We know how tricky it can be to find the right headphones – there are just so many to choose from. So, here’s how to narrow down your options:
Price
You’ll have noticed headphones vary in price from ultraaffordable models under £50 to highend cans that cost £1,000 or more. Thankfully, it’s no longer the case that you have to pay a fortune for overears.
Soundcore has the best affordable models – balancing price and features with superb noise cancellation for £150 or less. If you can stretch the budget, we recommend looking at Sony and Bose, the WH1000XM5s and QC45s being two of our favourites, These are often discounted during sale events like Black Friday.
The higherend of the overear headphone market is generally reserved for anyone who wants a lavish design or “audiophile” sound. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course, but you can expect to pay between £500 and £1,000 for a set with the most luxurious build materials and support for the fanciest audio technology, like the Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H95.
Noise cancellation
Active noise cancellation, or ANC, uses tiny microphones to sense the level of ambient sounds around you – think the constant hum in a plane cabin or light conversations in the coffee shop – and then blasts out reversed sound waves to reduce those noises.
It’s an ingenious bit of tech that we can’t live without – it’s ideal if you want to focus without distractions when listening to music while travelling or commuting.
Portability
If you plan on bringing your headphones outside, you’ll need to consider the size, weight and portability.
Many of our favourite overear headphones will have foldable cups so they become much easier to carry – such as the Bose QC45s or the Space Q45s on our list. However, others don’t and will require them to be put in a case to avoid damage.
This is often supplied with headphones. Weight varies, but most are between 250g and 350g – with the top end about the same as a can of CocaCola.
Battery
Is there anything worse than realising your headphones are out of charge as you put them on for a noisy journey? You should aim to avoid that scenario at all costs by investing in a set with lots of battery life. The specs on our list are all based on listening time with ANC turned on.
The lowest on our list gives you about 22 hours of listening, but it’s entirely possible to get a set with triple that amount, especially if you turn off the active noise cancellation mode – every set is different.