• Samsung unveils its first ever ear-cuff style buds, Galaxy Buds On
• Clip-on, C-bridge style open earbuds with head gestures and other features
• Only announced for Korean market for now, global launch TBC

We've been hearing leaks about new open earbuds from Samsung for months now, but I'm going to have to find a new rumored product to speculate about, because the brand has finally unveiled these new buds. Behold! The Samsung Galaxy Buds On.

This is the brand's long-awaited attempt to attack the best open earbuds market, and it's great timing, because recent figures show it's a booming sector. These are earbuds which don't block your ear canal, letting you hear your surroundings. Originally, they were targeted at outdoor runners and cyclists, but now I see them used all the time by couriers, drivers and commuters.

That said, the Samsung Galaxy Buds On can only be used by buyers in Korea right now, because the earbuds have only been confirmed for the sole market. According to the brand, they'll be released in other markets later, but there are no specific release dates just yet.

The buds will go on sale on October 27, for 299,000 won, which converts to around $220 / £170 / AU$320. For a little speculation mixed with a dash of context, that's roughly half-way between the Korean price of the Galaxy Buds 4 and Galaxy Buds 4 Pro, so I'd expect them to land for somewhere around $200 / £190 / AU$350 if we're going half-way between the prices in each region.

Let's get (Samsung Galaxy Buds) On with it

Enough price guessing: what's going on with these earbuds? Well, from the outside, they come in a case very similar-looking to the Galaxy Buds 4 models, with a clear top, and I appreciate the shared design bone.

Otherwise, they look like pretty standard open earbuds, with a bud and counterweight joined by an arch. Unlike many other brands which release clip-style buds, Samsung hasn't spent ages waxing lyrical about the design of the arch, simply describing how it analysed different ear shapes to make sure the speaker and battery were balanced well.

Audio-wise? Again, we've got little, but apparently they'll use something called 'TwinBoost speakers' which sounds more like car technology you'd hear bragged about in F1. That implies there are dual drivers per bud, but we'll have to wait to see to find out.

What Samsung has described, in detail, is the range of features the Galaxy Buds On will get. There's an audio leakage avoidance tech, like in the Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo Pro, so people nearby won't hear that you're listening to the Runescape Soundfont cover of Pink Pony Club while you're on a run. There are touch controls on the counterweight but also head gestures and voice command functionality, as in the Galaxy Buds 4 models.

If you own a Samsung Galaxy phone, you can use the buds with Galaxy AI, and enjoy a fast-pairing mode too. The battery life of the buds is said to be 9.5 hours, which is much better than the other recent Galaxy Bud models too.

Samsung has confirmed that it'll reveal more about the Galaxy Buds On when their Korean official release date lands on October 27, so we'll have a better idea then. We'll also let you know when we find out about an international release date.

Cambridge A100 SE: Two-minute review

At a glance, not much separates the Cambridge A100 SE true wireless in-ear headphones from their older A100 stablemates — and that’s because not much does.

The most obvious difference on first acquaintance is the addition of a (very attractive) deep blue finish — and when you glance at the spec-sheet, it’s only the (admittedly not inconsiderable) addition of Dolby Audio functionality that justifies the ‘SE’ in the model name.

Which means that the A100 SE are, at the asking price, a lavishly specified pair of wireless earbuds for the the best budget earbuds market. Class A/B amplification, aptX Lossless and LDAC codec compatibility, 10mm dynamic drivers featuring a lot of recycled Neodymium, adaptive hybrid active noise cancellation, and very nearly 40 hours of battery life from the ‘buds and their charging case are high up on the list of highlights.

And in practice, the way the A100 SE perform is almost all ‘gain’ and very little ‘pain’. They are spacious and organised, control a soundstage well, offer plenty of detail, balance their frequency response and tonality pretty well, and include voice, touch and app as control options.

A price-comparable alternative such as the JBL Live Beam 4 can go even further where battery life is concerned, and have a more naturalistic way with rhythmic expression — the A100 SE are just slightly lumpy in this regard — but ultimately they’re ‘different’ rather than obviously ‘better’. Because at this sort of money, finding something obviously ‘better’ than the Cambridge A100 SE is going to prove tricky.

Cambridge A100 SE review: Price and release date

• Released on October 2, 2026
• $149 / £129 / AU$249

They're hot off the press at the time of writing, friend! We're publishing this review to meet their embargo. What you need to know is, the A100 SE earbuds arrived on October 2, 2026. So, they're new — albeit very much built upon their older siblings.

And that's a big plus. The original Cambridge Audio Melomania A100 arrived in June 2025 (Cambridge has since dropped the 'Audio' from its moniker and, it seems, the 'Melomania' from its buds) to a resounding five-star review.

So while the price of these new earbuds is hardly huge, it does mean that the older set can now be found for around $99 / £79 — being superseded by newness can have this effect. So, there's plenty to consider…

Cambridge A100 SE review: Specs

Cambridge A100 SE review: Features

• Class A/B amplification2
• Bluetooth 5.4 with aptX Lossless and LDAC compatibility3
• 39 hours battery life (maximum)

There’s no need to offer any kind of ‘at the asking price’ qualification here — the Cambridge A100 SE have a very worthwhile feature set, full stop.

The use of the same Class A/B amplification that’s at the heart of the company’s well-regarded CX and EX full-size integrated amplifiers delivers a hit of hardcore hi-fi credibility. Compatibility with cutting-edge aptX Lossless and LDAC Bluetooth codecs means the biggest wireless streams possible are available from source devices that are capable of delivering it. Snapdragon Sound (complete with dual-core 240MHz Qualcomm Kalimba DSP) should mean ultra-low latency, and dual-point connectivity means content from two connected devices can be switched between seamlessly. Sound itself is delivered by a pair of 10mm full-range dynamic drivers, and they make liberal use of recycled Neodymium in their composition.

Three QualComm cVc mics per earbud handle voice assistant interaction, telephony, and the adaptive hybrid noise-cancellation system. With ANC engaged, the earbud and the charging case offer more than 21 hours of playback time between them, and if you switch ANC off this figure rises to closer to 39 hours. And you can spend these many hours in pretty much any realistic environment, thanks to the earbuds’ IPX5 rating.

• Features score: 5 / 5

Cambridge A100 SE review: Sound quality

• Open, detailed and controlled sound
• Good sense of dynamic variation
• Not the most naturalistic where rhythms are concerned

Some true wireless in-ear headphones are more in-ear than others when it comes to the sound they make — the sensation of music being inside your head can be strong with some designs, and quite oppressive it is too. That’s not the case with the A100 SE; even without their ‘Dolby Audio’ mode being engaged they’re a notably open and airy listen, and when it’s switched in they become even more spacious. It’s not like listening to loudspeakers, of course, but it’s a lot less stifling than some alternatives.

It doesn’t do any harm in this respect that the Cambridge are quite adept when it comes to creating and controlling a soundstage. They have outright scale on their side, especially when it comes to the width of the stage, and they have absolute authority over the elements on it. There’s appreciable space between instruments, but a commonality and unity to the sound at the same time — the sensation of space doesn’t compromise the idea of ‘performance’.

A listen to a big FLAC file of LCD Soundsystem’s Daft Punk is Playing at My House allows the A100 SE to demonstrate a very even-handed way with frequency response and tonality. Leave the EQ settings out of the equation and the top-to-bottom presentation of the frequency range is smooth and undramatic in the best way — there’s no sense that the earbuds want to meaningfully favour any particular area of information over any other, and the same is true of the fairly neutral tone the Cambridge adopt. In ultimate terms they hint at spotlighting and gently heating the lowest frequencies, but overall they’re significantly less coloured than quite a few price-comparable rivals.

The A100 SE handle detail retrieval well, and are alert to even quite minor variations in timbre and texture — events deep in the mix or at the outer edges of the soundstage are not overlooked, and they’re given an appropriate amount of weighting in every circumstance. Details around the dynamics of harmonics are attended to well, and the more overt dynamics of attack and intensity are made absolutely apparent.

Really, it’s only where rhythmic expression is concerned that the Cambridge are anything less than really quite assertive. They’re reasonably adept when it comes to the attack and decay of bass sounds, and they certainly don’t drag at tempos — but they’re not as straight-edged as they might be, and consequently they handle rhythms in a relatively stiff, upright manner. ‘Lurch’ is too strong a word, but ‘lumpy’ isn’t — the A100 SE are, in absolute terms, just a little lumpy in this regard.

• Sound quality: 4.5 / 5

Cambridge A100 SE review: Design

• Choice of three finishes
• App and touch control
• Dolby Audio functionality

You’ve a straight choice if you’re designing a pair of true wireless in-ear headphones: either the pebble-like ‘twist to fit’ shape, or the dangly stem alternative popularised by Apple. For the A100 SE, Cambridge has gone down the second route.

The earbuds, and the slender charging case they travel in, are made to a perfectly acceptable standard, mostly from plastic that’s unremarkable both in look and feel. My review sample is a new dark blue finish, but more usual black or white alternatives are available.

The outer section of the top of each earbud features a capacitive touch surface, and here it’s possible to control playback, to handle telephony, to cycle through your ANC options, and to summon your source device’s native voice assistant (should it have one). They’re not as reliable as they might be in operation, but patience brings its rewards. Eventually.

You can also control the A100 SE using Cambridge’s ‘Melomania Connect’ control app. It’s a fair bit more reliable than the touch controls, and as well as being where you can engage (or disengage) the earbuds’ new Dolby Audio feature (which has the very welcome knack of bring a little more space to the sound, and a little less of the ‘directly into your head’ sensation some IEMs can suffer from) it allows you to remap the touch controls to get the sequence on taps, presses and holds you prefer.

It also features a seven-band EQ — there are six presets and the option to save a few custom settings of your own. It’s also where you can switch the ‘wear detect’ function on or off, engage ‘game’ mode, check for firmware updates and, perhaps most importantly of all in this instance, select your preferred ‘audible feedback’.

Not for the first time where a pair of Cambridge wireless headphones are concerned, the usual options of ‘off’, ‘tone’ and quite a quantity of different languages are available, along with a ‘Southwark’ option which turns out to be Matt Berry really Matt Berry-ing it up. It’s a frivolous, profoundly funny option that I am nowhere near tiring of — and TechRadar's Audio Editor agrees wholeheartedly.

• Design score: 4 / 5

Cambridge A100 SE review: value

• Great specification
• Some proper performance highlights
• Matt Berry!

This is a very competitive area of the true wireless headphones market, and Cambridge has done a lot to ensure the A100 SE can be seen to represent good value for money.

The type of amplification that’s on board, the extensive Bluetooth codec compatibility, the spacious, detailed and dynamic nature of their presentation all point to a product that’s well worth the asking price, with only the slightly hit-and-miss touch-control implementation and slightly lumpy rhythmic expression counting against them.

• Value: 4.5 / 5

Should I buy the Cambridge A100 SE?

Buy them if…

Don’t buy them if…

Cambridge A100 SE review: Also consider

The JBL Live Beam 4, while slightly more expensive, are probably the most impressive price-comparable rival to the A100 SE right now — and it seems fair to say that they’re slightly different, rather than obviously better or worse, than the Cambridge model.

They struggle to match the noise-cancellation the A100 SE offer, for instance, and don’t have quite as pronounced a spatial audio effect — but they hit back with a more convincing way of describing rhythms and straightforwardly impressive battery life of as much as 48 hours between charges.

Any other products of note? Yes, Apple's new AirPods 5 with Wireless Charging are right at this level and if you own an iPhone, they certainly look competitive on paper — just not for codec support (see "if you own an iPhone", above) or stamina. Our full review of Apple's newest buds is incoming, but food for thought at any rate.

How I tested the Cambridge A100 SE

• With Apple and Android devices
• With file types from MP3 to DSD3
• Indoors and outdoors

I used the Cambridge A100 SE at my desk, while out walking and on public transport. I connected them to an Apple MacBook Pro, an Apple iPhone 15 Pro and a FiiO M15S hi-res player.

This allowed me to access Qobuz and Tidal music streaming services, internet radio via Airable, and hi-res content stored on the DAP’s internal memory. I listened to lots of different genres of music and plenty of spoken-word content — and I did so, on and off, for two weeks.

• First reviewed in September 2026

• Read TechRadar's review guarantee
• Learn more specifically about how we test earbuds at TechRadar

The second Prime Day in Australia for 2026 is now live, and that means the next seven days represent one of your best opportunities to secure a new set of headphones at a big discount.

That's right, Prime Big Deal Days, as it's officially known, kicks off today, Tuesday, September 29 and will come to a close next Monday, October 5. As the deals already live are proving, there are massive savings to be found on popular brands including Bose, Sony and Sennheiser, to name a few.

It's fair to say that the prices I've found so far aren't quite as good as those we saw during the main Prime Day back in July, but many come awfully close. Plus, with them being available on Amazon, in many instances, you can have your new headphones arriving at your front door within two days (or sooner) if you have a Prime membership.

And, as experience tells me, fresh deals and prices can appear at any time, so be sure to check back on this page throughout the sale for all the latest finds.

The best Prime Big Deal Days headphone deals in Australia

Over-ear headphones

In-ear headphones

Open earbuds

Wired headphones

• Repair experts iFixit tore down Apple’s latest AirPods 5 earphones
• The firm found a few important changes compared to previous AirPods
• Yet the case still proved to be a repairability ‘disaster’

Apple products aren’t exactly known to be paragons of repairability, with many devices proving to be daunting work for even the most hardened of repair professionals. It probably won’t come as much of a surprise, then, to see that iFixit has given the new AirPods 5 a lowly score in its latest teardown — but there are still a few bright spots for Apple fans.

iFixit decided to dig into the AirPods 5 in a step-by-step article and an accompanying video. The video came with the teaser-heavy title “We’ve Given AirPods 0/10 for 10 Years. Until Now,” while the article dubbed the earphones “the most repairable AirPods earbuds ever.” But if you’re hopeful of a lofty 10/10 score, don’t hold your breath. No, the AirPods 5 came home with a lowly 2/10 score for repairability.

That’s mainly thanks to the charging case, which iFixit described as a “disaster.” In fact, the case was so tightly sealed that it had to be destroyed in order to get to the internal battery. Throw in a total absence of replacement parts and repair manuals on Apple’s part and the AirPods 5’s score took a nosedive.

That said, there were a few silver linings. One of the key improvements came to the batteries contained inside the earphones. Instead of being soldered in place, they are outfitted with a set of plug-in prongs, making them much simpler to replace.

As well as that, the AirPods could be opened up using a hairdryer and a clamp, meaning specialized tools aren’t required — significantly lowering the hurdles facing repairers.

A step towards repairability

As iFixit pointed out, Apple’s AirPods don’t necessarily need to be this hard to repair. Companies like Fairphone have released products (such as the Fairbuds) that make accessing the case battery far simpler, allowing a user to swap the component out and prolong the lifespan of their device. Likewise, Sennheiser’s excellent Momentum True Wireless 5 earbuds are built with replaceable batteries and even come with a compatible screwdriver.

In the past, new Apple CEO John Ternus has said that Apple tries to balance durability and repairability, arguing that swinging too far towards repairability can compromise the durability of a device (such as its waterproofing). And it’s surely true that the majority of consumers would not be interested in opening up their Apple products and conducting repairs themselves.

But for those who do want to do that — or who don’t mind paying someone else to do it for them — a more repairable device is one that lasts longer and doesn’t need to be replaced so quickly.

Ultimately, iFixit said that “for the first time, we think skilled technicians and even intrepid DIYers will probably be able to replace AirPod batteries with a decent success rate.” The AirPods 5 are not the kind of product that your grandma will be keen to crack open, but for anyone with the experience and determination to perform their own repairs, they’re a step in the right direction from Apple.

Busy month in portable audio gear, September. In fact, those of us in the game have taken to calling this particular month 'Techtember', owing to the huge volume of new products entering the market during this important 30-day juncture.

And portable audio is always one of the biggest areas for growth. In fact, in the time since we started writing this little roundup, Bose (aside from releasing a set of $99 wired earbuds with ANC which you'll find below) has also released not one but two new open earbuds propositions (which are not — that's how busy this space is right now).

Why is Techtember like this? Well, Apple typically kicks things off with its annual event at the top of the month. This year, the Cupertino giant's "Surprise and Shine" event on September 9 saw the release of two new AirPods 5 models at refreshingly affordable price-points.

Sony quickly joined in, going one better and launching three new sets of headphones, namely the Sony WH-CH730N, WH-CH530 and WH-1000XM4C, to update its own slam-dunk hits for 2026.

So, Apple lost out on the tally sheet by one product? Not so fast: meet Beats 360, the Apple sub-brand's all-new (and heavily leaked) cans that let you customize the ear cup and headband colors for a look that's unique to you.

Now, Sonos: the company's hotly-anticipated update to its Sonos Ace cans landed — and yes, the superb Sonos Ace Ultra fix the key Sonos ecosystem compatibility snag of the originals to become one of our favorite releases of the year, and that's not something we say lightly.

Then, on September 29, two of the biggest releases in the premium over-ear space landed within hours of each other, namely Nothing's most expensive cans to date, the striking Nothing Headphone (1) Pro, which we've reviewed in full, and the aesthetically gorgeous Technics EAH-A1000, which I've delivered an initial verdict on, pending further tests.

For further information on any product in this roundup, select the 'view details' toggle below the image. Or, if you're already sold on a certain set, simply click through to shop these all-new products. Have fun — and above all, enjoy the music!

September 2026 — the all-new headphones and earbuds you need to see

As an audio reviewer, I am of course always excited when a new pair of headphones is announced. However, I’ve noticed a worrying trend in the last couple of years whereby every new premium pair seems to cost AU$699.

The Sony WH-1000XM6, Sonos Ace and Sonos Ace Ultra, Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3, Edifier Stax Spirit S5, Nothing Headphone 1 Pro, Technics EAH-A1000 all cost AU$699 at launch, to name a few. The Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless went even further with a AU$749.95 debut.

That’s a lot of money to pay for a set of cans — and that’s why the current Amazon Prime Big Deal Days sale is worth sitting up for, as I’ve found a few pairs of truly talented headphones that have received significant discounts.

• Follow our dedicated live coverage of the Amazon Prime Big Deal Days 2026 sale for more deals and discounts

• Technics has unveiled new EAH-A1000 flagship wireless headphones
• The company's famed Magnetic Fluid Driver is literally making the big time
• Owing to last-minute tweaks/firmware updates, my full review is incoming

Today sees a huge reveal in the world of wireless headphones. Not only because it's been well over four years since Technics' excellent EAH-A800 landed (promptly gaining a glowing 4.5-star review from this publication, if you'll only click that link), but because the same 'magnetic fluid' magic that made the Technics EAH-AZ100 earbuds soar straight to the top of our best earbuds buying guide (where they sit prettily even now) has somehow been massively upscaled.

Technics' proprietary concoction that once facilitated more accurate motion within a tiny 10mm driver, squirrelled within an earbud, is now able to lubricate a 40mm drive unit in a headphone ear cup. And for those lucky enough to have heard what it did for earbuds (feel free to read my various odes to the EAH-AZ100 buds if you need proof of its prowess), that is huge.

