Swedish audio company Coloud's headphones all share a minimalist, Scandinavian design aesthetic. The $39.95 Coloud No. 16 delivers audio with rich, lush bass and clear, crisp highs. The sound signature is somewhat sculpted, but balanced, and the headphones are also quite comfortable. There are absolutely no extras included, but for this price, what more do you need other than secure-fitting, comfortable headphones that deliver excellent audio? The No. 16 seems like it should cost more—but we're glad it doesn't—and it easily wins our Editors' Choice award.

Design
The No. 16's supra-aural (on-ear) earcups are so large that they almost feel like over-the-ear, circumaural headphones, but they don't create an actual seal the way circumaural cups do. The look of the No. 16 is simple and uncluttered, with a focus on details like the stitching on the earpads, or the ridged contour of the rubberized padding on the headband's underside. Available in black/gray, blue/neon yellow, or gray with multicolored speckles, the headphones project an understated cool and manage to feel comfortable and secure over long listening sessions.

The cable is not removable, but at this price point, we wouldn't really expect that extra perk. An inline remote control and microphone compartment rests just below chin height along the right ear's cable. It's of the single button variety, so you can control playback, call management, and track navigation (with multiple clicks), but you can't control volume.

The cable terminates in a 3.5mm connection that features a long, rubberized housing with a hole in it—the 3.5mm connection tucks into this and acts as a cable cinch if you wind the cable up, preventing any tangle issues.

The No.16 ships with no accessories at all, but again, for this price, we can't really complain.

Performance
On tracks with powerful sub-bass content, like The Knife's "Silent Shout," the No. 16 delivers a very impressive deep bass response. At top, unwise listening levels, it does not distort, and at more moderate levels, the deep lows are still intense, yet delivered with a healthy balance between deep lows and higher frequencies.

Bill Callahan's "Drover," a track with far less deep bass in the mix, gives us a better sense of the No. 16's overall sound signature. The drums on this track can sound unnaturally thunderous on bass-forward headphones, but the No. 16 does a solid job of giving the drums a strong, round bass presence without things sounding fake. Callahan's baritone vocals have the ideal balance of low-mid richness and high-mid definition through the No. 16. The guitar strumming also receives a pleasant high-mid and high frequency presence, and generally speaking, things sound balanced—rich lows, crisp highs, no single range suffering too much boosting nor cutting.

On Jay-Z and Kanye West's "No Church in the Wild," the kick drum loop gets a solid high-mid presence, allowing its sharp attack to pierce through the dense mix as one of the more prominent sounds. The sustain of the kick drum also comes through with a solid low frequency thump while the sub-bass synth hits that punctuate the beat are neither overly boosted nor ignored—we hear more of the raspy top notes than their ominous subwoofer tones, but they feel like an important part of the mix through the No. 16. The vocals on this track are delivered with a strong clarity in the high-mids and highs, without things ever sounding overly sibilant.

Orchestral tracks, like the opening scene in John Adams' The Gospel According to the Other Mary, get some added bass depth, but nothing too heavy, and it adds a little bit of energy to the proceedings. The higher register strings, brass, and vocals still take the spotlight here, sounding bright, crisp, and clean, but the lower register bass elements of the mix can sound fuller and richer through the No. 16 than they often do on other headphone pairs. Purists may find this to be too much low end, but there are plenty of worse offenders out there, and most listeners will enjoy the balance and vibrance the No. 16 brings to just about every genre.

Simply put, the Coloud No. 16 sound great and feel great. It's pretty thrilling that headphones with such solid audio performance are now being priced at below $50. We're in a new era, and the Coloud No. 16 earns our Editors' Choice award for its simplicity, excellent audio, and wallet-friendly pricing. But there are plenty of other headphone pairs in this price range that we're fans of—it's also worth considering the Urbanears Humlan, Shure SRH145+, and Coloud No. 8. And if you have a little extra room in your budget, the Klipsch Reference R6i On-Ear deliver a stronger audio experience.