Headphones in a product test: A 120-euro model made it to third place

Overear models
Headphones in a product test: A 120-euro model made it to third place

Even if in-ear headphones have caught up: If you want really thick sound, you can’t get past headband headphones. And even if you can spend a lot of money on it, you can get great sound for little money.

Whether at work on the computer, on the plane or on the go: For many people, theirs are theirs Headphones a constant companion. And as practical as the small in-ear plugs are: You can’t get the thick sound of an over-ear model with brackets out of the small housing, even with tricks. However, there are also significant differences in headphone headphones, as the current test by Stiftung Warentest shows.

It includes twelve current devices that the testers had brought to the laboratory since October 2022. All of them are headband headphones with Bluetooth, with one exception, they close the ears completely (“over-ear”) instead of just lying on them (“on-ear”). With the exception of three models, they support noise canceling, the quality of which is also included in the overall rating if it is present. Other test criteria are the sound, wearing comfort and handling, battery life and durability.

Headphones at Warentest: two test winners with a huge price gap

Two models land in first place. The Bowers & Wilkins PX8 and the Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless both receive the overall rating “good” (1.7). Both have clear strengths. The Bowers & Wilkins has the best sound score in the current test. In the headphones tested according to the current test standard, only the Apple Airpods Max sounded even better, but it is not part of the current test. The Sennheiser, on the other hand, can score with the best noise suppression in the test. The runtime of almost 51 hours is also clearly ahead of the PX8, although its 40 hours are already good.

The biggest difference, however, is the huge price gap: you pay at least 550 euros for the PX8, the Sennheiser costs just under half with a price starting at 280 euros.

Clear saving tip

If you don’t want to spend that much, you should get the Devil Real Blue (2021) view. It costs from 125 euros, but still makes it to third place with the overall grade “good” (1.9). In terms of sound, it performs just as well as the Sennheiser Momentum, and it can also compete with the test winners in terms of runtime (almost 42 hours) and wearing comfort. But of course there are drawbacks: Teufel does not use noise canceling, the durability could be better according to the product test.

Price hits with cuts

It costs significantly less again Audio Technica ATH-M20xBT: You can get it from 80 euros, but it still achieves a “good” (2.4) overall rating. Above all, the wearing comfort, the stability and the battery (61 hours) are convincing. Unfortunately, the biggest weakness is the sound: the economy model does not offer noise canceling, and the sound is only mediocre.

You can find the full test for a fee at test.de.

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