Audio is a big business, and it’s only getting bigger. Research and Markets reports that the wireless speaker market alone will shoot from $6.14 billion in 2024 to $12.12 billion by 2030; headphones and earphones will grow from last year’s $17.74 billion to $25.62 billion in 2032.
But the best sound is worth even more to you. After all, you’ve got a lot to hear: music, videos, podcasts, audiobooks, and even work conference calls. You need a brand that meets your particular needs, no matter how you listen.
“Audio is intensely personal,” says Eric Zeman, PCMag’s managing editor of consumer electronics. “Headphones and earphones live on our heads and pump sound directly into our ears, while portable speakers can now play a role in delivering the soundtrack of our lives, no matter where we go. Audio can have a huge impact on our state of mind and well-being, so it’s critical to choose products that not only fit your person, but your personality.”
To help you find the best audio products to fit your life, we annually ask PCMag readers to weigh in with their picks for their favorite wireless speakers, PC speakers, headphones, and earphones. Read on to see which brands offer the best in terms of audio quality, value, reliability, and overall satisfaction.
Meanwhile, if you’re curious about who makes the best smart speakers, check out our Readers’ Choice awards for smart home products.
The Top Headphone and Earphone Brands for 2025
How you listen to audio while you’re exercising or on the go can vary quite a bit. Some people prefer over-the-ear headphones, some like lightweight earphones, and many opt for true-wireless earbuds. We combine the results for all those options (see the chart below) to determine the best brand across the entire headphone and earphone ecosystem.
Last year, our Readers’ Choice award went to specialty audio manufacturer Shokz. And this year, the company has grabbed the top spot once again. You’ve chosen it as the top headphone brand with this year’s highest scores for satisfaction, setup, reliability, comfort, and likelihood to recommend.
Shokz makes traditional earphones, but it primarily sells bone-conduction headphones, such as the Editors’ Choice OpenRun Pro 2. Bone conduction tech transmits audio by gently vibrating your skull, which is ideal if you want to listen while still having your ears open to your surroundings.
(Note: Click the arrows in our interactive charts to view various elements of our survey results.)
Shokz headsets don’t have to touch your ears, which our readers seem to love. One says that Shokz provides “amazing comfort—I can wear them all day without any discomfort.” Another notes that the design is great for people prone to ear infections.
Open-ear headphones are ideal for workouts, when safety is of particular importance. “Shokz targets the fitness crowd, who find the company’s hear-through earphones a great fit for their outdoor adventures,” Zeman says. “Whether you’re on a patch of remote singletrack or pounding the pavement at your city local park, being aware of your surroundings is critical.”
Readers concur. “I can hear everything going on around me, while still maintaining a solid listening experience for music, training videos, meetings, and phone calls,” says one. “They fit very comfortably, do not pinch my head or my ears. In fact, they fit so comfortably that I often forget I am even wearing them, and after work, I will get up from my desk and go about my post-work activities with the headset still on.”
Shokz isn’t the only brand name in the winner’s circle this year. We’re also handing out a Readers’ Choice award for value in the headphones category. Soundcore is one of many sub-brands owned by Anker, a company known for its value pricing. Soundcore has the best rating for value in every chart it appears on—always at least an 8.9 out of 10, well above the rest.
The chart below may look similar, but it narrows the field to wireless headphones only. Shokz again takes the lead, and Anker’s Soundcore brand, as noted, repeats that stellar score for value.
In general, reader comments on Soundcore boil down to what one survey respondent calls “great value, great sound.” Another says, “I bought these because they were $50 when a lot of others were $200 to $300. My husband stole them so often that I bought him a pair too.”
“Soundcore knows its market and delivers exactly what it wants: affordable headphones that sound great,” Zeman says. “It has long offered audio products with an ideal blend of performance and value.”
The final chart focuses on an audio technology that many have grown to consider essential: active noise cancellation. ANC headphones use their own microphones to sample the environment and cancel out steady, loud noises before they reach your ears. You can read more about this technology in our roundup of The Best Noise-Cancelling Headphones.
A couple of names stand out for their noise-cancellation scores: Bose and Sony, both of which earn a 9.2 out of 10 for ANC. Both companies also tie for comfort and battery life. But Sony ranks just ahead of Bose for satisfaction, reliability, ease of use, and likelihood to recommend, earning it Readers’ Choice honors for headphones with active noise cancellation.
One reader cites Sony’s headphones for having “the best sound and the best ANC.” Another survey respondent tells us, “I recently flew on two different 10-hour flights. Noise cancellation worked wonders. Engine roar and conversations were barely above a whisper.”
“Sony continues to make some of the best noise-cancelling headphones in the business,” Zeman says. “Its latest offering, the WH-1000XM6, offers class-leading noise reduction with high-quality audio.”
