d have had no idea I was in a noisy space, had it not been for my telling her. If two thumbs up from my mom isn’t a glowing endorsement of tech, I don’t know what is.

I'd be remiss not to mention the Soundcore's fit too. The buds are nice and lightweight, with a ridge to help them lock in your ear. I never had any fit problems with them, and they stayed in place during runs and workouts.

What about the sound? The buds offer warm, bass-heavy music that'll please people who like thumping heavy rhythms. The audio quality won't endear the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro to audiophiles (do wireless earbuds at this level ever excite audiophiles?) but nevertheless it isn't at all bad. Sound quality may not be the highlight of these buds, but I still enjoyed listening to them during my testing.

My main gripes with the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro bypass the earpieces and their talents and really only concern the case. It has a small touchscreen strip, but it doesn't do enough to justify its existence (nor is it responsive enough for that). And the case is bigger than it should be as a result; I would've loved to see it lose the strip and shrink a little.

At least it's not the Liberty 5 Pro Max, with a giant case and big touchscreen. I tested that too, and you can read more about it later, but it's decidedly more of a professional-targeted device. Most buyers looking for some great earbuds would do better with these Pro-only earbuds: they're cheaper and you're only missing a few features — ones I think you may not use anyway.

Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro review: Price and release date

• Released on May 21, 2026
• They sell for $169.99 / £149.99 (about AU$300)
• Sitting between Liberty 5, and Liberty 5 Pro Max

The Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro were announced alongside a slew of other Anker products at the brand’s annual Anker Day, on May 21, 2026.

You can pick them up for $169.99 / £149.99 (about AU$300), so unlike many of the brand’s other pairs of earbuds, they’ve crept over the line: these aren’t budget buds, rather solidly mid-range ones. For a little context, the non-Pro model launched for $129 / £99 / AU$169, but went on sale a year prior, so have seen some discounts.

They launched alongside the Liberty 5 Pro Max, which sell for a fair bit more: $229.99 / £199.99 (roughly AU$400). We’ll get into these a little later; it’s best to treat them as a ‘Pro’ model to the Liberty 5 Pro (despite that being a little confusing), with a few extra tools for professionals, but no major advantage.

Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro review: Specs

Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro review: Features

• Impressive noise cancellation and clear calling
• Middling battery life, at 6.5 hours
• Absolutely loads of features via app

In the introduction to this review, I already waxed lyrical about the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro's quiet call tools. Suffice to say, it's just as impressive as it was when you read about it a few minutes ago: a real stand-out feature of the buds.

Quiet calls is one of the many benefits brought from the use of Anker’s Thus chip, with the brand’s decision to home-brew its own internals, and thus get to design its software and hardware in tandem, paying dividends.

Another example is noise cancellation, as the Liberty 5 Pro has some of the best I’ve used in a set of earbuds at its price point. It is able to eradicate the low, rumbling background hum of life, and drastically reduce louder sounds too — it even took a big chunk out of my coffee shop’s streaming of Hey Ya!.

In theory, battery life is another department that should benefit from Thus, and Anker puts the listening time per bud, with ANC on, at 6.5 hours. From my own testing, that’s an optimistic figure — my own listening time was a little south of that mark. The same is true with the overall case battery life, which Anker states as 28 hours. Don’t get me wrong: the battery life here is fine, but it’s nothing to write home about either.

If that sounds like a nice little haul of features already, just wait until you download the Soundcore app. If my editor didn’t think this section was too long already, just wait until we list what else you get with the buds.

This has all the basics: the ability to change between noise cancelling modes, customizable touch controls, Dolby Atmos, EQ presets, multi-point connection, fit tests, find-my earbuds, and an eight-band custom equalizer.

But you get a whole lot more: there's a listening test for custom EQ, a load of ambient soundscapes and listening modes, and even a built-in chat-bot called Anka which can give you suggestions for settings to change. There's a lot going on.

If anything, the app's a little confusingly laid out. If you select your earbuds, where most apps would put all the settings, you can only see a few. To find more, you need to press a little Settings cog which is easy to miss. And for many more options, you have to back out all the way to the main menu.

• Features score: 4.5/5

Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro review: Design

• Kidney bean-shaped bud with tip and fin
• Reliable in-ear fit
• Touchscreen-toting case is a little bulky

Anker has opted for a kidney bean-shaped look for the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro earbuds; they bring to mind Samsung’s bean buds, but with a tip that you can use to put them in your ear. You can pick them up in blue, pink, white or black, and the buds and case come in the same hue.

Each earbud weighs 7g, is made of a solid-feeling plastic, and the other design feature of note is a little wing at the top to keep them locked in your ear. To be clear, the fit is much better than those older Samsung buds. That little wing works magically, and I took them to the gym and on countless runs without any inkling of them falling out.

The buds are IP55 protected, which means they’re protected from dust and low-pressure water jets (like rain or sweat) but aren’t suitable for swimming. You get touch controls on each bud, but you need to tap multiple times to achieve anything, and I found them unreliable for multi-tap commands.

Now onto the case; the 0.96-inch display on the front isn’t as much as selling point here as the Pro Max’s larger one is, but it’s not as much of a gimmick as to put off people who aren’t interested.

It sort of makes the case look like a very small '90s alarm clock. You can use its screen to quickly check the charge of the buds and enabled certain features; I found it pretty unresponsive and gave up using it for music control quite quickly, but perhaps a more patient user could persevere. I can see the quick access to EQ presets being pretty handy for certain people.

Due to its touchscreen, the Liberty 5 Pro's case is a little larger than most rivals', even if at 70g it's not unduly heavy. I found it a little on the large side to slip into my pocket; not perfect for people who like a tiny case. The sliding mechanism to reveal the buds felt quick and easy, but I'm curious about how long it'd lasting in the long term. Even over several weeks of using the buds, the sliding plane started to feel a little wobbly.

• Design score: 4/5

Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro review: Sound quality

• Using 45mm drivers
• Music is muffled, and tinny
• EQ doesn't help

Anker has put 9.2mm drivers in the Liberty 5 Pro Max, which I'm inclined to believe are the same pieces of kit that it used in the non-Pro buds. As with those other models, these aren't audiophile earbuds — the sound is way too warm for that — and instead they give the people what they want.

That's to say, they're bass-heavy and energetic buds, focused more on snappy lower frequencies and tender higher ones than an objectively natural, integrated hi-fi sound. Given how commonly this kind of sound profile is used in affordable and mid-range buds, I'm inclined to say it's popular, and Soundcore's done a great job hitting that target.

If you like lower-end clout in your sound, you'll be happy here. Any genre I tried, from rock to pop to dance, fared well. It was even solid for listening to genres that don't revel in excess bass, like classical, acoustic and jazz.

Bass injection is clearly the name of the game here, but for the most part, trebles and mids are just as forceful, offering an enjoyable amount of detail. Shane Smith & the Saints' Coast has a lovely delicate timbre in the acoustic guitar which you often miss, and some lovely harmonies in Last Sunrise In The Wasteland by At The End Of Times, Nothing came to the fore.

I'm not going to claim that these buds are perfect. At lower volumes, the Liberty 5 Pro lose trebles and mids at a disproportionate rate.

But the real 'problem' will likely come from the sound being divisive. The Liberty 5 Pro's bassy sound might not please everyone. It's right on the border of 'too much', sometimes offering a lovely thumping sound, but occasionally stepping over the line.

In songs like Gabriel Kelley's You Kill Me, bass guitar can overstep its role as an accompanying instrument, and step to the fore in a way that throws the song out of whack. At other times, it can just override some of the more sensitive instruments. More so than in most earbuds I test, you're going to have to get familiar with the EQ presets, and use them depending on which genre you prefer to listen to.

If that wasn't a problem for audiophiles, perhaps the relative lack of Bluetooth codec support is. You're getting Hi-Res Audio Wireless certification, but seemingly no bone thrown for LDAC, aptX or anything similar.

• Sound quality: 4/5

Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro review: how about the Pro Max?

• Pro Max cost a little more
• Sound quality and battery life are identical
• Pro Max has larger case, one or two extra tools

Beyond being an absolute mouthful to say (or, in this case, write), the Anker Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro Max are very similar earbuds to the Pro. So much so, that instead of writing an entire separate review on them, I decided to give them a section of the Pro review. And why not the other way around? That's because the Pros are, in my opinion, the best buds for most people.

The Pro Max earbuds are exactly the same as the Pro's, in terms of design, sound quality, battery life and feature set (mainly). The Max comes in thanks to two additional features: you can use the case to record audio and provide quick transcripts, and for instant voice translation.

They're solid features, all right, but with more limited appeal. I can see them being handy for business users, but not so much for the average buyer.

Your other upgrade here is in the carry case: its display now takes up the entire top of the buds, and it offers loads more features. You can add a custom wallpaper, and use it for various tools, settings and modes, including (but not limited to) the aforementioned extra features.

Again, useful additions, but at the cost of an even larger carry case. It wasn't comfortable to keep in my pocket, that's for sure.

I'm not disputing that the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro Max are better earbuds. But for most people, I don't think they're enough to justify the extra cost. Only consider these if you'll really use

Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro review: Value

• Too expensive to be consumer cans
• Value for money if you need transmitter

The Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro are reasonably priced, but you get what you pay for. There’s nothing wrong with that, but a good discount would tip these into the ‘amazing’ value for money camp.

The noise cancellation, sound quality and feature set are all really good for the price… but there are loads of other rivals at around the same price point that all offer suites that are good for the price. I've tested a few earbuds for even less, that impress me just as much.

At least the Anker Liberty Pro are better value money than the Pro Max. You’re paying more money, and getting a very similar product. For business users maybe, but I can’t see myself recommending them to most people, when the Pro is right there.

• Value: 3.5/5

Should I buy the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro?

Buy them if…

Don’t buy them if…

Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro review: Also consider

Want to see what other earbuds your money can get you? Here are some alternatives for roughly the same price.

How I tested the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro

• Tested for three weeks
• Paired with Android phone for variety of tasks
• Also used alongside Pro Max

I used the Anker Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro for three weeks before writing this review. I tested them alongside the Pro Max model.

During the testing process, the earbuds were connected to my Android smartphone. I used them for streaming Spotify Lossless music as well as Tidal and Apple Music, playing various games, streaming videos, conducting voice calls and going on video chats.

That listening went on at home, while at the gym, during runs, and on walks around my neighborhood. For certain areas, like ANC and sound quality, I have reference tests I conduct which lets me compare various earbuds.

I've reviewed earbuds and headphones for TechRadar for many years, including previous Anker products like the Space 2 over-ears earlier this year.

• First reviewed in June 2026

• Read TechRadar's reviews guarantee

• AirPods are getting a universal custom EQ at last
• You'll be able to see the results live as a song plays
• It's set to come in iOS 27, as part of the AirPods' Settings screen

Apple just announced that one of the longest-requested features from AirPods users is finally coming as part of iOS 27: a custom EQ. Announced during the WWDC 2026 keynote, Apple hasn't revealed full details of the feature, but we did get a first glimpse.

There will be a screen that looks like the image at the top of this page, and if you tap 'Custom' then a blue line is overlaid on the frequency graph. You appear to be able to move the blue line to increase or decrease the frequency bands.

There's a live waveform that plays, so it appears that you'll be able to see the result on the sound signature live, as well as hearing it, obviously.

In the past, it's been possible to make some changes to AirPods' sound using accessibility tools, but this really isn't designed for making subtle changes to your music profile, it's designed for the hard of hearing to boost frequencies they struggle with.

There's also been an EQ in Apple Music, but that doesn't help if you use another app for music, and doesn't preserve the EQ when you switch devices or other apps in general.

There are interesting differences in the sound of different AirPods models. The original AirPods Max are much more neutral than the AirPods Pro 3, for example, and I can easily see that some people might choose to give the over-ears a little extra poppy punch at times — or might want to just take a slight edge off the earbuds.

However! The obvious thing that's missing in the images we've seen so far is a clear option to save presets, so the scenario I've described above might not be that easy. This might be in the final version, of course, or there might be a way to create this using Shortcuts.

However, I wouldn't be surprised if Apple keeps this pretty basic. The screen doesn't really encourage you to make changes: the description in the setting says, "AirPods are designed and engineered by Apple to faithfully represent music, TV shows and movies, and calls. If you prefer a different sound profile, you can customize how AirPods represent any audio played."

Still, given that the original AirPods model launched in December 2016, I'm just glad we're getting finally getting it as an option at all.

Shokz OpenDots 2: One Minute Review

Shokz, the company specializing in bone conduction and open-ear buds, returns to the clip-on form factor with the Shokz OpenDots 2. It’s worth noting that the OpenDots 2 are one of two pairs released at the same time: they arrive alongside the cheaper Shokz OpenDots Air, which are missing a few features like wireless charging, waterproofing and bone conduction mics.

The clip-on earbud form factor offers both pros and cons. On the one hand, the shape is light and comfortable to wear day-to-day, and doesn’t interfere with glasses in the same way an over-ear hook might. They look almost jewellery-like, with my testing pair sporting a metal-and-pearl off-white sheen, sitting like a helix piercing over my ears.

On the other hand, they’re much less stable than over-ear hooks, with some brands being very wobbly or prone to dislodging. While the OpenDots 2, like most clip-on headphones with big drivers at the back, do suffer from being easily dislodged by the accidental brush of a hand or a hood (you’ll want to take extra care during commutes if you’re crammed into someone’s armpit on the train), they tend to stay in when left alone.

You might think that without a seal around your ear canal the OpenDots 2 might come up short on sound, and compared to market leaders like Apple’s AirPods that’s largely true. However, for open-ear headphones, the sound quality is excellent, with powerful bass despite the lack of a seal, and very little leakage. A dedicated Private equalizer mode also reportedly works to reduce leakage, although during my tests, even on Standard my office colleagues couldn’t hear any sound leakage at all, even when I had the volume turned up to Spinal-Tap-11 levels. Other EQ modes in the Shokz app include Vocal and Bass, and a Smart EQ option also exists, with users taken through six ‘A or B’ comparisons to find their optimal EQ mode.

Battery life is strong, with Shokz citing “up to 40 hours” from a full charge of the case. Wireless charging takes 3.5 hours, and a full wired USB-C charge takes two hours.

The launch of the OpenDots 2 sees Shokz attempting to push its way into a crowded category. One Shokz representative told me the company was hoping to eventually ‘replace AirPods’, and while I can’t see that happening anytime soon, the OpenDots 2 are probably the strongest clip-on earbuds I’ve ever tried; certainly in terms of sound quality, they’re up there with the Bose Ultra Opens while surpassing them in the fit stakes. They’re high-quality, durable, attractive-looking, and stable when left alone — just be careful when pulling your hood down.

Shokz OpenDots 2: Specifications

Shokz OpenDots 2: Price and availability

• $199.95 in the US
• £179.99 in the UK
• AU$339 in Australia

The Shokz OpenDots 2 cost $199.95 in the US, £179.99 in the UK, and AU$339 in Australia. That’s not cheap, and comparable to the cost of AirPods 4 with ANC ($179 / £179 / AU$299) — and the OpenDots 2 aren’t as versatile, considering that they’re effectively always in ‘transparency mode’ due to their design. If most people are going to drop this sort of money on a pair of wireless earbuds, it’s likely to be on a set that can both block out noise entirely and allow it to filter through when needed.

That being said, they’re not badly pitched (sorry) in value, being cheaper than the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds, which cost $299 / £299 / AU$449.95, at launch, and of similar quality. If you’re looking for cheaper options, the Shokz OpenDots Air are available at $129.95 / £129.99 / A$219, or you could opt for the Huawei Freeclip series.

