(Credit: René Ramos, Ruby Lambie; JBL, Apple, Bose)
When it comes to audio, consumers today have more options than ever. Whether you're after a tiny set of wireless earbuds or a big, booming Bluetooth speaker that'll rattle your windows, there's something out there for every kind of listener. But faced with such an overwhelming abundance of choices, how do you decide what to buy?
That's where we come in. To help you zero in on the best possible sound technology for your needs, we asked thousands of PCMag readers to rate the device brands that deliver audio to their ears. Which ones have the best sound quality? Who offers the most bang for your buck? Whose gear is the most reliable and easy to use?
Thanks to our survey respondents, we now have definitive answers to those questions. Keep reading to learn which audio brands you should turn to first in 2024.
The Top Headphone Brands for 2024
Headphones come in all kinds of sizes, shapes, colors, connection types, and more. For the first Readers' Choice Award, we pit them all together in a giant head-to-head to find an overall winner—regardless of size, shape, or technology. In the past, this overarching win has gone to big-name vendors like Bose and Sony, among others. This year, it goes to a vendor of a more unique kind of audio headset.
Thanks to an unprecedented number of write-in votes from loyal users, Shokz wins our best overall headphones award for 2024. This is a bit of a surprise, not only because it's a write-in but because Shokz (previously AfterShokz) only sells bone-conduction and air-conduction headphones. You wear these headsets outside and off your ears, and the sound is either beamed into your ear canal from a short distance or conducted by your skull bones to the ear, leaving the ears free to hear the surroundings naturally. It's a safer way to listen to things when you're out for a walk or run, but isn't generally lauded for its audio quality. It clearly has fans, though. Shokz manages the top score for overall satisfaction, comfort, ease of use, and setup.
(Note: Click the down, left, and right arrows in our interactive charts below to view different elements of our survey results.)
Bose is a very close second place, tying Shokz on that all-important overall satisfaction rating and nailing high scores for audio quality and noise cancellation. The only thing keeping it in second place is a slightly lower score for likelihood to recommend. Bose also earns a Readers' Choice Award for noise cancellation, as it has the top score in that category across all the headphone makers in this report.
Soundcore, the speaker/headset brand from Anker, sits solidly in third thanks to a high recommendation score and the highest score for value of any brand in our survey. In fact, it's the only vendor with a value number above 9 out of 10.
When it comes to reliability, Sony is the brand to beat—though only wins by a narrow margin, scoring just a tenth of a point higher than the rest of the pack. That's not all, either. Sony also earns top marks for audio quality this year, tying with Sennheiser for the highest score in the category.
For our top product picks based on hands-on reviews, read The Best Headphones.
Earphones and Earbuds
To really dig into the specifics, we also asked readers about their earphones (defined as those that enter the ear canal and seal it off) and earbuds (which hang in the ears, but outside the canal). While you might think Apple and its hugely popular AirPods would dominate this category, that's not actually the case. In a surprise upset, all of this year's Readers' Choice Awards for in-ear headphones go to budget-friendly brand Anker Soundcore. It's a sub-brand of Anker Innovations, a Chinese company that also offers Anker smart home products, Eufy smart vacuums, and AnkerMake 3D printers, among other things.
It's a big win, too. Anker Soundcore scores significantly higher than second-place finishers like Beats by Dre and Apple (which owns Beats), and clinches the top spot with notably high scores for reliability and value.
On top of that, Anker Soundcore also wins this year's Readers' Choice Award for true wireless headphones. Most earbud headphones that you can buy these days are also truly wireless, and wired earbuds are increasingly scarce. As such, our survey results for true wireless headphones are nearly identical to the results for earbuds and earphones. No matter how you parse the results, it's clear that PCMag readers are big fans of Soundcore headphones.
For our top product picks based on hands-on reviews, read The Best Noise-Cancelling True Wireless Earbuds.
On-Ear/Over-Ear Headphones
Headphones that completely engulf your ear are what true audio enthusiasts turn to for quality. In this subcategory, Bose takes the award this year, staying ahead of the stiff competition from brands like Sony, Sennheiser, and JBL. This is Bose's second win this year—it earns one for noise cancellation as well.