On-Ear or Over-Ear Headphones
When we use the word “headphones,” you’re probably picturing ones that cover your whole ear—on-ear or over-ear headphones (the cushioned parts over the ears are called cups or cans). Our readers give over-ear headphones an 8.9 overall satisfaction rating across every brand and type, compared with 8.6 for earphones and 8.4 for earbuds.
Narrowing the responses down to only over-ear headphone devices, both wired and wireless, we get another repeat winner from last year’s results: Bose is the top-rated brand for satisfaction, comfort, and likelihood to recommendation.
“Bose makes some of the most popular headphones on the market,” Zeman says. “Its ability to cancel out the world around you and pump crisp, clean audio into your ears is practically unmatched. The company’s QuietComfort Ultra headphones have been our Editors’ Choice winner for years.”
Over-ear headphones frequently have a wired option because of the superior audio quality a cable tends to offer. Only two vendors offering wired over-ear headphones appear on this chart—Sennheiser and Sony—and the results aren’t even close. Sennheiser dominates every measure here, with particularly high ratings for satisfaction, reliability, ease of use, and audio quality.
“Sennheiser is the best brand for audiophiles, hands down,” says one survey taker. Another says, “If there are better headphones than Sennheiser, I have yet to experience them.”
Earphones and Earbuds
Earphones (which go into your ear canal and seal it off) and earbuds (which hang on your ears) are hugely popular. Mordor Intelligence reports that together they account for 62% of the market for audio wearables. Of that 62%, in-canal earphones account for 72.6%.
Anker Soundcore dominated the earphone results in our 2024 survey. But that company’s earphones didn’t get enough responses this time around, and the victory goes to Apple. Though Apple has been making earbuds since 2001, this is the brand’s first win for any kind of headphones or earphones in our personal audio surveys, which date back to 2013.
Today, wireless Apple AirPods dominate the market. More respondents to our survey use the Apple brand than any other. It rates better than the rest in most cases, in particular for overall satisfaction. However, Apple and Samsung are evenly matched in categories like reliability, ease of use, and microphone quality. It’s also worth noting that third-place Bose has several scores—for audio quality, noise cancellation, and battery life—that outperform even Apple.
The numbers change a bit when we consider wireless earphones—specifically “true” wireless devices, those with no connector between the earpieces. Apple is again the best in this product category for 2025. Bose comes in second place, leaving Samsung’s wireless earphones at the bottom. However, the distance between the trio is measured in tenths of a point; all three have excellent ratings for setup, reliability, ease of use, noise cancellation, and microphone quality.
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If there’s one thing Apple does better than any other company, it’s cross-device integration. “Apple pairs well with Apple,” says one respondent, adding that his Apple earphones “work best with my iPhone and iPad.”
“Apple’s AirPods are second-to-none when it comes to multipoint connectivity and seamlessly transferring from your iPhone to your iPad to your Mac,” Zeman says. “It makes them an attractive pair of earphones, especially if you often switch between devices.”
Several respondents note that Apple’s earphones also work well for those with hearing issues. One hearing-impaired reader reports that “a set of AirPods Pro 2 serves as better hearing aids than a $2,000 set I purchased from an audiologist years ago.”
Another reader says AirPods are also a good spying device: “You can leave them outside the case in another room and turn on listening via your phone to hear what’s going on.” For more tricks you can pull off only with AirPods, read our AirPods Pro primer.
To see which headphones currently lead in our lab testing, read our roundups of the best headphones overall, on-ear and over-ear headphones, wired headphones, and earbuds.
Have opinions about your gaming headset? Take our gaming gear survey.
The Top Wireless Speaker Brands for 2025
Wireless speakers run the gamut when it comes to size and shape. They also feature many types of connections, such as Bluetooth for mobile devices and Wi-Fi for whole-home systems. A few companies play in almost every space for speakers, and one in particular has an almost clean sweep across the categories this year.
Our first chart covers all wireless speakers, period. Seven brands made the list this year, and our big winner is Bose. The Framingham, Mass.-based company—which still makes some products right here in the US—beats the rest with an overall satisfaction score a half-point ahead of the runner-up, Sonos. Bose also has the best scores for audio quality and likelihood to recommend.
In the survey comments, readers mention how much they miss the Bose retail stores, which closed entirely in 2020, just ahead of the pandemic (the blame fell to e-commerce). Another recurring theme: quality. “I can count on Bose for high fidelity, strong bass, sharp highs, and middle frequencies,” says one reader. “When Bose is available, I get Bose.” Another reader says Bose speakers are “pricey, but the best [for] audio and adjustability.”