• Value score: 3.5/5

Shokz OpenDots 2: Design

• Clamshell case
• Comfortable fit
• Some instability if knocked

The Shokz OpenDots 2 are designed in a similar way to most clip-on earbuds now: there’s a battery cylinder at the back featuring sensors with a tactile button, a driver designed to hover over the ear, and a band connecting the two, and gripping the device to the ear’s helix. In the case of the OpenDots 2, the speaker is in fact a sphere with two 11.8mm drivers facing inwards towards each other, creating a ball of sound, and a hole from which the sound is projected towards the eardrum.

From an aesthetics standpoint, the OpenDots 2 look very similar to the Bose Ultra Opens, right down to the mix of plastics and metallics on the buds and the clamshell case. That’s not a bad thing; they look very premium, and are extremely comfortable to wear. As a glasses wearer, I experienced none of the chafing or earache over-ear hooks give me, even when wearing the OpenDots 2 for long periods or during sweaty workouts. As mentioned, they can be knocked loose easily, and there’s no getting around this, as it’s simply a design issue with almost all clip-ons. Pulling a hood back immediately risks pulling out your expensive earbuds and sending them clattering to the floor.

The controls are intuitive — you can pause, play, adjust volume or cycle through tracks by pinching the barrels or tapping the bridges of the earbuds. The OpenDots 2 pack IP55 waterproofing, meaning they can withstand sweat, rain and dust but are unlikely to survive prolonged submersion or high-pressure washing. The case isn't waterproof either, so don’t leave them in your pocket and put them in the washing machine!

• Design score: 4.5/5

Shokz OpenDots 2: Features

• Four EQ modes
• Multipoint connectivity
• Custom EQs to tailor sound to your liking

Despite being focused on open-ear products, Shokz is clearly working on sound and pitching the OpenDots 2 at everyday audiophiles rather than athletes. With four equalizer modes — Standard, Bass, Vocal and Private — plus a Custom EQ option, you’re able to tweak the sound to suit your needs and preferences.

After going through the custom EQ setup, which asks you six times to choose between two different versions of the same track, I noticed only a very minor difference to Standard, with slightly more powerful bass and clearer mids. This probably speaks to the quality of Shokz’ already excellent sound mixing, particularly on an open-ear bud.

Multipoint connectivity allows for two devices to connect via Bluetooth simultaneously, and I’ve been switching seamlessly between my phone and laptop with no issues. The option to use wireless charging is nice too. AI-powered call noise reduction with dual bone-conduction and ‘air conduction’ microphones makes calls sound nice and clear.

The OpenDots 2 are not packed with features such as live translation and heart rate sensing like Apple’s AirPods Pro 3, but they’re certainly not bad for the price.

• Features score: 4/5

Shokz OpenDots 2: Performance

• Great sound
• Stable fit, apart from on contact
• Good battery life

The sound delivered by the Shokz OpenDots 2 is excellent, considering that these are open-ear headphones: they’re meaty and bassy, with minimal leakage even at higher volumes. In the office, I wore them comfortably all day while using my laptop, transitioning to my phone when I left the office, and only removing them to show curious colleagues, or pausing via a tap to have a conversation. Most outside sounds were blocked in a way that they aren’t with bone conduction headphones, as you have a driver sitting right over the top of your ear canal pumping vibrations down to your eardrum, whereas with the likes of the OpenRun Pro 2 your canal is left truly open.

However, while on a 10K run I kept my headphones on a low-to-middle volume, and I was still able to hear the bells of passing bikes and the occasional twitter of birds, so the open-ear design still does its job admirably. On my very sweaty run, the buds didn’t feel like they were pendulously wobbling, and I was able to pound the pavement and even shake my head without being afraid that they would dislodge. Only a nudge of my hand would cause them to come loose.

I find the OpenDots' listed battery stats to be largely accurate: I’ve been using these headphones for the better part of a week as I write this review, and only now is the case at 10% battery, with the buds themselves still on a full charge, and good for a further 10 hours.

• Performance score: 4.5/5

Shokz OpenDots 2: Scorecard

Shokz OpenDots 2: Should I buy?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Also consider

How I tested

I wore the Shokz OpenDots 2 for a week in different scenarios. I used them on my commute, in work, on a 10K run, in the gym, and even while sleeping, making use of the custom EQ functionality, asking colleagues if they could hear the audio I was listening to at various volumes, and testing their multipoint connectivity features.

First reviewed: June 2026

This week, I’ve been wading through the endless sea of incredible audio gear at 2026’s High End Vienna, and I’ve seen plenty of sensational-sounding, innovative, and eye-wateringly expensive stuff.

One area I found myself glued to above all, was the World of Headphones hall, which featured some newly-announced sets with truly cutting edge capabilities. For instance, I managed to go hands on with a pair of Wi-Fi headphones, and also tried a unique triple-driver set with ultra-advanced personalized EQ options.

So, I’m here to share the four sets of headphones that impressed me the most at High End Vienna — including some pairs announced at the show, as well as a few 2026 releases that I tried for the very first time.

1. Meze Audio Arta

The Meze Audio Arta open back circumaural headphones are striking in just about every way imaginable. In our news coverage, we likened them to a supercar in the audio realm. They have an attention-grabbing, futuristic aesthetic, seismic sound, and a huge €6,000 (about $7000 / £5,200) price-tag. And while I’m not here to decide whether they’re truly worth such a fee, I’m willing to say that these headphones really wowed me.

It was recommended that I listen to Can’t Stop by Red Hot Chili Peppers, and it wasn’t hard to see why — the track really showed these headphones at their best. Leading vocals were exceptionally clear, the tonal accuracy of guitars was top-notch, and subtle clicks and percussion were weighted beautifully. Despite their highly insightful nature, the Arta also have quite an exciting sound signature; bass was very punchy and got my head moving in no time.

The planar magnetic drivers — which Meze says have the “highest-impedance” to date in any set of PM cans — provide almost tangible directionality, and elements like backing vocals were placed with great precision. You’ll need a good quality amp to drive these, of course, though I suspect that will be no issue for anyone spending €6,000 on headphones.

I spoke to Meze’s Acoustic Engineer, Alex Grigoras, about the headphones’ sound, and he highlighted that the Arta are “quite open compared to other products in our lineup,” pointing to their thin and light diaphragm. The aim, he told me, was to build on the legacy of Meze’s Empyrian line and almost capture the feeling of listening to a loudspeaker in a room.

2. Noble Audio FoKus Artemis

One of the most unique pairs of headphones I spotted out in Vienna was the Noble Audio FoKus Artemis, which are priced at $899 / £799. These noise-cancelling headphones use a triple-driver configuration: dynamic, planar magnetic, and balanced armature.

When I spoke to the team, they explained that although dynamic drivers are capable enough when it comes to handling bass and mids, this hybrid approach enables the headphones to offer enhanced highs, better articulation, and plenty of speed. And this was audible when I tried the Artemis for myself.

The FoKus Artemis were unlike anything I’ve heard before, with an incredible spacey, hypnotic sound. With Allie X’s Black Eye, I was impressed by incredibly clear, well separated vocals, precise highs, and impactful low-end sound. Thanks to their open quality, this track’s deep bass was also exceptionally immersive — it was almost as if I could feel it moving inside my head.

Through Noble’s work with Audiodo, the Artemis will also enable users to set a personal sound profile, rather than traditional EQ presets, making these headphones extremely personalizable and adaptable. Interestingly, the Artemis also have an IP rating — something of a rarity for over-ears. Sure, it’s only IP52 — meaning they’re partially dust resistant and protected against vertical drips of water akin to a light-to-middling rain-shower, say — but it’s good to see a manufacturer being more transparent about waterproofing.

3. HiFiMAN HE1000 Wi-Fi

Using the HiFiMAN HE1000 Wi-Fi marked the first time that I’d ever used a pair of Wi-Fi headphones, and I’m really interested to see if some of the major players in the audio space will adopt it. Wi-Fi enables better streaming quality than Bluetooth can, and is the main selling point of HiFiMAN’s $2,699 / £2,609 wireless open back headphones.

While I didn’t have the ideal listening environment for these headphones — I was in the middle of a fairly busy (and noisy) demo space, I was impressed by what these cans had to offer. In Bitches Brew by Miles Davis, I enjoyed the open, precise soundstaging, the tonality of leading trumpet, and the subtlety of finer percussive details. I was listening using the company’s HM2000 tablet, which enables a seamless Wi-Fi connection to the headphones, although the HE1000 can be used without this.

Although the HE1000 are fairly heavy and the earcups are large, I also found these to be surprisingly comfortable in-use, and the overall build quality here is very high to boot. They can only manage 6.5-7.5 hours of playback when Wi-Fi streaming due to the more intensive drain compared to Bluetooth, but I certainly enjoyed my brief time with these cans.

4. Audeze LCD-5s

One major piece of news out of High End Vienna was Audeze’s unveiling of the unveiling of the MM-520 studio headphones. That model packs 90mm drivers, an open back design, and Audeze’s proprietary SLAM technology for optimizing air pressure and refining low-end sounds.

But as cool as this new announcement was, I wanted to highlight another pair of Audeze headphones that were released in 2026, the LCD-5s. These premium open back planar magnetic headphones really wowed me. When tuning into A Tribe Called Quest’s Check the Rhime, I was stunned by the responsiveness in the treble range — percussion was super-snappy, with a rapid decay and high-level precision. Vocals occupied a neat pocket in the mix, and bass was balanced expertly too.

SLAM tech is present here too, as are the 90mm drivers, resulting in spectacular audio quality, regardless of the genre you’re listening to. On another note, I was a big fan of the LCD-5s’s look. The tortoiseshell details and leather headband were real stand-out elements, helping these headphones feel especially luxurious — a good thing, given that they come in at $4,500 / £3,999.

No matter which brand you prefer, the best phones are always improving. From the iPhone 17 Pro’s elite Fusion Camera system to the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra’s Privacy Display, expensive flagships routinely bring something new to the table. Except when it comes to design.

As we’ve discussed before here at TechRadar, the unfortunate truth is that phones have never looked more boring. Gone are the days of the motorized LG Wing and Oppo Find X, or even the flashy gold-colored iPhone 14 Pro — pick a modern flagship phone off the shelf and, more often than not, it’ll be some bland melange of glass and aluminum.

Nothing is the exception to this rule. Since emerging in 2021, the best Nothing phones have caught the eyes of tech fans with their bold and bizarre designs. The brand's arcane Glyph LED systems and Y2K-style see-through panels have made it a go-to for tech fans who want something unique, even definitive.

And to be fair, if you are trying to make something definitive, it helps to have the defining pop star of the 2020s at the center of your latest ad campaign.

I'm your number one

Last month, Nothing announced Charli XCX as its first global brand ambassador with a campaign simply titled NOTHING (CHARLI XCX).

In the campaign, Charli poses with a handful of Nothing phones and headphones, doing her usual thing of strutting, smoldering, and generally looking cooler than most of us could ever hope to look.

It’s genuinely difficult to explain the impact Charli XCX has had on popular culture in the last few years. After a brief flirtation with the charts in the early 2010s and close to a decade as an online cult icon, Charli conquered the mainstream in 2024 with Brat, an album so immense in impact that it spawned a tsunami of memes, two deluxe editions, the self-ironicizing movie The Moment, and even infiltrated political campaigns.

Needless to say, Nothing getting her on board — not just for this campaign but as a global ambassador who will, presumably, be sticking around — is a huge win.

Speaking on the campaign, Charli XCX said: “I’m always thinking about how my work will be experienced out in the world… [Nothing’s] ethos of prioritizing creatives is really something I look for when working with a partner.”

Nothing CEO Carl Pei added: “The tech industry has spent a decade making everything quieter, more minimal, more monotonous. Charli has spent her career going the other way in pop. We want Nothing to feel more like that.”

Indeed, the Charli collaboration is part of a wider trend in tech, as brands attempt to market increasingly streamlined products as fashion items as well as performance-based tools to a younger generation that cares more about vibes than anything else. It’s been true for a long time that most phones can do most of the things that most people need them to do, so phone makers look to trending celebs to capture the Gen-Z dollar.

For example, Euphoria actor Sydney Sweeney serves as Samsung’s brand ambassador, with a particular focus on the stylish Galaxy Z Flip series of folding phones. Oppo partners with Spanish midfielder Lamine Yamal to boost its image. And The Last of Us star Bella Ramsay featured in a string of Apple Intelligence adverts around the time of the iPhone 16’s release.

“The young people I teach are of a different generation — their emotion towards technology is much more intense. I would say it's love or hate, but somehow always addictive,” says Dr. Soomi Park, a designer and researcher who teaches at Goldsmiths, University of London. Her research concerns, among other things, design and its effect on social psychology

“Nothing has Charli XCX in that promotional role, towards a targeted audience of younger people with a contradictory mindset towards new technology, where they feel more and more isolated or more and more connected,” Park adds. “Perhaps having that admirable musician character could get them to think ‘why not try it?’”

Speaking personally, I think Charli’s partnership with Nothing does feel different from other celebrity endorsements. Yes, I'm a fan of her music, but there's something particularly authentic about this collaboration; Charli has decided to become a Nothing shareholder because of a genuine alignment between the two brands. Just as Charli XCX dominated mainstream discourse with 2024’s Brat after almost a decade in the indie pop scene, Nothing hit the big leagues with 2025’s flagship Nothing Phone 3 after years of courting enthusiasts and experimenting with design.

Nothing has built its entire brand on the back of its design philosophy. Its phones and other products are playfully weird without straying too far into the chaotic, and they're some of the only mobiles on the market that actively spurn symmetry, making them instantly recognizable and already fairly iconic.

In kind, Charli XCX is a fashion icon — her impact is as much about image as it is rhythm and melody, blending the slick electronics of post-pandemic pop music with Berghain-ready all-black outfits and appearances at the Met Gala. If the Nothing Phone 3 were a person, it might have a similar sense of style.

I Don't Care (about specs)

Fair warning to the TechRadar audience, innocent as you are, some of the images in this campaign are a little risqué, so you might want to avoid checking them out while at work. That is, unless you work in an office exclusively populated by open-minded, tote bag-wielding, matcha-drinking fashionistas — AKA this campaign’s target audience.

You see, as a tech nerd first and a Charli fan a close second, what I notice about this campaign is its near-total lack of detailed specs. While the video clip ostensibly centers on the long battery life of the Nothing Headphone (a), the rest of the campaign forgoes any mention of the things that light us up here at TechRadar; details on the sound quality of Nothing's headphones or the camera capabilities of its phones are non-existent.

Instead, Nothing has set itself a new goal with this exquisitely ‘brat’-ty campaign — make its products chic.

To my eye, this is an intentional break from recent trends in tech messaging. Silicon Valley has pivoted to talking about AI capabilities and compute power above all else. Even the best folding phones, all of which sit at the cutting edge of mobile design, are promoted in terms of their engineering and productivity prowess, rather than how they make you look — how they make you feel.

“Technology is inherently affective, even when it presents itself as neutral or functional,” designer, lecturer, and TEDx speaker Morchen Liu tells me, “and the devices we carry are never just tools — they shape mood, self-perception, ritual, attention, and social identity. They sit very close to the body, and very close to the self.”

“What campaigns like this do is make that more visible,” he adds, “they acknowledge that people do not only choose devices based on utility, but also based on feeling, symbolism, and the kind of person they imagine themselves to be.”

Liu’s work — which he shares with more than 30,000 Instagram followers — is deeply involved in the blending of fashion with AI tools, reflecting a wider prioritization of software in the tech industry due to plateauing hardware capabilities.

He continues: “Hardware has become harder to differentiate in purely technical terms, especially for consumers… one response is to make hardware feel culturally alive again. Nothing is essentially trying to reposition hardware as something expressive, not just a neutral container for software.”

