Best Premium Headphones 2024 [Tested & Compared!] - AirPods Max vs Bose vs Sony vs Sennheiser..

So, Bluetooth

headphones

have become really good, but which one is actually the

best

of the

best

. I have five of my favorite pairs of

headphones

, all with fantastic sound, great active noise cancellation, lots of great features, and more to like. them, but in this video I'm going to try all five in nine different categories and rank them from one to five to find out in the end which is really the best pair to buy, so that these nine categories cover a full range of what you could use them for, from sound quality to microphone quality, to active noise cancellation testing and much more, so we hope this is a comprehensive review to help you decide which is really the best pair for you and most importantly, to show that they are actually not correlated with price, the most expensive is not necessarily the best and in many categories it could even be the worst, so the five headphones that I will show you in this video are in no particular order. , but The first is the Bose Quiet Comfort Ultra headphones.

I just did a full review of these recently. A lot of people have been very excited to see them come out and I was very excited too, overall they will be a fantastic pair. a strong contender in this video, then of course we have Apple's

airpods

Max, very expensive yes, but they're already around 3 years old and still absolutely crushed. Apple hasn't updated them because I mean, they're still a great pair of Then we have the Sennheiser Momentum 4S, these come in a couple different colors, we'll talk about that in a second, but they really are a unique style and, of all the headphones at this table, I would say that these are the ones that have changed the most from the previous generation.

If you didn't like all three, that says nothing about all four, all four are completely different, then we have of course the Sony wh1000x Mark 5S. These are, I mean, I don't need them, they need no introduction. Sony does a great job with headphones. and they really have been long time champions in this category and then of course we have the Bowers and Wilkins px7 s2e headphones. They have a couple different models, but I chose the s 2E because they are very similar in price. for the others, they are much more affordable for most people, like the px8, which are $800 or $900, so I didn't really want to include them, um, but they really made sense in this category, among the others here, like this that now In fact, start with what I would consider the most interesting category of all those that block the sound around you, whether you are traveling or traveling or any other active noise cancellation, it will be so important and therefore, the way I perform this test.

Actually, when playing white noise at a certain distance, I keep raising the volume until the headphones can no longer block it and then record that volume, going in order from first to fifth first. The quiet Bose Comfort Ultra headphones are actually where they are. These did a fantastic job of blocking out not only airplane sounds, as you can see in this graph right here with 63.2 DB, but also louder voices and interestingly, in second place, probably the oldest pair. In this table, Apple Airpods Max lock at 60.9 d. They're still incredibly powerful and they're pretty big headphones, so it's not a big surprise and Apple always crushes it.

Anyway, third we have the Sony wh wh 1000x Mark 5S um just a little side note here W means wireless headphones WF means free wireless. I'll try not to mix them up in this video, but the free wireless ones are like the Sony headphones, while the H ones are the headphones, but this one came in third again, absolutely overwhelming. and these worked really well in a lot of different environments, trains, airplanes, taller crowds, different sounds, things like that, they're really nice, Universal, then fourthly we have the Sennheiser impulse fours. I have to say they were definitely lacking, I was really looking for something a little better here Sennheiser has never really been the best ATC and then in last place are the Bowers and Wilkins, they are like I want to tie.

I'm going to call them both fourth and tie them there, huh, because neither of them were really impressive and they were both very similar in their level. Moving on to the next test is related to the first. If you don't want to block out sound you might want transparency mode and this will allow you to hear your surroundings and it actually changes a lot with different headphones, some of them sound robotic and muffled in the first place. Here this one doesn't sound at all, it sounds like you're not even wearing these headphones. These are the Airpods Max.

I have yet to try another pair of headphones or earphones that sound as good as these when it comes to transparency mode. Apple completely crushes it, but I have to say that Bose's quiet Comfort Ultras are not far behind. Bose really took a big step. forward and it has a pretty fantastic transparency mode this year those two are way ahead of the rest they sound natural you can hear your fingers rubbing everything uh you know in the normal space where it would be and they feel almost like you're not wearing those headphones in third Firstly, Sony continues to do a really solid job here.