Recommended by Our Editors
We have another Readers’ Choice award to give across all wireless speakers, specifically looking at speaker cost and value. Much as it does in the headphones space, Anker Soundcore earns stellar scores for value, reliability, ease of use, and portability—all ahead of Bose. It can’t compete when it comes to overall satisfaction—readers score it a full point below Bose there—but in all the other subcategories, Soundcore delivers. It also ties with JBL for the high score on battery life.
“Bose and Soundcore are highly attuned to their customers,” Zeman says. “While Bose knows how to tempt high spenders with attractive speakers that sound great, Soundcore has the low-cost market cornered thanks to its feature-rich speakers that outperform the competition.”
Bluetooth Speakers
Out of all the types of speakers available, our readers weigh in the most on Bluetooth-based models. But as of 2024, Bluetooth speakers account for only 52.1% of the market, according to Mordor. (The rest are Wi-Fi speakers, smart speakers, and other miscellaneous types.)
“Bluetooth speakers come in many different shapes and sizes, and can focus on core audio performance or pack in tons of extra features to round out the experience,” Zeman says. “This gives speaker makers lots of latitude to create compelling products that target wide audiences or seek a niche with smaller ones. Either way, there’s a Bluetooth speaker out there for you.”
When it comes to Bluetooth speakers, Bose wins with high ratings for overall satisfaction, audio quality, and likelihood to recommend. Despite placing at the bottom of the list, Anker Soundcore delivers excellent numbers in many subcategories, as does second-place JBL. For whatever reason, while people love Soundcore’s prices and other features, they won’t give it a high satisfaction rating.
Wi-Fi Speakers
The brands represented here—Amazon’s Echo line, Bose, and Sonos—score a little better as Wi-Fi speakers than they do in the overall chart above, which includes multiple types of connections. That fact implies more satisfaction with Wi-Fi systems, the kinds of speakers typically used around the home.
“Speakers that rely on Wi-Fi rather than Bluetooth are defined by two basic things,” Zeman says. “First, they’re generally not portable and are meant to be used at home. Second, they’re for more serious listeners who are chasing audio quality and advanced streaming features.”
Bose’s win for Wi-Fi speakers is even more solid here than it was with Bluetooth devices—it has the top scores in every category except value, which goes to Amazon.
For more on Amazon’s Echo line, see our smart home survey results from earlier this year.
Battery-Powered Wireless Speakers
“Battery-powered Bluetooth speakers are the transistor radios of the modern age,” Zeman says. “They let you take your tunes wherever you go so you can share the latest hit with your besties, party it up in a backyard, or simply unwind with some soothing tunes in your favorite park. Add in features like protection from dust and water, and you have a winning combination tailor-made for a good time.”
Anker Soundcore, Bose, and JBL all appear here, but Bose’s overall satisfaction earns it the win for battery-powered speakers. We use the overall satisfaction score to pick a winner—but competing brands have better scores for battery life. Anker Soundcore, not surprisingly, is the winner when it comes to pricing.
To see which brands currently lead in our lab testing, check out our roundup of The Best Bluetooth and Wireless Speakers.
The Top Computer Speakers for 2025
In this survey, we ask about just one type of wired speaker—the classic set that connects to your PC to blow the doors off the den when you’re playing games or enjoying media.
Going by the numbers, it would appear Bose wins—and indeed, the brand has the best scores by far for not just satisfaction and recommendation, but also for setup, reliability, ease of use, and speaker controls. But we’re not giving Bose the Readers’ Choice award here. Not because people don’t love the products—they obviously do, a lot—but because Bose confirmed to us that it isn’t actually in the PC speaker market anymore (even though a few models still show up for sale on Amazon).
So the award goes to Klipsch. It has won this category five different times since 2013, sometimes sharing the award with Bose. Klipsch, according to our readership, has the best audio quality among all the contenders, even older Bose PC speakers.
“I have used Klipsch speakers with my computer exclusively for over 20 years,” says one survey taker. (The company dates back to the 1940s and is now a subsidiary of Gentex, which primarily makes in-vehicle technology.)
“Whether you use your computer for relaxing to music, charging through the latest first-person shooter, or catching up on your favorite shows, having real speakers is a necessity,” Zeman says. “Companies like Klipsch offer a range of products meant to enhance your PC’s media experience for less money than you might think.”
To see which models currently lead in our lab testing, read The Best Computer Speakers.
Full Results
The PCMag Readers’ Choice survey for Personal Audio was in the field from May 9 to July 28, 2025. For more information on how we conduct surveys, read our methodology.
PCMag Readers’ Choice: How Our Surveys Help You Find the Best Products
About Eric Griffith
Senior Editor, Features
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This article was published by WTVG on 2025-08-19 13:08:00
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