Taking a step back, it seems that Nothing has been planning to cross over into the fashion space since the beginning. It's been partnered with Swedish tech and design firm Teenage Engineering since day one, and at the end of 2025, it hired Charlie Smith, previously head of marketing at luxury fashion house Loewe, as Chief Brand Officer, adding serious haute couture experience to its leadership.

By hiring Smith and working with Charli, Nothing has won headlines in titles not normally associated with mid-tier phone companies — there's been Vogue and Hypebeast on the fashion side, as well as music mags like MusicTech and Clash.

For curator Adam Murray, who teaches fashion communication, promotion, and image at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, Nothing’s fashion focus and its campaign with Charli xcx could be an effort to garner Gen-Z support: “Appeal to the younger people and get them as loyal consumers into their 30s — that seems to be what Nothing is aiming for.”

He continues: “It’s about how significant Charli has been in the last two or three years — if she did a collaboration with Apple, you wouldn’t necessarily be that surprised that they could get someone like her, so for a relatively small brand to be able to get her is quite a coup. The way they’re presenting it makes it feel rather significant, and I’m sure that will garner lots of attention.”

“As a celebrity pop star, Charli is one of the most credible, and she’s still got that cool factor that a lot of them don’t have,” Murray adds.

However, Murray notes that, like all fashion campaigns, each element on display has been carefully engineered: "They're trying to align themselves with what Charli means to people. The authenticity aspect is constantly there with fashion, there's always this sense of trying to present the real [...] but it's all as constructed as everything else."

It helps that Nothing can offer some substance behind the shining lights. As our Nothing Phone 3 review, Nothing Phone 4(a) Pro review, and Nothing Headphone (a) review detail, this is a brand that’s really hit its stride in the last year or so. Nothing phones offer great value for money and reasonable performance for their price, even if they miss the odd cutting-edge component or next-gen feature.

Make phones SXC again

Back in 2025, I pondered that the then-unreleased Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge could represent a new era for smartphones by splitting the flagship category into two branches: one focused on thin designs and lighter builds, and the other going all out with performance and camera specs at the expense of bulk.

However, this hasn’t really come to pass. Though thin phones like the iPhone Air have their fans (TechRadar Phones Editor Axel Metz among them), it’s fair to say that the thin phone trend hasn’t taken off in the way that some (and certainly Apple) hoped, with reports of low sales since, effectively, day one for both the iPhone Air and Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge.

And while top-tier phones like the Oppo Find X9 Ultra and Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra have pushed the limits of mobile performance more than ever, these are much more expensive than the already costly slimline phones they sit above in their respective lineups.

Nothing’s campaign with Charli has got me reconsidering my position. Rather than thinness as the crucial counterweight to heavier photo-focused flagships, maybe it’s more about style.

Indeed, while we have seen a slate of iPhone Air clones hit the market, we’ve also seen middleweight brands getting creative in what seems like a backlash against the stagnating designs of Apple, Samsung, and Google.

The Xiaomi 17 Pro, for instance, features a full-width display on its rear panel, while the liquid-cooled RedMagic 11 Pro gaming phone looks like something plucked from the set of Alien. The aforementioned Oppo Find X9 Ultra is basically a point-and-shoot camera with a phone attached, while Motorola’s Razr Fold has put a geometric spin on tablet-style foldables.

I’m all for a future of weirder phone designs and fashion-first advertising. The big brands — namely Apple, Google, and Samsung — are well overdue for a design philosophy makeover (see the barely different Samsung Galaxy S24, S25, and S26, and the physically identical Google Pixel 9a and Pixel 10a).

Thanks to its partnerships with pop culture icons and luxury fashion experts, Nothing is well placed to capitalize on this shift towards aesthetics — working with Charli XCX feels like a natural extension of the groundwork the company has sought to establish since the very beginning.

As Morchen Liu explains: “The overlap between fashion and tech is increasingly natural; it’s becoming a core part of how products are positioned. I absolutely expect more brands to invest in this space, but the most successful ones will understand fashion not just as styling or campaign imagery, but as a system of identity, ritual, aspiration, and social signalling.”

The 2026 High End audio show is in full swing in Vienna. The show is a key fixture of the hi-fi enthusiast's calendar, and was previously held in Munich — this year, it made the big move over to the Austria Center on the banks of the Danube, and TechRadar followed it.

We've had our audio team on the ground, rapidly learning how not to get lost in the new layout and exploring the mix of returning companies and new players who've jumped on board as part of the change.

We explored as many listening rooms and headphones booths as we could, to identify our favorite products in the audio areas we cover here on TechRadar, so naturally we've got a mix of speakers, streamers, a soundbar-that's-not-a-soundbar, and headphones, rather than hi-fi cables and pre-amps.

So here, in alphabetical order, are the products our team picked as the products that really stood out to us at the end of the show days, all chosen based on listening to their performance.

Astell & Kern SP4000T and Clarus

Let's start with a double winner — we got to test these together, and while each seems phenomenal, the combination was the most impressive part. The SP4000T DAP is an upgraded version of the already fantastic A&K SP4000 player, now packing four vacuum tubes for a taste of the analog.

The Clarus are wired earbuds with nine drivers per bud, using a bunch of different technologies, each targeting different frequencies.

The combination of the two really leans into the 'clarity' suggestion in the Clarus' name — we were instantly taken by the pin-sharp attack in their dynamic range, and the fine detail that they were able to bring out of the music, all while giving every listener a huge sense of scale that feels well beyond something handheld or that fits right in your ear conch.

Bowers & Wilkins 801 D5

Bowers & Wilkins is celebrating its 60th anniversary, so what better time to release its new flagship 801 D5 loudspeaker? This model features B&W's famous Diamond Dome tweeter and an upgrade to its internal Matrix bracing, including a new Space Frame Bracing extension.

The aim is to deliver even more incredibly natural, generous, and immersive sound. During our demo with the 801 D5, we were blown away by life-like vocals, brilliantly regimented deep bass, and super-defined treble, as well as its sophisticated soundstage and spacious presentation.

Cabasse Pearl Pelegrina Édition Atelier

The High End show is always full of bonkers speaker designs, and Cabasse's spherical Pearl design is old news to hi-fi fans — but we can't help but be taken by the Pelegrina version's 'alien eyeball squid has come to Earth to negotiate a new intergalactic peace' design — and what's new this year is the Atelier system, meaning that you can have any finish you want on them, to make them fit your spaceship listening room perfectly.

But what's most important is the astoundingly powerful sound from a speaker cabinet that's actually amazingly compact. The front driver is a tri-coaxial system, meaning it's actually three drivers nested inside each other, and there's a hefty custom-design woofer on the rear capable of especially high excursion.

The end result is a set of speakers that look like an art installation, but can party like a warehouse rave. They can thump the low-end with the best of them, while delivering super-rich and detailed sound that wraps across the room despite their compact 'pupils'. And they're active speakers, so you can put them wherever you want in your home and just start playing.

Cambridge Evo 300

This is the artist formerly known as Cambridge Audio's new, more powerful compact streaming amp — if you've got a really beefy speaker. Still, if you don't want to dedicate too much space to components, then the 300W per channel you can get from the Evo 300 might be exactly what you want.

That's paired with Cambridge's excellent, super-comprehensive streaming platform and digital skills, so you've got easy access to Spotify, Tidal, Qobuz, Roon, and Deezer, with various casting options from your phone and aptX Bluetooth if you prefer. There are two sets of speaker outputs, plus a sub out; for input, you've got XLR, HDMI eARC, and analog options including an MM phono input.

It's just the ultimate all-in-one modern amp if you've got big speaker ambitions — and here in 2026, why shouldn't you?

Canvas Hi-Fi Canvas L

This is basically a pair of floor-standing speakers disguised as a soundbar for Halloween. You've got a stereo setup where each side has a tweeter, a midrange driver, and an 8-inch bass woofer with a matching 8-inch passive radiator. There's 1500W of amplification behind that, as well a necessarily well-braced cabinet — all of which are designed to attached to the rear of your TV using a mounting bracket, with the speakers sitting underneath the screen.

And it's in this list because it sounds like two excellent floorstanding speakers. It delivers unbelievably deep and resonant bass for a floating speaker bar, with the low end dispersed well throughout the room. There's phenomenal texture and realism to vocals, and it's all brilliantly musical and full of excellent rhythmic energy. It's delicate when it needs to be, but our overarching takeaway from listening to music is just how firm and 3D every instrument feels.

We didn't get to try it with music, but this is the first time we've heard something claim to be an audiophile soundbar and responded, "Yep, that's fair". It was electric, musical, and kind of addictive.

iFi iDSD GR 2

The iFi iDSD GR2 portable DAC is a considerable upgrade on its beloved predecessor, the venerable xDSD Gryphon, in a number of ways. It delivers far more amplification power, longer battery life, and even a touchscreen for a more user-friendly experience.

After trying it out at the show, we loved how it more seamlessly helps you to bring the very best out of a pair of premium headphones, and with K2HD tech for enhanced harmonics alongside a whole load of connectivity options, the GR2 has just about everything an audiophile needs, whether listening at home or on the go.

Meze Audio Arta

These new planar magnetic headphones come from a brand known for bringing high-end sound to a very reasonable price — but this time, Meze Audio just went all out, price be damned.

The result is one of the biggest and most cohesive soundstages we've ever heard from a pair of headphones. From the tinkliest treble with heavy sub-bass, these headphones deliver it all with total control and clarity, all at the same time if they have to. It's that cohesion that stands out, partly because it means individual parts don't stand out — everything sounds simply 'correct' in a way that deeply satisfies the brain. They deliver total audio order — a perfect, seamless whole.

Noble FoKus Artemis

These are wireless active noise-canceling headphones, from a company that most people will probably know best for putting improbably powerful driver arrays into earbuds. Well, it's now put an improbably powerful driver array into over-ears, including a dynamic driver, a planar driver, and a balanced armature — and somehow, the end result is pretty lightweight and comfortable, with a 50-hour battery life.

The end result is probably the most revealing noise-canceling headphones we've ever tried. They're utterly impeccable at picking out every nuance of instruments, even in the most dense mix, and even with the ANC mode activated (which is pretty good too).

There's a huge dynamic range, and really steep level of attack to them: every drum is hard, and every plosive is picked up with precision in a voice. The sound is maybe a little cooler than most people will be used to from ANC headphones, but that will be exactly their strength — they create the silence, and then fill it with tiny details you'd never heard before.

Ruark R710

The Ruark R710 streaming amplifier blends a beautiful retro-style look with an expansive suite of modern features — as well as some not-so-modern ones that we very much welcome. It builds on Ruark's previous R610 in a number of ways, packing in more power for the speakers, along with an integrated CD player, which has apparently been included by popular demand (and is hidden in the handsome wooden front grille, making it a fun secret touch).

When listening to the streamer alongside Ruark's new Talisman R speakers, we were impressed by the warmth and tonality of vocals, the high caliber of instrument separation in the mix, and the striking power of the overall presentation from a compact box.

Yamaha NX-70A

Yamaha's new active speakers have a very sleek and stylish look, but generally seem quite unflashy and demure — though in our demo at the show, they seemed like something of a wireless wonder.

They offer a lively, precise sound with really well-honed handling of transients, which helps them to build an excellent stereo spatial presentation. The diffusion of ambient sounds into the room while holding the tension on the sharper central sounds makes them a really exciting listen. There's so much detail, creating a really physical sense of texture to something like the hum of a saxophone reed. Add the pleasingly weighted bass response, and you get a set of active speakers that really grab your attention, in the best way.

Amazon’s Mid-Year Sale has steep discounts on some of the best headphones, including our best overall Sony WH-1000XM6 and an all-time low price for the brilliant ANC king, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Gen 2.

While these are great value relative to their features (and still more reasonably priced than most specialist audiophile gear), they still cost upwards of AU$500 apiece, which admittedly is a big chunk of change to spend on headphones if you’re the average consumer.

The good news is that you don’t have to spend that much to get quality headphones, and from what I’ve found during this current sale, a lot of the highly rated options with hundreds (and even thousands) of 5-star user reviews cost less than AU$100.

In fact, the cheapest one I’ve found is a wired pair from JBL that costs only AU$8, which has a 4.4-star rating from nearly 113,000 user reviews. If audio quality is important, there are some audiophile-grade in-ear monitors (IEMs) that also received rave user reviews, and I’ve tracked them down for you as well.

With so many deals to choose from, I’ve settled on 20 of the best-rated headphones across over-ears and earbuds, including wired, true wireless, open-ears and even gaming headsets.

• Open ear headphones company Shokz is working on new products outside of bone conduction or sports headphones
• These include smart glasses, in-ear AI assistants and hearing aid solutions
• They are all in various stages of development, with none planned for release anytime soon

Shokz is well-known in fitness circles as the maker of some of the best bone conduction headphones and best running headphones in the world. Go to any running or cycling race event, and you'll spot more than a few Shokz users in attendance. While the company has branched out into true open-ear headphones for daily life such as the OpenFit and OpenDots series, Shokz' top brass has confirmed it's working on more pivots into smart glasses, hearing solutions and (of course) AI.

Smart glasses like the Meta Ray Bans and Oakley Meta Vanguard pack directional speakers and microphones into the arms of the glasses themselves. This use of open-ear audio tech might make the smart-glasses form factor a natural fit for Shokz.

At a press conference in China, CEO Ken Chen said: "Smart devices, especially smart glasses, are a significant challenge for everyone in the industry. For glasses specifically, we have already gone through several iterations, and we see AI glasses as a category that is still at a very early stage. It is a complex product that requires many elements to come together."

While Shokz debuted a very early concept for its smart glasses at this year's CES conference in Las Vegas, this is the first confirmation that several versions of the glasses are, or have been, in active development.

It's interesting to note the phrase 'AI glasses' mentioned there, too. Chen said Shokz is "closely following developments in AI, and we are actively exploring how they may shape future wearable products."

Vincent Xiong, head of North America, confirmed in a separate speech that Shokz was also working on AI open-ear headphones, stating "AI will further accelerate the trend towards prolonged headphone usage... For the AI assistant, people need audio input, and there are no better devices than headphones. I don't think people will be able to stay away from AI."

Xiong went on to describe an AI assistant that could "record everything you say" presumably to be used to add context to an AI chatbot's replies, adding: "because of [an] NDA, I can't give you a lot of detail, but what I can share now is that we are working with one of the industry leaders in the United States for AI headphones."

Bone-conduction hearing loss solutions

As a specialist company focusing on headphones that allow you to retain spatial awareness, Shokz is also looking at hearing aid solutions. Chen said: "we’ve been exploring hearing-related devices for quite some time, although we want to be careful with the term 'hearing aids', since that is a medical term and carries regulatory implications.

"We already have some activities underway in China and Australia, and we want to do more in other areas. The work is still at an early stage... we don't have a specific timeline to share at this point."

Shokz went on to show journalists a film of a US teenager who suffers from unilateral (one ear) hearing loss. After contacting Shokz, the company was able to create a device to help her overcome the hearing loss using bone conduction and a microphone.

As an over-the-counter solution, Shokz' future device could have similar functionalities to the Nuance Audio Hearing Glasses, which uses omni-directional mics to help users with bilateral (both ears) hearing loss.

This ties in nicely with Shokz' admission that it's working on smart glasses, although wireless earbuds like the Shokz OpenFit Pro would likely be preferred for those with unilateral hearing issues, as one bud or both could be worn depending on the user's hearing needs.

Shopping for a pair of headphones usually comes down to what you want to prioritise, whether it’s clarity and detail from audiophile-level cans, or the convenience that something like the Apple AirPods Pro provide. But for noise cancelling, you can’t go wrong with the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Gen 2.