Speaking of luck, I was invited to the company's elite facility in Tokyo to talk to the team, find out more about the Technics EAH-A1000, and try them before anyone else. Oh, it's not lost on me, don't worry. And here are my initial thoughts…

Greige, but make it elite level

I was not given a 'Platinum Greige' set to take home, but my black review sample is incredibly stylish and promotes no small sense of pride in ownership. See how it glistens against a Tokyo skyline!

At the big unveil, I ask the design team why the case, bijou and useful though it is, is not imprinted with a Technics logo? I'm directed to demure branding on the zipper and told: "Everything at Technics must either be engraved onto the metal or embroidered to the fabric of a product: we do not print." Quite.

Everything here has been optimized for what Technics' Group Manager Ellison Ferdinand calls "an uncompromising experience". During a talk with the design team I'm shown countless samples of potential top-plates for the ear cup: too shiny, too textured, too yellowy through the concentric grooves of the metal. This is meticulous attention to detail, and then some.

Back to that Magnetic Fluid Driver though, and to further enhance its performance the EAH-A1000 incorporates an SST (Symmetrical Surround Technology) Edge — yes, the same tech that's also used in Technics hi-fi flagship speakers. So, pure rigid carbon fiber diaphragm, with dome shape and cone shape ideas within it (think a dish with a slight raise in the center, rather than a regular cone), along with a redesigned acoustic control chamber, to manage airflow more precisely. The idea across the board is that by improving the drivers' pistonic movement, these design flourishes further minimize distortion (the enemy of accuracy and clarity). The EAH-A1000 also features a new 'Baffle Flat Structure' to reduce "uneven surfaces around the driver, limiting unwanted reflections".

Stamina and so on? Of course: high-resolution audio playback via LDAC and USB Audio is on the menu plus up to 45 hours of continuous playback (without ANC and LDAC deployed, of course), and multipoint connectivity to up to three devices — which is still a perk unique to Technics' headphones and earbuds.

13 degrees doesn't sound like a lot, but to me it makes all the difference

The arms of the headphones have been thinned and refined since the EAH-A800, and I think it's a wise and beautiful solution. Upon slipping them over my head, they have remained supremely comfortable too (I'm around 60% through TechRadar's rigorous testing process), which I believe is due to the 13-degree angle of the ear cups, relative to the headband. This was implemented by the female Head of Design on this particular Technics release. Apparently, over 500 people tested them prior to landing on this design, and half were women. Bravo. (Women like music too.)

This missive is not to be taken as a full review. As mentioned, I'm only part-way through testing because, as is normal when trialing products not yet officially in the public domain, the EAH-A1000 are only just now running their final software version. As such, small tweaks have recently been implemented, and it would be premature of me to offer feedback on elements within these headphones in the run-up to their release that I can't be sure others will experience. That said, they are now official, and will be available to purchase as of tomorrow (September 30).

What I can tell you — aside from pricing, which is officially $449 / £399 / €449 / AU$699 — is that so far, the sound quality is nothing short of superb. I do not write this lightly. I have toyed with the head-tracked spatial audio profile, optimized for Dolby Atmos, as well as the ANC, and while I'm impressed, watch this space for my final verdict. For now, know that the multi-function button/slider (to tweak volume and alter playback) is a better solution than controls via touch capacitive surfaces. And the circumaural distribution of sound is like that of a skilled pastry chef, creating a layered, tall, elegant croquembouche around my ears.

Essentially, they're super svelte, super comfy and gloriously expansive. Things are looking good…

• Like wireless ANC earbuds, except with wires
• Lossless audio at up to 24-bit/48kHz
• £99 / AU$169.95 (about $131)

For all their joys, there's something missing from many of the best earbuds: wires.

I'm serious: wires can be great for audio, which is why so many audiophile IEMs have them. So I'm intrigued by the latest earbuds from Bose, which are very definitely wired: they come with a 4.2-ft / 1.3m cable.

Wired earbuds don't need to compress audio to broadcast it over Bluetooth, they don't have batteries you'll forget to charge, and they don't lose features or sound quality if your phone doesn't have the right operating system.

The Bose Noise Cancelling Wired Earbuds aren't so retro that you can plug them into your Walkman, though. There's no 3.5mm headphone plug of the kind that UK pop star Sir Cliff Richard would recognize; They're USB-C powered, with plug-and-play compatibility. And because they don't have to pick a lossy codec for transmitting audio, they deliver up to 24-bit/48kHz lossess — no pairing, no app, no charging, no fuss. Refreshing!

Bose Noise Cancelling Wired Earbuds: key features and pricing

The keen-eyed will have spotted something: ANC in wired earbuds isn't usually a thing. But make no mistake, there's active noise cancellation here and you can control it via the inline remote.

There are three levels of noise control: off, Aware and Quiet, with that last two taking advantage of Bose's four-mic QuietControl system to process and remove ambient audio. As they're USB-C buds, connection is instant and widely supported thanks to USB Audio Class 2, which enables lossless audio at up to 24-bit/48kHz. Bose says the connection is very low latency and keeps audio closely in sync with anything on screen, too.

The earbuds come with an inline remote for volume, playback, calls and noise cancellation modes, and the remote also contains a dedicated microphone for voice calls and voice control. They're IPX4 rated for water resistance and come in a choice of three colours (Black, White Smoke and Dewdrop Mint) with two sizes of wingtips and three sizes of ear tips included.

Pricing is keen: £99 in the UK and AU$169.95 in Australia (which is roughly $131). All three models will be available to buy from 15 October 2026.

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• Three tuned drivers and ten ANC microphones
• Hi-res wired and wireless audio with LDAC
• $399 / £349 (about AU$657)

Nothing has launched its most advanced and most expensive headphones yet, the Headphones (1) Pro — and we've been putting them through their paces.

In our in-depth Nothing Headphones (1) Pro review, Becky Scarrott says that the headphones are "sonically gifted" with good ANC, smart spatial audio and a particularly good transparency mode. But they're expensive and, in their rather chunky carrying case, very heavy — and as Becky points out, Nothing's other headphones are gifted too, and a lot cheaper.

There's one key way in which the Headphones (1) Pro aim to differ from the company's cheaper options though…

Nothing Headphones (1) Pro: key features

The goal of the Headphones (1) Pro is to replace two pairs of headphones: the ones you use on the move, and the ones you use for serious music listening or production.

To do that, familiar features such as ANC are teamed up with an unusual triple-driver setup rather than the standard one-driver design of most similar headphones. As with IEMs, each driver is designed to specialize in a particular frequency range; here that means a dynamic bass driver, another dynamic driver for the mids and an xMEMS driver for the high frequencies.

Those drivers have been tuned by the pro-audio experts at Metropolis Studios, and there's a dedicated Flat EQ switch, aiming to deliver a completely neutral sound profile for music production. There's also Studio B, a dynamic spatial audio mode designed to mimic the acoustics of a mixing room.

The ANC features 10 mics and works very well, especially in windy conditions or in transparency mode, and the redesigned ear cushions deliver a stronger seal. The headband has been made wider with better padding for better long-term comfort, and the headphone cups are finished in scratch-resistant 9H Panda Glass.

The Headphone (1) Pro deliver hi-res wired and wireless audio via LDAC, with USB-C delivering lossless audio at up to 24-bit/192kHz. There are five dynamic spatial audio modes with head tracking, and you can adjust the EQ of your headphones to suit your preferences.

The Nothing Headphone (1) Pro are available in black or white from today, 29 September, with a recommended retail price of $399 / £349 (about AU$657). And you can read our full review right now, right here.

Nothing Headphone (1) Pro: Two-minute review

I love an audio outfit that refuses to kowtow to the norm (no thinly disguised AirPods copies here) and instead forges ahead with unconventional and striking ideas — and not just visually, but within the driver count and feature set, too.

Nothing's success in the audio and headphone arena is deliciously hit-and-miss. There have been some huge, long-term budget wins and an inaugural set of 'close, but no cigar' cans that made us yearn for an update to see if the relatively young tech brand (born of OnePlus' co-founder Carl Pei in 2021) could fix things. And you know, it certainly could…

But here we are, smash-hit affordable second set in the bag (albeit an actual bag, and one that reminded me of swimming lessons in grade school) and on to a third set of headphones from Nothing, this time in the much trickier premium space.

Can the Nothing Headphone (1) Pro sit pretty at the very top of the firm's over-ear lineup and perhaps even snatch a spot in our best noise-cancelling headphones guide? If you just gave me the headphones and, ahem, nothing else, it'd be a much easier recommendation than when handing over the whole package.

Nothing has worked very hard on the details here, including a new triple-driver audio architecture and upgraded materials throughout. There's machined titanium which actually helps to make the arm 45% lighter than Headphone (a), 9H Panda Glass on the ear cups (which Nothing assures me has been thoroughly drop-tested 18 times at a height of 1.8m, so it absolutely, positively will not shatter) and even 12% thicker padding and 10% wider headband than Headphone (1). Also, there's a new foam lining in the cups that's a claimed 50% softer, thanks in part to a new dual-layer system with a silicone baffle wall around the cups.

And here's another claim: 40% better ANC than the Headphone (1) Pro's nearest older (a) stablemate, thanks to 10 mics in total that have been repositioned on the inner walls of the earpieces. Does all of this make for a more silent backdrop for your music? You betcha it does.

Acoustically, Nothing isn't afraid of a collab either, and for this set of cans it teamed up with the famous (and rather chic) Metropolis Studios in Chiswick, London. This was not only for the creation of a new "Pro-level Flat EQ switch" on the left ear cup, but also to unveil a new Dynamic Spatial Audio mode plus five custom EQs, where one is meant to sound like you've been dropped into Studio B at the professional recording facility.

So where's the "but" within my verdict? For me, it's a weighty issue. Headphones like these must always marry sound quality and comfort with battery life and portability. Here, the battery life with ANC is a relatively unexciting 30 hours (or 28 with LDAC and ANC both in use), although it jumps to 68 hours without ANC or LDAC deployed. And once you add the case, it more than doubles the product's weight in your bag. The thing is, given the use of glass on the ear cups, you wouldn't want to go without a case, would you?

Nothing takes great pains to sell you on the aesthetic and design language of this new case, even suggesting you add a strap so it becomes a headphone handbag where the headband is the handle of the bag. But, I'm sorry, the Apple AirPods Max at least made the 'headphone bra' (still one of the most controversial cases out there) small and lightweight. This gray half-shell is not light — and don't go thinking it'll at least house your bundled USB-C-to-USB-C and 3.5mm-to-3.5mm cables, or even a replacement battery. It will not.

I think much of the added expense here goes on said case. And that to me does not represent value. Simply put, I found myself reaching for other headphones simply because I didn't want to carry the Nothing option. And that is a shame.

Sonically, there are marginal gains to be had over the Headphone (a) but depending on the music you most enjoy, you may actually prefer the (much) cheaper product from Nothing's own catalog for expanse and excitement. So again, it's a tough sell.

Nothing Headphone (1) Pro review: Price & release date

• Released on September 28, 2026
• Priced $399 / £349 / AU$699

Now then. This is premium territory for Nothing and then some, isn't it?

Given that the Nothing Headphone (1) launched in July 2025 for $299 / £299 / AU$549, and the follow-up Nothing Headphone (a) arrived in March 2026 for half that (at $199 / £149 / AU$329) Nothing essentially has to upsell its fans to the tune of $200 — or £200 — more than the most recent and very highly rated Headphone (a) release, to get you to look over at the Pro-suffixed set. And that is a big ask.

Now, consider the five-star CMF Headphone Pro, which I called "as good as $99 / £79 / AU$179 headphones can possibly look and sound" shortly after their release in September 2025. Hard not to think that the big ask just got even bigger, no?

Then again, $399 / £349 / AU$699 is not an unreasonable asking fee if they're that good; there's plenty at this level to pit them against in the wider flagship headphone space (Sony's WH-1000XM6 are $50 / £50 pricier, at $449 / £399 and the same AU$699 in Australia, for example).

It's just that rarely have I seen three sets of headphones from a single brand, all released all within the same 15-month period, that a) look so similar (see attached photos) in terms of design and shape, save for the case you put them in; and b) that vary so much in price.

So let's delve a little deeper, to see where the money's gone.

Nothing Headphone (1) Pro review: Specs

Nothing Headphone (1) Pro review: Features

• 5 Spatial Audio modes (Standard, Studio B by Metropolis, Live House, Club, Concert Hall) are fairly light touch
• Flat EQ switch to toggle between neutral and everyday listening (meant for pro mixing) is interesting, if hard to access… and not to my taste
• 5 mics per ear cup for ANC is a big improvement, aided by better passive NC

The headline-grabber here is the addition of Spatial Audio profiles that can either be deployed with or without head-tracking. If you're hoping for AirPods Max to Apple Music iPhone levels of head-turning immersive audio trickery, you'll be disappointed, but I did find the profiles added a sense of "OK, the live gig feels like it's in front of me" or "Oh I'm in a recording studio in leafy Chiswick, I get it" to the sound profiles.

As if to really emphasize the new audio architecture under the hood, Nothing has gone particularly specific with the EQ tabs here. If you bypass 'Simple' (which offers the usual 'vocal boost' presets and the option to create your own) and head to 'Advanced' within the Equaliser page on the Nothing X app, you can actually tweak the various settings per driver — well, for the 'precision driver' (ie. the midrange dynamic driver) and the 'main drivers' (which would be the 40mm bass dynamic unit and the xMEMS treble driver). Yes, really.

Add to this Nothing's Q Factor tab (to define the width or sharpness of the frequency band being boosted or cut), Gain (the loudness in decibels of a specific frequency band being toyed with) and Frequency (you can choose a specific frequency from 20Hz up to 40kHz to tweak) and essentially, if you're quite sure that 11,595Hz is where you need a boost you can have at it. And you can have it sharply, and with a modified jolt to the loudness, if you so want — by first locating the Precision dynamic driver dot on the stave, because that handles frequencies between 5 kHz–15 kHz.

While impressive to toy with, the above sonic tweaks pale into relative insignificance once you locate Personal Sound, in my opinion. It's not new to this product, but I've long been a fan. This is a test of your actual hearing, in whatever environment you find yourself. It takes around three minutes, during which you listen to ever-decreasing tones of different frequencies in each ear, until you cannot hear them. At the end of it, a personalized profile will be added to your cans and this, to me, makes a lot more difference than the tweaks I made without it. My hearing is good, but still, this test finds the areas that could be subtly bumped or eased off, for me.

Now, Nothing's 'Flat' EQ toggle, on the top inner edge of the left ear cup, developed alongside Metropolis Studios. Honestly, it's hard to find and difficult to switch on or off while wearing the headphones, but since you can't do so within the app, you will need to use said switch. The feature is billed as a "neutral profile that removes coloration and processing" and "designed for specific listening situations — like reviewing tracks or comparing mixes". Nothing even suggests that the type of situations in which you'll need it: "a clean setup to make critical listening decisions about how a track behaves before it reaches audiences." You should note that Transparency Mode, Spatial Audio and EQ settings are disabled when Flat EQ is on.

For me, Flat EQ is a miss. Deploy it and there's an odd sense of being in a tunnel with a bit of a warm veil and even a slight echo to the audio. It's novel, but neutral and useful for critical listening? During my testing, not so much.

What of the ANC? It's much better. Nothing has put three feed-forward and two feedback mics on each ear cup capture noise. The mics are also now positioned inward in a bid to better avoid direct wind exposure and airflow interference. Basically, Headphone (1) Pro does a better job at understanding your surroundings and adjusting things according to extraneous sounds in your immediate environment.

You can select Adaptive Active Noise Cancellation, which automatically adjusts between Low, Medium and High levels based on your surroundings for a claimed maximum of 46 dB of noise reduction, or manually select it yourself — and when deploying 'High' I was very impressed. My hunch is that the claimed "40% broader noise cancellation coverage across the frequency range" and "5 dB stronger average noise reduction than Headphone (1)" are true, but that aside from the mics and software, said improvements also have plenty to do with the stepped-up padding and new silicone ‘baffle wall’ around the cups to create a better seal around the ear.

Transparency mode? It's good. It really does do what it says on the tin: lets the world in (particularly my voice and the voices of those around me, vying for my attention), but without any tinniness to my music.

Elsewhere, you can "start a broadcast" to other Auracast-enabled devices nearby simply by playing music and toggling on 'Broadcast Audio' in the ap. You can also receive or join broadcasts (with or without a password, if you or your sharer has set one), which is fun and still relatively novel, despite Auracast having launched a few years ago now. Dual connection and a low-lag mode are here, and during my tests wearer-detection (which can be switched on or off in the device settings) was very reliable.

Lastly, call quality: very good indeed. My testing involved taking calls on a particularly windswept day on the Dorset coastline, yet callers said I sounded remarkably clear.

• Features score: 4.5 / 5

Nothing Headphone (1) Pro review: Sound quality

• LDAC support, plus hi-res wired via USB-C or 3.5mm bundled cables
• Highly tweakable sound (if hard to understand via the driver EQ tabs)
• Integrated and neutral by default — if you want 'fun' they may not be ideal

If you're in a rush, know that much of what I'm about to impart in this section can be boiled down to: "They're very good for sound, but better than the cheaper Nothing Headphone (a)? Not especially — unless you always listen with wires".

There are of course the additional spatial audio modes (all five of them, with the option of head-tracking) in this new product, whereas the Headphone (a) only offers a concert mode or cinema mode — and both of those can only move with your head, rather than giving you the option of using your device as a fixed source. However, I found each of the profiles within the Headphone (1) Pro quite light touch, rather than the "Wait, that's so good!" experience you get when sonic passages slip under your chin, past your left ear and down to the small of your back with the AirPods Max 2.

There's nothing wrong with subtlety and faithfulness to a recording (in fact I really like these attributes in headphones) but when listening to my specific reference tracks in an a/b test against the older Nothing headphones, I actually found the bite, attack and general zeal across the frequencies of the cheaper Headphone (a) marginally more fun to listen to than the integrated, studious, hi-fi approach of the Headphone (1) Pro.

That will of course be a matter of taste and may depend on which genres of music you most enjoy. Both sonic recipes are valid — and when listening via USB-C audio to hi-res tracks on my FiiO DAP, greater detail through the leading edges of notes can certainly be had in the Headphone (1) Pro, which makes sense when you realize that the Headphone (a) tops out at 24-bit/96kHz, whereas the Headphone (1) Pro lists resolutions at up to 24-bit/192 kHz when going wired with USB-C.

I cue up The Killers' In the Car Outside and there's a beautiful circumaural presentation to the audio. I have to commend Nothing on the multi-driver integration (the company is proud to have created one of the first over-ear headphones to use an xMEMS driver), with a treble that's particularly sparkling, easy and natural when Brandon Flowers starts to unfurl his vocal folds.

The Nothing Headphone (1) Pro also dig an extra ounce of texture and emotion from within John Frusciante's hard-lived but defiant vocal in Omission, alongside (but never at the expense of) the tambourine and female backing vocals. Switch to an instrumental or classical piece, such as Roberto Cacciapaglia's Universal Dance, and the Headphone (1) Pro are at their happiest, celebrating the rhythmic depression of keys in a cohesive and expansive mix. Head to BackRoad Gee's raucous, rough and ready grime track Live in the Flesh, however, and you may just think these headphones are playing a little safe through a clean, but perhaps marginally over-sanitized, low end.