I have to say I was impressed with them, but again, they are a little more cushioned than the others, they are still quite natural, not robotic, but definitely a little more cushioned. I'm going to say tied for third, the Sennheisers really have the same setup, a little damped. I wish it was a little louder but still not too robotic and then lastly, Bowers and Wilkins, so far, in kind of a rocky start here they will redeem themselves, I promise in a minute, uh, but the way Transparency on those again wasn't bad, but it wasn't as loud as I'd like it to be and it was a little more robotic than the others move to the next category of design and controls.

I'm grouping these two together. How well did the engineers do in designing this product? So I placed them in the order I thought was best. I asked my wife to do the same. I asked other people and the general consensus was that the best design and I'll explain why each of them is in first place, jumping well ahead from their fifth place in the first two rounds. These are the Bowen Wilkins like I think the design on these looks really good the controls are really solid so let's explain why so they come in five different colors.

I thought this green, this kind of sage green, mint green with a touch of gold, looks so unique. so

premium

that it actually has a very similar style to their much more expensive px8 headphones that I mentioned before and with some kind of padded fabric or I don't know how to describe that really, but the textured fabric on the top and on the side like Well, really unites it. Great design here and the controls despite not having touch gestures or anything like that, I think the physical buttons are actually a lot more reliable if you ever work out, uh, you don't have to. worry about wet hands, like you can adjust your headphones without accidentally checking or sliding forward or anything, and the buttons like you always know where they are, you can feel them and they just work so reliably second there were the fours of greater impulse than these have. a really unique design, they are very different from the previous generation, much less metallic on these, but you still have two different colors and they are joined together in the same colors as before, so you have a little bit of off-white on this one.

There is also a black model and the off-white model that comes with a tan leather look on the inside did a very good job of matching the color of the headband and earcups, although it is clearly a different model. The headband material is much more silicone, again with a very nice fabric on the outside. This kind of look from Sennheiser, their cases on the headphones also look like this across the board. I think they are both minimal but also very similar. character like, I really like how Sennheiser did this, plus they now have a new case so it's a lot more solid and it also matches this so they'll be a little bit more protected, that's great from the point of view of the design. and of course when it comes to controls we have swipe controls.

I find them very intuitive. As I said before, I prefer the buttons, but the slide controls did a great job dropping it to third place. The design of the Sony wh1000x. Mark 5S, this one barely comes in third place. I think it could probably even take second place as I like the design of these three different colors, obviously very subjective, although there's white, there's black and there's something like a navy like deep blue I think. what they call midnight blue is actually probably what they call it and these again have a simple design much like the Sennheisers.

I think they are actually older so maybe Saniser copied them, who knows the controls on these, we have two buttons. our power button and our ANC button and transparency and then of course sliding the controls on the headset as well and Sony has a lot of really cool things like you can just cup one ear and that will automatically turn on. Turn down the music allows you to listen to your surroundings for a minute or so. Lots of cool features, we'll talk about these features later, but a great design like Sony's definitely crushed it with that move straight to fourth place, the

airpods

max.

I really like it. There's a lot about these, they're so unique and I have to give credit to Apple for really tying in their design features, the little rotating crown on top, uh, the button, it all does a great job. I wish there were one or two more buttons for more. controls here, I feel like it's a little limiting and of course the case doesn't protect it at all, as you can see from the top, my headbands are already a little destroyed just because it comes with a Basically, I don't know, we've all been there seen, isn't it?

In my opinion, it is not the best way to protect your airpods and finally we have the arches. I'm not saying they are poorly designed in any way. and obviously, as I said, the controls here are subjective. Something I really like about them is that they have a little rim for the volume, so intuitive just slide your finger over the rim to adjust it and then they have two buttons, the downside sometimes is it takes a little longer to activate the headphones, you press the power button, it may take a second, you don't know if it's on but you press it again and then you accidentally turn it off again, however, category number four.

