We've tested the best over-ear headphones on the market, from brands like Apple, Bose, Sony and more. Get the best over-ear headphones for you and your ears.
Updated Jan. 1, 2024 3:13 p.m. PT Wireless Over Ear Headphones With Mic
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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.
That's a hard question to answer. In the 20 or so years I've been testing headphones, the number of great models to choose from has seemed only to grow year over year, which makes it tough to name a single model as the best overall over-ear or "around-the-ear" headphone. A few models do stand out from the rest of the pack, though, including the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones , the Sony WH-1000XM5 and Apple's AirPods Max (for iPhone users). For sound quality in a wireless over-ear headphone, the Focal Bathys are hard to beat, but they cost $799.
Most of the over-ear headphones on this list are wireless Bluetooth headphones that feature active noise canceling (some but not all wireless headphones also come with a cable for wired listening). But I've also included a handful of wired-only over-ear headphones for the audio purists out there looking for great sound.
When testing and evaluating over-ear headphones, we consider factors such as build quality, comfort, and sound quality, as well as noise-canceling and voice-calling performance. This list is regularly updated as more over-ear headphones hit the market, with the most recent addition being the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones and Beats Studio Pro headphones .
While Bose's new flagship QuietComfort Ultra Headphones may not be a huge upgrade over the company's Noise Cancelling 700 headphones, 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. All that adds up to the best new noise-canceling headphones of 2024 and a worthy adversary to Sony's highly rated WH-1000XM5 and Apple's AirPods Max.
Yes, they're expensive, but the AirPods Max deliver richer, more detailed sound than lower-priced competitors from Bose and Sony. They also feature arguably the best noise canceling on the market along with premium build quality and Apple's virtual surround spatial audio feature for video watching. While they're heavy, they manage to be surprisingly comfortable, though I did have to adjust the mesh canopy headband to sit a little more forward on my head to get a comfortable secure fit when I was out walking with them. They should fit most heads well, but there will be exceptions.
When you have a product that a lot of people love, change can be risky. Such is the case for Sony's WH-1000XM5, the fifth generation of the 1000X series headphones, which were first released in 2016 as the MDR-1000X Wireless and have become increasingly popular as they've improved with each generation. Over the years, Sony has made some tweaks to the design, but nothing as dramatic as what it's done with the WH-1000XM5. Other than the higher $349 price tag, most of those changes are good, and Sony's made some dramatic improvements with voice-calling performance as well as even better noise canceling and more refined sound.
Sony's improved entry-level noise canceling headphones, the CH-720Ns, have a bit of a plasticky budget vibe, but they're lightweight and very comfortable. Part of me was expecting them to sound pretty mediocre, but I was pleasantly surprised. No, they don't sound as good as the WH-1000XM5s. But they sound more premium than they look (and feel), and their overall performance is a step up from their predecessor, the CH-710Ns. Are they worth $150? Maybe -- or maybe not. But the good news is that, like the CH-710N and WH-XB910 before them, these should see significant discounts in the not-so-distant future, which is what you may want to wait for.
Edifier makes some good-sounding PC speakers and true-wireless earbuds, and it's done a nice job with its W820NB noise-canceling headphones, now on their second-gen version, the Edifier W820NB Plus. The first thing you'll notice about them when you put them on is that they're comfortable -- Edifier has upgraded the ear pads with higher-grade memory foam -- and the headphones fit snugly on your head. They also sound good for their price, offering slightly improved audio quality from the originals, thanks to what appear to be upgraded drivers. You get a bit more clarity and slightly better bass definition. Their sound didn't necessarily blow me away -- they lack a bit of openness -- but it's very good for what the headphones cost. Like their predecessor, they're pleasant-sounding headphones -- and even a bit more so now.
Other features include an ambient mode that lets outside sound in and a low-latency gaming mode. The noise canceling has been upgraded slightly and they're decent for voice calling. Battery life is pretty impressive with up to 49 hours on a single charge at moderate volume levels (and noise canceling off). Also, they now support the LDAC audio codec for Android devices.
A couple of things are still missing. There's no carrying case or headphone jack, though you can connect them to your computer with the included USB-C to USB-A cable. But the 820NB Plus headphones are still a good value.