That said, this is less about any sonic shortfalls with the product itself and more about the well-documented talents of Nothing's own previous (a)-suffixed cans which, however you slice it, are $200 (or £200) cheaper than these. And I'm just not sure the sound is that much better.

• Sound quality score: 4 / 5

Nothing Headphone (1) Pro review: Design

• Slightly firmer but still comfortable clamping force, which helps with ANC
• Triple-driver array is well handled
• Battery life is middling; the half-case is a sore point

I'm a big fan of the adjusted clamping force and general comfort levels here, despite the nominal additional weight (these weigh 327g; the older-generation set weigh 310g).

Nothing products are known for their forward-thinking design language and so if this section feels a tad longer than is traditional for a set of headphones, there’s your reason: there’s plenty to get through.

Visually as well as under the hood, the Headphone (1) Pro’s ear cups can be seen as a refinement on those in the Headphone (1) in the same way that the MiniDisc was a refinement on the cassette tape; much better technically, but perhaps unable to command the recognition or longevity it deserved. To be clear, yes, I have lived through both physical formats' respective heydays.

A lot of work has been done on this ear cup design and Nothing wants you to know it; the padding around each cup is dual-layer and much better; the hinges feel more premium (and are silent); the headband padding means said band never gets tender across the top of my head.

Sadly, we do need to talk about the case, though. It’s hard to find good things to say about it. At a time when Apple AirPods Max 2 arrived still wearing their ‘headphones bra’ idea in lieu of a much-wanted hard-shell case, it’s odd that Nothing didn’t read the room. Instead, Nothing unveiled something like that but bigger, heavier and clunkier, and that only covers the ear cups so your cans look like they’ve been dropped (and are still partially suspended) in wet cement.

And if you’re thinking that at least there’ll be room for your USB-C cable or even replacement batteries in that thing, surely, sadly no. The hinge isn’t especially premium and so the case simply clatters open, which is neither easy to use nor especially useful. It is also heavy at 383.5g (much heavier than the cans themselves) and, I believe, has been an expensive extra. I’d have preferred to opt out. For those who want to wear their headphones in places other than over their ears or draped around their neck, there are holes to fit your own shoulder strap to the Nothing case, so the whole thing can be worn like a cross-body handbag.

I can imagine Nothing's design team excitedly saying “It’s never been done before!” and the market research focus groups coming back with the reason why. This case makes the Nothing Headphone (1) Pro heavy, bulky and cumbersome.

Yes, there is a glass top plate to each driver housing, but Nothing took great pains to tell us how sturdy and shatter-proof this solution is, so there’s no need for such a bulky case, surely? I recently took a very long-haul flight — a great opportunity to test the active noise cancellation here, and very good it was. But let me tell you that once they were in my carry-on bag, I’d have given a lot of money not to have committed to this plan. And it’s a shame, because the actual audio architecture is really good here.

There are also a lot of buttons of varying shapes and sizes on the Headphone (1) Pro. The left ear cup is where you’ll find Nothing’s new ‘flat’ sound profile button slider, on the inner edge of the rectangular top corner of the softly rectangular earpiece. It’s a little hard to access and slide across during wear, but it’s there. The right earpiece, however, is a lot busier. It's a solution Nothing fans will know well, involving a button, a roller and a paddle — and I really like it. Said buttons are snappy and responsive, and the roller is a great way to tweak volume.

Where the design lets itself down, aside from the case, is when it comes to stamina. Where the older Nothing Headphone (a) could go for up to 135 hours without ANC on, or up to 75 hours with noise cancellation, you'll only get up to 68 hours — and that's without ANC. Switch on noise-nixing and you'll only get up to 30 hours of playtime; add LDAC to the mix and it drops to just 28 hours. See how it's hard to make a case for the newer set being a better buy, as well as being much more expensive?

• Design score: 3.5 / 5

Nothing Headphone (1) Pro review: Value

• Very good-looking headphones (until you put the case over them)
• Stuffed with features and sonically up to par, if low on stamina
• That case has eaten into Nothing's budget, though… 

The looks and style of these headphones (aside from the case) make them seem worthy of their price — and the sound is up to scratch. The ANC, too, is very good, as is the Transparency and extra whistles and bells.

There are two thorns in the Headphone (1) Pro's side: the stamina (which is a long way short of the cheaper cans they supersede) and the heavy unlikeable case. If there were a third, it would be the talents of the cheaper Headphone (a), which includes most of what makes the Headphone (1) Pro special, and delivers it for a lot less.

• Value score: 3 / 5

Should I buy the Nothing Headphone (1) Pro?

Nothing Headphone (1) Pro scores

Sonically neutral, solid ANC and packed with fun perks, but the battery life is middling and the case could be a deal-breaker

Features

4.5

Sound Quality

4

Design

3.5

Battery Life

3

Noise Cancellation

4.5

Value

3

Overall

4

012345

Group 1 Data

Product	Features ()	Sound Quality ()	Design ()	Battery Life ()	Noise Cancellation ()	Value ()	Overall ()
Nothing Headphone (1) Pro	4.5	4	3.5	3	4.5	3	4

Buy them if...

Don't buy them if...

Nothing Headphone (1) Pro review: Also consider

How I tested the Nothing Headphone (1) Pro

• Tested for two weeks, listened against the Headphone (a), AirPods Max 2, CMF Headphone Pro, Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 and Nothing Headphone (1)
• Listened at home, on a long-haul flight, in a hotel room in Tokyo and while walking alone along a blustery seafront, in the rain
• Listened to Tidal Masters, Qobuz and Apple Music Lossless tracks via USB-C to my FiiO player and streamed to my iPhone 15 Pro, MacBook Pro and Sony Xperia smartphone

The Nothing Headphone (1) Pro became my primary travel companions for two weeks — after a 24-hour run-in period. And to be honest, there were times when I wished I hadn't brought their heavy case along, in my hand luggage.

They accompanied me to the airport (walking brusquely to Heathrow's T5 from the Airport Express train) and even on the hotel balcony in Tokyo during a minor 5.0 earthquake — no really, I promise I'm telling the truth.

To assess comfort levels (very good), ANC (also very effective) and battery life claims (less impressive), I followed TechRadar's meticulous methodology testing and found much to report back on — including their slightly underwhelming stamina.

To check the audio chops across the frequencies, I listened for many hours, in various environments, to my own reference playlists on Apple Music, Qobuz and Tidal, alongside TechRadar's reference tracks, plus podcasts and movies.

I’ve been testing audio products for well over seven years now, full-time — first at our sister site What Hi-Fi? and now here at TechRadar. As a dancer, aerialist and musical theater performer in another life, I have always found sound quality, fit and the user experience to be key issues for me in headphones, but having heard how wonderful ANC can be when done well, I know what I'm listening out for there, too.

Read more about how we test earbuds at TechRadar

• First reviewed: September 2026

It feels like half of the reviews I do for TechRadar are of open earbuds, a relatively new form of listening gear that won't block your ear canals, leaving them free hear your surroundings. I'm not the only one who's been preoccupied with them though; it's becoming clear that they're the new big category in the headphone world.

According to fresh data from global technology analyst Omdia, the open earbuds market has been booming, increasing in sales by 12% in the year leading up to the second quarter of 2026. That's despite the overall wireless earbuds market dropping by about 2% in that time, now making up 13.5% of all sales of true wireless stereo (TWS) products.

Clip-on buds such as the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds have proven more popular, making up 61% of the open-ear sales, with hook models like the Shokz OpenFit 2+ taking up that other 39%.

But the biggest winner was the cheap earbud market, with sub-$50 open buds like the Soundpeats Pop Clip2 surging in sales by over 320%.

I've been reviewing this kind of design since the early days (well, since about 2023, but it's a very new form factor) and its surging popularity makes sense; it's part of a tech-wide trend which promises to topple giants and bring back classics.

The best tech is no tech?

A growing trend we've been seeing in the tech gadget world is... well, a desire to not have tech gadgets. Or rather, avoidance of the everything-smart, everything-connected world which big companies have been pushing onto us.

Feature phones (or dumb phones) are growing in popularity, as people look for a digital detox device which can keep them connected without being at the behest of a deluge of notifications, endless social media walls, incessant group chats.

New gadgets are increasingly sold on their suite of AI features... and as a result, struggle to gain consumer interest, because smart agents and tools like this are increasingly proving to only have niche appeal.

In the audio (and entertainment) world, streaming sites are increasingly being ditched in favor of physical media ownership; we're constantly seeing the release of new turntables, CD players, cassette players, so people don't have to rely on digital releases and algorithms.

And when was the last time you heard about the 'Internet of Everything', or smart homes? Or blockchain and cryptocurrency? We keep being told that these are the future, and consumers keep roundly ignoring them.

Despite this, big brands insist on inundating us with unwanted gadgets, and it is drawing the ire of the general public. Just look at smart glasses: their super-techy nature has resulted in a massive backlash, so much so that they've been widely banned in courts, theaters and restaurants. And that's before I mention the public's new fruity moniker for them — something it'll be tough to bounce back from.

There are numerous reasons for our new-found preference for the 'dumb'; price hikes on gadgets and a plateau what gadgets can do both contribute. But there's another factor: being 'connected' in a tech sense often means being online, which can increasingly mean being a) having our data scraped and stored, and b) disconnected from the real world.

The ultimate digital detox headphones

And that last point is where open earbuds come in. These headphones are defined by the fact that you're not disconnected when you use them.

I love open earbuds because, when I'm wearing them, I'm still aurally connected to the world. If I'm wearing them on the road, I can hear traffic. If I'm at home and my flatmate speaks to me, I know what he's saying. If I'm on the train and hear an announcement, I get the information.

For years, the best noise-cancelling headphones have sold themselves on increasingly advanced ways of isolating you from the annoyingly noisy reality of a world filled with people. But that's clearly not what many buyers actually want; just look at the resurgence in wired earbuds, which have no noise cancellation to speak of.

It's not just the open nature of these buds, though. It's a rebellion against all the smart features brands think we want in our earbuds — think AI assistants, health features and real-time language translation.

Most open earbuds I've tested have been quite light on features, omitting many of the smart tools that in-ear buds sell themselves on. Partly, this could be because their actual earpieces are rather small, and they just don't have space for the hardware to support this kind of feature.

But in part, it's a key component of the sales pitch: these are supposed to be light, in weight and in feature set, so they can fit effortlessly on top of your life without shoving a plethora of features down your throat.

To me, digital detox devices give you the key thing you want from the gadget (in this case, music) without adding extraneous layers on top — a fact which often cuts their price. And that's why open earbuds are proving so popular: they offer the one thing you want, and relatively few dubious extras.

Solving non-tech user gripes

Aside from the dumb-tech trend, open earbuds also offer a tempting alternative to headphones, in that they solve some common gripes. They're also seen as a safer option when travelling solo, particularly at night — my audio editor tells me she's often been warned, in public, about wearing over-ear headphones when walking home alone.

The lack of noise cancellation or smart features in most open buds means that their battery lives are good; I'd say the average single-charge life span of most open earbuds I test sits at 10-12 hours, while standard noise-cancelling earbuds last for about 6-8 hours.

I personally love how well they fit, especially clip-style open earbuds. Early models were intended for fitness uses, and they've kept this a core part of their DNA. I frequently run, cycle or gym, and I have a massive problem with in-ear buds falling out of my ears when I'm exercising (or just walking, in some of the worst cases). Not so for open earbuds; other than a few exceptions, they can be relied on to have an impeccable fit.

Now, I'd be remiss not to bring up open earbuds' one longstanding problem: they don't sound quite as good through the bass as other earbuds. After all, the entire point is that the driver is some distance from your ear, to avoid blocking it. And while many brands are making great progress in this area, I can't pretend that, say, the Soundpeats Clip1 match the contemporary Soundpeats H3, for example.

But does anyone buy wireless earbuds because they care about music fidelity? Anyone who wants amazing sound will buy the best headphones, or wired earbuds / in-ear monitors. I maintain that wireless earbuds are gadgets of convenience first and foremost. Which is why I'm finding it increasingly easy to forgive open earbuds' sound quality.

It's not a fad, but is it a phase?

Open earbuds are a continuation of something that's been going on for years. Plenty of buds, like the standard AirPods, don't fully block up your ear canal (something referred to as 'open-fit earbuds', rather than fully 'open earbuds') letting you hear what's going on around you. But in those buds, that was a side-effect of the tip-free design, rather than the point.

Because of that, I don't see these being a fad. I think we'll continue to see open earbuds released for years to come. But we're seeing a huge spike in popularity, which isn't sustainable.

Many massive audio brands have, so far, sat out the open earbuds trend. Major names such as Apple, Samsung and Beats have so far sat out of this race (no, the Powerbeats Pro aren't open, despite the arm around the ear) even while releasing wireless earbuds (though Samsung is said to be working on some). Instead, plenty of the smaller brands — or dedicated sports tech specialists — are inundating the market with options.

I'm sure open earbuds will follow the noise cancellation trajectory: they'll boom for a few years, then see a lull in sales, and will slowly settle into a sustainable share of the market. After all, a defining trait of the 'dumb-tech' trend is that you don't frequently buy new gadgets. One pair will see you through for years.

So open earbuds aren't a fad; they're here to stay. But that doesn't mean the market share will keep increasing forever. Enjoy this period of weird experimentation and countless new models.

The Sonos Ace Ultra just dropped, and they might just be my favorite headphones of 2026. They’re a considerable upgrade over the original Ace, boasting far better musicality, incredible movie audio, expanded Sonos ecosystem support, and seriously good ANC. It really feels like Sonos has made a statement with this release, and the multi-room specialist is finally ready to take on the titans of the headphone world.

But just how well do the Sonos Ace Ultra shape up against their class-leading rivals at this money? I wanted to find out for myself, so I tested them against one of their fiercest competitors: the Sony WH-1000XM6. Sony’s flagship headphones come in at the same price point as the Ace Ultra and they too supply stellar sound, noise-crushing ANC, and a swathe of fantastic features.

So, which headphones are better: the Sonos Ace Ultra or the Sony WH-1000XM6? I’ve compared them across four key areas: features, sound quality, design, and value, to help you decide which are the best headphones for you. The Sony WH-1000XM6 have been my go-to headphones for well over a year, but this contest was genuinely far closer than I’d expected. But anyway, let the battle commence — oh, and make sure to stick around 'til the end, for my verdict.

Sonos Ace Ultra vs Sony WH-1000XM6: price & availability

The Sonos Ace Ultra were released in September 2026, about two years after the original Sonos Ace headphones arrived on the scene. The Ace Ultra cost $449 / £399 / AU$699, which is cheaper than the standard model cost at launch in the UK, and the same price as the original Ace launched at in both the US and Australia.

Meanwhile, the Sony WH-1000XM6 are a little older, and hit the market back in May 2025. They cost the same as the Sonos Ace Ultra, carrying a price tag of $449 / £399 / AU$699. As they’ve been about for a little longer, it’s more likely that you’ll find these cans on sale, and we have seen them drop below $380 / £300 / AU$500 before. While neither of these models are cheap, they both offer incredible quality across the board, with excellent sound quality and features, which helps to justify the steep asking price.

Sonos Ace Ultra vs Sony WH-1000XM6: specs

Sonos Ace Ultra vs Sony WH-1000XM6: features

Let me be clear from the offset: when it comes to features, these two pairs of wireless headphones are arguably the very best on the market. So, as you can imagine, it’s hard to pick a winner here.

The Sonos Ace Ultra and Sony WH-1000XM6 share a lot of the same positives: they each have extensive EQ options, with multi-band custom options, wired and Bluetooth connectivity, wear detection, and impressive ANC.

When it comes to noise-cancelling specifically, both are excellent performers, and easily dispose of external sounds like surrounding chatter and traffic noise. In my testing, I found the Sony WH-1000XM6 to have a very slight edge, though, perhaps lending to their larger microphone system (12 mics to the Ace Ultra’s 10) — they dulled deep sounds like engines rumbling to slightly greater effect.

Something that the Sonos Ace supply that Sony can’t compete with, is wider ecosystem support. TV Audio Linking enables you to transfer audio from a compatible Sonos soundbar and enjoy immersive sound privately, while Headphone Linking gives you the option to hand off audio to supported speakers, including the Sonos Play (or vice versa) for a seamless listening experience, no matter where you are.

Another thing that I love about the Ace Ultra is their native Dolby Atmos support. This means you can enjoy Dolby Atmos music and movies at their very best, and with the help of head-tracking, I’ve been able to enjoy deliciously expansive movie audio with impressive height effects and clear dialogue to boot. The Sony WH-1000XM6 aren’t as accomplished for movies, and while they feature a Cinema upmix mode, which transfers a stereo signal into a more expansive format, the actual quality of this is a little disappointing.

While we’re on the topic of sound-related features, it’s worth talking about codecs. Each of these headphones possesses something the other does not. And that’s because the Sonos Ace Ultra boast aptX codec support — something Sony skips on — while the XM6 feature LDAC, which their competitor leaves out. Both of these open up higher-res Bluetooth streaming, opening up a more detailed listen than you’d get with SBC or AAC, for instance.

The key differentiator here is compatibility. Apple fans, I’m sorry, but your phone supports neither of these. Android users, there’s a very high chance that your handset can make use of LDAC, which is actually a proprietary technology developed by Sony itself. However, it’s a different story with aptX. Fewer phones support this, and although I get to enjoy it on my Xiaomi 17, a lot of models leave it out. Both models support lossless wired listening, although only Sonos has USB-C audio passthrough, which is more convenient in my view — after all, so many of us carry around USB-C cables to charge our phones and other devices

In terms of battery life, these cans are close, but Sonos is the overall winner. The Ace Ultra provide 35 hours of playback with ANC switched on, whereas Sony give you 30 hours. That’s a pretty average amount of playtime to get from headphones in this price-class, but if you do run out of charge, you can use both pairs while they regain life via USB-C.

Finally, a word on controls. The Sonos Ace Ultra feature responsive, well-sized, and precise button controls. But they don’t have touch controls, something the WH-100XM6 pull off brilliantly. Sony’s cans have reactive and intuitive touch controls that I love. A single press won’t trigger anything so you can avoid accidental commands, but you can swipe on the right earcup to adjust playback and even cover it with your hand to enter into transparency mode. As much as I appreciate the reliability of Sonos’ buttons, I prefer Sony’s approach.

So, who’s the winner in the features category? It’s such a close one: I think Sony has a slight edge in ANC, I like the touch controls, and the broader compatibility of LDAC is a win. However, Sonos’ ecosystem interplay, native Atmos support, USB-C audio, and better battery life is pretty impressive too. Let’s call this category a tie.

Sonos Ace Ultra vs Sony WH-1000XM6: sound quality

While both of these headphones sound great, and there’s not a big different in quality, there’s only one winner for me.

The Sonos Ace Ultra made a big step up from the original Ace, especially when it comes to musicality. They provide well-balanced sound, with satisfyingly deep, regimented bass, clean mids, and expressive highs. But how do they compete against the Sony WH-1000XM6?

Well, allow me to reference my listening notes. In the funk tack, Joía rara by Brylho, both sets kept electric guitars well-separated from vocals and other instruments in the mid-range, almost making it sound as if they were playing in a unique pocket. Both also plated up well-weighted, clean bass, and finer details, like subtle percussive elements came through nicely. I did find, though, that the XM6 handled vocals with a bit more care — they sounded a bit more natural, and more effectively defined in the mix.