We named it the best over-ear headphones for active noise cancelling (ANC) for its ability to ‘almost entirely’ banish external sound without altering the sonic character of the headphones, or introducing any sensation of noise-floor disruption, according to our Bose QuietComfort Ultra Gen 2 review.

The Gen 2 version improves on the very excellent first edition Ultras, upgrading its battery (rated 30 hours versus 24 for Gen 1 with ANC turned on), adding more listening modes and an option to hardwire into a music source directly.

If you’re keen, you’ll be glad to hear that the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Gen 2 just hit its all-time low price for Amazon’s Mid-Year Sale at AU$508, or 27% off.

Aside from the ANC capabilities, the QuietComfort Ultra Gen 2 is no slouch with audio quality, too. Our reviewer found that the audio has an even and controlled frequency response and the soundstage it produces is large and defined. They conceded that the Ultra Gen 2s ultimately weren’t the most detailed headphones around, but acknowledged that being able to hear those imperfections in the first place was just another testament to how well the ANC worked.

The Ultra Gen 2s also feature a folding design, which makes it even better for travel as it’s more portable than comparable headphones that don’t fold up (cough — Sony and Sennheiser — cough).

If I hadn’t already bought a different pair of ANC headphones last year, I would have definitely snapped these up for myself.

If this already discounted price still feels steep, the Gen 1 Ultras are also discounted to AU$399 (or 39% off), which isn’t far off its all-time low. If you don’t mind the slightly shorter battery life and you’re happy to just stick with Bluetooth, then the Gen 1 is an excellent option too.

House of Marley Smile Jamaica USB-C review

In 1976, Bob Marley & The Wailers released Smile Jamaica, an upbeat reggae tune bursting with soul and positivity. And the House of Marley Smile Jamaica USB-C earbuds are aiming to replicate those qualities, boasting a vivid design, and apparently “vibrant sound”.

But just how good are these wired USB-C earbuds? Well, at $19.99 / £14.99 / AU$24.95, I wasn’t expecting anything magical, but there are a lot of major positives to discuss. So, here’s what I made of my time with the Smile Jamaica USB-C.

To begin with, I have to talk about the design of these wired in-ears. As soon as I took the Smile Jamaica out of the box, I was struck by their unique, enticing build. They’re made of a few materials, including recyclable aluminum, renewed PeT, and bamboo. Not only does this blend look fantastic, but it’s a lot more sustainable than a huge proportion of the competition — even some of the best wired earbuds.

I really liked the Brass variant that I tested out, but you can also grab these in Copper, Signature Black, or even Rasta (a celebration of red, gold and green, with green ear tips, yellow branding and a cable that incorporates all three colors). Pretty cool.

The braided wires are pretty well-built, and I never experienced excessive cable noise when using the Smile Jamaica USB-C on the go. They’re also tangle-resistant, so I didn’t get a horrible wiry mess every time I retrieved the buds from my pocket. The inclusion of a USB-C connector also means you can connect these buds to your smart phone or just about any modern device, which is incredibly practical — no pairing, no charging, just plug and play.

If I was to be critical, I’d argue that there could’ve been more ear tip size options in the box — you only get one additional pair. This way there could’ve been more options for people with larger or smaller ears — although as someone with aggressively medium-sized ones, this wasn’t an issue for me. There’s also no carry case, but they should be safe in a pocket or small bag regardless.

The ear tips that do come in the box are fairly comfortable, though, and they passively block noise to decent effect. Don’t get me wrong, you’re not going to experience the noise-crushing effects that ANC will provide on the best wireless earbuds, but when listening to music in the office, sounds like typing and chatter were dulled relatively well.

One feature that’s missing, however, is volume controls. The in-line remote skips on these, meaning I had to remove my phone to alter loudness on the go, something that could be a tad inconvenient. According to the instructions booklet, some of the commands — bound to a single button on the controller — are also restricted to iPhone only, which was no good for a Samsung-owner like me.

Still, the in-line microphone is actually pretty decent, and when making phone calls, various people reported that my speech was clear and easy to decipher. When making a recording, I experienced a bit of feedback and a bit of sibilance, but I was pleased with the mic at this price-point.

Anyway, I know what you’re really here for. You want to know how these sound, right? Well then, I suppose I’ll indulge you.

It only feels right to start with a tune from Bob Marley & The Wailers, so I gave Jamming a spin, and the Smile Jamaica buds performed pretty well. Subtle percussive elements were well balanced in the mix, and had an impressive sense of space, and I never experienced any harshness or tinniness — even when listening at higher volumes. However, the bass sounded a little bloated at certain moments and Marley’s vocals lacked as much definition in the mix as I’d like, resulting in a fairly middling listening experience.

This proved to be a bit of a theme with these earbuds, as the low-end seemed as if it lacked refinement across a number of tracks. In Black Eye by Allie X, bass was a tad bloated once more, and was missing the agility I’ve heard from other budget in-ears. Given that bass is pretty prominent on these buds, I just wish it had a bit more punch and precision. Still, vocals remained clear enough in the mix, and energetic percussion came through with commendable expression. But if you’re expecting the most refined bass ever, you may find the Smile Jamaica to be a tad heavy-handed.

I was more impressed when tuning into Asama by Yuta Orisaka — a laid-back record that blends Japanese folk with reggae tones. Here, I found vocals to be pleasantly weighted alongside relaxed electric guitars and rhythmic percussion, and more subtle keys glided elegantly in the backdrop. Sure, you’re not going to get meticulous instrument separation or the most intricate detailing from a pair of ultra-cheap buds like this, but for the price, they do deliver a satisfying sound, all things considered.

At the end of it all, would I recommend the House of Marley Smile Jamaica USB-C? Here’s the thing: it depends on your budget. If you want some extremely cheap wired buds that sound totally serviceable but won’t blow you away, then yes. On top of their adequate audio, they are well-built, have a decent mic, and tangle-free cable, ensuring good bang for your buck.

However, if you can spend a little more, then you can get big returns. A model like the Sennheiser CX 80U will deliver considerably better sound, with much-improved detailing and balance across the frequency range.

Want a bit more finesse and grace? Something like the Sennheiser is for you — but for stable and dependable sound on a budget, the Smile Jamaica USB-C aren’t a half-bad option.

House of Marley Smile Jamaica USB-C review: price & release date

• List price of $19.99 / £14.99 / AU$24.95
• Released in September 2025

The House of Marley Smile Jamaica USB-C released in September 2025, about 13 years after the original 3.5mm version debuted. They have a list price of $19.99 / £14.99 / AU$24.95, landing them firmly in the budget category, and are available in a range of color options, including Copper, Signature Black, Brass, and Rasta. You can get them on sale in some regions fairly regularly — I even spotted them going for less than £10 in the UK when producing this review.

House of Marley Smile Jamaica USB-C review: specs

Should I buy the House of Marley Smile Jamaica USB-C?

Buy them if…

Don’t buy them if…

House of Marley Smile Jamaica USB-C review: also consider

How I tested the House of Marley Smile Jamaica USB-C

• Tested over the course of multiple days
• Mainly streamed music over Tidal
• Took with me to the office and on walks

I spent many days (rolling into weeks, actually) testing out the House of Marley Smile Jamaica USB-C earbuds, during which time I took them just about everywhere with me, to analyze passive noise isolation and convenience among other things.

When listening to music, I typically streamed tracks over Tidal using the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. I started out by sifting through the TechRadar testing playlist, which features tunes from a wide variety of genres, but I also made sure to listen to hours worth of songs from my personal library.

More generally, I’ve tested tons of audio gear during my time with TechRadar, including a whole host of wired and USB-C earbuds. I had a few rival models at hand to compare the Smile Jamaica USB-C against, including the Sennheiser and Apple rivals mentioned in the ‘Also consider’ section.

• Read TechRadar’s reviews guarantee
• First reviewed: May 2026

An increasing number of wireless earbuds are landing in my inbox — and on my front porch — with touchscreens built into their charging cases. There are now enough to make it officially a growing and real trend rather than just a passing gimmick… but I'm not convinced.

Most recently, I tested Anker's feature-packed Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro series, which offer two different kinds of screen, but they're just the most recent. Earlier in the month, the JBL Live range was refreshed with plenty of screens, and I recently tested the open-ear Cleer Arc 5, which you can see at the top of this article complete with a sizeable display.

What's the point of these screens? Well, it varies by bud, but generally the premise is the same. The display lets you glean some instant information about your buds: battery life, noise cancellation status, volume, but also change features like EQ preset, Bluetooth codec, what you're song you're listening to, and so on.

This is all potentially useful, if the buds let you avoid using your smartphone and an app to change these features. That's all in theory, but in practice, it's not so.

Displays in earbuds generally bump up the price of the gadget, increase the case's footprint, and increase the risk of accidental pressing when you put the case in your pocket. So they really need to justify themselves, and I'm not sure they are right now.

Just use your phone

When I find an EQ preset I like, I generally stick to it, rarely changing. That's also true about other earbud settings; if I'm on anything but the highest ANC setting, someone should check me for a concussion.

So I don't need a carry case that lets me change these settings, because I rarely do. And when I do, I don't mind booting up the app; I need to justify downloading it in the first place, and changing EQ is much easier on the larger screen.

In theory, the music and volume controls of an earbud case are more useful, as these are things everyone uses. But on-bud touch controls exist — and if you're digging a gadget out of your pocket to change a track, it may as well be one you'll probably be using for other tasks too: your phone.

It doesn't help that, from my experience, charging case screens aren't hugely reliable. They remind me of cheap smartwatches and fitness trackers from years ago: they often need multiple taps, and seemingly some vocal coercing (well, I think it helps), to do anything. My phone isn't like that.

Finding a niche

I'm not going to make a blank ruling on earbud cases; in some situations they work.

Take Soundcore's Liberty 5 Pro series. In the base model, the display is a tiny window. You can use it to check some easy info, but it's not trying to replace your smartphone. Perfect.

In the top-end Liberty 5 Pro Max, the case is packed full of novel features, including a recorder-transcriber, and translation tool. It's not meant to replace your phone; it's its own thing.

That's where I see earbud charging case displays finding their niche: by offering features and functions to act as the earbuds' unique selling points, as an accessory that's useful to have separately to your phone.

This would generally be in top-end or professional-targeted buds, like how the Pro Max is ostensibly designed for business buyers.

But not every pair of the best earbuds needs a little LCD or OLED screen on the charging case. At the moment, it feels like they're becoming more prominent as a fad, but I think most us would rather just pay less or see that money go into battery innovations or other improvements — I only see them sticking around if makers find a way to justify them.

• Sennheiser launches Momentum 5 wireless headphones
• Improvements to ANC, feature set and repairability
• Price bumps up against Sennheiser's premium cans

Better late than never, eh Sennheiser? The legendary audio brand took four years to bring its much-anticipated Momentum 5 Wireless to market, but they're finally here — and perhaps just in time to show the recently-released Sony 1000X The Collexion how it's done.

These new cans succeed the five-star Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless, which we loved all the way back in 2022, and are still in use today by several members of the TechRadar team. Perhaps the brand was just waiting for its tenancy on our list of the best headphones to end, so it could reclaim the top spot.

Releasing in June 2026, the Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless are due to cost $399 / £329 / AU$749, which represents a little price hike from their predecessors. It's much less than Sony's fancy newest headphones — but it's basically right in line with the price of the Sony WH-1000XM6.

It puts them quite close to my favorite headphones from the company, the Sennheiser HDB 630, which sell for $499 / £399 / AU$999 — and I'd personally be tempted by the HDBs. But maybe I'll feel differently once we've actually tried the Momentum 5 Wireless and their new features.

Momentum? You barely know 'em

Sennheiser has given the Momentum 5 a 42mm driver again, like the Momentum 4, but has added certification for Hi-Res Audio, Snapdragon Sound and aptX Lossless codecs. The app also now has an EQ and presets, as well as a listening test.

Improvements come to active noise cancellation (which is now influenced by four microphones, over two in the last pair — but far fewer than the 12 employed by Sony), while Bluetooth is version 5.4 out of the box, but Sennheiser promises an upgrade to 6.0 in the future.

Other features include Dolby Atmos spatial audio with head tracking — we love this on the Sonos Ace, so hopefully it's just as good here.

The battery life is slightly lower than the previous model at 57 hours, but that's only three hours less than the Momentum 4's lasting power, and is still nearly double the 30 hours promised by the Sony XM6 or Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones 2nd Gen.

Sennheiser's making a point of repairability for the Momentum 5: apparently, it's easy to use a Phillips screwdriver to remove and replace an ailing battery. Since the battery is often the aspect of gadget which will stop working first, this will hopefully ensure your headphones keeping lasting for years.

There are three color options for the Sennheiser Momentum 5: black, white and blue (or 'Denim', according to the brand). Whichever you buy, you'll get a carry case, USB-C charging cable and 3.5mm headphone cable.

No matter how you shake it, the Sennheiser Momentum 5 don't look like huge reinventions of the fourth-gen model, but that's no bad thing. You can't argue with a perfect review.

Instead, it seems to update some of the Momentum 4 features which haven't aged well in four years, and if the sound's had a tune-up in the right places, we expect these to be pretty damn competitive.

Anker's Soundcore brand is just going harder and harder on releasing new models. Not content with the Soundcore Liberty 5 earbuds and Soundcore Space 2 headphones recently, the brand has unveiled two new pairs of earbuds based on the Liberty.

These are the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro and Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro Max, and they're new premium pairs of feature-packed earbuds that, unlike many other Pro-titled products, actually feel targeted towards professionals.

I’ve been using both the Pro and Pro Max for a week now, to try to understand both buds, how they’re different, and which I’d recommend people buy. That's not enough time to have completed two reviews, which is why you're not reading those right now — but I’ve definitely used the earbuds long enough to answer all of my questions.

So here’s what’s different between the Liberty 5 Pro and Liberty 5 Pro Max and, crucially, which one I think most people should end up buying.

How do the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro and Pro Max compare on price?

It’s important that we establish the main difference between the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro and Pro Max first: it’s the price.

The Pro is, as you’d imagine, the cheaper of the two earbuds. To buy it, you’re paying $169 / £149 (about AU$300). So it’s a lot pricier than the Liberty 5, which sold for $129 / £99 / AU$169.

But that cost is nothing compared to the Pro Max. These sell for $229 / £199 (about AU$400), which is only a hair under the AirPods Pro 3’s $249 / £219 / AU$429 asking price.

I’m not going to treat the Liberty 5 Pro like the budget option, given its price, but you’ll soon read about how it’s probably the best option based on budget.

How do the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro vs Pro Max compare on sound quality?

If you only want to know about the differences between the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro and Pro Max, you’ll want to keep scrolling. These two earbuds both have exactly the same audio performance, but it's important to address them.

What are their specs? Well, nowhere in Anker’s promotional material for the buds, press pre-briefing ahead of their release or the buds’ packaging, is that actually mentioned. You’ll have take my word for it then.

I’ve quite liked how the buds have sounded, in my testing time. The audio is detailed and sharp, with a real oomph when it’s needed. However, at least in the default sound profile, I’ve found the bass a little too prominent, yet not quite as precisely defined as I’d like.

It’d be fine in earbuds at the price of the Liberty 5, but when you’re picking up a 'Pro' or 'Pro Max' pair of earbuds — and paying the price for them — I’d like a little more controlled lower-end.

Anker’s been heavily advertising the listening test available in both of its new earbuds, and I’ve yet to try that or the equalizer, so perhaps these will give me the sound profile I'm looking for — I’ll let you know in my full review later.

What are the differences in Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro and Pro Max's design?