Bose moved from fifth place to first place here, this will be the fit and comfort, how well they stay on your head, how comfortable they are after wearing them for a while. Bose is in first place here and there is really no doubt about it. In my opinion, they weigh 251G, so they're very, very light, they're incredibly comfortable, perfect clamping strength which they won't be perfect for if you're doing dynamic workouts, but actually none of these are going to work. It would be great for that, if you're doing burpees these will probably fall off your head, but sitting at a desk I can wear them longer than anything on this table here again, very very soft padding, really nice material. pleasant. the earcups and on the headband and like just a gentle clamping force that feels like they're not even there second.

I have to say that I have been using the Sonys on airplanes, I mean, since they came out and so on. after wearing them for a long time like there really isn't too much clamping force, they hold up very well in my opinion, they actually have a little more hold than arches so if you are doing exercises, in my opinion these will be top. and because they don't have a very deep ear cup, my ears don't tend to get especially hot with these, like they're just a solid pair of headphones, and they also weigh only 249G, so they're also very, very light.

Thirdly, the Sennheisers here are a little bit heavier, they have a really big battery, that's why they're heavier, but 292 G, so they're about 40 G heavier, and with that you get a pretty smooth clamp, a nice guy. leather I think it's fake leather, but it has a leather texture, you can wear them, they're like you know they're number three, they're not going to be the best, but they're definitely not the worst. Fourth, only the airpods max. come here because they are a lot heavier these are 386 G so they are a lot heavier than the other ones so if I like to look down they tend to go off my head but I mean they are tried and true . a nice, deep earpiece that helps them stay in your ears a little better.

People love them. I like them too, but fourth place I think is fair for them and then we have Bowers and Wilkins in fifth place here again, pretty solid. Although they still occupy fifth place, they are stillgreat, they are better than most other options out there but all in all the really deep 309G earbuds again help to stay on your head but your ears are more likely to get hot with these and there is a clamping force quite strong, as can be seen just from the general shape of these. I think fifth place is pretty fair for these, so let's say you're using them on a work day or you're out walking, you're on a call to whatever microphone is going to be really important.

You are paying a lot of money for the headphones you want to have. There is a good microphone and the good news is that they all do a great job, so we are going to test them in both an easy environment and a difficult environment, starting indoors. Well, this is the indoor microphone test with the Bose silent system. Comfort Ultra headphones, the microphone should be like this, it should be the easiest possible situation for them, there is really no echo here and I am speaking at a fairly normal volume. This is an internal microphone test with the px7 s2e headphones, so let me know how they work.

Does it sound familiar to you, this is an indoor microphone test with the Sennheiser Momentum 4 headphones, let me know how these microphones sound to you. This is an indoor microphone test with the Sony wh1000x Mark 5 headphones. This is an indoor microphone test with the Apple Airpods Max. side tone transparency whatever you want to call it is definitely the best thing on these when I'm talking on the phone it seems more natural to me to hear my own voice through these headphones so we're outside there's some traffic behind me there's also quite a breeze so While this should be a pretty tough environment for these microphones, we'll see how they compare.

These are the Sony correct, but in a phone call on a bus, like on a busy road with some wind, something like that would sound now for the first time. Sennheiser impulse Forest now I know I've already said this a couple of times in this video, but these are probably the headphones that change the most year after year, and another small complaint I'm realizing right now is that the transparency mode is It gets a little strange. And it gets weird when it's windy, the volume fluctuates a little bit, but regardless this is a microphone test, let me know how they sound to you in a noisy environment and now these are Apple's Airpods Max.

Now we know that Airpods always have very good results. microphones, but we'll see how well they compare to the others, obviously with this test right now it's claimed that the battery life on these is pretty similar across all of them, but I mean, the tests show that's not necessarily the case, so The battery life for all of these that I'm going to show you is based on Bluetooth activated and active noise cancellation. I think that's really the most common scenario for how I tend to use these and most others do too, so first up here. buy much like double the next closest these are the Sennheisers rated for 60 hours.

I usually get around 50 hours and top 50 out of these, it feels like I basically never charge them, so I think maybe a little weaker ANC is definitely contributing to that, as we talked about before, a pair of headphones a little heavier, but I mean, they somehow managed to get a lot of battery life out of these second, then we have the Bowers and Wilkins that you are getting, they are claimed for 30 hours, but I am getting a little more than that , like 30 to 40 hours which was actually pretty impressive, they are a little bit heavier so I would expect a little bit bigger battery inside and again a little bit weaker ANC really works.

