In 2008, Beats debuted its Beats Studio headphones and sold piles of them at $299.
Complaining about the company remains a favorite pastime among audiophiles, but subsequent iterations of its products, including the new Beats Solo Wireless ($299), have performed much better.
No, the Solo doesn’t quite measure up the $329 Sennheiser Momentum On Ear Wireless ($349) where performance is concerned, but what the Sennheisers make up for in sound, they lose with design. The problem with the Momentum is the metallic headband, which looks like something Dr. Frankenstein might use to revive a corpse. It’s not a good trade-off.
The Parrot Zik 3 ($399) and the V-Moda Crossfade Wireless ($270) looked a little too Woody Allen by way of Kraftwerk on me, but plenty of people rock them like pros. More important, they’re among the best wireless headphones you can buy.
Bose Quietcomfort 35 headphones ($349) have earned solid reviews since their release last spring. Their noise-canceling technology does better than competitors at shutting out the world, but business-class travelers beware: It comes at the expense of the music, which is delivered without a lot of power or detail.
Fashion consumers in search of design-conscious headphones may gravitate toward the Pryma and Master & Dynamic’s MW60. Both are $550, both weigh just north of 12 ounces and both have similar technical specifications, according to their manufacturers. If I enjoyed listening to the MW60 a little more, it may be because the softer ear pads distracted from the heavy weight. Neither is a great choice for working out.
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iSine10 by Audeze
In-Ear (Wired and Wireless)
For a long time, the Klipsch R6i was the gold standard for wired in-ear headphones under $100. Then the tips got lodged in the ear canals of numerous customers and the caravan moved on to a stellar Chinese headphone company called HiFiMan, whose Re400 are $79 and offer punchy bass and creamy highs.
This fall, Audeze also began lending out a set called the iSine10 (pre-order for $400), which operate like a hybrid of on-ear and an in-ear, delivering sound across the ear and into it. Not only did the iSine headphones sound markedly better than any closed in-ear models I’ve tried (several dozen, for the record), but they are also one of the few that come with a cord compatible with the iPhone7. The main drawbacks: They aren’t wireless and don’t completely block out the world.
Those intent on untangling may want to try the soon-to-be-released $199 Beatsx wireless or the Jaybird X3 ($130), which recently earned a rave on CNET.
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JH Audio in-ear monitor
Custom in-Ear Monitors
In recent years, musicians have moved to performing onstage using thick, couturelike earphones, customized to the contours of their ears.
Referred to as custom in-ear monitors (or CIEMs), they cost $400 to $2,000 and require a trip to an audiologist, most of whom will charge around $100 to jam a bite block into your mouth and zap your ears full of a gummy substance. A few weeks later, the model of your choosing arrives.
Because in-ear monitors fill the entire inside of the ear, creating a near perfect seal, they don’t need noise-canceling technology to do the job. Second, the large and hollow acrylic shells give manufacturers room for numerous speaker drivers inside, where most conventional earbuds (as well as most on-ear headphones) have just one.
Can any headphones be worth $2,000?
That depends on many factors, but if you own a Rolex and consider musical enjoyment to be of paramount importance, they offer one of the best portable listening experiences you can buy, in increasingly stylish options. (And as any audiophile will tell you, none of the world’s best headphones are wireless.)
Nor are they likely to malfunction — although dropping them hard enough can crack the shells, which are cheap and easy to replace.
The Noble Audio Kaiser Encore (a recently updated version of the model I tested; about $1,850) and JH Audio Siren Series Roxanne ($1,750) are among the best examples of this type, providing the aural equivalent of a 3-D experience, with mids and highs that caused vocals to soar and detailed bass that seemed to cascade down the sides of my ears.
The Roxanne (named after the song by the Police) comes with a dial on its cord that allows adjustments to the bass. The Kaiser Encore is available with a Bluetooth device about the size of a cigarette that allows you to keep it hooked to an iPhone without having it connected through a dongle.
Sensaphonics, a company that houses its CIEMs in a soft silicone rather than acrylic shell, also makes a first-rate set of in-ear monitors, the 2Max ($850). The sound is crisp and tight, if maybe not as powerful in the bass.
I personally prefer having acrylics in my ears, but Thom Yorke and Chris Martin are among those who seem to disagree.