Likely due to their identical audio specs, the Liberty 5 Pro and Pro Max earbuds are exactly the same. I could put the Pro Max earbuds in the Pro case, and vice versa.

The buds are certainly unique; they have a kidney-shaped body, not dissimilar to Samsung’s old bean buds, but with a tip to allow for the noise cancellation and give you a solid fit.

On that topic, these Liberty 5s both come with wings at the top of the bean, kind of like the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds Ultra 2nd Gen, and these are great for fit. I’ve been on multiple runs with them, and they’ve been a dream, even if they’re a little heavier than rivals at 7g each.

The real design difference between Anker’s new earbuds is the charging case. Actually, that’s the main difference full stop, at least it feels that way in my testing.

The Liberty 5 Pro Max have a pretty big charging case. It’s a squarish rectangle, with a lid that slides up to reveal the buds, and it weighs about 86g. What makes the case so large? That’ll be the screen, which takes up the entirety of the lid; it’s a big square that looks like the kind of panel you’d find on a squircle smartwatch.

You can use this screen to control music playback, change EQ presets, toggle between noise cancellation modes and activate a range of the buds’ features — more on that later.

The Liberty 5 Pro also have a touchscreen, but it’s smaller: a thin strip like the display on a fitness tracker. It’s much simpler, with battery indicators and small icons for a range of features. The case still has a slide-up lid to reveal the buds, like on the Max, and weighs a little less at 70g.

I’ve had some problems with the screen on both sets of earbuds. It’s a little less responsive than I’d like, often needing multiple swipes to change menu and repeated taps to enable a setting. It reminds me of fitness trackers of old, which needed coercing to work.

Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro and Pro Max features explained

It’s not the main selling point of the Anker earbuds, but I’ve been really appreciating the active noise cancellation on both the Pro and Pro Max. It’s among the best in any earbuds I’ve tested, proving effective at wiping out background sound in all conditions I've tried so far.

Likely to thank for this is a new chip Anker created, and debuted in these buds; it’s designed specifically for the Liberty 5 buds’ ANC and features, and adds support for Dolby Atmos audio.

The battery life is a little more average; both pairs of buds last for 6.5 hours of listening, with the charging case bringing that time up to 28 hours — both figures are with ANC turned on. My benchmark for the average battery life of earbuds is 8 hours with ANC off, which I imagine the Liberty will surpass by a little, but I’ll have to test it properly for my full review.

The new Soundcore app is the key to your kingdom of features here. It has a huge range of features including meditation and ambient noise playlists, a built-in AI chatbot, a fit test, a listening preference test to create custom EQ, a sound level meter and volume limiter, a sound-quality upscaling option, and the ability to customize the case screen.

That’s not counting all the usual earbud app tools you’ve come to expect, such as a standard equalizer, touch control customization, ANC modes and so on.

I’ve got to hand it to Soundcore: this is perhaps the biggest array of features I’ve ever seen in a pair of earbuds. They’re incredibly feature-packed, and browsing though the app, I felt like a kid in a candy store.

Everything I’ve mentioned so far is available on both buds, but the pricier pair offers a little more: the Pro Max’s biggest unique feature is that it functions as a note-taker.

Thanks to the case having a built-in microphone, you can use it to record audio, and the app will create a transcript — naturally, the buds can do the same with their own mics. There’s also a live translation tool, which uses the same hardware to achieve its ends.

Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro vs Pro Max: which one would I recommend?

So far, I’ve mostly been using the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro Max. I thought I’d rather test the expensive earbuds first, and based on the extra features, they're clearly the better buds in the simplest terms.

However for most buyers, I’m not sure these are the earbuds I’d actually recommend. While not cheap, the Pro are a little more affordable than their Max counterparts, and I think you’re getting better value for money.

The extra features the pricier model brings are neat, but I don’t see them being reliably useful for many people. Most of us don’t need a portable dictaphone on our earbuds.

Also worth bearing in mind is the charging case: on the Pro, it’s a little smaller and more streamlined, and that makes it better for toting around. Not good — it’s too bulky to disappear into a trouser pocket, unlike the AirPods Pro 3 case or similar — but it's still a little more convenient than the Pro Max’s.

Sure, its charging case screen is smaller, but in my week with the buds, I’ve barely used either display. I’ve tested a few different earbuds with charging case screens, and I’m still yet to be convinced that these are essential, making the screen's minimization in the Pro no bad thing.

• Anker launches Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro and Pro Max earbuds
• The earbuds are the same, but some of the features are different, including a touchscreen on the Max
• Also new app, bespoke chipset for the buds

Anker's Soundcore has just announced two new pairs of earbuds, which are its first products made with its new 'Thus' audio chipset. This little component promises to enable its speakers and headphones to enjoy better active noise cancellation, improved on-device audio AI, more accurate voice controls and, perhaps most usefully, better power efficiency.

Anker also unveiled VibeOS, which confusingly isn't an operating system despite the title, but is rather the name of its new and improved tie-in app, that you'll use to control your audio gadgets.

VibeOS is set to have a huge range of features, and if Anker delivers, its devices could be feature-packed gems. The best new picks include an EQ listening test, audio source restoration, sleep management, audio transcript creation and real-time environmental adaption for your music.

It's not quite clear when VibeOS will roll out, whether it'll come to existing Soundcore gadgets or will arrive alongside new ones. But we have some likely contenders from the brand in the shape of its two new buds.

Free up some time for the Liberty

The Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro and the Liberty 5 Pro Max, are the bigger new releases from Anker, both bearing the Thus chip. They follow the 'normal' Soundcore Liberty 5, released a year prior, but when you read about them you'll understand why they're not the Liberty 6.

At a press briefing, Anker didn't describe the audio specs of the Liberty 5 Pro series, but they'll likely be similar to, or better than, the 9.2mm dynamic driver-toting original.

Anker sold the buds on their features: they're set to have eight microphones for improved call quality and noise cancellation, Dolby Atmos spatial audio with head tracking, and an AI voice recorder function for note taking.

The main draw to these earbuds — and the distinction between them — is in the charging case. Both buds get a case with a touchscreen, with the Pro getting a little strip and the Pro Max's case bearing a large display.

This touchscreen can be used to monitor battery, change ANC modes, and toggle a variety of features. By the sounds of things, it can be used to toggle those aforementioned features too, perhaps such as setting up the voice recorder to record a meeting.

You can also point to the touchscreen cases for the prices: the Liberty 5 Pro costs £149.99 (about $200, AU$300, exact global pricing TBC) while the Liberty 5 Pro Max goes for £199.99 (around $280, AU$400, again global prices TBC).

So they're noticeably pricier than the original buds at $129 / £99 / AU$169. We've got the Liberty 5 Pro series in for testing now, to see if they justify that cost… watch this space.

• Chinese researchers have developed 'AccLock'
• This uses your heartbeat to verify your identity
• All it needs is earbuds with accelerometers

Researchers from several universities in China have developed a technology they called AccLock, and it's basically Ear ID. It's a way of verifying your identity using your heartbeat, as detected by your earbuds — even if your buds don't have the kind of built-in heart-rate sensors you get in AirPods Pro 3.

The idea is that your earbuds will be able to recognize your unique palpitations, to verify that you're you, and to unlock access to things like your PC or phone, or perhaps even a smart door lock.

According to the paper, earbuds were chosen because they "remain closely coupled with the wearer during everyday use," so if you're the kind of person who's constantly wearing your AirPods when out and about, you inspired this choice.

In testing AccLock, the researchers did in fact use AirPods, as well as their own custom-made earphones, and so it clearly could work within Apple's system. But it doesn't have to, because it only relies on motion-sensing tech rather than a dedicated heart tracker.

Open hearted

Instead of a dedicated heart-rate sensor, the tool simply uses a motion-sensing accelerometer, the kind of which plenty of earbuds already pack.

An accelerometer is used to measure things like acceleration, vibration and orientation. In earbuds, they can be used for different tools: gesture controls, head tracking or spatial audio, depending on the bud.

Some low-end earbuds may miss them, but generally, it's a common component. And so, in theory, AccLock could work on many earbuds, using the accelerometer to recognize your heartbeat.

Again, this is all hypothetical, but sometimes these studies can mirror what companies are actually considering. For example new research we reported on regarding AirPods with cameras is matched by some reports suggesting Apple is actually considering adding this tech to future AirPods.

When I first saw the Sony 1000X The Collexion headphones — the company's new higher-end cans designed to offer a more spacious and natural sound with better comfort compared to the Sony WH-1000XM6 — I had an immediate thought, and I wasn't alone among the audio journalists I was with: these look a lot like the Sonos Ace.

Both headphones go for a super-clean look, internal mechanisms for the headband arms, slim-profile earcups, chrome-finish detailing, and a mottled faux leather material.

So I had an idea: I took them to our photography studio and got some close-up photos taken of both headphones, and I made a quiz. I pixelated the photo of them at the top to avoid giving anything away, but if you to see the headphones before you play (Easy Mode, if you like), then I'll put the original image of them side-by-side after the quiz.

Are you enough of a headphone aficionado to tell two of the best noise-cancelling headphones apart? I'll admit, I built the damn quiz, then only scored 9/10 when testing it…

Scroll a little further if you're looking for that side-by-side image — I didn't want accidental spoilers.

Let us know in the comments how you did — the first two players on the TechRadar team (other than me) scored 3/10 and 8/10 respectively, so we've had a range of scores even among tech experts (though not necessarily headphones experts).

If you want to read more about Sony's new headphones, you can read our full 1000X The Collexion review, or you can read in-depth about the five key upgrades and three unexpected downgrades in The Collexion compared to the XM6 headphones, including Sony explanation of why there are compromises.

Still have questions? I’ll be answering everything you want to know about Sony’s most expensive wireless headphones ever in a live Q&A tomorrow (May 20) at 12pm ET / 5pm BST, alongside Harry Padoan, who tested them.

Now, here's that image of them together:

Sony 1000X The Collexion: Two-minute review

The Sony 1000X The Collexion headphones arrive 10 years since Sony released the first set of headphones in its 1000X series, and to mark the occasion the Japanese tech giant has delivered its most expensive pair of wireless headphones ever. These are an ultra-premium pair of over-ears that are aimed squarely to be a rival to Apple’s AirPods Max 2.

And the Sony 1000X the Collexion really do feel like Sony’s attempt at going for the AirPods Max's popularity without the restrictive nature of that model’s iOS-centric feature-set. Everything from the sound signature through to the flatter design feels like a challenge to Apple, and, on a number of fronts, I’d argue that Sony has risen to said challenge.

Let’s start where it matters most and discuss sound quality. The Collexion (as I will call them) have an incredibly expansive, spacious soundstage, which provides plenty of room for individual instruments to express themselves.

Vocals and instruments are expertly separated, and there’s a fantastic degree of balance across the frequency range, resulting in nuanced, articulate sound. Combine that with using LDAC or lossless wired audio, and you’re in for a very detail-oriented listen.

The broad, roomy sound will certainly appeal to fans of the AirPods Max and their successor, although on a personal level, I did prefer the tighter and punchier sound signature of the Sony WH-1000XM6.

In terms of features, The Collexion riff heavily on what the XM6 had to offer, with impeccable touch controls, a 10-band custom equalizer, and third-party integrations like Spotify Tap and YouTube Music Quick Access. But there are some notable differences.

Here, users can access DSEE Ultimate for upscaling lower-quality files to 96kHz and 32-bit. This is enabled by a new V3 chip, which also powers some 360 Upmix audio modes for Music, Cinema, and Gaming, although these are unfortunately pretty poor, meaning I barely ever touched them. This is a shame, especially as the headphones have a dedicated button for such modes.

Noise cancelling is very good on The Collexion, and a 12-microphone system provides a solid barrier against traffic noise, surrounding chatter, and the like. Sony has been clear that the XM6 are more ANC-focused, and this came across in my testing, with a few more sounds seeping in with The Collexion — but what’s here still competes well against models like the AirPods Max 2 and bests the Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2.

Something that has taken a substantial step down, however, is battery life. You’re only getting 24 hours now (with ANC on), which is a fair bit less than most of the competition. 30 hours is essentially a standard for premium wireless headphones now (in no small part thanks to it being Sony's usual benchmark), although The Collexion can still outlast the AirPods Max 2, which only manage about 20 hours of playtime.

I think these headphones largely nail their more luxurious design, though. They have a gorgeous faux-leather headband and earcups which both look and feel amazing, while titanium details also offer a nice contrast to that material, and make The Collexion stand out clearly over the more unified look of other models in the 1000X line, such as the Sony WH-1000XM5.

Generally, the headphones also feel very sturdy, and although they have a fair bit of weight to them, they’re less hefty than the AirPods Max 2. The Collexion are also exceedingly comfortable, and I felt happy using them for hours on end without ever feeling the need to adjust them.

All in all, then, the Sony 1000X The Collexion are a great pair of headphones that, on the whole, justify their asking price. Factors like their luxurious build, spacious sound, and solid feature-set mean they fare well against competitors in this price range.

There are some downsides, such as lower battery life and ANC power compared to the Sony WH-1000XM6, as well as the underwhelming 360 Upmix modes, but all in all, these headphones are worth considering for any who loves the feel of Sony headphones but wishes for a more revealing sound profile.

Sony 1000X The Collexion review: Price and availability

• List price of $649 / £550 / AU$999.95
• Released in May 2026

The Collexion were officially unveiled in May 2026, about 10 years after Sony released the first set of headphones in its 1000X series. They’re the most premium wireless headphones on Sony’s roster, and have a list price of $649 / £550 / AU$999.95, meaning they’re $200 / £200 / AU$300 more expensive than the Sony WH-1000XM6.

This puts them close to the AirPods Max 2 — though Apple has them undercut by a good $100 in the US, and £50 in the UK (they cost the same in Australia). Other notable competitors include the Dali IO-8 for £499 in the UK and AU$899 in Australia, though these cost a hefty $899 in the US. There's also the Bowers & Wilkins PX8 S2 for $799 / £629 / AU$1,299.

Sony 1000X The Collexion review: specs

Sony 1000X The Collexion review: Features

• ANC and battery life can’t match the XM6
• Best-in-class touch controls
• DSEE Ultimate for upscaling, plus LDAC and wired lossless available

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Sony 1000X The Collexion have a very similar featureset to the Sony WH-100XM6 — although there are some things that are exclusive to this pricier model, and some things they don’t do quite so well.

Let’s start with the new stuff. One brilliant addition is DSEE Ultimate. This technology is enabled by a new Integrated Processor V3 chip, and has never featured in a pair of Sony headphones until now (only in its music players).

DSEE Ultimate uses AI tech to upscale the sample rate of a lower-quality audio file (including stuff that's being compressed down for Bluetooth transmission) to 96kHz / 24-bit resolution. When using this on Spotify, a lot of the tracks I listen to regularly sounded a touch more detailed, and I highly recommend keeping this setting on.

On top of this, The Collexion bring high-resolution to the table via both wireless and wired means. First of all, these headphones feature LDAC for higher-res Bluetooth listening. This tech is still inherently lossy, but if you want to take a step up, you can connect the headphones to your listening device via a 3.5mm connection for wired lossless audio.

Something else enabled by the V3 chip is The Collexion’s 360 Upmix spatial audio modes. Although there’s no Dolby Atmos support, there are Music, Cinema, and Game modes, all of which take a standard audio signal and convert it into a more expansive format.

Unfortunately, I found that these upmixed modes produced poor audio quality, so even though the feature is enticing in theory, I barely made use of it — more on that later.

Still, there are plenty of great features on board, such as The Collexion’s top-tier touch controls. These are the same as on the XM6 — you can swipe to skip tracks and adjust volume, cover the right earcup to enable transparency mode on the fly, and double tap to play or pause your music.