Third are the Sony ones, they are said to have 30 hours, overall I get around 30 hours with these and something interesting about these, they obviously have very very powerful active noise cancellation if you want a long battery life further. You could turn them off and you'll probably get 50 hours of battery life out of these headphones, so they're still not as good as the Sennheisers, especially not when the anc is on, but the battery life is very respectable in my opinion, 30 hours. It easily gets me through a week of listening or an average work day and, uh, it's not a big deal to lug them around and I'll talk about why in just a second, when we get into the sound quality, then fourthly we have the bows. these last about 30 hours, that's what they are rated for.

I get a little less than that but I'm still very close, you can't turn off the ANC with these. There's always some level between active noise cancellation and transparency even if you put it in the middle like the motor is still running there, um, so the mass is pretty consistent no matter what you do with that and then in Last place, surprisingly, these are so big that the Airpods Max only have about 20 hours of battery life. uh that's also what they're rated for so I don't know maybe Apple will update them in the future but for now that's last place for battery life so category number seven is quality of the sound between all of these like All of these sound good, they won't be like headphones with super analytical audio files that are connected to a DAC and everything, but they will still be probably the best sounding Bluetooth headphones you can buy for most consumers within than reasonable.

So first of all, in my opinion, these are Sennheiser's push because they sound so good, so clean, very articulate and they actually accept multiple audio inputs, so on the one hand you can use Bluetooth, on the other of course, and they have some very high resolution codecs. Well, including the Appex Adaptive, you can also connect it with 3 and 2mm port and of course you can connect it with USB type C, so remember that before when I was talking about battery life, I said that some of these They are easier to charge than others if I'm sitting at my desk and want to connect for audio.

I normally use a USBC cable that way, they're always charged and ready for meetings and you can actually get very high resolution audio over a USB Type C cable, so it works great with these headphones, plus, We talk about sound quality a little more. Very natural balance. Very analytical crisp highs. Very clean mids on these too and you can hear a lot of really intricate details throughout a song like those of the guitarist. Slide your hand on the fretboard as a lot of really interesting details that you can pick up with these across the board, like these sound very natural and do a good job of moving into second place.

Bose headphones really came a long way this year. Even though they have essentially the same drivers as the Bose 700, they now have a higher resolution codec and are Snapdragon sound certified, so in my opinion the high resolution codec really carries a lot of weight here, unfortunately they don't have USB type-c. audio input, but they still have Bluetooth of course, like I said, and they have a headphone port, it's not 3 and a half milliliters, it's a little bit smaller, but the cable is in the case, as long as you have it with you . They're going to be fine as far as sound quality goes with these, they're a little bassy but overall they're pretty well balanced, Wake Sound calibrates them so when you put them in your ears they make this kind of sound boomy that I will calibrate them based on everyone's ear geometry to hopefully provide a more consistent sound profile to each user, regardless of their ear geometry.

I think that's cool, that Bose has also been doing that for a while with their headphones in Third place are the Sony ones, these don't accept USB input either uh, but they have a 3 and a half mm port on the bottom and when It's about Bluetooth, they've been crushing it for a long time. Sony has really always been ahead. this one has its own proprietary L platform which is really a very high resolution codak, probably the best out there by many standards, so as long as your phone is capable of handling ldac i.e. it's not an iPhone like most of Androids can do this, uh.

You'll have very high resolution sound here, there's also Bluetooth 5.2, it's not the newest but when they came out it was the newest so you'll have a pretty solid connection and pretty good range as well as the sound. Overall I'd say it's a bit basic, it's definitely designed for consumers, there's a slightly recessed midrange, uh, and a bit of emphasis on the treble for more perceived clarity, which overall makes it feel fuller, lively and exciting. In general, I refer to this as a dynamic consumer profile. I think a lot of people, especially untrained ears, would really like the way they sound, but you know, I think it's a pretty solid number three here, so at fourth here I was really split.

