3 Strangers Test 5 Headphone Brands To Find The Best One

[Julian] These five headphones are the top picks

by Wired's expert reviewers.

But does the average user like them?

I feel like these are a slightly upgraded version

of what an airplane gives you.

I put them in a room with three strangers

while I watch from behind a one way mirror.

Here's what they really thought.

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This is Focus Group.

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A is a little bit more old fashioned to me in a way.

[Jesse] They look a little cheap budget.

I feel like I'm going into like,

a movie theater at like an IMAX.

Ooh, that's a good comparison.

What about B?

It reminds me of like a 90s computer.

[Jesse] I like that. It's cool.

I do too.

[Patrick] It almost looks analog, like a cassette tape

or something on the side.

[Abrielle] They do. Yeah.

Doesn't scream cool to me though.

It just screams, boot up the old desktop computer.

I think we've all been through Windows 95 enough.

I'd pass for the appearance.

[Abrielle] I think C is a little bit too chunky for me.

[Patrick] They are quite thick.

[Jesse] Yeah.

I think they're trying to look more premium

by adding material to them,

but I don't love the look of them.

It's not my favorite, but it does look pretty good.

[Jesse] D, they just look kind of normal.

Understated. Which isn't a bad thing.

Daily wear might not be too bad.

[Patrick] I just looked right past 'em, honestly.

I mean these look unique. It just seems very sleeper.

How do we feel about E?

I think they look really attractive.

They look different from any headphones I'd seen before.

It has a very premium appearance.

The band on it looks great.

All these are somewhat similar and that's unique.

[Jesse] Okay, let's try them on.

Get our band photo like this.

Everybody's got headphones now.

Yeah, these feel good. They're very comfortable.

I feel like these would fall off easy.

[Jesse] Yeah.

I really like the buttons on this.

These feel pretty good.

Like, they're not going anywhere.

They feel like they're kind

of contoured nicely to one's head.

They also very clearly say right and left.

I feel like these are a slightly upgraded version

of what an airplane gives you.

Oh, I love these. These are canceled.

[Patrick] Noise canceled. I can't hear anything.

[Jesse] Yeah, you can't hear it. Yeah.

Those might be my favorite.

They're awesome, aren't they?

Yeah. Yeah.

They're not uncomfortable by any means,

but yeah, they just feel budget.

Budget. They feel budget.

What do you guys think of the material on each one?

On each one?

[Abrielle] I mean, over time, this will have to peel.

This one, I feel like will last a while.

This one does feel cheap.

This does feel better. Pretty good overall.

[Jesse] Yeah, these actually feel nice. A nice swivel.

These are light and kind of like,

they're a bit higgledy pickledy, you know?

[Abrielle] They're too flimsy.

[Jesse] I mean it's night and day

if you can compare A and E.

[Abrielle] This is cool.

[Jesse] The kind of mesh on top.

Breathable material.

I don't know how well it holds up, the mesh,

but I do like the design a lot.

I mean these, when you feel 'em, they do feel pretty good.

Also, these are fun 'cause these like pop right off.

They're magnetized.

[Abrielle] Oh wow. Right?

[Patrick] Oh, that's a neat feature.

[Jesse] You can just like pop 'em off.

If you need to replace these,

it's just super easy to replace them.

[Patrick] C, it does feel pretty good.

And they fold? That is nice.

[Jesse] That is very nice. Yeah.

[Patrick] It's well cushioned.

I just dunno why they made the individual earphone part

of it so thick.

Like it just looks a little too big for me.

Hmm.

These kind of feel the same as they look,

just sort of normal, understated.

Not very memorable, but nothing wrong with them.

They don't have like a really nice swivel,

but they don't really feel flimsy either.

No, I wouldn't call it budget,

but I also wouldn't call it premium either.

Yeah. Somewhere mid grade.

It's better than this one, I will say.

[Jesse] Oh, you think so?

[Abrielle] I just am not a fan of this material.

Oh, that's too much cushion?

Too much cushion.

I like the cushion.

Do you?

I mean, who doesn't like a little cushion, you know?

What do we feel like is our favorite,

looking at all of these?

I'd probably say E, but B I think is pretty interesting

to look at.

I feel like this one and this one, these are cool.

I might be able to come around

to it a little bit if it was just more comfortable for me.

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[Jesse] That song has a really prominent low end.

I actually thought that the low end

of the headphones should have been a bit better.

The middle range and the highs, they sounded very good.

Vocals seemed so clear.

She does these like kind of whisper sounds in it.

It's not too trebley.

You're not getting like the sibilance

that you would get from low end headphones.

It almost felt like I was there.

I actually really, really liked those.

There was some details with the lossless version

that I didn't notice before.

There's like greater separation between instruments.

[Abrielle] I love these

and I also feel like the other ones feel better on my head.

Not as good as the first one. Not as comfortable.

I almost wanna shake my head

to see if I could like, run with it.

The sound quality just doesn't have the range

that the first one did.

It felt a little flatter.

[Speaker] How would you rate those

with the lossless quality?

[Jesse] With the lossless, we get back the high range

and we get back the middle range that we had lost

with the Bluetooth version, so that's cool.

The audio comes cleaner on these ones for some reason,

whereas the other ones felt like there was like a little bit

of a fade.

I don't really think I would love those headphones

if I had to use them as Bluetooth headphones.

Once it was plugged in, I feel like it got a lot better.

Going that you're gonna be wearing it Bluetooth most

of the time, E was superior to A.

If I had a criticism, it would be, I'm not getting as much

of like a sound stage effect

where it sounds like the instruments are

in like different places, almost as if I'm in the room.

