Best Prime Day Deals on Headphones
You'll find great prices on top over-ear and true wireless models from Apple, Bose, and others
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If you need new headphones, Amazon Prime Day is delivering some great deals right now, prompting other retailers to counter with deals of their own.
To help you get the best headphones at the best price, we take into account the discounts as well as Consumer Reports’ test results. Check out CR’s Deals hub for discounts on TVs and other tech, home and kitchen products, and plenty more.
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Unless you’re on a tight budget, the latest AirPods Pro 2 are they AIrPods to buy. They sound really good, have very impressive noise canceling and the impressive style and convenience that made the AirPods so popular. The case on the new AirPods Pro is water-resistant and has the same Find Me feature as the earbuds themselves.
If you’re really, really concerned with your earbuds staying in place, the Beats Powerbeat Pros might be the model for you. They have large clips that go around the outside of your ear for extra security. According to our testers, though, the sound isn’t stellar; the bass is unnaturally loud, distorting the rest of the music.
Bose has been the go-to brand for noise-canceling headphones for years, and its impressive performance in our ratings bears out that reputation. The company’s flagship option, the Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700, is a top-of-the-line product, with great audio quality, adjustable noise-canceling, and a slew of other features, and since Bose products aren’t frequently discounted, this is a solid deal on a high-performance product.
JBL Tune 510BT headphones feel like they’re built with quality in mind: They’re cheap, but they don’t seem cheap. This Bluetooth model delivers pretty good sound quality, it has a 40-hour advertised battery life, and we’ve seen it selling at remarkably low prices. The 510BT sits on the ears, which some people find more comfortable than being engulfed by the more common over-ear style. As an extra perk, you can also use them with a cable if you forget to charge them.
If you love your gym but hate the music it plays, the updated Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II may be just what you’re looking for. These true wireless earbuds get top marks for noise cancellation, which you can turn up or down to suit your environment. They also deliver very solid sound quality, though they fall a bit short of the best noise-canceling earbuds like the Sony WF-1000XM4. For even the most rigorous workouts, the silicone ear tips help hold these earbuds in place.
The Beats Studio Buds + don’t wear the Apple name, but Apple owns Beats by Dre and you can buy these true wireless earbuds at the Apple Store. Like AirPods, they’re sleek and stylish, and work seamlessly with an iPhone or another Apple device. More to the point, the Studio Buds + perform the same as the previous-gen Studio Buds and offer satisfying sound and impressive noise-canceling performance for under $100.
The Sennheiser Momentum 3 is a stylish true wireless noise-canceling headphone that’s aimed at the high-end market. Both the cloth-covered charger and the earbuds themselves exude elegance, and the model delivers sound that’s satisfying if not quite state of the art, though it is better than the previous Momentum 2. On the feature front, it’s sweat-resistant and compatible with both Apple’s Siri and Google Assistant.
The Sennheiser CX Plus offers impressive value in a true wireless noise-canceling earbud. According to our testers, it’s a solid performer when it comes to sound quality, with warm, impactful bass, married to a brighter, but still musical, midrange and trebles. It also receives top scores when it comes to active noise cancellation and offers a transparency mode that allows you to add in some outside sounds for safety when you’re, say, walking on a city street or on a road with traffic. The CX Plus may appear to be a bit bulky, but our testers find the fit to be fine for most users.
If you like the idea of true wireless earbuds but you’re not a big fan of earplug-type tips sitting in your ear canal, this uniquely designed Sony is worth a look. The LinkBuds have a donut-like hole in the middle of the earbud that lets you feel connected to sound from the outside world in a way that’s not quite possible with even the best transparency mode. That makes them great for outdoor exercise or any activity where you want to maintain a connection to your surroundings. However, the lack of isolation makes the LinkBuds less than great for noisy environments. Our testers report that they sound good and tend to stay in place well.