Love 'em or hate 'em, Beats Studio headphones are among the most popular headphones of all time, launching as wired headphones back in 2008. This is the fourth generation of them, and they carry the same list price as their predecessor and look very similar on the outside but have some big changes on the inside that make them significantly better headphones. I'm tempted to describe them as more affordable plastic versions of the AirPods Max. However, that's not quite accurate due to a choice in chipsets and one notable missing feature. But read our full Beats Studio Pro review to find out what makes these very good headphones, albeit with some caveats.
Sennheiser's previous-generation Momentum Wireless headphones have always had a pretty distinct look that was part retro, part modern and stood out for the exposed metal on their headband. For better or worse, that's all gone now, and the new Momentum 4 Wireless, Sennheiser's flagship noise-canceling headphones, look a bit more subdued and also a bit more like some of their competitors.
The Momentum 4 Wireless offers superior performance over the Momentum 3 Wireless in every regard, though the biggest gains are with noise canceling and voice-calling performance as well as battery life, which is outstanding -- up to 60 hours at moderate volume levels. There's also a transparency mode that allows ambient sound in, and they have the ability to create a custom sound profile in the Smart Control app for iOS and Android using the built-in EQ, sound modes and a new Sound Personalization feature that "assesses the user's listening preferences and adjusts the listening experience according to their taste."
Equipped with 42mm drivers, Sennheiser says the Momentum 4 Wireless offer "best-in-class" sound, which is debatable. I'd say the Momentum 4's sound quality is right there with other models in this price range -- they sound excellent, with the requisite well-defined, punchy bass, relatively wide soundstage (they sound pretty open) and smooth treble that brings out some of the finer details in well-recorded tracks. They're a pleasure to listen to.
When Bose released its new flagship QuietComfort Ultra Headphones, it also replaced the QuietComfort 45s with a new, slightly updated model simply called the QuietComfort Headphones. Like the QC 45s, this model carries on the very comfortable tried-and-true legacy QuietComfort design that's been around for a few generations that a lot of people continue to love. The QC Ultra Headphones add Bose's new Immersive Audio feature and have a more refined design with some metal parts (they also have Bluetooth 5.3 instead of Bluetooth 5.1). But the QuietComfort Headphones still feature very good sound (the Ultras are offer a small step up in sound quality), excellent noise canceling and strong voice-calling performance.
As for differences between these and the QC45s, Bose says it adjusted some of the electronics to improve battery life (now 24 hours vs. 22 hours) and adjusted the logos to make the products "visually distinguishable and more in line with its latest design language." It also added an inline microphone to the auxiliary cable to "help with some users who may prefer a plug-and-play solution rather than Bluetooth pairing." There's also a Wind Block feature and some additional small performance improvements due to software upgrades. Finally, the headphones come in new color options, including green and a light blue version that's only available at bose.com.
While the QuietComfort Headphones carry a $350 list price that's $50 higher than that of the QC 45s, we expect them to be regularly discounted to $250 and possibly less than that in 2024 -- so look to buy them when they're on sale. You can read our review of the QuietComfort 45 to get a good take on the QuietComfort Headphones.
The design of 1More's SonoFlow headphones reminds me a little of some earlier Sony headphones and also the newer Sennheiser Momentum Wireless 4. They're a bit generic looking but sleek enough and more importantly, comfortable to wear. They also feature very respectable sound quality. While they don't quite measure up to the sound quality of what'll get with more premium models like the Momentum Wireless 4, they're not that far off. The SonoFlow deliver smooth sound with good clarity and relatively well-defined bass (they're just not quite as rich or dynamic sounding as those premium models I mentioned). They also have support for the LDAC audio codec.
Wireless Overhead Headphones The noise canceling is a step down from what Sony and Bose models offer but it does a decent job of muffling ambient sound and there is a transparency mode. Voice-calling performance is similarly solid but unspectacular. Note that you can use them in wired mode with the included cable, but the noise canceling only works in wireless mode, which is an issue for frequent flyers who like some noise canceling when plugging into an in-flight entertainment system.