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D has really good treble.

Those sound a little bit brighter than headphones E

and maybe there was a little more clarity.

It was really good, actually.

I would not say that they were as comfortable.

The padding felt a little off with it.

I thought they were actually better

as Bluetooth than they were when they were plugged in.

It kind of muffled everything.

[Jesse] Got a lot quieter from the Bluetooth

to the lossless version.

It's an easy fix, I suppose. You just turn up the volume.

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[Patrick] The sound was pretty good.

I felt the bass was a little weak.

I feel like I would love those for when I was running

and they're super noise canceling, which I like.

Vocals were pretty good, I mean,

treble range was all right.

Just mediocre, would not pick.

[Jesse] Huge difference when we go to lossless.

With the Bluetooth, like, couldn't wait to take them off.

They sound like a different pair of headphones.

I actually wanted to continue listening.

[Patrick] B is not a comfortable headset.

It's a little too tight.

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Listening to that, that's really clear audio.

You felt like you were there.

I don't like those very much.

Everything sounded kind of flat.

I wasn't getting a super strong bass out of them,

but vocals, and that was very, very good.

[Jesse] They had no depth.

Everything just sounded kind of smushed,

compressed together.

Sorry, headphones C. You tried.

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[Julian] So you guys have prices with you.

You don't know how much these headphones cost.

Put down what you think each headphones cost.

Pretty sure you know which one's the most expensive.

[Abrielle] Apple.

[Jesse] It's the Apple AirPods Max.

[Patrick] So we're all in the same boat there.

I actually think these might be the cheapest ones.

[Jesse] I think they're the cheapest too.

I feel like the Sonos are probably pretty expensive.

That sounds good to me.

[Abrielle] Not me.

I think the Nothings,

they've got the style thing going on.

[Patrick] I feel like they're trying

to go a little more premium.

[Abrielle] I might do 299.

[Patrick] Not sure I agree with it.

All right, I only have two left.

299 on C.

[Jesse] Yeah, Sony.

[Abrielle] I kind of wanna think,

the Sony ones would be more expensive.

Could be.

You got everything right.

Oh wow.

Oh, impressive.

So the most expensive are the Apple AirPods Max.

[Jesse] Yeah.

[Julian] The Sony XM6s are around 458.

Sonos Ace is around 319, you know, on sale.

And the Nothing is 299.

The cheapest is the Soundcore Space One Pro.

Wired's top pick is actually the XM6.

The Sony line of headphones,

the XM series have long been some

of the best headphones on the market.

There's obviously a lot more that we factor in,

battery life, there's microphone quality,

there's overall comfort, travel capabilities.

So for example, these ones, you can actually fold them in

for travel, and I think the Sonys are actually some

of the best in the business in terms of noise cancellation.

So I will also point out

that you really liked the Sonys, you did not.

Yeah. So there is also

that difference of like, you know,

people just having different preferences

and sound stages of what they want, right,

out of the headphones.

There's actually not a single pair of headphones here

that we don't like.

If you want something more of a budget friendly option,

you get something like the Space One Pro.

And if you're in a Sonos household, you're more likely

to gonna go for the Sonos Ace

because there are some features there that allow you

to stream with other Sonos products.

Apple's AirPods Max, we like them a lot.

They're really great on a lot of fronts,

but I think anyone with an iPhone is more likely

to be geared towards that

because Apple is more of a brand name.

You kind of want the look, that cache that comes with it.

And the Nothing headphones are, actually,

a relatively new pair of headphones from the company.

They haven't made headphones before,

so that's their first attempt,

and that's our favorite for design

because they just look like no other headphones out there.

Yeah.

With that, they still sound pretty good.

They have decent battery life.

A lot of good options on the market.

It's the audio quality for me,

which is like the number one thing.

And I have very specific things that I'm looking for.

The lossless version of those are actually very good.

[Abrielle] Yeah, I agree. Yeah.

One pattern I noticed is with the higher end models,

you tended to not notice the difference between lossless

and Bluetooth, whereas with the cheaper models,

there was a much bigger gap.

That is something to note,

that maybe the lossless isn't doing a ton more

on the higher end, but also,

would you pay $550 for headphones?

[Patrick] It depends.

If you're flying a lot,

a good pair of headphones is kind of clinch.

What sort of the price range here

that you think you feel comfortable,

spending on a pair of headphones?

I feel like 300.

I wouldn't say it's so much of a price range.

It's really just,

do I feel like I'm getting my dollars worth?

And it's not that I'm an Apple fan boy

or anything like that, it's just I put them on,

it was the first one I tried.

I was even a little skeptical

because I thought, this is the first one,

you have to be a little more critical and everything.

I still thought they were the best by far.

So would I pay the premium for it?

Unfortunately, yes. Yeah, I would.

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My favorite, they were the Apple.

[Julian] You would be surprised how many people run

in New York with these headphones.

Yeah, I do see people running

with them which I think is a bit funny.

See, when I was testing them out,

I wanted to run because I felt like

that would be my selection

and take on a wireless headphone if I could run in them.

I agree with Patrick about the AirPod Maxes.

I do think that they're the best headphones.

I actually did really like the Nothing.

I felt like they were comfortable.

I like the sound.

Do you like the styling?

I like the styling as well. It's something unique.

I am more of a wired headphone person,

so wireless for me is something new.

We're all wired headphone people here.

Yeah.

[Julian] Check out wired.com

to see how our expert reviews compare

to our focus group experiment.

Let us know what you like in the comments.

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