The most comfortable headphones 2024: Bose, Sennheiser, Anker

Read Mashable’s full review of the Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones.

Who is it for:

The Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones are the most comfortable headphones we’ve ever tried, period. And to sweeten the deal even more, they look fantastic. Pair that with long battery life and impressive ANC capabilities, and you’ve got the perfect pair of earbuds to wear all day.

Don’t want to pay for headphones that cost $429? We understand. Look for these comfortable headphones on sale during Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days event, October 8-9.

Why we chose this:

Looking back, perhaps we shouldn’t have been surprised that the Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones were our top pick. Comfort East literally in the name. Still, we can’t forget how nice these things are to wear. As soon as we put them on, we were immediately impressed with their fit. The cushions are soft and plush, and the adjustable headband always stays in place when changing length. They never felt too tight, although at times they did get a little loose if we turned our heads too quickly (which is by no means a problem). Many headphones tout “all-day comfort” as a feature, but that’s rarely literally true. With the QuietComfort Ultra, we wore them for an entire work day and felt no pain.

Now, with a price tag of $429, you have to offer something more than comfort to justify the purchase. Luckily, these headphones also sound amazing. Sound quality is comparable to other premium headphones, delivering robust low, mid, and high tones for music and crystal clear vocals when listening to podcasts or taking phone calls. It’s not the best audio experience we’ve ever had, but it’s still among the greatest.

The headphones have three different listening modes: Silent, Immersion and Aware. Quiet is the active noise cancellation (ANC) mode, and it works very well. They did a good job keeping us focused and blocking out all the distracting noises. Immersion mode keeps ANC enabled, but shifts to a spatial audio experience compared to the stereo style of Silent mode. We didn’t notice much difference between the two, but Immersion mode seemed slightly more comprehensive. Aware mode lets some outside noise through so you’re not completely shut in, but unfortunately there is a slight hiss when using this mode that just wasn’t very pleasant. We barely left silent mode anyway.

We also liked the long battery life (around 24 hours on silent), strong wireless performance, seamless device switching, and the fact that they can fold up and slip into a nifty little carrying case. transport for storage (which is included, by the way). Another small downside of these headphones: the on-ear controls are a little finicky. They don’t always do what they’re supposed to do, but they mostly work as expected. Bose offers a companion app that you can use to control everything manually, but we wish we didn’t have to do that to bypass the headset’s touch controls.

Overall, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones are well worth the big investment for their comfort and overall best-in-class quality, even with a few flaws. Try putting them on sale anyway.