Moving onto a house track next, with Get it on by Jansons. This was a tight contest, the Ace Ultra’s deep bass came through with palpable impact, and higher-pitched drums sounded tastefully forward without getting shrill or tinny. It was the same on the XM6 — thumping yet agile bass alongside bright and precise treble, helping to capture the exciting, energetic vibe. I perhaps found that the XM6 offered slightly better dynamism, though — drops just had a bit more impact, which isn’t to say that the Ace fell flat, they were just marginally outclassed.

More generally, I found that the XM6 slightly edged out the Ace Ultra with more dynamic low-end output and better detailing, especially in the mid-range.

It’s worth noting that I do consider the Ace Ultra to be superior for movies. They have native Dolby Atmos support, and with built-in head-tracking, you can experience truly mesmerizing audio for all your movie-watching needs. When I connected the headphones up to the Sonos Beam Ultra via TV Audio Swap, I was blown away by the fidelity of height effects, the phenomenal width, and clear dialogue available. Sony’s headphones are good for movies, and they do feature some head-tracking technology (albeit more restrictive), but the Ace Ultra were clearly designed with movies in mind to a much greater extent.

Still, it’s important to have some perspective. The vast majority of people aren’t buying wireless headphones solely to watch movies. The most important thing is portable musical performance, and while the Sonos Ace Ultra get close to the Sony WH-1000XM6, they fall just short overall — and as a result, I’m handing Sony the W here.

Sonos Ace Ultra vs Sony WH-1000XM6: design

At a glance, these headphones might not look wildly different, especially as I tested two very similar colorways… but there are some notable deviations worth discussing.

In my view, the Sonos Ace Ultra are the better looking pair of headphones. They have a slimmer form factor with flatter ear cups, which look a bit more flattering than the XM6’s bulky ones. Their metallic details and curved look also gives them a premium yet understated aesthetic which I can’t get enough of.

The XM6 aren’t bad-looking at all, I just don’t think they quite match the luxurious vibe of the Ace Ultra. But what I do like about these is that they’re fully foldable. This means they’re amazing for travel — just fold’ em up, throw them in your bag, and you’re good to go. The ear cups can fold down on the Ace, enabling them to fit in their carry case, but they’re not quite as flexible as Sony’s flagship model.

On the topic of cases, Sony takes the win here. They have an enticing hard case which uses a magnet lock, meaning it’s so quick and easy to whip them out or stow them away. The Ace Ultra’s case doesn’t have the same premium feel, and it also has a pretty low-quality zip that jams a bit too regularly for my liking.

Neither of these models have an IP rating, which denotes dust and waterproofing capabilities — something that, in fairness, is rarely seen on over-ears (though some, like the Noble FoKus Artemis, do boast an IP rating).

But both models are very comfortable and don’t clamp too hard on my head, which makes it easy to listen to music for hours on end. This means they’re pretty close overall in the design section, but personally, I’d take the sleeker look and more luxurious design of the Ace Ultra over the XM6 — even if the latter are fully foldable and have a better carry case.

Sonos Ace Ultra vs Sony WH-1000XM6: value

So, it’s been a tight contest so far. And when you consider that both the Ace Ultra and XM6 have the same list price, deciding which offers better value for money is very tough indeed.

The truth is this: the better-value model is going to be very dependent on your needs and expectations. If you already own a Sonos system, and want interplay with your speakers and maybe even a soundbar, then the Ace Ultra are incredibly attractive. Their ANC and sound quality isn’t far off the XM6’s, they’re superior for movies, and I think they’re more stylish too.

But if you want the best all-round pair of headphones in this price bracket, I still don’t think you can beat the Sony WH-1000XM6 right now. They offer slightly more detailed, dynamic audio than the Ace Ultra, their ANC is class-leading, and they have no shortage of features, a fully foldable design, and their battery life is close to that of their Sonos rival.

In the context of this showdown, the XM6’s older age also works in their favor somewhat — we’ve seen them go on sale a few times here and there, so chances are, you’ll be able to swipe them up for less than the Ace Ultra in practice. I think you’ll be exceedingly happy with either of these models, but unless you want interplay with your Sonos system and top-tier Atmos for movies, then I think the Sony WH-1000XM6 give you ever-so-slightly more bang for your buck.

Sonos Ace Ultra vs Sony WH-1000XM6: verdict

So, there you have it. As I mentioned in the value section, it’s been a close affair, but I think the Sony WH-1000XM6 are the best headphones for most people at the time of writing. Ultimately, their marginal wins over Sonos in terms of ANC, musicality, and flexibility give them the edge.

If you have a Sonos system, though, I do think the Ace Ultra are worth picking for their seamless connectivity with your speakers and soundbar. And the Ace Ultra do offer a few improvements over Sony’s cans, like higher battery life, a more luxurious look, and better sound for movies.

Both are great options, however, so you can feel confident in your choice, whether you opt for Sonos or Sony. But what do you think? Would you choose the Sonos Ace Ultra or Sony WH-1000XM6? Let me know in the comments.

We’ve just published our Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 5 review and, spoiler alert, it’s glowing and they're certainly in with a shot of claiming a spot in my guide to the best wireless earbuds in Australia. However, for all their talents, there’s no denying they’re expensive at AU$499 RRP.

The good news is that now they’ve launched, it means their just-as-talented predecessor, the Momentum True Wireless 4, enjoys a significant discount, and have now plummeted to AU$249 in Amazon's Prime Big Deal Days sale.

• Follow our dedicated live coverage of the Amazon Prime Big Deal Days 2026 sale for more deals and discounts

Sennheiser is no stranger to producing quality headphones, but I do feel the brand can go under the radar for many, being overshadowed by the likes of Apple and Sony. And that’s a shame, because when you consider pairs of earbuds such as the Momentum True Wireless 4, there’s an awful lot to like.

As we said in our Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 4 review, “sound quality is where [they] shine”. These compact ‘buds serve up a neutral sound profile, and will reproduce any genre you want to throw at them with accuracy and packed with detail.

The new model also favours a neutral approach, and as we said in the review of that pair they "essentially sound about the same as Momentum True Wireless 4”, no doubt in part because they use the same 7mm TrueResponse dynamic drivers. That makes the huge price cut on the MTW4 all the more impressive and worth considering.

There are a few concessions compared with the newer model, of course. The MTW4 have Sennheiser’s older, slightly bulkier design, while the MTW5 sit lower in the ear and have been reshaped for a more comfortable fit. The newer buds also step up to Bluetooth 6.0, increase total battery life from 30 to 40 hours, add an improved eight-mic calling system and introduce user-replaceable batteries.

However, none of those upgrades fundamentally change the core listening experience — especially when the MTW4 is now half the price.

Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 5: Two-minute review

Sennheiser doesn’t rush its new products — especially within the best earbuds market. It’s been over two years since the launch of the Momentum True Wireless 4 and, even back then, I remember the brand saying at my product briefing that they were already at work planning ahead for potential EU regulations. Which regulations specifically? That the batteries within these tiny earpieces may well need to be user-replaceable in coming launches.

Those laws are still on the horizon… sort of. Other brands have had their complaints, saying the rules force tiny devices to be bulkier and less waterproof, so there are now various exceptions. Sennheiser, though, stuck to its plan. With the launch of the Momentum True Wireless 5, the company is proving that user-replaceable batteries are possible even in products as small as wireless earbuds.

Longevity is only one part of the story when it comes to these new buds though. Much like the new Momentum 5 over-ear headphones, they’re stuffed full of upgrades. They’ve now got a refreshed premium design, a different shape and fit, improved noise-cancelling and transparency, refined sound, and extra features, such as immersive Dolby Atmos audio and aptX Lossless high-res streaming. Spoiler alert for the rest of this review, but they’re the complete package.

After more than two weeks of use, the Momentum True Wireless 5 (or MTW5) have quickly become my new favorite wireless buds for just about anything and everything. They’re quite clearly the flagship to beat in 2026.

To my ears, they’re better-sounding than the top rivals from Technics and JBL, with an enjoyable, neutral, yet non-fatiguing sound that caters to critical listening. The improved ANC is now only a slight step behind Apple, Bose and Sony’s best, and that gap is close enough to barely matter for most of us.

Crucially, the Sennheiser buds are highly customizable with the Smart Control Plus app, an intuitive platform that I find to be one of the best companion apps in the business. Should you want to, you can adjust the sound, tap controls, ANC levels, codecs in use, battery preservation, and more.

The sustainability credentials and long-term usability make them easy to recommend. But once you add in their natural audio on a wide soundstage, high-end style, comfortable fit, and smart companion app features, the Momentum True Wireless 5 might just be the best buds out there for the money.

Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 5: price & release date

• Launched in September 2026
• Sells for $300 / £250 / AU$499

How much money, though? For high-end earbuds, you expect a high cost, and the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 5 are launching at the competitive price of $300 / £250 / AU$499.

Unsurprisingly, that puts the MTW5 pretty much in the mix with the rest of the flagships. Apple’s AirPods Pro are $50 cheaper at $249, but these directly compete with Sony’s WF-1000XM6 — costing $329 / £250 / AU$499.95 — and the Bose QuietComfort Ultra (2nd Gen) – for $299 / £299 / AU$450. And, of course, luxury or boutique pairs such as the Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 ($399 / £349 / AU$599) or Master & Dynamic MW09 ($349 / £319 / AU$599) will still cost a fair chunk of cash more.

No matter how you look at it though, these are pricey for most of us. But once you factor in the replaceable batteries, it’s easy to see how these could keep you going for longer than others on the market. And these are the first premium buds from an audio brand to have this repairability feature, with Fairphone's Fairbuds being essentially the only other rival even attempting it. So, kudos there.

Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 5 review: specs

Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 5 review: Features

• User-replaceable batteries (for both the buds and the case)
• Bluetooth 6.0 with seamless multipoint switching
• Head-tracked Dolby Atmos spatial audio

The replaceable battery is the headline feature here, of course. It’s a big deal because the batteries are what's most likely to degrade first in your earphones. Until recently, the glued-in cells in wireless buds have meant that, one way or another, they’re destined to be e-waste in only a matter of years.

Sennheiser includes a battery replacement tool for the buds in the case, and you can access the case battery and the bud batteries with the help of a tiny screwdriver. Luckily, the required screwdriver is the one I have on hand to adjust my glasses. To do my due diligence for this review (even though these fresh buds would be a long way away from needing their batteries replaced) I’ve gone through the process of opening up both the case and buds, and can confirm it’s easy enough as long as you follow the instructions on how to use the included tool. Just be careful as you’re dealing with delicate, small parts.

I also spoke with Frank Foppe, the product manager for the MTW5, and I asked how long they’re made to last before a battery replacement might be needed. He confirmed that about 80-90% of the capacity should remain after 500 charge cycles. That’d mean you could use them every single day for two hours and get to four years of use before you notice much of a difference.

And, while Sennheiser isn’t yet able to confirm the cost of replacement batteries, once those are available, they should make a big difference to the longevity of the MTW5. You could realistically buy these earbuds, take care of them, replace the batteries and keep them working for well over five years or much more (as long as all other parts remain functional).

Right now, you should get 6 hours of playtime with ANC on, and up to 12 hours with it off. Sennheiser claims an ANC-off battery life totalling 40 hours once you factor in the charging case, which seems to be about right in my testing. I ran a test playing a Spotify playlist for three hours at 50% volume with ANC on, and had 60% remaining, which confirms a single-charge runtime of around 7.5 hours, a little better than Sennheiser’s estimate. Recharging is via the USB-C port on the case or wireless charging, and a quick charge of eight minutes gives you an hour of use.

Much like the MTW4, Sennheiser has also made these a “future-proof” pair of earbuds when it comes to the feature set. They include several abilities other current launches still lack, and they have the brand’s excellent battery protection feature (to slow down charging and limit the charge level to 80%), which is another way they’re designed for long-term use.

You’ve got Bluetooth 6.0 with Snapdragon sound, a low-latency mode, support for lossless audio and 24-bit/96kHz streaming, Dolby Atmos head-tracked immersive audio, reliable wear detection, excellent multipoint switching, Google Fast Pair, Microsoft Swift Pair, and upgraded microphones for better noise-cancelling and transparency, along with LE audio and Auracast (not at launch, but promised for a future firmware update).

While I’d found ANC on the MTW4 “effective”, I’d say the new version definitely takes things a step further. We’ve now got four microphones per earbud (plus bone-conduction voice sensors for calls), which is up from three per bud on the predecessor. In all the environments where I’ve used noise-cancelling – including coffee shops, city streets and the London Underground – I’ve found my music or podcasts still audible at reasonable volumes without needing to turn it up to overpower the noise.

The wind-noise reduction kicks in quickly and is also excellent, and I should know, as it’s been particularly windy on my walks lately! Noise-cancelling, overall, feels quite natural while still being capable enough to silence a great range of outside sounds, adapting well to changes in your environment.

But it still isn’t quite the “bubble of silence” ANC that you can get from the AirPods Pro 3 or Bose QuietComfort Ultra earbuds! I don’t find that it’s a difference that matters that much anymore, but it’s worth knowing that there’s even more powerful ANC out there.

Transparency is brilliant, though, and up there with AirPod models for how natural its passthrough of the outside world is. I also love that turning on transparency pauses your audio. I listen to podcasts a lot, and having a one-tap way to pause and get awareness is fantastic for quickly saying hi to the cashier at my local corner shop. I also tested the microphones with calls and voice notes. They’re decent at isolating my voice when playing loud, busy cafe background noise, but with the occasional missed word or two. That said, they’re good for outdoor calls and great in a quiet room.

• Features score: 4 / 5

Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 5 review: Sound quality

• Neutral sound on a wide soundstage
• Excellent detail and warmth for a non-fatiguing listen
• Highly customizable in the app

Sennheiser markets these as “engineered for serious listeners” and I don't disagree. They’re not really made with bass-heads in mind, and have more of a neutral approach when compared to some consumer sound profiles. But they’re also not sterile, offering warmth, depth and smoothness. You get just enough weight and control to the bass, a natural midrange and crisp highs, plus a lot of flexibility to adjust the sound to your liking.

If you know much about the previous generations of these earbuds, all that I’ve just said won’t come as a big surprise. While there are slight refinements to the sound, these essentially sound about the same as the MTW4 and MTW3 before them. They use the same 7mm TrueResponse dynamic drivers from the predecessors, and one notable benefit over rivals is a greater width to the soundstage and a palpable sense of instrumental separation.

Billie Eilish’s Oxytocin is a fantastic test track for these buds — with effects zipping across the mix, perfectly centered lead vocals, and breathy backing vocals coming at you from all sides. I played the spatial mix from Apple Music and switched on Dolby Atmos, and it’s definitely a convincing implementation of the processing. As my playlist went on, I began to encounter tracks not mixed for spatial audio, though, and you’d need to manually turn off Atmos so those don’t sound a bit weird.

I far prefer Dolby Atmos over most proprietary spatial options, so I appreciate its presence here, but I’d make sure you only use it when listening to playlists or albums full of tracks optimized for Atmos. It works best with Atmos-certified content, and in those cases much of the processing will be done on the source device.

Head tracking works, but it’s still not essential. The fixed spatial audio is plenty, and I still recommend mostly using this mode with films and TV shows designed for immersion, rather than music, which can be a little more hit-and-miss. I tested it with Severance on Apple TV and found it enhanced the eeriness of the quiet sound design and the dialogue clarity.

I tested bass with my go-to low-end thump test, the slow-burn sub-bass of Massive Attack’s Angel. The MTW5 excel, not coming off as overly bloated or boomy, but instead clear and textured. Vocal and midrange realism is where Sennheiser’s natural tuning pays off most. Listening to Coldplay’s Clocks reveals more detail and subtleties I don’t usually hear. And I moved on to the busy mix of Muse's Supermassive Black Hole, where every element feels defined, without the smearing you so often hear from lesser drivers. The width of the soundstage makes for a more engaging listen and, when combined with the tightness of the bass and detail in vocals, I’d say they’re a pair that’s ideal for a relaxed listening experience.

They’re so non-fatiguing that I can keep listening for hours and hours. The most intense audiophiles may still have their nitpicks, as these are tuned more for musical enjoyment than they are for being analytical, but I really think there’s very little that can’t be solved with the 8-band EQ. A full parametric equaliser (as on the HDB630 over-ears) would’ve been a great customization feature, but it’s also one that many users wouldn’t find intuitive.

Sennheiser’s Sound Personalization is a companion to EQ, and is a blend between a preference test and hearing evaluation, where you tweak the volume of different instruments to your liking, and then use a slider to find the lowest level at which you can hear the sample track. The result still sounded great for me, but I ultimately found that I prefer the default “Neutral” after comparing the two.

My honest view on the codec support is that it’s very easy to get lost in the weeds with it all, and far more of this is marketing than most of us tend to admit. The high-res aptX Lossless codec is present, but only kicks in with compatible Android sources, so you may not be able to engage this mode anyway.

I tested it with the Fairphone 6 Plus, which supports the full aptX suite, but it wouldn’t shift out of Adaptive. But this isn’t surprising given that “Lossless” is more of a “mode” hiding inside aptX Adaptive. Basically, this can all get a bit confusing, and there isn’t a substantial difference. A competent codec like AAC will give you quality with virtually no audible difference from aptX, thanks to Sennheiser’s great tuning and driver design. If you have a phone supporting aptX Adaptive, you may hear a tiny difference, but I wouldn’t bet on it.

These sound superb, so you’re not losing anything by choosing “Robust connection” instead of the “Advanced sound quality” mode. You won’t be able to tell them apart, and you’ll get to use every feature (Atmos is unavailable if you turn on high-res, for example).

• Sound quality score: 5 / 5

Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 5 review: Design

• New, premium design with a shallow fit and slim case
• Comfortable to wear all day
• Screws for the user-replaceable batteries

Fans of the fabric-wrapped case may be disappointed to see how Sennheiser changed things up with the MTW5. The buds now live in a slim and lightweight, textured plastic casing with a shiny circular logo on top. This case has a sturdy metal hinge, one of the best I’ve tried, and the USB-C port is now at the bottom left (it used to be on the front of the older design). On the case and buds, you’ll see the screws needed for changing batteries, but the earphones are still IP54 dust- and splash-resistant.

The fabric case of the MTW4 I tested quickly picked up a big scuff, so I’m hardly mourning its departure. In fact, everything about the MTW5 feels significantly more premium to me. Another added benefit? This svelte approach is far more pocket-friendly.

The buds themselves are very shiny, which I quite like but may divide opinions, and they’ve got a different form factor, at a similar size and weight (7g per bud vs 6.2g for the MTW4). They’re on the chunkier side, so are harder to recommend for those with the smallest ears. They now fit in a totally different way from the predecessor, too, with a much shallower fit and no stability fins. Despite lacking the fins, they actually fit me slightly better.

Even more than with other buds I’ve tried, you absolutely must double-check your ear tip sizes with the four options in the box (I needed a larger tip size in my right ear than in my left). And try not to twist them too much, as I’ve found that can break the seal and introduce friction noise when you walk while ANC is on. A gentle turn is all you need to lock them in place, and with the new thicker silicone tip material Sennheiser uses, they shouldn’t budge. With a good fit, it’s a secure seal that offers great passive noise isolation.