This is because, on the one hand, they work much better than the others when listening to Spotify on an iPhone, but other than that, they don't have a high-resolution codec, so you can't really get any benefit from listening to the title. or local files or something, also, they do not have a 3 and 1 half mm port or a USB type-c input, but instead they have a Lightning cable which is not even the one on the latest iPhones, you have to buy an adapter Lightning. listening to wired audio on these, which I find to be a big drawback, but as far as the sound quality itself goes, it really is like there's no equalizer on the iPhone like we've seen with other airpods. pretty common, but there is like a subtle boost in bass, definitely not muddy, very clean, nice highs, good instrument separation, really nice soundstage, all things considered, when you look at a spec sheet you might say no they're going to sound good, but it actually sounds very good, like Apple has done a fantastic job given those limitations, a low resolution codec and things like that Bluetooth 5.0 for example, they do a good job, although I have to say I like it and then of course last place here, man, I feel bad, I feel like these always take last place, but again, it's not like they're still a really good pair of headphones, the Bowers and Wilkins.

I really like the sound of these, they sound very, uh, I'd say they're a little dark, but very fun and lively, they have Adaptive Apex, they have 40mm drivers and they support up to 24-bit audio, plus they support all three inputs that we have , we have Bluetooth, we have USB type c and we have, of course, well, no, no, okay, they only support two, they have, they have USB type C and they have Bluetooth, they don't actually have a 3 and a half millimeter port. I don't know why I thought I didn't actually look for it until now? uh the sound quality on these, like I said, is a little bit bassy, ​​definitely a little bit on the dark side, uh, so there are some weaker mids as well, overall I would say these are going to be more fun than analytical, they're not really that analytical, but for a lot of people, they're a pretty exciting and pretty lively headphone to listen to, so the penultimate category, this is one that I think always sets headphones apart and these are the features, I think it's a no-brainer, the first in this category has to be the Sony headphones.

Sony just packs so many features into every product they make, these have crazy things like I said, from covering your ear to listening to your surroundings. talk to chat, if you start talking it will lower the volume of your music, it will turn on transparency, you can talk to someone and when you stop talking it will know that you stop talking, it will turn the volume of your music back up and return to you. On active noise cancellation you can change the settings depending on where you are and what you're doing if you're moving, like turning on active noise cancellation when I'm sitting at my desk.

Crazy stuff like that, they also have 360 ​​reality audio from Sony. which is like spatial audio they had it before basically anyone else in the game, uh and of course they have extreme DSE so you can boost or upsample lower quality audio and potentially make it sound a little bit better, by less a little cleaner and of course, they have multipoint connectivity, the list goes on and on. Sony's app may seem a little cluttered to some, but it really has a lot of features, some obvious first, second, then Sennheiser impulses. I did not do it. Wait for it because all three of them were really missing a lot of features and these ones, well not a lot, they were missing some features but these just have a lot of new features so they have a sound test which is great. ability to manage your connections in the app, uh, so you can have multiple connectivity, of course, with these you have sound zones, like I said.

Sony does that as if you move and like to workon the train, whatever the different profiles, so it changes automatically. Some configurations on these, however, got rid of the haptic motor they had on all three. I guess I didn't really notice it when I started using them. I never really used the haptic motor that turned on during phone calls, I guess when I received phone calls and it was used as a built-in tile to position it. It's no longer tiled, but again, I don't think that's a big deal, but there are still a lot of features that really impressed me and then tied for second place. put the airpods max if you have an Apple ecosystem, if you know any Apple devices, really, then this has of course the H1 chip that gives you all that Apple stuff, of course the automatic switching between your iPad and your iPhone , you have audio sharing, so if you have two pairs of airpods or you know two, any airpods, airpods pro and these you can share audio on your iPhones, you can both listen to the same phone at the same time with different pairs. of airpods which is pretty solid, you have spatial audio and all the other Apple stuff which of course comes with the airpods max going down to fourth place, kind of higher here, they both have of course the Bose and the Bowers and Wilkins both have a lot of normal things like they have It's like Bose has auto on and off which is great you don't have to turn them off you just put them on and they go to sleep they know they're not in your head you can press the Bluetooth button on the bottom to switch between different devices, so they don't really have multipoint connectivity, but basically they do, they will connect to multiple devices and you just switch manually, which could be better or a little worse depending on how I would like to use that, but again, connect to your laptop and receive a phone call, press the button, it will switch to your phone and you can answer the call quite easily and of course Bose has its modes that you can do manually. select like that one could be like startup mode and you could have spatial audio and you could have a transparency mode on things like that the bers and well they have a really annoying wake up sound when you turn it on it plays like a little sound piano I don't know why they did that, but they have a custom action button.