Bose has the highest rating in every category except value (that goes to JBL), and it ties with Sennheiser on setup. Otherwise, it sweeps the ratings—but not by much. This chart is full of scores well over 9.0 out of 10, indicating that people willing to spend more money on high-end over-the-ear headphones are generally quite happy with their purchases. Bose users just happen to be slightly happier.
For more, check out The Best On-Ear/Over-Ear Headphones
Gaming Headsets
A headset specific to gaming has to handle more than just audio. They generally also feature a microphone to ensure that opponents can hear your trash-talking loud and clear. This is our first year asking readers specifically about gaming headsets, and all the top contenders come from companies that target gaming specifically.
SteelSeries is the category's inaugural winner. Its headsets have the highest ratings on audio quality, likelihood of recommendation, reliability, satisfaction, and value.
Logitech doesn't do badly either, with respectable scores for ease of use and setup, while Razer tops the list for comfort. But SteelSeries is the brand to beat overall.
For our top product picks based on hands-on reviews, read The Best Gaming Headsets.
The Top Speaker Brands for 2024
Speakers come in even more forms than headphones, from tiny handhelds you can stick in your shower all the way to hulking boxes that would look right at home on a concert stage. For the purposes of this survey, we break them down by the primary connection types—Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and wired.
Sony is the top brand for wireless speakers of any kind, earning the best ratings for overall satisfaction (our most important measure) and reliability. The company's outstanding scores in those two areas alone are enough to secure our Readers' Choice Award.
Bose and JBL also have high-ranking speakers—only a tenth of a point behind Sony's overall satisfaction score, and slightly ahead when it comes to likelihood to recommend. Bose has the best scores for tech support (tied with Apple) and audio quality, while JBL and Anker Soundcore tie for ease of use. Even fourth-place Anker does well with the best scores for setup, value, and the aforementioned tie for ease of use.
Bluetooth Speakers
Bluetooth speakers make up most wireless speakers on the market, and while JBL has dominated this category for the past few years, Sony manages to take the top spot in 2024. The company edges out the competition with strong overall satisfaction scores and best-in-class ratings for reliability.
JBL comes very close, though. It earns the best likelihood to recommend score of any brand in our survey—but this is the only category where it wins. Other brands do better for setup, ease of use, and value (like Anker), and also for tech support and quality (Bose, Apple, and Sonos). In other words, competition is tight in the world of Bluetooth speakers. You should check the winners for the categories you find most important before deciding what to buy.
Wi-Fi Speakers
JBL isn't going home empty-handed this year, though. In the past, Sonos' networkable Wi-Fi-based speakers have dominated in this survey (winning three times since 2018), but this year the company only manages 4th place, leaving plenty of room for JBL to swoop in. The company earns top scores in almost every category that we poll for. The only exception is audio quality, which is a tie between Bose and Sonos.
For our top product picks based on hands-on reviews, read The Best Bluetooth and Wireless Speakers.
Smart Speakers
The last time we polled PCMag readers about their smart speakers, Amazon's Echo and Alexa s dominated the category. But two years later, it appears there's been a shift in people's attitude toward the company's digital assistant. Here in 2024, your go-to brand for smart speakers is Apple. The company's HomePod line, powered by Siri, stands out from the competition with impressively high marks for overall satisfaction and likelihood to recommend.
Sonos also makes the podium this year, finishing second overall and beating out less expensive speakers from Google and Amazon. It's the best choice if audio quality is your main concern in a smart speaker.
The only categories in which Amazon has the highest scores are tech support, value, searching info like weather and movie times, and controlling the assistant with voice commands. Google's only forte appears to be finding facts, such as historical info or math calculations.
For our top product picks based on hands-on reviews, read The Best Smart Speakers.
Computer Speakers
The last category we poll for is speakers purchased to connect to a PC. This used to be what our speaker survey was all about, but the number of vendors making products in this category is shrinking with each passing year. We're down to just three vendors here in 2024.
Among those that remain, the top scorer is Bose. The company first won this award back in 2014, and this is the sixth time since then that readers have named it the best option for PC speakers.
The only category in which Bose doesn't earn the top score is value, where it loses to both Klipsch and Logitech.
For our top product picks based on hands-on reviews, read The Best Computer Speakers.
Full Results
The PCMag Readers' Choice survey for Headphones and Speakers was in the field from June 24 to July 15, 2024. For more information on how we conduct surveys, read the survey methodology.