Aside from being shiny, the buds have a more curved look (a bit reminiscent of the Sony WF-1000XM5) and an “anti-wind” design, with a visible grille covering the mics at the front. They’re still controlled with customizable tap gestures, but the touch target is now noticeably smaller, and it’s one of my few (minor) negative points. I find you have to be pretty intentional about where you tap, because it’s easy to miss and do a single tap when you intend to double-tap.

Overall, I’m a big fan of the rounded, stylish new design, and I love that it comes in a more expansive range of colors (Graphite, Copper, Denim, Lavender and the Cream shade reviewed here) than the likes of AirPods or Sony buds. But you might find these distractingly shiny and not suit the shallow fit or chunky body. How much you like them will come down to personal preference.

• Design score: 4.5 / 5

Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 5 review: Value

• Competitive with other high-end buds
• Feature-packed and premium
• Loads of rivals, but very few offer replaceable batteries

Sennheiser is not short of competition. The key rivals are the AirPods Pro 3, Sony WF-1000XM6, Bose QuietComfort Ultra (2nd Gen), JBL Tour Pro 3 and Technics EAH-AZ100. In direct comparison, though, the MTW5 is packed full of features that some of these lack, and they deliver a natural and clear sound instead of the bass-forward sound of many other buds.

Ultimately, though, Sennheiser’s value argument comes down to how it offers user-replaceable batteries. Assuming these batteries are under $50, you won’t be forced to throw away your $300 pair when the cells naturally degrade in about three to four years or so. That’ll help if you consider them as a long-term investment.

With that said, the landscape won’t stay the same. New buds with replaceable batteries will eventually launch, and many will surely be cheaper than this too. For flagship quality in sound, design, comfort, and battery life, though, I’d bet Sennheiser’s Momentum True Wireless 5 will remain some of the best buds you can buy for years to come.

• Value score: 5 / 5

Should I buy the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 5?

Buy them if…

Don’t buy them if…

Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 5 review: also consider

How I tested the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 5

• Tested for over two weeks
• Paired with Android, iOS and macOS devices
• Used during multiple activities

I tested the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 5 for over two weeks, pairing them with my iPhone 17 Pro, MacBook Air, Fairphone 6 Plus and Activo P1 music player, all of which allowed me to thoroughly test different codecs and multipoint connectivity.

I took them with me everywhere and I used the earbuds while on the London Underground, at coffee shops and while walking on city streets to test the active noise-cancelling capabilities, and I used them for long listening sessions while working to evaluate battery life. I tested calls and microphone recordings, and ran a controlled battery test to see how much they drained over the course of three hours. While testing, I listened to podcasts and music from a wide variety of genres, mostly streamed from Apple Music but also on Spotify and Deezer.

I've been testing gadgets since 2020, and I've reviewed countless headphones and earbuds, including several flagship earbuds including those from Bose, Apple, Technics, JBL and Sennheiser, and I previously tested out the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3 and Momentum True Wireless 4.

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

JBL Live Flex 4 review

The JBL Live Flex 4 might be the perfect option for you if you want earbuds that put comfort first. Their lightweight, relaxed fit is perfect for listening on the go, meaning that, unlike some earbuds with a tight in-ear seal, they won't get tiresome or irritating after a while. And yet you can use them with ANC or transparency modes, giving you the option to shut the outside world out, or stay aware of your surroundings to impressive effect.

But perhaps the real draw of the JBL Live Flex 4 is their smart charging case. It has a touchscreen equipped, enabling you to adjust ANC, EQ, playback and more, all without having to whip out your source device. If your phone or music streamer is in your bag or if you don’t want to go to the hassle of opening up the JBL Headphones app, this is pretty convenient.

Is the smart case gimmicky? Maybe a bit, but I like a good gimmick from time to time. And it's super-responsive, with a massive quantity of features onboard. Other than those I mentioned above, the Flex 4 case lets you alter speech for calling, toggle spatial audio, switch audio source, and even use tools such as a timer and flashlight. As a result, these earbuds easily rival the very best wireless earbuds when it comes to features and usability.

The JBL Headphones app does offer a bit more functionality, though. For example, it gives you the ability to set a custom wallpaper for your earbuds case, and activate the higher-resolution codec, LDAC, which can provide better quality playback if your source device is compatible. Most Android phones support LDAC, though iPhone users won’t be able to make use of it.

I’ve mentioned ANC a few times, and I have to say, it’s surprisingly effective here. You see, the JBL Live Buds 4 and JBL Live Beam 4 offer an in-ear seal, so I expected a lot from them in terms of noise-cancelling — but they ended up being fairly middling in this area for me. Compared to the competition, however, I found the Live Flex 4 to be pretty adept at muffling my surroundings.

Sure, the open architecture means that harsher sounds will seep in, but when on walks and working in the office, sounds like cars passing by and colleagues typing were subdued to decent effect. Again, the open design has its limitations, but the improved ‘True Adaptive Noise Cancelling 2.0’ on the Flex 4 proved to be a hit on this model.

The six-microphone system of the Flex 4 also means that calls are clear — and although my voice wasn’t always the most defined against background noise, I found my speech to be perfectly comprehensible, especially when making a recording and listening back to my voice.

What’s more, these buds offer pretty solid battery life. You get seven hours from the Flex 4 with ANC on, up to 10 hours with ANC off, and a maximum of 48 hours with the case. That’s a lot better than the new AirPods 5 with Wireless Charging, which sits at a similar price-point (although Apple's offering is just slightly cheaper). The Flex 4 also support wireless charging, which is always nice to have.

But here comes the crucial question: do the JBL Live Flex 4 sound any good? Well, let me begin by saying that the Live Buds 4 and Live Beam 4 perform better than these — and this comes down solely to the more relaxed fit, which means that sound is less concentrated in your ear canals, and low frequencies especially are less impactful.

This is why I typically steer clear of open-fit earbuds like the non-pro variants of the AirPods, for example. But actually, the Flex 4 ended up performing admirably, despite the limitations of the design.

They conjure up a relatively wide, spacious soundstage and, despite being open-fit earbuds, have pretty impactful bass too. With the default Studio EQ, the Flex 4 offer decent balance across the frequency range, although I did find that they were a little lacking in the low-end, but that was nothing that a swift EQ tweak in the 32-250Hz range couldn’t fix.

When tuning into Take Five by Dave Brubeck, I was treated to an expansive listen. Drums in the treble range sounded beautifully weighted and expressive, keys and lead saxophone were separated neatly, and double bass came through with a rich, full-bodied quality. Making use of LDAC took the experience to the next level too, with some added intricacies in the mid-range and finer detailing in percussion.

With Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley, guitar in the opening and vocals didn’t quite have the texture or resolution that more premium earbuds can supply, but still sounded clear and well-defined in the mix, even at the highest volumes.

And the earbuds performed well with just about every genre I threw at them. Even with the tech house track, Fascinator by Max Dean, pumping bass hit with phenomenal impact, and never seemed lethargic or overbearing. Vocal chops came through with clarity, and sub-bass — though not the most regimented or powerful I’ve heard — was prominent and didn’t muddy sounds elsewhere in the frequency range.

One thing I wasn’t so keen on, though, was the spatial audio mode. You have to switch LDAC off to access this (which is normal), but it doesn’t sound anywhere near as clean or precise as the standard tuning, so I decided to leave it off the vast majority of the time.

I also want to touch on the look and design of the JBL Live Flex 4. Again, the buds are very comfortable in use, and although they offer a relaxed fit, I never felt as if they would fall out of my ears or leak excessive amounts of sound. The buds are also IP54-rated, meaning they’re protected against dust ingress and splashes of water, so it was never an issue if I wanted to use them on a rainy day.

Are the Flex 4 the most premium looking earbuds around? Perhaps not. They have a bit of a plasticky look, and don’t feel particularly luxurious. But their curved design is fairly attractive, and the case itself is finished to a high standard. The Flex 4 are also available in a wide range of colors, with plenty of vibrant options to choose from for those seeking a stand-out aesthetic.

Let’s conclude, then, by discussing price. The JBL Live Flex 4 come in at £179.99 (about $240 / AU$340), which means they cost about the same as their predecessors, the JBL Live Flex 3. Are they worth it? Well, for me, the answer is yes. They provide very solid sound quality, a fun and feature-rich smart case, genuinely good ANC for open-fit earbuds, and decent battery life to boot.

As a result, I consider the JBL Live Flex 4 to be a great pair of wireless earbuds that are more than worthy of my recommendation. They’re not perfect, and the open design comes with its ups and downs, but for the cost you’re getting great all-rounders that feel like a great alternative to the AirPods 5 with Wireless Charging — especially for Android users who want advanced features and higher-res Bluetooth streaming.

JBL Live Flex 4 review: price & release date

• £179.99 (about $240 / AU$340)
• Revealed in May 2026

The JBL Live Flex 4 were revealed in May 2026, alongside their siblings, the JBL Live Beam 4 and JBL Live Buds 4. They arrived on the market about two years after their predecessor, the JBL Live Flex 3, was released.

JBL’s new open-fit earbuds come in at £179.99 (about $240 / AU$340), about the same as their predecessors cost when they launched (in the UK, that is). I’ve seen some limited availability in Australia, but there’s no news of a release date or pricing for the US just yet — we’ll update this review if and when further details emerge, though.

In terms of competition, the Live Flex 4 have one clear rival: the AirPods 5 with Wireless Charging. This model comes in at $149 / £149 / AU$219. And while we've yet to finalise our full review there, AirPods are stylish, offer impressive sound, a range of perks for iPhone owners and surprisingly effective ANC — but, of course, they don’t have the Flex 4’s nifty smart charging case.

JBL Live Flex 4 review: specs

Should I buy the JBL Live Flex 4?

Buy them if…

Don’t buy them if…

JBL Live Flex 4 review: also consider

How I tested the JBL Live Flex 4

• Spent two weeks testing
• Used in the office and while out and about
• Mainly streamed music over Tidal

I spent two weeks testing the JBL Live Flex 4, testing them out at home, in an office environment, and while out on walks. This enabled me to get a strong grasp of their ANC capabilities, and understand what it’s like to live with them over a sustained period.

When listening to music, I typically streamed tracks over Tidal on my Xiaomi 17 phone, which supports LDAC, enabling me to get the highest quality listen out of the Flex 4 that I could. As always, I sifted through the TechRadar reference playlist to begin with, but I also bumped a bunch of tracks from my personal library.

More generally, I’ve spent years testing audio gear here at TechRadar, where I serve as a Senior Reviews Writer. I’ve put all sorts of audio tech to the test, be that premium wireless headphones like the Sony 1000X The Collexion or party speakers such as the Marshall Bromley 450. I’ve also reviewed a wide range of earbuds, including open-ear models like the Anker Soundcore AeroClip and the Edifier LolliClip.

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

• Bose releases Thom Browne redesign of recent flagship headphones
• Adds a cashmere band, tag and cup stripes
• Very much designer label, costing twice as much as the original pair

If you still wish you could rock the emo aesthetic as readily as an adult as you did when you were young, I've got a new pair of headphones which will have you screaming "I'm not oooookaaaay" in no time.

Fashion house Thom Browne has teamed up with Bose, to release a special-edition run of the latter's QuietComfort Headphones (2nd Gen). The new model is due to release on September 28, although you can pre-order them already.

Now, these cans aren't cheap; there is a designer fee to be paid. They cost $950 / £760 (about AU$1,500, although Bose's Australian website makes no mention of them). And that — depending on where you live — is more than double the price of the standard Bose QC Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen)'s $449 / £449 / AU$699 price, in any other finish.

So what do you get for the designer surcharge? Well, it is purely the design flourishes that set them apart from the standard flagship pair. Not only do you get those distinctive white stripes on the left cup, but the ear cushions and headband are made from cashmere. You also get a new Browne-designed protective case, and the color option is called Smoked Pearl. Let's also not forget the bragging rights of throwing down that much money on some headphones.

Similar cans, other than the design?

Other than the design flairs (which are "delightful, I must have them", according to my audio editor), the Thom Browne cans are pretty similar to the aforementioned Ultra set. These are not to be confused with the newer standard Bose QuietComfort Headphones (2nd Gen), to which I awarded a very respectable four stars to in my recent review.

So, you're getting wonderful five-star Bose-tuned sound, fantastic spatial audio and solid noise cancellation. In fact, the comfort of the QC range is something I flagged in my review as being outstanding, and I'm sure some added cashmere will only make them more snug.

I tested the delightfully Shrek-like finish of the non-Pro cans which you see above, although those obviously don't have the same fashionable bent (unless you live in a swamp) but they come in a range of other colors including pink, mauve and mint.

Ironically, one of my issues with the Bose QCs was that they felt a little pricey compared to the competition, and the more-than-double-cost versions definitely aren't going to solve that.

That is to say, these are a buy for 'money no object' music lovers who think nothing of splashing out on fancy designer headphones. Saying that, if you have a malleable budget, the regular Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) might still be the top buy if you don't care about the designer extras.

Not for my audio editor though. She is already saving up…

You may have heard the rumors: camera-equipped earbuds are the next frontier for audio technology brands (including, we think, Apple), and Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon Sound Elite Gen 2 platform could be the catalyst that brings them to fruition.

As Qualcomm’s “first premium audio platform purpose-built for personal AI,” the Sound Elite Gen 2 aims to transform headphones and earbuds into “intelligent companions that can understand, assist, and adapt throughout the day” — and the American silicon giant considers camera-equipped earbuds to be among those “companions.”

Qualcomm flew TechRadar out to Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii to hear more (no pun intended) about its vision for the AI-assisted future of audio, and the company was bullish about the positive effect AI will have on both sound quality and virtual assistance.

“This isn’t about putting a chatbot in your ear; it’s about creating devices that understand what’s happening around you,” Sarah McMurray, Staff Manager for Product Marketing at Qualcomm, explained in a briefing attended by TechRadar, noting that the Sound Elite Gen 2 will use AI to make earbuds more responsive to environmental changes.

“At the core of the platform is an advanced AI-adaptive ANC system designed for consistent, real-world performance, not just ideal conditions,” added Grace Bramwell, Qualcomm PR. “The system continuously responds to changes in fit, movement, and environmental noise, maintaining reliable noise cancellation without the need for manual adjustment.

“Powered by flexible, programmable processing and up to 2x greater AI capability than the previous generation, Snapdragon Sound Elite Gen 2 can intelligently steer ANC filters in real time, optimizing noise reduction across different acoustic conditions and device types. This enables stronger performance in challenging scenarios, including low-frequency noise, dynamic environments, and open-ear designs, while giving OEMs greater flexibility across a wide range of form factors.”

In other words, the Sound Elite Gen 2 could make your next earbuds or headphones better at automatically switching between ANC and transparency modes, and deliver improved audio quality in both states (“stronger performance with low-frequency noise,” for instance, might mean upcoming earbuds can more effectively drown out the mechanical hum of your fridge or the drone of a passing truck).

It’s worth noting that Qualcomm itself is not a consumer product manufacturer. It licenses its audio technologies to OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) such as Bose and Bowers & Wilkins, so it will be up to those brands to take up and implement the Snapdragon Sound Elite Gen 2 platform in a way that fulfills the potential Qualcomm is describing here.

Welcome to the age of in-ear assistance

Of course, Qualcomm’s plans for the future of audio are bigger than improved ANC. AI-powered audible assistance is the hottest topic in town right now, and apparently, consumers are as keen on the thought of AI-powered assistance as Silicon Valley investors:

“Our research tells us that up to 70% of users want advanced AI capabilities in their wearable devices,” says Ziad Asghar, Qualcomm’s Senior Vice President and General Manager of XR, Wearables, and Personal AI. “As AI becomes a core capability, users will increasingly expect more natural ways to interact with it.

“Those interactions won't always happen through a screen. They will happen through natural conversations, where users can simply speak to an AI assistant and receive help in real time. With Snapdragon Sound Elite Gen 2, we're heralding intelligent audio wearables that enable experiences such as real-time translation, contextual assistance, personalized hearing, and multimodal interactions that combine audio, vision, and AI."

No current wearables effectively combine those three elements (except perhaps smart glasses, but have you ever tried listening to your favorite album on a pair of Meta Ray-Bans? Don’t. Ever). That’s why OEMs are developing camera-equipped earbuds — they’re truly hands-free and, crucially, more socially acceptable (visually speaking) than Austin Powers-style specs.

But if, as a society, we haven’t yet cracked the social code on smart glasses (and as our deep-dive on the so-called great privacy revolt reveals, we most definitely haven’t), are camera-equipped earbuds something we’re ready for? Qualcomm is cautiously optimistic.

“The privacy concern is not new,” Asghar explained to TechRadar in a roundtable at Snapdragon Summit. “We at Qualcomm and Snapdragon have been managing it for a long time in multiple different areas. And our concept is very clear: we want to be able to give the consumer the ability to choose how much information they want to share.

“For instance, we can obfuscate faces. We have the capability on our chipsets to detect a face very easily — not recognize a face, but detect a face. To do multi-modality, I don’t need to send a face for AI processing; I need to be able to send the context [of my environment]. For that, I can detect the face and cover it up. That technology is something we have integrated into our products and that we’re sharing with our partners.

“Another thing we’ve been driving is on-device AI. As you do more processing on the device, you basically take away the concern of that image leaving the device [...] We are targeting this problem at every different level. Of course, we enable our customers and partners [to use these tools], and with the pressure and concern that’s coming through, we will of course work with them.

“I also want to say something,” Asghar added. “Today, you carry a device with multiple cameras on it: it’s called a phone. I was talking to a group of students in San Diego, and this [privacy] issue is not top of their mind. Different age groups are thinking about it in different ways. Younger people are so used to blogging and vlogging. I think some of the concern, in my opinion, is just because this is a new form factor. But we want to provide all the tools [to manufacturers] such that consumers feel comfortable.”

Again, it will be up to brands such as Bose and Bowers & Wilkins to implement the Snapdragon Sound Elite Gen 2 platform in an effective and ethical way, but it's clear that Qualcomm is aware of the increasingly negative public sentiment around camera-equipped wearables.

If, however, these OEMs can convince consumers that on-device processing really is as private as Qualcomm claims, perhaps the age of Minority Report-style glasses and earbuds will arrive sooner than we thought.

The Sonos Ace Ultra are here, and they’re beautiful. I’ve spent two weeks testing them, and to tell the truth, they really exceeded my expectations.

See, I liked the original Sonos Ace, but the Ultra bring so many meaningful upgrades to the fore, be that their expanded microphone system, fancy new drivers, or new smart features. And as you’ll see in my Sonos Ace Ultra review, I think these updates establish Sonos as a major player in the world of wireless headphones.

The standard Sonos Ace fell just short of greatness when they released due to their somewhat middling musicality, and with rivals like Sony and Bose releasing excellent iterations in the WH-1000X and QuietComfort Ultra series’ respectively, it felt like the multi-room giant couldn’t quite go toe-to-toe with the best of them.

But the Ultra have changed that, and I’m here to share my five favorite improvements that make Sonos’ new headphones an excellent option for anyone looking to buy a top-tier pair of wireless headphones — or make the step-up from the original Ace. And make sure to stick around for number five, which is the most game-changing upgrade of them all.

