Enjoy excellent audio quality with the best over-ear headphones, tested and reviewed by CNET's audio expert.
Know how much you're willing to spend on headphones before you start doing serious research. biker helmets with bluetooth
Noise canceling features in phones are great, but can impact sound quality. You need to choose which is most important to you before buying.
Most good over-ear headphones now offer Bluetooth with a physical cable you can use when you choose to, but not all of them. Know what you're getting yourself in to before buying.
It's important to know you can wear your headphones for long periods of time, without any pain or pinching.
If you're going to spend the money, you should know the headphones will last for a while.
Make sure you buy from a reputable source, so you can return the headphones if you try them out and don't care for them.
Many people opt for wireless earbuds these days, but a lot of folks still love full-size over-the-ear headphones. Over-ear headphones can provide a rich audio experience, especially if you choose wireless Bluetooth headphones with active noise cancelation to fully block out your surroundings. Many but not all wireless headphones still come with a cable for wired listening.
I've also included a handful of wired-only over-ear headphones for audio purists looking for that extra level of clarity. Note that this list is regularly updated as more over-ear headphones hit the market, with the most recent addition being the Noble Fokus Apollo .
Know how much you're willing to spend on headphones before you start doing serious research.
Noise canceling features in phones are great, but can impact sound quality. You need to choose which is most important to you before buying.
Most good over-ear headphones now offer Bluetooth with a physical cable you can use when you choose to, but not all of them. Know what you're getting yourself in to before buying.
It's important to know you can wear your headphones for long periods of time, without any pain or pinching.
If you're going to spend the money, you should know the headphones will last for a while.
Make sure you buy from a reputable source, so you can return the headphones if you try them out and don't care for them.
If you're looking for the best sound and have the budget for it, you can go for options like the Focal Bathys, Bowers & Wilkins PX8 and the Noble Fokus Apollo. All of them deliver outstanding sound quality. As for a budget pick, we think the Earfun Wave Pro is among the better values. Excellent mid-range models include the flagship Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones (seen at the top of this list) or the Sony WH-100XM5s (seen just below the Bose QCs). When testing and evaluating over-ear headphones, we consider factors like build quality, comfort and sound quality, as well as noise-canceling and voice-calling performance. I'll be sure to add more models as I test them in 2025.
bluetooth for phone Bose's new flagship QuietComfort Ultra Headphones may not be a huge upgrade over the company's Noise Cancelling 700 headphones, but they feature a more premium design along with Bose's new Immersive Audio feature, which delivers some sound-quality enhancements. Along with excellent sound and great noise canceling, the QC Ultra Headphones are also superb for making calls, with top-notch background noise reduction. A worthy adversary to Sony's highly rated WH-1000XM5 and Apple's AirPods Max, we called them the best new noise-canceling headphones of 2023, and they remain a top noise-canceling headphones pick in 2024.