After Apple courageously removed the headphone jack from the iPhone in 2016, most people switched to Bluetooth earbuds and never looked back. But their wired counterparts have stuck around, and their sales even went up this year after five years of decline. Part of the resurgence can be tied to the fact that they’re cool […]
The other day I whizzed past several people while running in the park, my playlist blasting at full volume. The next morning, I smiled at a barista while ordering a caramel apple-flavored matcha latte. Afterward, I sat on a park bench reading a book, called up a pal to chat about her recent trip to […]
The original Sonos Ace headphones should have been a triumphant entry into a new product category. Instead, they were overshadowed by Sonos’s disastrous app redesign. And while the original Ace are well built, sound good, and are incredibly comfortable, they weren’t good Sonos headphones: Their flagship feature let you reroute audio from a Sonos soundbar […]
Nothing has been on a bit of an audio tear this year, releasing the solid Headphone A and the surprisingly good Ear 3A earbuds. The Headphone A released at $199, while the earbuds are under $100, leaving room for something fancier. That something is the Nothing Headphone 1 Pro, the company’s new $399 flagship over-ears […]
Everyone has seen someone at the gym or running around their neighborhood wearing headphones that were never designed for workouts. Quite often those headphones are Beats. Good news for the earbud haters: The new Beats 360 over-ear headphones are durable and built to withstand sweat, with water resistance and swappable knit ear cups. And there […]
It’s almost a guarantee that the new version of a product will be, at best, the same price as the old one, and often (especially in the past couple years) more expensive. But that’s not what Apple did with the AirPods 5. The $149 AirPods 5 with Wireless Charging Case are $30 cheaper than the […]
Bose QuietComfort headphones used to be innovative. Bose’s noise-canceling research is the reason the technology is where it is today, and its headphones set the standard. They were the ubiquitous traveler’s accessory. But over the past few years, it’s felt like Bose has rested on that reputation, as other companies have caught up. Sony and […]
Clip earbuds are an exercise in compromise. It’s an inherent aspect of their design – and physics. They can be more comfortable for people that don’t like something jammed in their ear, but sound response suffers. Ambient awareness is great because you can easily hear the sound around you, which means to hear your own […]
Nothing has had a strong visual identity since the Ear 1 were released in 2021 for $99 and challenged the notion that a highly featured headset requires a high price. The Ear 3A have the same transparent look as Nothing’s previous earbuds, with a clear case and stem design accented by a solid-colored body – […]
I have been an audio reviewer for 20 years. My time as a freelance headphones panelist at Wirecutter, and the multitude of reviews I’ve written for sites like Reviewed, Digital Trends, IGN, and now The Verge, have given me the chance to listen to hundreds of earbuds. Some were truly excellent, and some were pretty […]