1. A more customizable listening experience

First of all, you have a lot more control over the listening experience with the Sonos Ace Ultra compared to what the original Ace allowed.

This is largely down to a far more fleshed-out equalizer, which lets users take a far more granular approach tuning-wise. That’s because the Sonos Ace Ultra feature an eight-band equalizer, letting you make adjustments to specific parts of the frequency range. Want to give those lower-mids a bit of a boost? Want to temper the upper-treble a bit? No problem — you can do that here.

Meanwhile, the Sonos Ace had very basic two-band EQ options that only let you increase the bass or treble. Sure, there’s the option to use a three-band equalizer on the Sonos Ace Ultra if you want a simpler way of making changes, but the more extensive controls on the audio specialist’s new headphones are welcome for someone like me, who wants to tailor sound to his specific tastes.

While we’re on this topic, it’s also worth flagging that the Sonos Ace Ultra have adaptive EQ. This automatically adjusts EQ to account for factors such as fit, glasses, hair, and other elements that could cause leakage. This works well and was something that the original Ace skipped.

2. Enhanced ANC

The Sonos Ace Ultra increase the number of microphones onboard to ten from the eight seen on the standard Sonos Ace. This results in a number of improvements, like enhanced calling, for instance. But the biggest difference is heard when it comes to active noise cancellation.

This expanded microphone system helps the Sonos Ace Ultra to deliver excellent ANC that competes with some of the best noise cancelling headphones on the market. When working in the office, sounds of typing were totally eliminated. When on walks, construction work and traffic passing by was subdued to incredible effect. And even when taking public transport, the rumble of engines and conversations surrounding me were silenced without hesitation.

It helps that the Ace Ultra also have a relatively secure (yet still comfortable) fit, providing a seal that keeps the world around you at bay. I’ve tried far more expensive cans that can’t hold a candle to the Sonos Ace Ultra in this regard, so if you want great ANC, look no further.

ANC is adjustable, so you can decide whether you want full-blast silencing or a light bit of blockage if you find that disorienting. Of course, you also get a transparency mode if you want to be more aware of your surroundings or to have a quick conversation.

3. More interplay with your Sonos system

The Sonos Ace Ultra offer even more interconnectivity with other Sonos products than the original headphones, in part thanks to the Ultra’s new Headphone Engine 2.

With the Ace Ultra, you unlock a new feature called Headphone Linking. This lets you seamlessly transfer audio from compatible speakers — like the Sonos Play — over Wi-Fi, directly to your headphones (or vice versa). Just a single press of a button, and you can easily transfer music or movie audio across; it's seamless and works like a dream.

Like the original Ace, you also get TV Audio Swap. This lets you connect the Ace Ultra to a compatible soundbar, like the Sonos Arc Ultra, and hear movie audio on your headphones instantly. Because the Ace Ultra support Dolby Atmos and head tracking, you get an incredibly immersive, rich listening experience here — and it's ideal if you want to enjoy private listening without disturbing anyone else in your household.

4. Better battery — and its fully replaceable

First of all, I should say that the battery life on the standard Sonos Ace is by no means bad. You get 30 hours of playback with ANC on, which is basically the standard for headphones in the premium price-bracket — in fact, some rivals like the AirPods Max 2 and the first-gen Bose QuietComfort Ultra fall short of this.

But the Sonos Ace Ultra provide a slight bump, with 35 hours of battery life with ANC switched on — still nothing game-changing, but certainly a welcome improvement. You also only need to charge them for three minutes to get three hours of playback, which makes them incredibly convenient when you’re on the go and need some additional battery life in a pinch.

Perhaps more interestingly, the Sonos Ace Ultra feature a user-replaceable battery. Yes, you’ll need to get some specialist kit for this, but it means that the Ultra can live on, even if the battery degrades after years of listening. That only makes your investment more worthwhile in the long run.

5. New drivers provide a huge performance upgrade

And now for the largest upgrade of them all: the one that truly puts the Sonos Ace Ultra head and shoulders above the first Sonos Ace. Of course, I’m talking about the significant sound quality step-up, which comes, in part, thanks to new 40mm custom drivers.

When it comes to music, the original Sonos Ace are OK. They provide relatively energetic audio, but they lack balance, often sound quite busy and disorganized, and lack the width and detail of some premium rivals. But the Sonos Ace Ultra take things up a notch. They deliver expansive, dynamic, and intricate audio, especially when using aptX codecs or wired listening.

The Sonos Ace Ultra also provide improved instrument separation, letting them handle more complex mixes with ease. Low-end sounds are more full-bodied and agile, never sounding lethargic or lacking rhythmically. Mids aren’t as overzealous as they were on the original Ace, taking a more natural, detail-oriented approach. And treble is expressive and articulate, giving higher-pitched percussion some seriously satisfying bite.

Like the standard Ace, the Ace Ultra sound impeccable for movies, delivering a three-dimensional listening experience with convincing height effects and engrossing expansiveness, and they’re probably the best wireless headphones you can buy for movies. But the Ultra’s improved musicality helps them attain greatness — even more impressive when you consider that they’ve launched at the same price as the original Ace did back in 2024.

A habitual Bluetooth earbuds wearer, I often forget about the sheer audio pleasure of a pair of over-the-ear headphones (or as my audiophile friends like to call them, "cans"), which is why my experience with the new Beats 360 wireless Bluetooth headphones was even more revelatory.

You see, the Beats 360 — announced today — reminded me why I usually eschew headphones in favor of, say, AirPods: over-the-ear audio is usually too uncomfortable for me to wear for any length of time. That, though, has not been the case with the new Beats 360, an elegantly engineered pair of headphones that push the technology to each earcup, thereby stripping down and lightening the head strap.

They also feature far more forgiving memory foam and cover material than I've found on other headphones. As a result, the cups form to the contours of my head without unnecessary pressure, and my ears aren't throbbing after hours of listening.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Comfort is important for headphones — and to be honest, earmuffs — but what will matter most is audio quality. Beats has done a lot of work to ensure high-quality sound. The audio company, which is owned by Apple, describes it as a high-fidelity acoustic architecture, built around a high-dynamic-range amplifier and a custom-designed dual magnetic transducer. There's even a custom venting system around the transducer to help reduce distortion.

A host of good design and audio choices

As I noted above, a lot of this technology — even most of the wiring — sits in each of the headphone cups. That leaves the headband thinner, lighter, and more comfortable. Beats 360 let you turn each headphone 90 degrees to flatten the entire headphones for easier travel.

The band does not fold in half, but at least the Beats 360 headphones are light enough (294.5g) that throwing them into your backpack (as I did, with the included fabric case), or walking about with them around your neck won't be a problem.

The headphones even support swappable ear-cushions: if you sweat on one pair, you can wash them while popping on a different set. Mine arrived with a couple of pairs, including a plush set. Each took a simple quarter turn on the headphones' body to remove and replace.

Beat 360 are easy to set up and use. I had them unboxed and connected to my MacBook Air in no time, and the controls make sense. On the left ear cup is my power and pairing button, as well as one for a quick touch switch between transparency mode and effective active noise cancellation (ANC). There's also a USB-C charge port. On the right cup is the volume rocker and play/pause button.

The metal band has enough give to fit over a head considerably larger than mine. A comfortable memory foam cushion sits on top of my head, and the metal band extends to line the cups up perfectly over my ears.

Putting the super in Supergirl

Since I was traveling when I first tried out the Beats 360 headphones, I decided to treat myself to a movie on HBOMax, which had just added Supergirl. As an avid Superman fan and someone who truly enjoyed James Gunn's 2025 Superman movie, I was anxious to see this in-universe take on Supergirl.

I settled into my hotel room bed with the MacBook Air propped on my lap and the Beats 360 headphones over my ears. The movie is, unfortunately, a misfire. While not miscast, Milly Alcock is stuck in a repetitive and muddled quest story with uninspiring heroes and villains, and while aiming to show the main character's growth, it seemed unsure of whose story it's telling. (We officially awarded it three stars in our Supergirl review.)

Ah, but the sound. Through the Beats 360, and probably thanks in part to the adaptive EQ, which automatically adjusts the audio to work with my fit, it was thoroughly engrossing, punchy, and loud, but never screeching, with clear effects and sharp audio. The sound often felt like it was coming from all around me. I honestly think the Beats 360 headphones made Supergirl watchable.

The incredible sound of silence

At home, I started wearing them while working, listening to my favorite David Bowie playlists and then a string of Simon and Garfunkel hits on Apple Music.

On Simon and Garfunkel's The Boxer, I was shocked to hear what sounded like a kazoo but is, in fact, the rough sound of a bass harmonica. I swear, in all the decades I've listened to that song, I never detected that before, nor have I previously heard what sounds like someone gently tapping on their guitar but is actually an analog recording artifact that is so in sync with the tempo that it's easy to mistake it for fingers gently beating on wood. So many exquisite details jumped out at me; it was like listening to these iconic hits for the first time.

Overall, Beats 360 produced fantastic, head-filling audio in every scenario and were also quite good for my Google Meet video meetings, providing clear voice, and with the 3 voice-pickup mics (out of a total of 9 — 6 are for ANC) doing a good job of delivering my voice to my fellow attendees. Naturally, the headphones include access to Siri, accessible via voice or by long-pressing the power button. So I used them for hands-free audio control and to ask some general interest questions.

I did not get to push the headphones to their battery limit, but they're rated for 32 hours (with ANC on) and, since I've had them, I have yet to charge them up.

At $349 / AU$499 (UK price TBC), Beats 360 ends up in the more affordable range of top-tier headphones. Sure, they're pricier than a pair of AirPods, but, as I see it, you can't put a price on this combination of sound quality and comfort.

Beats has been making over-ear headphones since 2008, when the original Beats Studio launched, and the Studio line has remained central to the brand ever since. The Studio Pro aren't going anywhere, but the new Beats 360 are something different entirely.

Beats calls them "the next chapter" of its headphones story — and after spending the past few weeks with the 360, that confidence doesn't feel misplaced. These aren't just the Studio Pro with a new coat of paint; instead, they represent an entirely new direction for the brand.

"We wanted to create a new ID, a new look, and a new over-ear headphone for a different purpose," Oliver Schusser, Apple's VP of Music, Sports, and Beats, told me.

That idea is baked into practically every part of the 360. Beats set out to build much more streamlined headphones that are designed to move with you throughout the day, and feel at home everywhere from the gym to the office to an airplane.

And the first thing you notice is just how light they are.

Weighing in at 295.4 grams, they're super-cozy, and after about 20 to 30 minutes of breaking them in, you might forget they're on your head. Compared to the AirPods Max at about 386.2 grams or Sony's WH-1000XM6 at 254 grams, these fall somewhere in the middle, but they actually feel far more streamlined than the number suggests.

The profile itself is remarkably thin, too. The drivers sit slightly farther from the ear than you'd expect on headphones this size — they're custom-built for the 360 — but the overall design feels compact, and balanced on your head.

The controls are split between the two sides, too. The left earcup houses the power button and lets you cycle through listening modes, while the right handles volume and playback. There's also a USB-C port on the left for charging.

It's a simple setup, and after a few weeks, it becomes second nature.

That lightness wasn't an accident — it was the whole brief. Schusser told me the 360 came out of watching how people actually live with their headphones.

"We wanted to create a new ID, a new look, and a new over-ear headphone for a different purpose. And that purpose is for people who live a very active lifestyle who are on the go," Schusser said. "We wanted to build the perfect headphone for an active lifestyle. And of course, we wanted it to have all the great ingredients of Beats. We wanted it to look cool, sound amazing, but also be really light, be really comfortable, be water and sweat resistant."

And that's where the rest of the design starts to make sense.

The earcups and headband are fully customizable — swappable across the four launch colors (Black, Cloud, Pink, and Sky) and two distinct cushion materials: Performance Knit, built for workouts and noticeably more breathable, and UltraPlush, the more classic Beats feel with a tighter seal, using the same engineered leather found on the Studio Pro and Solo 4.

The Performance Knit cushion makes a real difference when you're moving around, while UltraPlush gives you that more traditional over-ear headphone feel. You can also pull either cushion off entirely to wipe them down or toss them in the washer.

Then there's the IPX4 sweat and water resistance, a first for Beats over-ear headphones, and not super common in the wider market. It's a small detail that reinforces the whole idea behind the 360: these are headphones you can take to the gym, rather than ones you have to leave at home or risk damaging.

None of that customization happened by accident. Schusser said the swap mechanism was one of the more satisfying engineering wins on the whole project.

"Our engineers have come up with this really cool, simple way to sort of swap out the cushions, and it takes literally seconds, and it just makes the headphones so versatile and so flexible, and you can customize and personalize, and it's amazing," he told me.

He's right about the versatility, as swapping earcups takes seconds, and the difference between the two cushion materials is noticeable. It's a genuinely useful bit of modularity, not just something that looks good on a spec sheet, when you consider wearing these to a workout class, getting sweaty, and the swapping earcups as you head into the office.

A new sound for a new Beats

On the sound side, Beats built a bespoke acoustic platform for the 360, with custom drivers using three-layer diaphragms and dual neodymium ring magnets in each earcup — a purpose-built audio setup rather than a carryover from the Studio.

Beats says that architecture, paired with its most advanced ANC to date, delivers up to 1.75x more total noise cancellation than the Studio Pro, alongside Adaptive EQ, Personalized Spatial Audio with dynamic head tracking, and Dolby Atmos support.

Previous Beats headphones have delivered a hefty low end, but that signature has evolved, and comes into real focus with the 360. There's less bass-heavy weight than on the Studio, but the payoff is that at practically any listening volume distortion is nearly nonexistent, and separation stays excellent across genres.

Take Further On Up the Road by Bruce Springsteen — I listened to this while on a plane with Active Noise Cancellation engaged, at about 70% volume, and couldn't hear any engine noise. The track opens with a strong, crisp snare and bass drum before Springsteen's vocals come in over the guitar, with background vocals filling in behind. It's a great showcase for what the onboard audio can do.

For a modern pop test, Olivia Rodrigo's Expectations pairs low end and high end almost from the first bar, as synth and drums kick in before her vocal takes center stage. Spatially, the head-tracked playback is genuinely impressive here, both indoors and while walking around outside.

Transparency mode is strong, too. It's a little behind the AirPods Max in terms of how much outside sound it lets through, but what comes through the 360 sounds very natural. Voices don't have that overly processed or artificial quality you can sometimes get from transparency modes, and for 349.99 / £299.99 / AU$499.99 headphones, they punch above their weight.

Talking of weight, the 360 aren't the lightest headphones out there, but the ergonomics carry it — an even distribution between the earcups keeps the headband thin, and makes these feel far cozier than the spec sheet suggests.

The Beats chip is a bigger deal than it sounds

Connectivity comes from a custom-designed Beats chip, which is built off Apple's own silicon work, and which is now in its fourth generation. As I've reported previously, that's a significant unlock for the Beats team, letting it appeal equally to Apple and Android users rather than picking a side.

Just like AirPods and past Beats products, the 360 pair quickly and sync across your Apple devices via iCloud, so you can go from listening on an iPhone or iPad to jumping into a meeting on a MacBook Pro almost instantly. On Android, you get Fast Pair support through Google's standard, and the Beats app for Android mirrors most of the same controls.

Each earcup functions as its own self-contained unit, housing its own audio, connectivity, and battery components. It's another example of Beats rethinking the architecture around this new purpose.

There are nine onboard microphones in total: eight dedicated to active noise cancellation and three for voice pickup, with two shared between the systems. They work alongside an onboard AI model to handle voice detection, voice-assistant requests, and the handoff between ANC, Transparency mode, and Adaptive Audio.

Battery life is rated at up to 32 hours with Adaptive EQ when ANC and Transparency mode are off, and still up to 32 hours with ANC and Personalized Spatial Audio switched on. That's a claim I've been testing throughout my time with the 360, including travel, and so far the battery life has held up well.

Beats has always leaned into limited-edition drops and collaborations, and the 360's whole design seems built for exactly that kind of expansion — and Schusser didn't hide the intent. "We're going to do a lot of drops," he said.

As mentioned, these headphones cost $349.99 in the US, £299.95 in the UK, and $499.95 in Australia, and rather than positioning the 360 as a replacement, Beats is keeping the Studio Pro around too, now at a reduced $299.99 / £249.95 / AU$479.95.

Beyond the four core colorways, Beats also sells standalone cushion kits in six Performance Knit colors — adding Navy and Volt — plus two UltraPlush options. These are priced at $49.99 / £49.95 / AU$49.95, but are available at an introductory price of $9.99 / £9.95 / AU$14.95 through October 31.

Asked where the color strategy could go next, Schusser pointed straight at sports: "This is actually a perfect product for [...] team colors."

It all makes the customization options more interesting than simply picking a color when you buy them. Right now, I have the Sky — light blue — 360 with a darker blue Performance Knit cushion and a black UltraPlush, and I swap the headband cushion to match whichever earcup I'm wearing that day. The 360 can change with you, whether that's a different material for a workout, a new color for a season, or eventually one of the team-color drops Schusser hinted at.

I've really enjoyed my first few weeks with the Beats 360 — traveling back from Apple's September event, testing them at home, then putting them through their paces on flights — and I'm impressed with the overall premium nature and this new direction for Beats.

The Beats 360 pair full sweat and water resistance with a thin, lightweight build and customizable earcups that let you land on a look you're happy with — and one that can evolve, rather than feeling dated.

The sound is a modern take on the Beats signature — plenty of energy, but with clear separation and basically no distortion across the genres I've thrown at it — and paired with strong ANC, a natural-feeling Transparency mode, and a battery that's held up through testing, there's a lot packed into this new design.

There are a few misses. There's no on-ear detection, so you have to turn these on and off manually, and there's no support for wired playback.

Still, those omissions don't really change what Beats is trying to do here. The 360 aren't supposed to be another Studio Pro. This is Beats taking the over-ear headphone somewhere new — lighter, more customizable, more resistant to sweat and water, and built around an active, on-the-go lifestyle.

And after a few weeks with them, I can see the new ID Beats was talking about.

Sonos Ace Ultra: two-minute review

Sonos is making a real statement of intent with its new wireless headphones, the Sonos Ace Ultra.

The multi-room master has made a whole host of improvements to this upgraded wireless over-ear model, which has arrived two years after the original Ace came to market. The Sonos Ace Ultra have enhanced custom 40mm drivers, a new headphone engine, better battery life, better noise-cancelling, and more detailed EQ to name a few things. So can they finally compete with flagship rivals from the likes of Sony and Bose to become some of the best noise-cancelling headphones we've tested? Here’s what I think after weeks of testing.

Let’s start by addressing the most important area of all: sound quality. We felt that the original Ace fell short of the best headphones around due to one main issue: their middling musicality. But the Ace Ultra have remedied that, and then some.

When listening to the Sonos Ace Ultra beside the original model, the differences were stark. Where the standard Sonos Ace sounded confined, overstretched, and unrefined, the Ace Ultra offered openness, intricate detailing, and a broader, more organized soundstage. What’s more, they provide better balance across the frequency range, with deep yet controlled bass, rich but less overzealous mids, and tight, articulate treble.