The touch controls are incredibly responsive, and the decision to use a double tap to pause means I never accidentally triggered a command.

Call quality is also strong once again, with four feedback mics on the inside of the headphones. There’s also a 10-band equalizer and presets for personalized audio, multi-point connectivity, voice assistant compatibility, and third-party software integrations like Spotify Tap and YouTube Music Quick Access.

A lot of these settings are available in Sony’s Sound Connect app, which is relatively easy to use, but some settings are buried deep in numerous sub-menus, which can be a irritating at times.

Anyway, let’s talk about the most important feature of all: active noise cancellation. Again, you get the choice to use full ANC, a transparent ambient sound mode, or no noise cancelling at all. There’s also adaptive sound control, which switches settings depending on your environment and behaviour.

Just how good is the ANC here, though? Well, Sony was clear with us that The Collexion are less centered around ANC than the WH-1000XM6 — despite also containing the QN3 processor and 12-microphone system, just like those headphones.

And although noise cancelling is still very good on The Collexion headphones, with surrounding chatter and traffic noise kept quiet even at medium listening volumes, I could certainly tell the difference compared to the XM6. While listening to music, some higher-pitched sounds, like typing and taps running, as well as louder sounds like doors closing, could still be heard.

If you want best-in-class ANC, I’d stick with the XM6 — or the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones Gen 2 — but otherwise, you’ll likely be satisfied with the noise cancelling available here.

One other feature that’s received a downgrade from the XM6 is battery life. You only get 24 hours here, which Sony says is a result of The Collexion’s flatter design in the earcups compared to the XM6, which offer 30 hours of playtime.

But let’s be honest: 24 hours just isn’t very good. It’s enough to last you through a long flight, and will likely get you through a few days at the office, but avid listeners will still have to charge their cans fairly regularly.

Ultimately, the standard in this bracket is 30 hours, although Sony still outdoes Apple here, with the AirPods Max 2 only able to manage 20 hours.

• Features score: 4 / 5

Sony 1000X The Collexion review: Sound quality

• Expansive, open sound is striking
• Sensational attention to detail using LDAC and wired lossless
• 360 Upmix modes are best avoided

If you’re looking for a pair of headphones that offer the sort of expansiveness that Apple’s AirPods Max 2 can, with all mod-cons available to you, but you don’t want the restrictions those impose on non-Apple devices, then I’d argue that The Collexion are the closest thing available.

These headphones conjure up an incredibly wide, spacious soundstage — using them, it feels as if you’re listening to music inside a large virtual room. They use a new 30mm driver, which has been redeveloped with soft edges and a harder center for enhanced detail and balance.

Listening to Voyager by Daft Punk, the airy synths sounded pleasantly forward, while the percussion occupied its own individual pocket, with plenty of room to express itself. Bass then entered the fray with tremendous impact, and came through with an almost three-dimensional quality. Spacey synths also carried a tremendous sense of space, while guitar licks danced away in the backdrop.

The headphones performed very well, no matter what genre I threw at them. With a deep house track like Planet 34 by Jesse Maas, the bass came through with admirable depth and agility, meaning the low-end sounded full and energetic rather than lethargic and ‘boomy’. Higher-pitched percussion in the treble range also maintained tight control, but never sounded blunt or underpowered.

Generally, there’s a pleasant balance right across the frequency range, and instrument separation is incredibly refined. Pair that with the headphones’ great attention to detail, and you’re in for a pleasantly nuanced listening experience.

I should be clear, however, that these headphones are at their best with some form of higher-res mode of listening. For instance, when I listened to Felini by Venerus and Marco Castello, I found that using LDAC over standard Bluetooth made a noticeable difference.

Vocals came through more naturally and articulately, while soft acoustic guitars sounded a little more expressive — the tune just had a more open, nuanced sound to it overall. This was also the case when using a wired connection, so if you want to experience The Collexion at their most intricate, make sure to use one of these options.

But how do The Collexion compare to the Sony WH-1000XM6? Well, The Collexion go for a more expansive and spacious sound, while the XM6 offer a tighter, punchier interpretation.

In Sadao Watanabe’s jazz-funk fusion record, Down East, I could detect a huge difference in the way that the headphones handled the smooth, funky bass. On the XM6, it was by no means overwhelming, but certainly impactful and slightly forward. There was still a solid amount of low-end weight on The Collexion, but the bass had a more spacious quality.

The Collexion’s more dispersed sound and almost distant low-end meant the track lost a bit of its bite, and I actually preferred the more direct approach of the XM6. There’s no doubt that The Collexion are capable of offering more space for individual instrumental elements to work their magic than the XM6, but some may actually prefer the tighter approach of the latter.

Ultimately, which you prefer is largely down to personal preference — I already preferred the sound signature of the WH-1000XM6 over the airy, broad approach of the AirPods Max 2, for instance, but I’m confident that both sound fantastic in unique ways.

One thing that did disappoint me, however, was the quality of the 360 Upmix modes. When using the Music mode, tracks sounded glaringly worse — vocals lost clarity, drums had a tinny edge, and keys in the mid-range lost their tonal accuracy. The Cinema mode was a bit better, but I still found speech to be less clear and defined, making for a weaker overall viewing experience.

This is a shame, given that the 360 Upmix modes are pitched as a major feature, and even have a dedicated button. But at the time of writing, they’re just not good enough.

• Sound quality score: 4.5 / 5

Sony 1000X The Collexion review: Design

• Stunning faux-leather casing with titanium details
• Super-comfortable fit with plush earcups
• Slightly odd-looking case

Sony’s The Collexion headphones look strikingly different from models like the Sony WH-1000XM6 and XM5, combining a beautiful faux-leather exterior with metal details.

The look of the outer casing is top-class, and is a clear indicator that these headphones are a premium product. Even when I used touch controls, the textured feel of the faux-leather was incredibly satisfying — and these small touches go a long way when you’re spending north of $500 / £500 on headphones.

Dual-textured metal links the earcups to the headband, and the metal is used for the various buttons and ports, and I can see people being divided on how enticing this looks.

Where the XM6 went for an ultra-fluid, homogenous design, The Collexion go for more of a contrasting look, and overall, I’m a fan. When we attended the product launch, Sony told us it was aiming to create a “timeless design,” and although I’d argue that headphones like the Marshall Monitor III ANC — which have a gorgeous retro look — do this slightly better, I still like The Collexion’s aesthetic.

Although the Sony WH-1000XM6 are my go-to headphones, there’s always been one thing I’ve disliked about their design: the bulky-looking earcups. The Collexion have done away with this, in favor of flatter and slimmer earcups — similar to those of the Sonos Ace. They look fantastic, and although Sony told us that the more compact form was a large reason for the reduced battery life, I’m a big fan of this choice style-wise.

Despite their flatter earcups, the Collexion are actually quite a bit heavier than the XM6. Sony’s new cans come in at 0.7lbs / 320g, compared to the 0.6lbs / 254g of their cheaper cousin. This is likely a result of the more premium materials being used, but I never felt that the headphones were too hefty in-use, and they’re still considerably lighter than the 0.9lbs / 386g AirPods Max 2.

In fact, I’d argue that these headphones are some of the most comfortable I’ve ever used. Their plush earcups, cushioned headband, and low-pressure feel is sensational, and makes for incredibly comfortable listening sessions, no matter how long.

There’s a wider headband on this model than on the XM6, which means these headphones won’t clamp too hard if you place them around your neck.

There are a few physical buttons on board, for altering noise cancelling levels and turning the power on or off, and for when (or rather if) you want to sift through the 360-degree audio modes. The rest is down to the touch controls, which are best-in-class.

Although I’ve been full of praise up to this point, The Collexion do have a few potential drawbacks worth pointing to, design-wise.

The first is that they're not foldable. This is a shame, as I love the XM6’s foldability, especially if I’ve forgotten the case and want to place them in a small bag or larger-sized pocket.

Another thing I'm not super-keen on is the case. Like the XM6, the Collexion have a magnet-lock case, which is incredibly practical and good to see. However, the look of the case is… not the best. It almost looks like a mini handbag, and not an especially attractive one. You can see it just below.

This is a minor issue in the grand scheme of things, but personally I preferred the more simple look of the XM6’s case.

• Design score: 4.5 / 5

Sony 1000X The Collexion review: Value

• Very high asking price
• Justified in most areas, but less so in others
• Overall they still compete well against the likes of the AirPods Max 2

So, do the Sony 1000X The Collexion earn their high asking price? Well overall, I’d say they do — but the picture isn’t entirely black and white (unlike their color options).

At $649 / £550 (about AU$900), these are Sony’s priciest wireless headphones, coming it at around $200 / £200 more than the WH-1000XM6. That value is realized in many respects, with more spacious and detailed sound, better upscaling, and a considerably more premium build.

However, these headphones lag behind the XM6 when it comes to ANC and battery life. They still compete well in terms of noise cancelling, sound quality, and design against similarly priced rivals like the Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 and the Apple AirPods Max 2, but if you want a true pair of all-rounders with top bang-for-buck, then the XM6 would still be my top recommendation.

• Value score: 4 / 5

Sony 1000X The Collexion review: Should you buy them?

Buy them if...

Don't buy them if...

Sony 1000X The Collexion review: Also consider

Sony 1000X The Collexion review: How I tested

• I tested them for just under two weeks
• I predominantly tested them using Tidal
• Tested in real-world conditions

I spent more than a week testing the Sony 1000X The Collexion headphones, during which time I tested them in as many real-world situations as I could, to test the active noise cancellation.

Although I dipped into apps like Spotify, I predominantly used Tidal to test their performance, due to its support of higher-resolution files. I began my testing by sifting through the TechRadar testing playlist, which features tracks from a wide variety of genres, but I also listened to hours' worth of tunes from my personal library.

I’ve spent years testing all sorts of audio gear here at TechRadar, ranging from party speakers to audiophile-friendly wired and wireless headphones. I also reviewed the Sony WH-1000XM6 and compared them to rivals from Bose, Apple, Bowers & Wilkins and more — I've been using the XM6 headphones for more than a year now, so I had a deep understanding of how The Collexion differed from their counterpart.

• Read more about how we test
• First reviewed: May 2026

• Sony unveils 1000X The Collexion headphones for $649 / £550 / AU$999.95, available in May 2026
• Custom 30mm driver, and new processor with DSEE Ultimate and '360 Upmix' spatial audio modes
• Design focuses on comfort, with gentler clamping force and larger earpads

Sony has just unveiled its most expensive (and possibly most-leaked) wireless headphones to date, which it's calling 1000X The Collexion. If you just want to read whether they're any good, then you can go straight to our Sony 1000X The Collexion review, because we've been using them for a few weeks.

But if you want to know more about what makes them different, and why Sony produced them in the first place, stick around here — I spoke to Sony insiders from the UK and Japan to hear more about what makes them worth their high price tag.

And what is the Sony 1000X The Collexion's price tag? That would be $649 / £550 / AU$699 when they're available sometime during May.

That price is a major leap over the $459 / £349 / AU$699 you now pay for the Sony WH-1000XM6. But Sony hopes that you'll think The Collexion (as I'll call them from here) are worthwhile — the company told me "we wanted to go further then ever before, to create something that isn’t just the next in our line-up, but that represents 70 years of audio mastery."

Building on that, Sony's Personal Entertainment Product Manager, Mike Somerset, said: "Is this just the 1000XM7? The answer very clearly is: no. It’s aimed in a totally different direction… We’re bringing some new things to these headphones that we have never done before."

The Collexion being a "different direction" makes them interesting to compare to the XM6, because they're an improvement over the XM6 in several ways — but are actually a step back in others, and that's not an accident. So here are the upgrades and arguable downgrades you need to know about.

1. A striking new look (and case)

The Collexion's look is very Sony if you've been following the evolution of the Sony WH-1000XM5 and then the XM6 — but it's clearly a little more premium and full of flourishes.

Sony says the name for the design "theme" used for The Collexion is: "Resonate".

It comes in Black or Platinum (ie, white) finishes, and a key element according to Sony is that "every visible part is made from two materials," with the intention of creating "contrasting textures".

There's a new case design too, with a handle — it's more 'handbag-like' in some ways.

That even runs through into the metal detail in places — for example, the hinge connecting the earcups to the headband is "hand-polished by skilled craftspeople", and mixes a sand-blasted finish with glossy chrome.

Sony says that the faux leather material alone was two years in development. The company also put in a lot of work, such as working with a split-design battery for the first time, to reduce the thickness of the earcups to just 40mm for a sleeker profile when wearing them — that's compared to 45.4mm in the XM6 cans.

The combination of the slimmer earcups and the metal detailing gives them a look that's more than a little reminiscent of the Sonos Ace, and that's no bad thing.

Sony also said that the goal here was to create a "timeless design", and I think there's something to this: the matte metal headband reminds me of the metal headphones you'd get with a Sony Walkman in the '80s, yet the rest of the design is undeniably modern Sony.

2. A focus on comfort

The redesign isn't just about the aesthetics, of course. Sony also said that it's particularly focused on comfort here, so that you can wear them for hours and hours, and barely notice they're there.

Specifically, the gap in the earpads is larger in these headphones than in the XM6, so they're less likely to touch the outside of your ears, and they give you a little more breathing room — and are likely to fit better with glasses.

The headband is also a little thicker, so the pressure is distributed a little more evenly — and the clamping force of the headband has been reduced, so you'll feel less pressure wearing them. This last point will come back later, though, because it's a double-edged sword…

3. A more powerful processor

Sony is introducing a new audio processor for the first time in The Collexion: the Integrated Processor V3. This is then combined with the same QN3 noise-cancellation processor used in the Sony XM6.

The V3 is Sony's most powerful headphone processor yet, and it means that these are the first headphones to include DSEE Ultimate. DSEE is Sony's audio upscaling tech, meant to take limited-quality Bluetooth streams and to upscale and add back in detail and dynamic range that's been cut out by compression.

"DSEE Ultimate is the best that Sony has ever done, and we’ve never put it in headphones before," the company said — DSEE Extreme was the previous best tech in its headphones, while Ultimate was limited to its music players, such as the Sony NW-A306.

The key difference is that it's powerful enough to upscale both the sample rate and the bit-depth of the sound at the same time — Sony says this is thanks to AI, as so many things today are. Sony says the sample rate will be upscaled to 96kHz, and the 16-bit depth will be upscaled it to 24-bit.

Sony says that it also brought a bunch of other audiophile engineering developments over from the Walkman line to the V3 processor design, including a low-phase-noise crystal oscillator for “perfect timing”, advanced solder containing gold at “key audio points on the circuit board”, and various component optimizations to improve “the signal to noise ratio across all frequencies”.

The V3 processor also enables new spatial modes, so let's get into those, because they're important enough for Sony to have devoted a whole new button to them.

4. Spatial Audio 'Upmix' modes

Sony is going big on spatial audio in The Collexion, and is using the power of the new V3 processor to offer four "360 Reality Audio Upmix" modes, which can take any audio source and turn it into spatial audio, but with a different kind of signature to the space depending on the mode.

There will be a Cinema mode (which the Sony XM6 also have) to feel like you're in a home theater, but now also a Music mode (designed to sound like you're in a live venue), and Game mode. There will also be the great Background Music mode from the XM6, which sounds like you're listening in a café or somewhere with soft ambient music.

There's a new button on the headset to switch between these modes, though by default it'll cycle between Music, Cinema and the mode being off. You can customize it to add Game or Background music in the Sony Sound Connect app.

Unfortunately, we don't think these are very good — you can read all about that in the full Sony 1000X The Collexion review.