Remember I said I really like the buttons on these. The button on the left earcup can be customized to do a couple of different things. I thought it was cool and you can also change some other settings in the app and that brings us to the final category. If you haven't already left an angry comment saying why you didn't talk about the price, well, here you go, that's it. this is the price here so when ranking them in order of price I had to include this because some of them punch way above their weight and some of them are a bit pricey so this is kind of an equalizer by including this as a category, okay, so when reviewing these prices, they are based on the current prices I see online where I am, but it also mentions the MSRP, although most of these are not sold at MSRP, but the cheapest ones are the Sennheisers, which are $279.

Right now it feels like these are punching above their weight, which is a pretty significant sale over the 379, which is the MSRP, but even at 379, these are cheaper than the others on this table, as they are really punching above their weight. I was very impressed by that. secondly, Sony is always a pretty solid deal, these are $349 right now, MSRP is $399, but again, a pretty solid deal for what you're getting, these are really a jack of all trades for At that price, the Bose headphones are in third place for $379. Right now the MSRP is $429, so they're already on sale even though they came out like 2 months ago, then in fourth place are Bowers and Wilkins , these are $399, that's what I paid for them, that's the MSRP, they don't really seem to change. a lot and that's just the price of them and then it's no surprise that the Airpods Max are by far the most expensive.

The MSRP is $549, as many of you know, but right now the latest price I'm seeing is about $479, regardless of whether that's still the most expensive. so let's add up all those scores from one to five, we add them up like a golf score, so the lowest score will win, which means you got first place most essentially, so now let's add them up to see what they are the totals before saying it. You can guess the numbers in the comments which one you think might be best for me to start this. I really thought the Sony ones were going to be the best, actually, in terms of a pretty solid pair of headphones and they usually end up yes. not at the top, very close to the top huh, but number one here with 19 points total were actually the most healing boosts and it may sound strange because they didn't have really good active noise cancellation, they didn't have a mode of transparency really good, but they never came in last place like they were always pretty decent and they also came in first place several times for best battery life, best price, best sound quality and then they came in second place for things like great features, great design, great controls like it's no surprise when you look at these did very well in this comparison, at least with the metrics I used in this video, then in second place they almost tied with the Sony wh1000x Mark 5S, these again never came in Last place came first for microphones for features and came second for price, fit, Comfort ones like these are very easy to recommend and thirdly we have the Bose Comfort Ultra quiet headphones, these have 27 points. so they were a little bit behind because they came last in the microphone test, they came last in design again, that's subjective so not everyone will agree with that, but they also came in first place with active cancellation of noise, so if what you really care about is good sound, good noise cancellation, like the real basics, good comfort with a pair of headphones, then yes, the quiet Comfort Ultras from Bose are a really easy recommendation despite take third place, if you have the right priorities, those are really a no-brainer, then in fourth place we have the Airpods Max, in fact, these again are a little bit more expensive, they didn't have the best battery life.

They came in fourth place because they fit in comfort because they are a little more expensive. They are heavier, but still have the best transparency. They have really good active noise cancellation. They have good sound quality despite not competing with others here and I think they are great if you are in the Apple ecosystem and money is not an issue. They are an easy recommendation, but they won't be number one on this list or the easiest to recommend to the majority of people who I think would benefit from the others and will unfortunately take last place, although I really love them . how they look and I really liked the battery here they did very well with the design the controls came in last place against the others in this table a little more than I expected they have 33 total points putting them in last place but let me know which ones these you thought were better and why I really had a good time making this video.

If you want to see more videos like this, be sure to like and subscribe. I'm Mik O'Brien, thanks for watching I'll see you next time