Best Headphones for Comfort And Fit (2024)

Bose finally has a higher bitrate codec in Apex Adaptive. If you have Snapdragon Sound, you're going to enjoy much better fidelity than you did previously.

These are Snapdragon sound certified, which addresses one of my biggest complaints about the previous version: they only had SBC and AAC codecs. This new version now has Qualcomm aptX Adaptive, which means you're getting lower latency.

The sound quality, especially when you have aptX Adaptive on, was actually really nice. I was really impressed by the sound profile of these.

The immersive audio feature sounds good on paper. In reality, I didn't much care for it, and when I tried it out, it sounded a lot like I was listening to my speakers in front of me.

These are some of the best earbuds we've tested in a long time. You can expect to get about 30 dB of attenuation below 500 Hz.

These are the quietest earbuds I've ever tested, blocking up to 65.2 decibels, which is absolutely incredible.

The Quiet Comfort Ultra are the best noise-canceling earbuds I have ever used.

There is a feature called 'custom tune' that automatically adjusts the noise cancellation based on your environment.

Bluetooth 5.3 offers a range of 9 meters and supports multi-point connectivity.

These don't have true multi-point connectivity, meaning you can connect to multiple devices, but not simultaneously.

In the Bose app, you can go to the source and switch between many different devices by toggling them on and off.

A full charge should last you about 6 hours and 11 minutes, as it did in our testing rig.

When it comes to battery life, we get six hours, and the charging case holds an additional three charges.

These can hit that target with up to six hours in the earbuds and 24 hours when you include the case.

They actually have a shorter battery life if you turn on immersion. You get four hours in the earbuds and 16 hours when you include the case.

The new one is much better in every aspect except for one: the microphone.

The bass region on the new headset is absolutely beautiful and tight, especially with the leather ear pads.

This is a significant upgrade over the original, and I prefer it over my Steel Series as well.

Definitely use the leather ear pads because they effectively seal in all the audio.

The power-on cycle is almost instantaneous; as soon as you turn on that switch, you have audio.

It does not support simultaneous Bluetooth and 2.4 gigahertz connections.

Everything else, in terms of comfort, audio quality, and 50 hours of battery life, is excellent, and this thing recharges fairly quickly as well.

The Mark IV once again sounds incredible—super clean, bright, and full—with all the same noise cancellation controls available in the Sony app.

The overall quality, though not as crisp as some headphones, is very balanced.

It's not overly impressive, but it's still of high enough quality that you know you can justify the price.

Secondly, they also improved the noise cancellation compared to the Mark III's.

The bottom line here is that you're not going to find a better pair of noise-cancellation headphones in terms of pure isolation.

Noise canceling is top of its class.

My biggest request was for multiple device support. It took them two years, but they finally did it.

It's just a much better experience than going into Bluetooth settings, unpairing, and then repairing manually every time.

When I first got these headphones, they didn't work very well at all, but they've been receiving software updates.

The battery life is advertised as 30 hours with the noise cancelling on.

With a 10-minute charge, you can get five hours of playback.

If you leave them to sit for a while, I left them to sit for months, and they still had plenty of battery.

The clarity is phenomenal, especially when listening to high-resolution audio from Tidal.

The sound stage feels open and airy, which is something you don't always get with earbuds.

These are now the best-sounding pair of earbuds I've ever heard.

The five-band EQ that Bowers and Wilkins have provided on the app really reveals how powerful these are.

The noise cancelling is okay; it gets the job done.

They perform really well against the competition.

They do a really great job of blocking out the lower frequencies.

These kinds of cut off at the right point, so you don't experience any cabin pressure.

They have Bluetooth 5.4 with multipoint connectivity.

They do support Google Fast Pair.

The case itself can be used to broadcast an aptX Adaptive signal to the buds.

You get 6.5 hours of playback with ANC on in the earbuds.

A 15-minute quick charge in the case can provide up to 2 hours of playback.

They do support Qi wireless charging.

The bass output on these, by default, is really nice, bouncy, and full.

The vocal clarity of both male and female vocals is respectable.

If there's one area that needs a little bit of a lift, it would be the mid-range.

The supported codecs are SBC and AAC; however, LDAC is not supported.

When it comes to blocking out noise pollution, the WH-CH520s aren’t really designed to block out this chatter.

It offers multi-point pairing thanks to Bluetooth 5.2.