I asked Sony why it doesn't support Dolby Atmos for this, since the experience there tends to be great. It said that there were several factors, ranging from how Android itself and different phones deal with Atmos encoding, to what’s possible in chipsets it's using — but Sony also said it wanted to give the same experience to all users, regardless of your device of streaming service of choice.

5. New speaker driver and sound tuning

Sony said that its goal with The Collexion was to "faithfully reproduce sound as the creator intended" and to “allow listeners to relax and immerse yourself in the lingering resonance of the music".

To do that, it developed a new "bespoke" 30mm driver, which has a similar design principle to the one used in the Sony WF-1000XM6 earbuds: it's a dual-material design, with a very hard central dome to improve detail, and a softer outer edge for better bass response.

The harder center is made using a "unidirectional carbon-layered core composite", which apparently means it's made from long carbon strands — "like hair", Sony said. The XM6 headphones' driver also uses carbon, but a lower percentage of it in the mix of materials (including paper). More carbon means more rigidity.

Sony said that the sound character it's aiming for includes "perfect balance, and really fantastic sound and detail" that is "toned to reproduce the sound as artists intended".

Sony also said that it was focusing on "a wider stage, and greater separation between instruments and vocals" with "a smoother, more pleasant bass" that it described as "appropriate fullness".

In comparison to the XM6, Sony said the older model is "in between the monitor and the consumer" in terms of its profile, and that the sound is "punchier" (which is exactly how my colleague Harry Padoan described the difference in his Sony The Collexion review) — but The Collexion has a wider soundstage and more focus on "natural-feeling" sound.

6. Shorter battery life

OK, it's time to move onto the areas where The Collexion are (arguably) a step down from the XM6 headphones. First up is the battery life, which is rated at 24 hours — Sony's other 1000X headphones have clocked in at 30 hours.

That's below average compared to basically all the best noise cancelling headphones — even Bose, which was happy offering 24 hours for years, raised its game to 30 hours for the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones 2nd Gen. Pretty much the only competitor it's not lower than is the AirPods Max 2, which offers a measly 20 hours.

Sony told me that this change was due to making the earcups slimmer, and acknowledged that it was a compromise compared to the usual amount — but it also noted that it was sufficient for the longest flights.

Sony also highlighted that the batteries can be replaced in the future without trouble, because they're just held in with screws, rather than glued in.

7. Not optimized for noise cancellation

The Collexion have the same general noise-cancellation tech as the Sony XM6 — including the QN3 processor and 12 microphones — plus an improved driver, so you might assume it would Sony's best noise-cancellation yet… but Sony was clear not to expect this.

Sony emphasized that it would still steer you to the XM6 if you want its top ANC power. The reason is that the focus on comfort — elements such as the lighter clamping force and change in earcup material and design — means that these headphones won't have quite as strong a physical seal against outside sounds as the XM6.

Again, in our The Collexion review you'll read they're actually very good for noise cancellation, and are on par with AirPods Max 2 — but yes, the XM6 are noticeably better when it gets loud. It's a fair trade-off for the comfort, though.

8. They're not foldable

This won't be a dealbreaker for everyone, but some people really prefer headphones that fold for travel, and we were really pleased that Sony added this feature back into the XM6 headphones, having dropped it in the Sony XM5.

The Collexion don't fold, but Sony said that portability was something it had in mind when creating the slimmer earcups, and between that and the case being a little smaller, it's still a nice small thing to put in a bag — and also of note for travellers, the wider headband means they're more comfortable to wear around your neck.

Marshall Milton ANC: two-minute review

The Marshall Milton ANC brilliantly fuse everything I loved about the company's Major and Monitor models. They combine the iconic on-ear look of Marshall’s most popular headphones with the noise-cancelling capabilities and rich feature-set of their pricier over-ears, but for an official price of $229 / £179 / AU$329.

This combination has resulted in something that ranks among the best on-ear headphones, and that perform well across (the vast majority of) the board.

Just at a glance, the Milton ANC clearly stand as a middle point between their two siblings. For example, they have the PU-leather and golden detailing, alongside the exposed wires — design elements I loved on the Marshall Monitor III ANC. However, their on-ear build and smaller sized earcups are likely to appeal to fans of the Major line.

Of course, the Milton also bring active noise cancellation to the on-ear form, and they pull this off pretty well overall. There are some limitations to how effective ANC is — the lack of a full seal around the ears means that some harsher sounds will still seep in with relative ease.

However, I used the Milton on a flight, and they dulled the sound of a jet engine and surrounding chatter very well, enabling me to enjoy my tunes without many distractions, which isn't always the case with on-ears.

Marshall also aimed to level up its on-ear sound quality with the Milton, and I’d argue that they sound very decent for the price you pay. Some may find them to be a little bass-heavy out of the box, and they aren’t the most expressive-sounding headphones I’ve ever used — but a custom EQ can remedy the first point, and it’s also important to remember that these are moderately priced on-ears, not $400 / £350 over-ears.

The Milton offer energetic, clean, and relatively spacious sound, and perform well across various genres, and they even bring LDAC and USB-C audio to the table. The LDAC codec enables higher-res Bluetooth listening, and the Milton is the first Marshall product it’s featured on. Meanwhile, USB-C or USB-C to 3.5mm wired connectivity provides the highest-fidelity audio possible, and it’s great to see here.

One thing I really admired about these on-ears was their sustainable design. They’re made of 42% recycled materials (by weight), and multiple parts of the headphones are replaceable. You can also easily screw off the ear cups and replace a battery if need be. And this doesn't come at the cost of good looks — the Milton ANC effortlessly pull of the retro-style Marshall look.

These on-ears are also very plentiful in the battery life domain. You can get up to 80 hours of listening time with ANC off, and an admirable 50 hours with noise cancelling on, which is even better than the high-performing Beyerdynamic Aventho 100. Battery health settings are also accessible in the Marshall Bluetooth app, which I found to be relatively user-friendly, despite a few loading issues.

Perhaps the very best thing about the Milton ANC, though, is their almost weightless feel in use. I’d say that the Milton are the most comfortable on-ear headphones I’ve used in my entire life — I’m usually more of an over-ear fan, but sometimes I even forgot I was wearing these headphones.

Ultimately, then, the Marshall Milton ANC are an accomplished pair of on-ear headphones that perform well where it matters most. They aren’t quite perfect — I would’ve liked to have seen wear detection on-board, and there are some limitations in terms of sound and ANC. But for the price you pay, I think these headphones are well worth the investment.

Marshall Milton ANC review: price and availability

• List price of $229 / £179.99 / AU$329
• Released on Marshall website on May 19, 2026
• Coming to select retailers on May 27, 2026

The Marshall Milton ANC are available for $229 / £179.99 / AU$329, placing them directly between Marshall’s budget-friendly on-ears, the Major V, and their premium over-ears, the Monitor III ANC. They are currently available in Black only.

The Milton ANC were released on Marshall’s website on 19 May 2026, but will be available from select retailers starting on May 27, 2026.

Marshall Milton ANC review: specs

Marshall Milton ANC review: features

• Colossal battery life of up to 80 hours with ANC off
• Lossless wired audio and LDAC for higher-res Bluetooth listening
• Commendable yet inherently limited noise cancellation

The Marshall Milton ANC are overflowing with features, including some that Marshall has never offered in its products before.

One exciting addition is LDAC, which enables you to stream higher-res audio over Bluetooth, from a compatible device. Of course, Bluetooth audio is still inherently lossy, but if you want the best quality possible, you can connect your device to the Milton via USB-C for wired audio — there’s even a USB-C to 3.5mm cable in the box.

The Milton ANC also bring support for Apple Find My and Google Find Hub, making it easy to locate your on-ears if you’ve forgotten their whereabouts.

A lot of the good stuff we saw on the Monitor III ANC features here too, including a five-band equalizer alongside a handful of presets, a customizable M button, and Auracast connectivity. You can access all of this in the Marshall Bluetooth app, which is well laid-out, but prone to a few loading issues in my experience.

I was pleased to see the Soundstage mode make a return, which is intended to “make your sound more spacious”. This works nicely, and I found myself using it pretty often. The effects aren’t as drastic as you get from some headphones’ spatial audio options, but you can adjust the metaphorical ‘room size’ and ‘amount’ that you want to employ spatial sound. For me, a medium room at 80% was the sweet spot.

Let’s also talk about battery life — something Marshall has been leading the way with on its Bluetooth speakers like the Kilburn III and Bromley 750. Things are no different on the Milton. You get a whopping 80 hours of playtime with ANC off, and a still-great 50 hours with noise cancelling active.

That’s considerably more than a lot of premium over-ear headphones, such as the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones Gen 2 or Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 can offer.

In-line with upcoming EU regulations, the battery will be readily removable and replaceable. Repairs and replacements are available through Marshall directly, as part of the company’s aim to deliver more sustainable tech.

I think it’s about time we go to the main event, though, and discuss ANC. When I attended the launch of these headphones, Marshall stated that “the Milton were designed to push ANC performance further than on-ear headphones have gone before”.

And I have to say, the Milton offer pretty solid noise cancelling capabilities all things considered. Even while on a flight, the rumble of a jet engine and of general chatter was dulled pretty effectively. These headphones don’t fully cover your ears, so there are limitations to what they can do, and on occasion, I’ve still been able to hear sounds like cars passing by or babies screaming when out and about.

Still, it’s neat to see ANC on some Marshall on-ears. The adaptive ANC is paired with a dynamic loudness feature, which adjusts audio playback depending on the noise level in your vicinity. If things are getting noisy, the headphones will raise the bass and lower the mids — the idea is to "to energize listening sessions – no matter what", though obviously this is great for running tracks to keep you pushing, and less so for podcasts.

There’s also a transparency mode if you want to be more aware of your surroundings when out and about, as well as battery preservation options to extend the long-term lifespan of the headphones.

Marshall has rammed these on-ears with just about every feature you could want… well, just about. I would’ve liked to have seen wear detection included, so that my music automatically pauses when I take the Milton off — it's pretty standard fare these days. Otherwise, though, their features suite is golden.

• Features score: 4.5 / 5

Marshall Milton ANC review: sound quality

• Clean, energetic sound
• Bass is a little heavy-handed out of the box
• Enjoyable, spacious sound with Soundstage mode active

Out of the box, the Marshall Milton ANC offers an energetic sound signature, and I was instantly struck by the hard-hitting bass. For some, the low-end may feel a little over-emphasized — and with more stripped back, acoustic tracks, I preferred using a custom EQ with a slight bump in the mids and some reduction down low.

However, I think that the signature sound will be a hit with a lot of listeners — the meaty bass was great for tracks like Authentic Computers 2.0 by Kolter. The pumping bass came through with seismic impact, but didn’t sound lethargic, and never obscured synths or vocals in the midrange. Meanwhile, drums higher in the frequency range sounded expressive yet controlled, helping to maintain the track’s high energy.

With more acoustic, laid-back tunes like Get It Up For Love by Ned Doheny, the Milton continued to perform well. Acoustic guitars in the build-up didn’t have top-tier expressiveness and detail of premium over-ears like the Sony WH-1000XM6, but they remained nice and clear in the mix, and intertwined with soulful vocals with elegance. Again, percussion was brilliantly balanced in the mix, and this even remained true at top volumes.

By default, the Milton ANC offer a solid soundstage, with a decent amount of width and immersion. However, if you make use of the Soundstage feature in the Marshall Bluetooth app, you can get more three-dimensional, spacious audio.

When listening to Down East by Sadao Watanabe, it really did seem as if sound had been released into a virtual room — the leading saxophone had more space to work its magic, while percussion felt as if it occupied a more distinct pocket.

I've flagged this in the Features section above, but I was also delighted to see LDAC make an appearance on a Marshall product, and it opened up more intricate detailing when listening to higher-res files on Tidal. Nothing is going to beat USB-C audio passthrough, however, which provides lossless quality via a wired connection.

Even using a more basic Bluetooth codec like AAC, though, the Marshall Milton ANC are a very solid-sounding pair of on-ears. They won’t astonish audiophiles with perfect instrument separation or top-tier attention to detail, but their engaging and energetic sound is sure to appeal to many.

On top of this, the Milton offer commendable mic quality, with four of the total six microphones being used for clear calls. I tried recording my voice and was very satisfied with the clarity of my speech throughout.

• Sound quality score: 4 / 5

Marshall Milton ANC review: design

• Repairable and made of 42% recycled material
• Plush earcups are super-comfortable
• Beautiful retro-style look

I’ve mentioned a couple of times how Marshall is aiming to produce more sustainable technology at the moment, and the Milton ANC are a glowing example of that.

First of all, they contain 42% recycled material (by weight), which is a pretty significant proportion. On top of that, multiple parts of the Milton are replaceable, and Marshall can service the headphones or sell replacement parts when needed. The earcups also use bayonet locking, making them simple to screw off and on, and under the left earcup, you can easily unscrew a panel to replace the headphones’ battery.

It’s not all about sustainability though — the Marshall Milton ANC are brilliantly designed right across the board.

The earcups are more plush than those featuring on the Major V, and it’s incredibly apparent. They feel amazingly soft in use, and fit on my ears perfectly. The headband also feels relaxed, and never clamped down too hard, while still remaining secure.

Combine these two factors, and the Marshall Milton ANC are, without question, the most comfortable on-ear headphones I’ve ever used. I’ve used them for all-day use at the office, and never felt agitated or uncomfortable, which is a huge plus.

These headphones also look great in my opinion. The faux-leather casing, the golden Marshall logo, the exposed wires… these headphones nail the retro-style and look pretty premium for the price. The multi-directional button for playback control is attractive too, and was easy to use whenever I wanted to pump up the volume or skip a track.

Marshall has made a real effort to stress the ruggedness of the Milton, and I have to say they do feel pretty hardy. The practical draw-string case also helps to keep them safe against any tumbles or liquid splashes.

Speaking of which, the Milton ANC do not have a waterproof rating, which is a bit of a shame given their focus on durability and longevity. Don’t get me wrong: this is pretty common for headphones, but it would be nice to see a player like Marshall start adding IP ratings to its on-ear and over-ear products. Despite this, Marshall told me that the Milton were tested for higher humidity conditions and should be able to survive the odd raindrop, for example.

• Design score: 4.5 / 5

Marshall Milton ANC review: Value

• Well-priced against the competition
• Incredible comfort, solid sound, and loads of features
• A great middle point between the Major V and Monitor III ANC

The Marshall Milton ANC are well priced against a lot of the competition. For instance, the Beyerdynamic Aventho 100, which offer ANC, a similar amount of battery life, and similarly strong audio, are priced at $229 / £199 / AU$314.

On top of that, the Milton fit perfectly between Marshall’s more budget-friendly on-ears, the Major V, and its premium over-ears, the Monitor III ANC. The former will typically set you back $149 / £129 / AU$259, and the latter have a list price of $349 / £299 / AU$569.

The Milton offer the form-factor and compact style of the Major V, while cramming in a lot of the smart features and noise-cancelling capabilities of the Monitor III, neatly fusing what makes their sibling models so appealing.

And just overall, I think you’re getting good overall quality for the money you spend. With top-tier comfort, plenty of playtime, and a sustainable design, the Milton ANC feel like a worthy investment.

Are they the best sounding headphones ever? Perhaps not — they lack the detail and balance that some competitors can supply. But still, these are hardly the most expensive on-ears out there, and their energetic sound signature is sure to appeal to a large proportion of the market.

• Value score: 4.5 / 5

Should I buy the Marshall Milton ANC?

Buy them if…

Don’t buy them if…

Marshall Milton ANC review: Also consider

How I tested the Marshall Milton ANC

• Tested over the course of multiple weeks
• Used on a flight, public transport, and on walks
• Predominantly streamed music on Tidal

I spent weeks testing the Marshall Milton ANC, taking them with me just about everywhere I went. I used them on a flight, train journeys, my daily walks, and while working away at the office.

