The Best Headphones of 2026, According to the Reviews

Start with the Sony WH-1000XM6, the pair both CNET and PCMag default to. It ties for the top of this list on 9.0 with the Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless — and both got there the same way, which is worth knowing before you spend anything. What Hi-Fi? gave each of them five stars out of five, and PCMag gave each of them four. Remove one outlet from the average and the ranking changes.

That is not a flaw in the reviews. It is a real difference in what they are measuring, and it is the most useful thing on this page.

What this list is, and is not

We have not worn any of these. Everything below is published testing from named outlets, converted to a common ten-point scale and averaged, with every score linked.

Scope is narrow on purpose: over-ear wireless noise-cancelling, which is what most people mean by headphones at this price. Earbuds answer a different question and are not mixed in.

The disagreement is the finding

Sort the four pairs by how much their reviewers argued and a pattern appears immediately.

The Sony and the Sennheiser both carry a two-point spread. In both cases What Hi-Fi? sits at the top and PCMag at the bottom. What Hi-Fi? weights sound quality above nearly everything; PCMag weights features, app behaviour and value. So the same pair of headphones can be a five-star product and a four-star product without either reviewer being wrong — they are answering different questions.

The Bose is the opposite case: three outlets, three identical four-star scores, no argument at all. It averages lowest of the four and it is the one you are least likely to regret, because there is no reviewer whose priorities would have warned you off it.

So the honest summary is not a winner. It is: if you care most about how music sounds, the outlet that also cares most rates the Sony and the Sennheiser at full marks. If you want a pair nobody has a specific complaint about, that is the Bose, and it will cost less.

What to actually do

• Decide which reviewer you are before you read further: if sound quality is why you are buying, weight What Hi-Fi?; if you want features to work reliably, weight PCMag.
• If you cannot decide, the Bose is the low-regret option — unanimously good, never described as exceptional.
• Buy on fit if you can try them. Every limitation of this method lands on the same point: nobody else’s head is your head, and comfort over three hours is the thing no score captures.
• Expect the discounts in late November, and expect them to be deepest on last generation rather than on these. That is often the better buy, and this page will not pretend otherwise.

We will revisit this when new reviews land. If we buy and test these ourselves, this page becomes a scored list at the same address, keeping whatever standing it has earned by then.