While I still consider some similarly priced competitors, like the Sony WH-1000XM6 and Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 to supply slightly more premium, detailed sound (for music, that is), the Ace Ultra are really not far behind. Sonos listened to the critics, and proved that it's up to the task of going toe-to-toe with the titans of the headphone world.

We already loved the original Ace for movies, though, finding that they offered immersive Dolby Atmos audio with effective head-tracking to boot. And that’s much the same on the Ace Ultra. They whip up wonderful width, strong command over height effects, and never neglect the fundamentals like clear dialogue and cinematic, pounding bass.

But what’s new on the Ace Ultra? Although music got a seismic upgrade, other alterations feel a bit more incremental — but that’s by no means a bad thing. Two more microphones have been added to the Ultra, bringing the total to ten, and ANC is great here. Wherever I was, my soundings were subdued to great effect, almost creating a bubble of silence. ANC is adaptive this time around and adjusts nicely, and the transparency mode works a treat. Call quality is strong too, as you may expect.

Battery life has also seen a boost, and you’ll now get up to 35 hours with ANC on. Is this anything groundbreaking? No. But it’s slightly above the 30-hour standard for headphones in this price bracket, and I never felt that I had to charge these cans very regularly. The battery is also replaceable, and a rapid charging mode means you can get three hours of playback if you spend three minutes juicing them up.

EQ options have also been expanded beyond the basic two-band equalizer found on the standard Ace headphones. There’s an eight-band option now as well as adaptive EQ, meaning you can genuinely tailor sound to your specific tastes.

We also need to talk about the Wi-Fi capabilities of the Sonos Ace Ultra. No, we’re still not at the point where we can directly stream tunes over a local internet connection, but there are some nifty features at play. First of all, TV Audio Swap is back, enabling you to link the headphones to a compatible Sonos soundbar, and transfer sound seamlessly. This is highly responsive and effective, and while I didn’t find myself using this feature a ton, you can avoid the latency issues you’d get from connecting headphones to your TV over Bluetooth.

The Ace Ultra also add Headphone Linking, though, which means you can also transfer sound from compatible speakers, like the Sonos Play, for instance. This is equally reliable as TV Audio Swap, and is a great option if you’re listening to music at home but want to keep listening without distracting others.

It’s clear to see that the Sonos Ace Ultra don’t look very different from the previous model, but that’s no bad thing. They’re sleek, well-built, and offer a neat combination of comfort and over-ear security. They’re not fully foldable, and the included case could be better quality-wise, but these are fairly minor pain points in the grand scheme of things.

Considering that the Ace Ultra cost the same as the original Ace at the point of launch — and actually less in the UK — they feel like a much more worthwhile investment. They’re by no means cheap, but their enhancements are meaningful and substantial, making these a great pair of headphones whether you have a pre-existing Sonos system or not. As a result, these are a great pair of headphones for music and movie lovers alike that feel worth the outlay — and are easy to recommend if you want a great all-round pair of premium wireless headphones.

Sonos Ace Ultra review: price & release date

• Priced at $449 / £399 / AU$699
• First released September 2026

The Sonos Ace Ultra were released in September 2026, about two years after the original Sonos Ace headphones. The new model is priced at $449 / £399 / AU$699, which is the same as the standard Ace cost at launch in the US and Australia, though they’re actually cheaper in the UK than the original Ace were at the point of release.

Given their price, the Ace Ultra have some extremely hot competition. For example, the Sony WH-1000XM6 are similarly priced, and offer an incredible mix of balanced, dynamic, and impactful sound alongside some of the best noise-cancelling on the market and a giant suite of features. Other competitors include the noise-crushing Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones Gen 2, the spacious sounding Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3, and the ultra-detailed Sennheiser HDB 630.

Sonos Ace Ultra review: specs

Sonos Ace Ultra review: features

• Excellent ANC with adaptive mode and effective transparency option
• Higher-res audio available as well as Dolby Atmos for spatial sound
• TV Audio Swap and Headphone Linking works very well

The Sonos Ace Ultra boast an excellent suite of features and are a highly personalizable, smart set of headphones.

Let’s kick off with ANC, which has had quite the revamp. Now, you can toggle on an adaptive mode, which adjusts for things like fit, whether you’re wearing glasses, and if you make sudden head movements. But that’s not all.

Sonos has also boosted the number of mics for the Ultra, with ten to the original Ace’s eight. The mics can monitor your surroundings and cut out external noise in real time, and they do this to great effect. Yes, the Ace Ultra supply great ANC, and no matter my environment, I was treated to satisfying, distraction-free listening.

When out on walks, the sounds of cars passing by were totally nullified. When typing away in the office, the clacking of keyboards was fully subdued, and when travelling on public transport, engine sounds and surrounding chatter were put right to the sword. The Aware Mode is also very effective, and makes it incredibly easy to tune into your surroundings, with the new Voice Boost mode able to improve the clarity of voices around you if you toggle it on.

The upgraded microphone system also helps the Ace Ultra to handle phone calls with greater care than ever before. When taking calls when out and about, my speech was perfectly comprehensible, and never sounded obscured by background noise, even when walking in a busy part of my city.

Something else that’s received a boost is battery life. Sonos says that the Ace Ultra are capable of staying alive for 35 hours on a single charge, and my testing found this to be pretty accurate. This is a slight improvement on the original Ace, which could deliver 30 hours of use, which is essentially the standard for headphones in this price category. There’s also a rapid charging option, which gives the Ace Ultra three hours of playback from a three minute charge and a power saving mode if you want to extend the headphones’ life in a pinch.

One of the more welcome additions to the Ace Ultra is their expanded EQ options. Now, you can make use of an eight-band equalizer to customize the sound of the headphones to your specific taste. This is a big improvement on the basic two-band equalizer on the original Ace (for bass and treble levels), though there’s a more basic three-band option on the Ace Ultra if you prefer a less detail-oriented approach.

Let’s stick with sound, because there are a number of great features here that help you get the best out of both music and movies. First of all, you get all the hi-res goodness from the original Ace, with aptX codec support, as well as lossless audio via USB-C — and there’s a USB-C to 3.5mm cable bundled if you want to use them with a laptop, DJ controller, or other source device.

Dolby Atmos also returns on the Ace Ultra, enabling you to enjoy spatial audio on the go. Once again, this works an absolute treat — especially for movies, where head-tracking also helps to further immerse you in on-screen action. I tried using the TV Audio Swap feature, which enabled me to connect the headphones to the Sonos Beam Ultra, and Atmos movies sounded wonderful — more on that in the ‘sound quality’ section.

While the situations in which I’d use TV Audio Swap are admittedly niche, it's a very reliable feature. It harnesses Wi-Fi connectivity, so you don’t have to deal with the latency issues that connecting headphones to your TV over Bluetooth would bring. And you can easily switch between the soundbar, headphones, and other compatible Sonos speakers with a simple press of a button, which is highly convenient.

The Ace Ultra’s new Headphone Engine 2 also enables Headphone Linking, which allows them to directly connect to other components in your Sonos system — including compatible speakers such as the Sonos play — and move audio to and from your speakers and headphones. Like TV Audio Swap, this feels seamless and speedy to activate, and is great if you’re blasting music at home, but don’t want to disturb others if they want some peace and quiet.

On top of all of this, you get the usual good stuff: multi-point pairing, Bluetooth 6.0 connectivity, wear detection, and a relatively intuitive companion app. And when you add all of this together, I think it's fair to say that the Ace Ultra offer an incredibly fleshed-out, and well-refined feature set.

• Features score: 5/5

Sonos Ace Ultra review: sound quality

• Big improvement over original Ace with better soundstaging, detailing, and control
• Deep, immersive bass, clean mids, and tight, expressive treble
• Fantastic Dolby Atmos performance

While we considered the original Sonos Ace to be a good pair of headphones, their somewhat middling musicality ended up holding them back from greatness. But luckily, Sonos has listened to the criticism, implemented next-gen 40mm custom drivers, and remedied a lot of the issues we had with the previous model. The result? A genuinely great-sounding pair of headphones.

I tried comparing the Sonos Ace Ultra against the original model directly, and when I say that the difference is striking, I truly mean it. In essence, the Ace Ultra provide a significantly broader soundstage with far better organization and balance, as well as deeper, more controlled bass, and more articulate, detailed treble. I also found them to offer superior handling of dynamics and enhanced instrument separation, meaning that, for me, Sonos is closer to rivals like Bose and Sony than ever before.

Sonos has been keen to talk up the Ace Ultra’s improved bass, so I started out by listening to a house track, Get It On by Jansons. The Ace Ultra delivered palpable, pumping bass, that was rhythmic and rapid, never sounding lethargic or boomy. This never concealed other sounds across the frequency range, either, with synths in the mid-range sounding well defined and tonally accurate, and high-pitched drums coming through with precision and vigor, helping the track to maintain its high energy.

Treble was especially tighter on the Ace Ultra compared to the original model, and the wider soundstage gave each individual element more room to breathe, and this became a theme across all of my listening tests.

For instance, with the funk track Joía Rara by Brylho, the upgrade the Ultra provided was considerable. On the original Sonos Ace, the soundstage felt confined, with guitars lacking definition in the mix, and as the track built, the horns, bass, vocals, and guitars sounded slightly convoluted, resulting in a messier presentation than I’d expected. But on the Ace Ultra, things were totally different. Guitars in the intro occupied a unique pocket, bass was well-balanced, and finer percussive details were perfectly audible. Vocals were also separated to greater effect, and while they weren’t the most textured or forward, they were more than clear enough.

Are the Sonos Ace Ultra the best-sounding headphones in their price bracket? Well, they’re not far behind the competition, though I do still think a couple of models edge just ahead. For example, I tested them side by side with the Sony WH-1000XM6, and I found that Sony’s cans supplied a slightly more dynamic low-end output and detailing in the mid-range. It was very close between these two, though. Of course, if you want the most expansive soundstage, headphones like the AirPods Max 2 will edge out the Ace Ultra, but they’re slightly more expensive.

Before we move onto design, we have to talk about the Ace Ultra’s handling of spatial audio. They support Dolby Atmos as well as head tracking, really helping you to immerse yourself in your favorite movies and TV shows, and the expansiveness that the headphones supply is seriously impressive.

When using TV Audio Swap with some 4K UHD Blu-ray discs, the Ace Ultra were able to conjure up an excellent sense of width, almost like some of the best Dolby Atmos soundbars can. I started by watching Elio, and the Ace Ultra did an incredible job — voices were clear, and as characters moved across the screen, they were tracked with precision, and if I tilted my head, sound shifted dynamically as if I was speaking with characters directly. As Elio returned to earth, deep, pounding bass hit with immense power too, but didn’t sound muddy or overbearing.

With Godzilla Minus One, the sense of a plane flying overhead in the opening scene was captured far more effectively than expected. It was genuinely convincing, as if the sound was truly coming from above. Dialogue was clear again, and Godzilla’s almighty screech was both tonally accurate and controlled, rather than tinny. More generally, the movie’s action scenes had tremendous width, creating a genuinely immersive experience.

• Sound quality score: 4.5/5

Sonos Ace Ultra review: design

• Beautiful design, and very well made
• Comfortable yet secure fit
• Not fully foldable, but case included for added security

The Ace Ultra look an awful lot like the original Ace, but as someone who loved the way those headphones looked, that’s a big plus. The ear cups are relatively flat and understated, the rounded look is sleek and sexy, and the metallic details only add to the sense of premium. The button controls have shifted about slightly, but they’re incredibly easy to reach, and are all very responsive.

I tried the Soft White version which is stylish and modern, but the Ace Ultra are also available in Black, Agave, and Sand. All of these colorways are minimalistic and suit the luxurious vibe of the headphones to perfection.

In terms of fit, the Ace Ultra strike a really strong balance between comfort and security — they’re the goldilocks of headphones, if you will. There’s enough clamping power to prevent excess sound seeping in and keep them on your head during a workout or similar, but I never found this to be overbearing. Even when I was wearing a hat, the Ace Ultra felt really snug, with the plush ear cups and padded headband helping me to enjoy my music for many hours on end.

One subtle thing I like is how the inside of the right ear cup is green, making it easy to know which side is which when throwing the cans on. The right cup also features a slider, which can be used to easily adjust volume or trigger the Audio Swap feature. I usually prefer touch controls, but the tactile and reliable nature of these buttons might just have converted me.

Something that may frustrated a few users is that the Ace Ultra are not foldable. Yes, the ear cups rotate flat for when you want to stow the headphones in the case, but rivals like the Sony WH-1000XM6 offer a more compact, travel-friendly design. In addition, the case itself doesn’t quite offer the quality I was expecting, with a fuzzy exterior that’s a bit prone to picking up fibers. I also found that the zip jammed a bit easily. I much prefer the magnetic case of the XM6, which is more seamless to use and has a more quality look and feel.

• Design score: 4.5/5

Sonos Ace Ultra review: value

• More fully featured and better sounding than the original Ace…
• …but for the same price (at the point of launch)
• A worthwhile choice for those with or without a pre-existing Sonos system

The Sonos Ace Ultra cured the single ailment that plagued the original model above else: their middling musicality. When I tested both headphones side by side, the difference was night and day. The original Ace were held back by a limited soundstage, underwhelming instrument separation, and a lack of balance across the frequency range. But the Ace Ultra sound so much more open, organized, and detailed, and truly compete with flagship rivals from Sony and Bose.

On top of that, you’re getting excellent Dolby Atmos performance, Headphone Linking and TV Audio Swap for linking up to other Sonos products, a beautiful design, and strong noise-cancelling capabilities. Considering that the Sonos Ace Ultra cost the same as the original model did at the point of launch — and less than the standard Ace initially cost in the UK — that’s pretty impressive.

At $449 / £399 / AU$699, they’re still quite the investment, of course. And I do think that some rivals, including the Sony WH-1000XM6 and Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 just edge above them in terms of sound quality. But those models can’t compete when it comes to movies — a big selling point of the Ace headphones. And the interactivity that these have with other Sonos products makes them a slam-dunk for owners of products like the Sonos Beam Ultra and Sonos Play.

Even if you don’t have a Sonos system, these headphones still justify their price with great all-round performance, a delicious design, higher-res audio codecs and wired lossless sound, as well as solid battery life. All in all, then, the Ace Ultra feel like a much more worthwhile investment than the original Ace, and manage to earn their price.

• Value score: 4.5/5

Should I buy the Sonos Ace Ultra?

Buy them if…

Don’t buy them if…

Sonos Ace Ultra review: also consider

How I tested the Sonos Ace Ultra

• Spent about two weeks testing
• Compared to competitors and original Sonos Ace
• Predominantly streamed music over Tidal; also watched Dolby Atmos movies

I spent about two weeks testing the Sonos Ace Ultra headphones, during which time I exhausted their various features, like TV audio swap, watched a handful of movies with Dolby Atmos soundtracks, and listened to hours worth of music.

When listening to music, I predominantly streamed tunes over Tidal on my Xiaomi 17 phone, which supports aptX codecs. To start with, I sifted through the TechRadar testing playlist, but I also listened to a wide variety of tracks from my personal library. On top of this, I compared the Sonos Ace Ultra to some of their major competitors, like the Sony WH-1000XM6, as well as the original Sonos Ace.

More generally, I’ve spent years testing gadgets here at TechRadar, where I serve as a Senior Reviews Writer. I’ve tested a wide range of audio gear, including other premium headphones like the Sony 1000X The Collexion, party speakers like the Marshall Bromley 750, Dolby Atmos soundbars like the JBL Bar 1300MK2, and more.

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

• HKUST (Guangzhou) and HK PolyU researchers' InjectEave beams a radio carrier at devices so their own circuits leak analog audio
• The leaked audio has already been decrypted by the device itself, making encryption offer no protection against such an approach
• The 30m headline needed a pricey amplifier pushing output to 10 W, while standard ranges of 1 to 6m were measured by detecting a test tone

Researchers at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University have shown that everyday headphones, a desk phone, and a handful of smart-home gadgets can broadcast what they are doing simply by using a radio signal.

The technique, called InjectEave, was presented at USENIX Security 2026 in Baltimore, and multiple outlets have since covered the researcher's claim that the attack "can recover headphone audio from up to 30 meters away, including through walls".

The claim may be accurate, but it has limitations, including the need for specialized equipment that is often very noticeable in most settings.

An impressive technical show with plenty of limitations in tow

Conventional electromagnetic eavesdropping waits for a device to leak. That works poorly for audio, because speech sits below 20 kHz while a device's wiring radiates efficiently only at megahertz or gigahertz frequencies.

InjectEave chooses to close the gap by transmitting a carrier signal at the target. According to the paper, nonlinear components such as amplifiers, analog-to-digital converters, switching MOSFETs, and power converters mix the secret signal onto that carrier, and the device's own traces and cables radiate the result back to a receiver.

Because the leak happens in the analog path, after audio has been decoded, the project page states that "InjectEave is immune to digital defenses such as encryption, masking, and randomization." Encryption in any form on a wireless headset is irrelevant, since the attack directly targets the signal driving the speaker, not the radio link.

The team demonstrating this used a USRP B210 software-defined radio, two antennas, a Siglent spectrum analyzer, and a laptop to set up their proof of concept, which could, as they noted, "eavesdrop on the majority of these devices from over 2m away and through walls, with a maximum distance of 30m for recovering intelligible headphone audio".

This isn't the first time the technique has been used, even as the researchers have built on it considerably; the idea originates from "The Thing," a Soviet bug given as a gift to the US ambassador in Moscow in 1945, which was passively powered remotely as a listening device.

InjectEve, however, does not involve planting anything; instead, it leverages existing work on interference-induced leakage and impedance-based backscatter, and distinguishes itself by recovering coarse digital data rather than continuous analog waveforms, allowing users to 'listen in' without added steps.

The same approach applies to wired headphones, which are also prone to leaking microphone audio; researchers concluded that their sound cards were the primary source of the leaks, which were being sent back over very short distances.

The threat is somewhat tempered by the fact that it can capture what users hear but, with wireless headphones, cannot hear what the user is saying. The attacker also has to transmit continuously and use a high-powered (10W) transmitter to reach the full 30-meter range, even though capturing and rendering speech is harder than the tones the test used to prove the approach worked.

The attacker also needs to know the target model and profile a matching unit first, although they managed to get a profile to transfer cleanly across three identical UGreen headsets, suggesting this might be easier than one would assume.

The researchers say they reported the findings to the affected manufacturers but, "as we have not yet received a response," withheld the table's frequencies and stripped injection control logic from their released code. One shouldn't be too hopeful, however, as no software update can fix an analog leak, and it is relatively limited in practical abuse cases.

Bose QuietComfort Headphones (2nd Gen): Two-minute review

Bose often seems to pay more attention to its Ultra-suffix devices, which absolutely make up some of the best noise-cancelling headphones we've tested. And that is perhaps why the second-generation Bose QuietComfort Headphones — that is to say, those launched in the post-QC 35 II era — took three years to come to market, following the launch of the older QC Headphones in 2023.

These are basically the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones Gen 2 for people who don’t want to pay an arm and a leg for their sound, and given how I only ever see the non-Ultra cans when I’m out and about in the UK (a fact my editor also confirms), I’d wager that this new release is the model people have been waiting for.