There's no physical way to connect a cable to the device; there's no 3.5-millimeter audio jack.

The CH 520s can run for up to 50 hours.

They charge with USB-C, and just three minutes of charging gives you one and a half hours of power.

They sound fantastic, and they're also some of the nicest-looking and best-feeling earphones.

These are triple driver earphones. They have two balanced armatures and a separate dynamic driver, which all together produce an incredibly well-balanced and very accurate sound.

There's great separation, a ton of detail, and overall, they offer a broad soundstage that leads to a listening experience noticeably better than the vast majority of other in-ear earphones at this price point.

The overall sound signature of these earbuds is awesome.

I prefer the foam tip ones because you can really get a tight fit, which helps block out the sound.

Those offer an even tighter fit for me, which blocks out the noise a bit more.

These have that L-shaped aux jack, which I realize isn't always the best option, but I can live with it.

You have inline controls and a mic as well, so there is nothing lacking here in terms of features.

The PX8s sound better than the AirPods Max.

The PX8s deliver a warm, rounded sound with controlled bass.

The clarity of these headphones is blowing me away.

There is a slight delay when watching videos.

The PX8s offer top-tier noise cancellation.

They perform well in noise cancellation tests.

The noise cancellation is not at the 'god-tier' level of some competitors.

The PX8s use Bluetooth 5.2 and support a wide range of audio codecs.

They can connect to devices via USB-C for high-resolution audio streaming.

There is a slight delay when watching videos wirelessly.

The PX8s offer a long battery life of 30 hours.

The quick charge feature provides 7 hours of playback from a 15-minute charge.

The fact that they're a pair of planar magnetic driver headphones means that they also have planar characteristics.

This is not an overly bass-heavy pair of headphones.

The mids on these sound absolutely fantastic.

It is really good across all genres.

There is no active noise cancellation, which makes the recommendation a little more specific.

A good closed-back can bring a decent amount of passive noise reduction.

The technology in these headphones uses Bluetooth 5.4.

You can also connect directly via USB-C.

Multipoint is available, allowing you to connect to two devices, but this will disable LDAC and LHDC.

The battery life on these is extremely impressive; on a full charge, you can get about 80 hours.

A 15-minute charge is going to give you 13 hours of use.

The AirPods Max sound really good. They have these big 40-millimeter drivers behind the earcups, and they sound excellent, super clear at all volumes.

The sound quality is fantastic for this.

These don't support lossless, which is a huge shame, even if you buy the $25 cable that is a Lightning to 3.5 mm.

These are probably among the best wireless headphones I've ever used.

The noise cancellation is also excellent.

These nine microphones do a fantastic job with white noise, producing a surprisingly natural sound.

This is the best transparency mode I've ever heard.

In my opinion, the noise cancellation on the AirPods Max is just too good to wear in public.

The awesomeness of AirPods pairing instantly with every Apple device you have is still pretty sweet.

If you leave these out for an extended period, such as longer than a day or even a couple of hours, without putting them in the smart case, they will sometimes disconnect from all of your devices.

You can use these with Android just like normal Bluetooth headphones. However, at this point, you're missing out on many of the smart features.

The battery life on these headphones is fine. They do reach the advertised 16 to 20 hours, even with noise cancellation on.

If you leave these out for an extended period of time, such as longer than a day or even a couple of hours, without putting them in the smart case, they will sometimes disconnect from all of your devices.

I wish we had USB-C on the AirPods Max; these still have a Lightning connector.

The ultra seems slightly cleaner-sounding and more revealing, with a deeper but well-defined bass.

Using the immersive audio feature does widen the sound stage a bit, creating the illusion that your audio is more outside your head.

I was slightly disappointed that the headphones don't feature USB-C audio.

Bose mentions that both this over-ear Ultra model and its new QC Ultra earbuds feature world-class noise cancellation.

The headphones really muffled everything around me, including people's voices.

The voice calling performance is also excellent.

They do, however, have Bluetooth 5.3, which gives them a nice, stable connection at a longer range.

I had better luck with multi-point pairing.

You may have problems actually getting Apex to work with your device.

The headphones are rated for up to 24 hours of battery life at moderate volume levels with noise canceling on.

The number dips to 18 hours when immersive audio is engaged.

If you set your headphones down somewhere and forget to turn them off, they'll go into sleep mode to conserve battery life.