When listening to music, I used Tidal to experience the headphones’ higher-resolution capabilities, but I also dipped into Spotify from time to time. As always, I used the TechRadar testing playlist, which features songs from a wide variety of genres, but I also spent hours bumping tunes from my personal library.

More generally, I’ve spent years testing audio gear here at TechRadar, and have tackled everything from premium headphones like the Sony WH-1000XM6 through to small Bluetooth speakers like the Bose SoundLink Micro Gen 2. I’ve also tested a whole lot of Marshall products, including headphones such as the Marshall Monitor III ANC and soundbars like the Marshall Heston 60.

• Read more about how we test
• First reviewed: May 2026

• Campfire Audio unveils new Chimera in-ear monitors (IEMs)
• Nine-driver tech includes bone conduction woofer and electrotatic tweeters
• Premium design that makes each unit unique

Everyone's talking about ditching Bluetooth in headphones these days. Well if you're looking for the best wired earbuds around, then Campfire Audio has a very interesting proposition for you, but it'll cost you.

It'll cost you a lot.

The new Campfire Audio Chimera cost $7,500 / £6,999 (about AU$14,000). That's 30 times the $249 / £219 / AU$429 price of the AirPods Pro 3, which I use as a reference since they're the most popular model of buds on the planet. Suffice it to say, they're not for the average consumer — it's likely to be professionals and the most hardcore of head-fi enthusiasts who'll pick them up.

But boy, what you get for that money is hard to argue with. These IEMs look fantastic, made of carbon-fibre and brass, adorned in a magnesium shell. According to Campfire Audio, every single unit made will look slightly different, with the production method resulting in subtle differences.

You can see how good they look in images; apparently they're designed to catch the light, so will appear even better in person.

The cable included with the IEMs uses four copper conductors, and two 50/50 copper and silver ones. And you get a lot more in the box: loads of eartips (including silicone and foam options), a cleaning tool and cloth, and a carry bag.

But the real draw to the Chimera is the audio.

Driver? I barely know 'er

The Campfire Audio Chimera has not one, not two, not… okay, it has nine drivers. And there are some real surprises in that list.

You're getting a 10mm dynamic driver for low-end, dual-diaphragm balanced armature driver for midrange, two balanced armatures for clarity, four electrostatic "super-tweeters" for high-frequency sound, and a bone conduction driver too.

This latter sounds like one of the most interesting selling points of the Chimera: it'll let you feel, not just hear, low-end sounds, to add a little extra physicality to sub-bass.

That's a bold choice, but it could pay off big time. We've previously knocked the brand's IEMs for their bass, like the Campfire Audio Solaris Stellar Horizon, and maybe Campfire Audio has fixed that problem in style.

For those who don't care about bigger bass, the draw lies in the use of four electrostatic drivers per bud — it's not a tech that gets out much, so we love to see it.

To keep the show on the road, Campfire Audio has given the Chimera a pressure valve to keep the airflow correct, and a tuning damper to make sure sound quality is as good as it could be. Given the specs list, these could sound like some of the best IEMs out there (and you'd hope so, for that price).

JLab JBuds Open Wireless: Two-minute review

JLab is well-known for its affordable headphones and earbuds, but this time the brand is branching out into something more unusual.

The JBuds Open Wireless are over-ear headphones designed to allow you to hear the world around you. Yes, everyone is doing that right now, just take a look at our best open earbuds guide — but while most open-ear options are earbuds, JLab has made an over-ear version. It promises to deliver the same open benefits but from a bigger — and for some people, more comfortable — form factor.

Now, open-back headphones are nothing new. They're actually a firm favorite among audiophiles. That's because venting the back of the driver housing stops sound from bouncing back onto the driver itself, which gives you a cleaner and more accurate sound with a wider, more natural soundstage.

However, the JBuds Open Wireless aren't that. Sure, they look similar, but the “open” part here means something different. The earcups don't create a strong seal against your head, and the cups can have grilles over them or the option to be completely open, so ambient sound outside flows freely in alongside your music.

So it’s not open-back as an audio engineering choice, but more open-ear as a lifestyle one, where the goal isn't better sound quality but a mix of sound and awareness of what's happening around you.

Interestingly, this design might seem new but it’s been done before several times. One of my favorite examples is back in the late '90s when Sony released the MDR-F1 — not identical, but similar open or open-air headphones, and people referred to them as "earspeakers" at the time. This is a similar thing, and a few other brands have done it, such as the ONE Wireless Open-Ear Headphones from nwm.

But they're still unusual right now, and I can't work out if they're uncommon because they're about to appeal to everyone and we'll see more soon, or because the use case is so specific that plenty of people will love the idea but find it falls apart in practice. Unfortunately, I'm in the second camp.

Don’t get me wrong, there's a lot to like here. The design is genuinely cool, with removable grilles and a comfortable all-day fit thanks to some memory foam padding in the cups and band. The sound also delivers more bass than I'd expect from an open design. And the ambient awareness really works. In quiet environments, it's really nice to listen with them.

But add just a bit of background chatter or noise and the openness becomes the problem. There are just too many competing sounds and the experience collapses. I know what you’re thinking. Isn’t that the whole point of open-ear designs? Sure, but if the music you’ve bought them to listen to becomes unlistenable, then we’ve got a problem.

At under $100/£100, the risk still feels low. But I think the use case is narrow, and most people will know within a day whether these are for them.

JLab JBuds Open Wireless review: Price and release date

• Released in late 2025
• Priced at $99.99 / £99.99 / AU$199.99

After being unveiled at IFA 2025 in September of 2025, the JLab JBuds Open Wireless headphones were launched in some markets in late 2025, and then the rest in early 2026.

You can buy the JBuds Open for $99.99 / £99.99 / AU$199.99. That price means they sit somewhere between the higher end of budget and mid-range.

Now this is where I'd usually give you context of how they compare to similar products, but it's tricky to compare these headphones directly to anything else right now. They give you the benefits of open-ear styles, but those are mostly buds, and these still look and feel like over-ears.

In that case, let's look at the open-ear buds you can get right now. Like the Shokz OpenFit 2+, our current top pick, which are $179.95 / £169. Though you can get much more affordable open buds that still sound good, like the Earfun Clip 2 with a clip-on design that'll cost you $79.99 / £69.99 (about AU$120).

In terms of over-ears, one of our favorite budget picks is the OneOdio Focus A6 over-ears at $55 / £55 / AU$112, which we think sound fantastic for the price. Though at that higher end of the budget range you've got plenty of choice, like the very highly rated 1More Sonoflow Pro HQ51 at $89 / £99 / AU$130.

Although there's nothing to strictly compare them to, the price reflects what you're getting. Which is over-ear comfort and build with open-ear awareness in a form factor that doesn't really exist elsewhere. For under $100 / £100, that does seem like a fair ask. But whether it's worth it comes down entirely to your preferences, which we'll get into.

JLab JBuds Open Wireless review: Specs

JLab JBuds Open Wireless review: Features

• Simple app with essentials
• Multipoint connectivity
• 24 hours battery life (well, nearly)

The JLab JBuds Open aren't overflowing with features, but you have everything you need for the price here.

The app is basic, but that's not a criticism. I found it easy to use and it covers the essentials well. You can customize the manual buttons on the right earcup, check battery life, set an interval timer, toggle spatial audio on/off, and switch between music and movie modes.

There's also a 10-band custom EQ alongside three presets, which I enjoyed playing with to try and address some of the issues with the sound, more on that later.

The headphones have dual coaxial drivers onboard, a 35mm and a 12mm unit, and Bluetooth 6.0 connectivity with support for SBC and AAC codecs. There’s no wireless hi-res audio options, but a USB-C cable is included if you want a wired connection.

Multipoint connectivity to two devices worked seamlessly during my testing, switching cleanly between my laptop and phone while I was working.

Battery life is rated at 24 hours, though in some of JLab's specs it says to expect 18 hours. In my testing I got around 20 hours, with a full recharge taking roughly 2.5 to 3 hours.

That's not bad, but it does lag behind other over-ear headphones. The Sony WH-1000XM6 manages 30 hours, and the cheaper 1More Sonoflow Pro HQ51 headphones deliver an extraordinary 65 hours with ANC on. But, to be fair, it's much harder to fit batteries in when you've removed all the physical space from your headphones…

Measured against open-ear buds, this amount is impressive as the Shokz OpenFit 2+ only manages 11 hours, but that’s expected given the size difference.

• Features score: 3.5 / 5

JLab JBuds Open Wireless review: Sound quality

• Better bass than most open options but sub-bass is lacking
• Wide soundstage suits big, orchestral tracks
• Sound leakage is an issue

With the JLab JBuds Open headphones, you can obviously hear your surroundings — that’s the whole point. But you're going to want to bear that in mind, because these sound really open. Like, really open.

On a long quiet walk along the canal, it was lovely. I had music playing, I could hear bike bells and birds and I felt very happy. But walking through the city was a different experience entirely.

What I was hearing from the headphones was competing for my attention with a fire alarm, other music, and general chatter. There's open-ear, which I’ve tried many times now from different brands, and then there's this.

And some people might genuinely want this. If ambient awareness always trumps music for you, and competing sounds don't overwhelm you, these could be ideal. That's subjective and worth acknowledging, but it wasn't my experience.

The reason it's so pronounced is physical, because the drivers sit further from your ear than other open options. They’re outside the ear rather than in the concha, where other open buds sit. Sealed over-ears obviously don't have the problem at all.

Here it's essentially like holding a speaker close to your ear. I recommending testing adding the grilles in and out, because they do reduce the sound leakage in, and they're very easy to remove.

With dual coaxial 35mm and 12mm drivers, they’re working with bigger hardware than most open-ear buds, and you can really tell when you listen. There's genuine presence in the low end, with far more bass and substance than you'd typically expect from a pair of open-ear buds.

Vocals come through clearly, and the wide soundstage is a real strength here. I spent a lot of time listening to Jóhann Jóhannsson’s Arrival score and instrument separation was impressive. Big, cinematic or orchestral tracks have a sense of space that genuinely suits the open design.

Moving onto Rolling Stones' Sympathy for the Devil and the track's swagger and drive translated well. It felt wide, punchy and instruments were given plenty of room.

But there are weaknesses. Sub-bass is mostly absent. Hi-hats and cymbals also had a tendency to tip into shrill territory, and kick drums have a sharp, thin quality rather than a satisfying thud.

The overall character skews mid-heavy, and you'll find yourself pushing the volume higher than expected to get a sense of immersion.

At times it felt a bit like hearing your phone playing in front of you; it’s present and clear enough, but thin and lacking warmth. The bass boost EQ setting helps on the right tracks and is worth trialling, but it can't resolve the main limitation here which is that there’s no seal to trap and focus the sound.

Calls were fine. With open ears, conversations feel more natural to me, and the noise-cancelling mic picked up my voice well. It lacked some clarity at times, but was fine for most purposes.

Sound leakage from the headphones is also worth flagging. I recorded audio on my phone while wearing them and could make out the track even at a moderate volume with the grilles on. If you remove them, it gets noticeably worse.

Push the volume up, which you will find yourself doing, and it gets worse still. So there's a sort of irony here, which is that the open design means you need more volume to feel the music, but more volume means more leakage.

Ambient noise outside will mask the leakage, so you'll get away with it way more in public than you might expect. But a quiet office or commute is going to be a different story.

• Sound quality: 3.5 / 5

JLab JBuds Open Wireless review: Design

• A bold design that may divide people
• Genuinely comfortable for long wear
• Removable grilles change the look and the sound

The JLab JBuds Open headphones have a very unusual design and I think they'll divide people. Some will find them incredibly cool and a bit sci-fi looking, whereas others just won't get on with them.

They're over-ear headphones with a build that feels substantial, though they do feel a little more cheap and plasticky than something like the Bose QuietComfort Headphones, my all-time favorite over-ears, but that’s to be expected at this lower price.

Both the earcups and headband are padded with memory foam and I found it genuinely comfortable for long sessions. The clamping force was occasionally a little much when I was working indoors, but on runs outside it actually helped and kept them feeling secure.

At 245g, they're light, and you can shave a couple of grams off by removing the metal grilles. The earcups have a sort of wheel-spoke pattern with a grille sitting over under it. And if you twist the cup, the grille pops out cleanly, opening things up even more both in how these headphones look and sound.

I noticed it really changes the look of them, and noticeably affects how much ambient sound comes through. It’s a small but genuinely fun customization option.

That said, they're bulky. They stick out from your head considerably more than most modern over-ears nowadays, and while the cups pivot flat, they don't fold inward either, which makes them less practical to carry and store than many rivals.

The included carry case is a nice touch. It’s a similar concept to the AirPods Max case but it’s more practical with more coverage of the headphones. The matte, brushed finish picks up marks easily though.

You control the JBuds Open with physical buttons on the side of the right earcup. I personally prefer physical buttons over touch controls, and found these easy to locate and use on the move, and they're also customizable via the app.

The headphones come in black, which is the pair I tested here, or Cloud, which is a light gray with gold accents that's a nice option if you’re sick of all black tech.

There’s no IP rating here, which on paper suggests avoiding sweaty workouts when you're wearing them. But given their open design means far more airflow than a sealed pair, I'd argue they're pretty workout-friendly as long as you’re mindful about sweat and splashes.

I tested them on several runs without any problems and actually really enjoyed the ambient awareness and added airflow as I got warmer and more tired. But I maybe wouldn't risk them in the rain.

• Design score: 4 / 5

JLab JBuds Open Wireless review: Value

• Good value compared to open-ear buds
• But whether it's worth it depends on your feelings about ambient sound

These are good value compared to other over-ear headphones and even some open-ear options. You can pick up open-ear buds for well under $100 / £100 these days, but top performers like the Shokz OpenFit 2+ cost nearly double at $179 / £169. So if you specifically want open-ear audio on a budget, they’re worth considering.

But really, whether these are worth it has less to do with price and more to do with your lifestyle. Under $100 / £100 feels fair for what's here. But if you're going to struggle to hear your music in most environments or find the bulk doesn't suit you, the price won't save them.

For the right person though, which I think will be someone who prioritizes awareness, loves the over-ear form factor, and isn't chasing audiophile sound, then these were essentially made for you.

• Value: 3.5 / 5

Should I buy the JLab JBuds Open Wireless?

Buy them if…

Don’t buy them if…

JLab JBuds Open Wireless review: Also consider

How I tested the JLab JBuds Open Wireless

• Tested over 10 days
• Used with my iPhone 16 Pro
• Listened to music, podcasts and some movies

I tested the JLab JBuds Open Ear Headphones for 10 days, which gave me plenty of time to trial them in different environments, wear them in a few different weather conditions and run a battery test.

I took them with me on daily long walks and two runs along the canalside, as well as one bigger hike in the countryside. They also came with me often when I was walking through a big city, in a busy market, to plenty of coffee shops while I was working remotely, on several bus rides and just out and about getting on with my day more generally.

I used my iPhone 16 Pro to test them and mostly listened to music and podcasts. I also used them when watching a couple of movies to test the movie preset and the spatial audio. I tested the different modes and EQ settings and used them with and without their grilles.

I actually became really fascinated by the subtle sound differences when it came to the grilles, so know my experience in this review comes from a lot of careful listening.

I’ve been writing about and testing tech for more than 15 years now. I’ve focused mainly on wearables, smart home devices and a lot of audio tech. Over the past few years I’ve been testing a lot of open ear buds, so I know what I’m looking (and listening out) for.

I’m always keen to think about the real world use cases and everyday practicality of tech so you get your money’s worth and pick the best device for you.

• First reviewed: May 2026
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