Meet the QuietComfort Headphones (2nd Gen), so named because they’re quiet, thanks to Bose’s sought-after Active Noise Cancellation, and comfortable (thanks to the use of soft protein leather for pads and bands).

Having used them for several weeks, I can say that the latter is definitely true: these are incredibly easy to use for hours on end, without your ears aching or the top of your head feeling sore. You can basically use them until the battery runs down, although that’s partly because the 24-hour battery life is rather poor in 2026.

I’m not convinced on the ANC sell though. Bose has a reputation for industry-leading noise cancellation, and the Headphones Gen 2 are supposed to match the Ultra Headphones Gen 2 in this department. However, after testing the cans on multiple flights, train rides and around several cities, I’m not fully sold on the claim. They’re great at removing background sound, but not flawless; other brands have caught up, and those similarly-priced competitors surpass them in a few ways.

That’s not to say ANC is an actual problem with the QC Headphones Gen 2, but there are several departments which will raise eyebrows. The cans feel quite cheap, rattling in the hand and offering some odd gaps in the body which shouldn’t be there. They’re also quite light in the feature department, more so than you’d expect for the price.

So why have I given the Bose a four-star review? Well, despite a seemingly-unchanged driver set-up from the older models, and an EQ which barely offers you any control over your music, these cans sound fantastic. They offer detailed and precise treble and energetic and punchy bass. Because of this, listening to tune after tune on them never gets old. The spatial audio is great too, adding an immersive slant to the already-great sound.

Despite quirks, I really enjoyed using the Bose QuietComfort Headphones Gen 2; you will too if you can find them for a price that makes sense. I’m not sure they justify the premium price tag right now, but if you find them discounted, they’re a must-buy.

Bose QuietComfort Headphones (2nd Gen) review: Price and release date

• Launched in August 2026
• Sells for $359 / £299 / AU$549.99
• Comes with carry case and two cables

The Bose QuietComfort Headphones (2nd Gen) were announced on August 6, 2026. That’s three years after the first-gen model came out, and a year after the Ultra Gen 2.

Despite not being the ‘Ultra’ member of the family, the ‘standard’ QuietComforts aren’t cheap. You can pick up the cans for $359 / £299 / AU$549.99, which is cheaper in the UK but more expensive in the US than the last-gen models (and the same cost in Australia). It is, of course, cheaper than the Ultra Gen 2 model, which launched for $449 / £449 / AU$699 and haven’t seen a massive price cut since.

So they’re premium headphones, if not ultra-premium ones. They undercut the likes of the Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S3 and Sony WH-1000XM6 (though the newer WH-1000XM4C are cheaper in most regions).

You can pick the cans up in five color options: black, white, mauve, mint and green you see depicted. In the box you get a protective carry case, USB-C to USB-C wire and a USB-C to 3.5mm cable.

Bose QuietComfort Headphones (2nd Gen) review: Specs

Bose QuietComfort Headphones (2nd Gen) review: Features

• ANC great, but not best
• Poor 24h battery life
• App doesn't offer that much

At 24 hours, the Bose QuietComfort Headphones (2nd Gen) don’t have a very long battery life. I’ve tested other options this year which last for literally 100 extra hours; don’t buy these if you need something for a long-haul flight. That listening time is with ANC turned on; you’ll get a few hours more if you turn it off, but less if you use some of the other listening features.

You charge the cans via their USB-C port, which takes 3 hours according to Bose. A new feature for the Gen 2 model is that you can also enjoy wired audio from this port, which is a real get for people who like high-quality audio. It almost makes up for the lack of a 3.5mm jack!

I suppose we should discuss that ANC. As mentioned in the introduction, it was good but not great, and certainly not the best I’ve ever used in over-ear headphones. The difference was small but noticeable: on a flight, I could hear the hum of the engines more than in some other cans I’ve tested, and surrounding sounds would creep into my music more often than I’d like.

They’re not bad by any means, and they’re still some of the better ANC headphones I’ve tested. But they’re not the best, and that’s a surprise given the name and the price point.

The headphones offer a range of listening modes beyond ‘standard’ ANC (which it calls Quiet mode), but I was surprised by how much most of these also affected audio quality. I’d recommend only sticking to Quiet or Aware, which lets in some surrounding sound.

You can toggle between these modes in Bose’s app, which has a few other tools. You can set up multi-point connection, change what that shortcut button does, check the battery life, set up immersive audio and play with the equalizer.

If your ears perked up at the mention of EQ, don’t get too excited. The custom mode only offers 3-band control, and there are four presets which change these three bands for bass or treble reduction or boost. It’s a surprisingly lightweight amount of customization for premium headphones, and people who like to tweak their audio sound will be greatly disappointed.

To be honest, that’s my general takeaway from the Bose app: it offers only a fraction of the tools, features and customization that you’d get from cans costing a third of the price.

One stand-out is Immersive Audio though. In the past, I've found similar offerings from rival brands a tad gimmicky, but Bose’s works very well. You can choose between Still or Motion (depending if you’re still or in motion), and it’ll deliver an encompassing sound that spreads the sound of your music or movie around you. It’s not so overt as to be distracting, and makes music a little more immersive — though I much preferred Still mode, which had a more audible spread which changed as I moved my head.

• Features score: 3/5

Bose QuietComfort Headphones (2nd Gen) review: Design

• Comfortable to wear for long periods
• Smartly-placed and designed buttons
• A few cheap-feeling elements

The second-gen Bose QuietComfort Headphones (2nd Gen) look pretty similar to the original pair, but with some refinements in the looks department. Hinges and the retractable arm are better hidden, and the headband’s padding looks better integrated. The cans make the older model look like a prototype.

Oddly, though, the headphones feel pretty cheap. The cups rattle, there’s a noticeable seam between the headband and pad, and parts of the headphones flop around unsupported when you hold the gadget by its headband. There are a few other similar traits which make the buds feel loose, most noticeably that there’s a worrying amount of flex in the band. After several weeks of testing, I’ve yet to have these traits manifest in any actual problem, but I’m constantly surprised by how the build quality flags behind half-priced rivals.

I do appreciate that they're based on a design many users have loved, for many years — and this is likely the key reason they've largely been kept as-is (or was). But still, in the intervening years competing design teams have worked hard on other, newer headphones, and the Bose QuietComfort Headphones (2nd Gen) feel a little flimsy and clunky in direct comparison today.

At least the QuietComfort are supremely comfortable to wear. The padding which rests across the top of your head, and the soft cups, both go a long way in ensuring you can listen for long periods of time without getting any aches or strains. It gives the impression of them being light, even though at 241g, they weigh about the same as many other pairs.

When you’re wearing the cans, the right cup has the volume and pause/play buttons; their prominence is different so you can easily tell what button your finger is on. The right edge has the shortcut button, and power slider; I love this latter, as it’s easy to flick to instantly turn the cans on, without needing to press and hold like you do on most rivals. Bose has really nailed the buttons here, which I admit is a small detail, but that is where the devil is according to the idiom.

There’s a decent amount of malleability here: you can rotate the cups a fair way left and right, and the band is quite extendable (though it’s fairly stiff, so you’ll have to give it a hearty tug). The cups don’t move much up and down, but they still fit my head well.

You can fold down the QCs to make them more portable, or put them in the travel case. My aforementioned issues with the ‘loose’ feel of the cans returns here; you can’t stack them on a flat surface without them falling over.

• Design score: 4/5

Bose QuietComfort Headphones (2nd Gen) review: Sound quality

• V-shaped audio with energetic bass, treble
• Spatial audio sounds great
• Unspecified drivers inside

If you’ve read the design and features sections of this review, you’ll know I’ve had compliments and criticisms in each department. Not so for audio quality.

Bose hasn’t detailed the driver in the QuietComfort Headphones (2nd Gen), but the previous-gen model had a 40mm unit, and the brand hasn’t boasted any audio improvements beyond generations. It doesn’t need to; the previous models sounded fantastic and the new ones do too.

Out of the box, you’re getting V-shaped sound from the QuietComfort Headphones. Treble is crisp, sharp and detailed, letting you hear tremolo and tones that many other cans miss. Bass is hefty and punchy, but with a precision and control which avoids lower frequencies drowning out the rest of your song.

As is generally the case with headphones offering V-profile audio, the mids lack just a little bit. I’d often notice guitars playing harmonies, piano accompaniments or high alto/low tenor backing vocals that’d be missing the ‘oomph’ I’d like them to have. But you’re not buying the Bose for a neutral sound: this is for fun and energetic music.

The sound set-up of the QuietComforts is best shown in songs like Fitz and the Tantrum’s Man on the Moon, which has hard-hitting vocals and bass but loses its rhythm guitar and strings a little, or The Hoosiers' Automatic Glow, which sees its harmonic synth line dropped to the back of the mix, in favor of the energetic sung word, and rising hook.

To return to the Bose app, you can use the EQ to try and add some emphasis on mids, but I found this only a limited solution which didn’t have much of an effect on the music.

• Sound quality: 5/5

Bose QuietComfort Headphones (2nd Gen) review: Value

• Should be top-value earbuds
• Unfortunately, longevity isn't guaranteed

If your headphone equation is simply “I’ll spend more money for better audio”, the Bose QuietComfort Headphones Gen 2 will be a good option. They sound great and they’re comfortable, so you can enjoy music for a long time (at a fairly high cost).

But to me, a few aspects of these headphones make the premium price seem a little too high. The loose-feeling build quality, lack of app features and poor battery life all point to the cost being higher than it should be. If you see the Bose discounted by about $100 / £100 / AU$200, then these will be good-value cans. Alternatively, the previous-gen models should be enjoying a decent price cut due to being a bit older.

As it stands, the Gen 2 are still good buys, but I’d personally save money and buy cheaper headphones. Which in particular? Well, thankfully there's a competition section below…

• Value: 3.5/5

Should I buy the Bose QuietComfort Headphones (2nd Gen)?

Buy them if…

Don’t buy them if…

Bose QuietComfort Headphones (2nd Gen) review: Also consider

Looking for alternative over-ears? Here are a few we've tested and would recommend.

How I tested the Bose QuietComfort Headphones (2nd Gen)

• Tested for roughly four weeks
• Paired with Android phone for Bluetooth, Android tablet for audio
• Used on walks around neighborhood, at work, on flights and on trains

To write this full review, I used the Bose QuietComfort Headphones (2nd Gen) for just over four weeks, which gave me time to fully put them through their paces.

For the majority of the testing time, the buds were paired with my Fairphone 6 Plus smartphone, though I plugged them into a Xiaomi tablet using the cable for some wired audio. Over the course of the review I tested them on multiple flights, countless train and bus journeys, while working at home and on various walks around my city.

I listened on Spotify, to my own digital library, for movies on Now TV and videos on YouTube, and various games.

I've been testing gadgets for TechRadar since early 2019, and in that time have used countless pairs of over-ears.

• First reviewed in September 2026

• Read TechRadar's reviews guarantee

• Fiio launches FT15 planar headphones with bigger, thinner diaphragm and a lighter weight
• They're open-back successors to the five-star Fiio FT5
• They cost $499 / £499 (about AU$999) — but that's not bad for planars

Breakout affordable audiophile brand Fiio has been riding high with its debut planar magnetic headphones, launched in 2024, called the FT5 — they scored the full five stars in our Fiio FT5 review. The brand clearly thought it was time to revisit the tech, because it's launched a follow-up. No, not the FT6; meet the Fiio FT15.

These new wired open-back headphones bring refinements across the board, including some new internals and a lighter build. Numbers are up (or down, depending on which direction counts as an improvement).

The price is up too. The new FT15 cost $499 / £499 (about AU$999), and for comparison the FT5 sold for $449 / £429 / AU$799. So it's not a huge price hike, but given that Fiio is reliable as a budget brand, it's notable.

The Fiio FT15 are on sale right away, joining the brand's growing 2026 roster including the KA15 DAC dongle and FG3 gaming headset. Here's why they're exciting to audiophiles who are, well, maybe not quite on a budget, but like to optimize their spending.

Thinner, Better, Faster, Lighter

Fiio decided that its new planar cans needed some spec increases, and so the driver now measures 101mm (compared to 90mm in the FT5), but most notable is that it's now 800nm thick, which Fiio says is 86.7% thinner than its previous planar driver.

That's pretty notable, because the whole thing about planar drivers is that you have a super-thin, super-responsive diaphragm suspended between two magnetic fields, capable of excellent dynamic response and therefore detail.

Fiio also says the driver has a "full-face diamond coating", which is presumably to add stiffness. A much larger, much thinner, super-stiff diaphragm is a very interesting prospect when it comes to both dynamic range and detail in the sound.

The overall design has seen some improvements too. The FT15 is 31g lighter than the FT5, at 425g, using a carbon fiber headband and natural wood earcups. There are also multiple pairs of earpads in the box, as well as a range of adaptors for 4.4mm, 6.35mm and XLR-4, so it can fit into a range of hi-fi set-ups.

That's doubly true with the FT15s' sensitivity (95dB/mW, and a 24 ohms impedance), and the brand says it was designed to work with a range of dongles, DAPs, amps and CD players — including smaller and lighter dongles without external power. Fiio also sells all this kind of tech. Coincidence? I think not.

We gave the FT5 a perfect review, and it's hard to imagine how this range of improvements could result in a lower one, even with a slight price increase — but is with anything audio-related, the proof will be in the testing. Stay tuned.

• Bose unveils two new clip (or ear cuff style) earbuds
• Bose Sport Open Earbuds are a more affordable, simple option
• Ultra Open Earbuds 2nd Gen supersede our top picks, with some refinements

For a long time, the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds took pride of place as the 'best premium open earbuds' in our round-up of the absolute best open earbuds. Even if the Shokz OpenDots 2 hadn't stolen that spot recently, it's likely a new competitor would have — this category is growing like you wouldn't believe.

And Bose is back too, with upgraded flagship open earbuds called, as you might have guessed, the Ultra Open Earbuds (2nd Gen), which bring some refinements over the first-gen clip-style buds. They're set to sell from October 1, for £299.95 (about $400, AU$600, but we're waiting on international pricing).

This offering doesn't come alone. Likely taking inspiration from rival Shokz and the OpenDots Air, Bose has unveiled a cheaper alternative and called it the Sport Open Earbuds. These buds cut some of the features, use a different design, and will start selling on October 15, for £179.95 (roughly $240, AU$360). That makes them Bose's first affordable open earbuds.

Naturally, we'll be grabbing these buds as soon as possible to see how well they work, so prepare for reviews in the near future. Perhaps Bose will claw its ranking spots back from Shokz sooner than expected...

Lay me down on a bed of Boses

Let's start by looking at the sequel set: the Ultra Open Earbuds (2nd Gen). These mostly retain the angular look of the originals, but with a slightly revised look for a better hold, and a charging case that's easier to open and close (and has little feet so it can stay upright).

Under the hood, there have been a number of small refinements like a higher volume, extended battery life and improved bass response. They also feature Bose's TrueSpatial audio, improving on Bose Immersive Audio, to provide better spatial audio while you're exercising.

Like the previous Ultras, these are a premium product, and I see most people skipping them for the price tag alone. That's where the other buds come in.

The Bose Sport Open Earbuds ditch the angular look of the Ultras, for a more standard curvy clip-style design. That is to say, despite being new, I've been seeing these puppies for years.

Bose hasn't detailed the audio specs of these buds — it rarely does for its headphones, frustratingly for coverage — but reading between the lines, the Sport Open won't have quite the same bass response as the Ultras. I'm sure they won't sound bad, but you're not getting Ultra sound.

I'm pleased to see that the Sport Open have an IP54 rating, which makes them better-protected than the IPX4 Ultras, even if their battery life is slightly worse at 7 hours. However most features, specifically Bose ones, are likely missing here. There's no mention of TrueSpatial Audio, for example.

With the Bose Sport Open Earbuds, you'll likely miss some of the fancy tools of the Ultra. But just as in the Shokz rivals mentioned before, many users might not mind, if they're getting a more affordable product for it. I see the Sport Open being the more popular of the two here.

A note, before you get too excited for the new buds. While researching this article, I noticed that the original Bose Ultra are enjoying quite a solid discount in the US, perhaps to clear stock. You can get them for just $200 at Amazon, which is a $100 saving, effectively making them a better pair of 'budget' buds than the Sport Open. Just food for thought.

It’s been just over two years since Dyson introduced its second pair of headphones, the OnTrac, to the world. While they were a significant improvement — both in terms of sound and general design — over the Zone, I ultimately found in my Dyson OnTrac review that they still couldn’t quite challenge the class leaders — namely Sony and Bose.

A strong factor in that realisation was their exorbitant AU$799 price tag. Not only was that too much for the Dyson headphones (regardless of brand name), it also allowed other manufacturers to charge AU$700 or more for their premium cans — here’s looking at you, Sony, Bose and Sennheiser.

Now, two years later, the Dyson OnTrac has plummeted to a much more acceptable AU$299 during Dyson’s Spring Sale event. At this price, I think they’re worth a look. The noise cancellation is very good, and a 55-hour battery life gives them greater stamina than the closest competitors. I also can’t really fault the ability to customise them, since it’s a feature that’s still pretty unique. That being said, they’re incredibly heavy, so I found I could only wear them for short stints.

• Check out the latest Dyson AU discount codes for more chances to save.

However, for your AU$300, or thereabouts, you’re not short of great alternatives. So, if you’ve got a burning desire to invest in a new set of mid-priced headphones, take a look at my top recommendations below.

Do note that Amazon recently announced dates for its Prime Big Deal Days sales event. If experience is anything to go by, there’s a good chance my three recommended pairs of headphones below could receive bigger discounts when Prime Big Deal Days kicks off, but they’re worth every cent even right now.

On our podcast I’m known as the Apple hater, but over the past year I’ve let up a little — even defended the company.

I’ve said Apple could be the only company capable of releasing camera glasses without major backlash thanks to privacy-first approach, celebrated its approach to AI as possibly genius if the bubble does pop, and most recently said the iPhone Duo looks great and that the visible crease in some shots should be ignored — as if it’s like the Z Fold 8 Ultra you’ll never see it while you’re using it.

But in our most recent episode, I saw something that I couldn’t believe in the new AirPods 5 specs. I had to actually message our Audio Editor because I thought I must be wrong.

How are on-bud volume controls only now coming to AirPods? And how are they reserved for the pricier model?

Take back (volume) control

I brought this up in the podcast, but my Apple-wielding colleagues — Axel Metz and Matt Evans — argued the feature isn’t that useful anyway. Those with Pro-level AirPods that boast volume controls noted that they rarely use them

Folks, that’s beside the point.

Volume controls are one of the most basic earbuds functions. Take a minute to scroll through Amazon, and you can find dozens of wireless earbuds under $20 that offer volume controls. This shouldn’t be something reserved for the fifth generation of a premium earbuds brand like AirPods. It’s absurd!

Oh, and I think volume controls on the buds are useful, for what it’s worth. If I’ve set my phone up to watch a YouTube video and the volume spikes, I want to be able to quickly swipe down without reaching over; or I might want to change the volume of my workout tunes mid-session without pulling my phone out and risking getting distracted.

Sure, it’s not a game changer, but as I said already, it’s a basic feature we should expect. It would be like if your iPhone didn’t have an email app — there are ways around it, but why cut off the root of the problem?