Readers' Choice Awards 2022: Headphones and Speakers

Your speakers and headphones of choice may say a lot about you and your tastes. Practice you choose the about basic, utilitarian option? Do you lot select one with a recognizable logo? If and so, do you do then because of the audio quality or the prestige? Or is your choice purely virtually getting the best sound for your buck?

Regardless of your motivations, this calendar month'southward PCMag Readers' Pick Award survey will help yous figure out which brands practice the best task delighting their users and which leave them wanting.

Speakers and headphones come in several different shapes and sizes. We interruption speakers down into two categories: wireless, including Bluetooth and Wi-Fi devices, and wired PC speakers. We hope that at this time adjacent year, nosotros'll be able to add a tertiary category—smart speakers—including Amazon'south Alexa-based Echo family of products as well as others like Google Domicile, the forthcoming Siri-based Apple HomePod, and Microsoft Cortana-based Harman Kardon Invoke—to name simply a few.

Unfortunately, for this year's survey, the Google Home has all the same to make a dent—nosotros didn't accept enough Home users to include Google in our analysis—while the other devices have yet to hit store shelves.

In that location are many ways to look at headphones but we carve up them forth the lines of wired and wireless models as well. Apple made a controversial move last year by removing the iii.5mm headphone jack from its iPhone vii and vii Plus; people must now employ Lightning headphones (or traditional headphones with a iii.5mm-to-Lightning adapter) or embrace Bluetooth. Apple wasn't the first company to do this only information technology was the most notable. A few other new smartphones have eschewed the headphone jack; Google will reportedly practise the same with its forthcoming Pixel 2 models.

Apple released its own tiny Bluetooth headphones, the AirPods, and its Beats by Dr. Dre brand offers a few different Bluetooth choices as well, only it's not alone. Several companies make Bluetooth headphones uniform with iPhones and other smartphones, tablets, and PCs.

Each survey respondent was asked to rate their satisfaction with their speakers and headphones including overall satisfaction, satisfaction with the ease of setup and reliability, and likelihood to recommend. In addition, they were asked about their satisfaction with more detailed aspects of their devices including using the speakers and headphones for listening to music, movies, games, and audiobooks.

The speakers and headphones y'all utilise can say a lot virtually you. Read on to figure out which brands will brand you look similar you make smart, informed choices.

The PCMag Readers' Choice survey for headphones and speakers was in the field from July 24, 2022 through August 14, 2022. For more information on how the survey is conducted, read the survey methodology. Each person who completed the survey was entered into a drawing to win a $350 Amazon.com gift card.

Yous can win! Sign up for the Readers' Choice Survey mailing listing to receive invitations for future sweepstakes.

Looking for expert opinion? Read PCMag's roundups of the Best Headphones and All-time Bluetooth Speakers.

Wired Speakers

If you're looking to upgrade the sound on your desktop or laptop PC, the pick is clear: Bose. The visitor wins a PCMag Readers' Choice Award for wired PC speakers for the fourth straight yr. Only two other companies—Altec Lansing and Logitech—made the cut this year, simply neither could come shut to matching any of Bose's satisfaction ratings.

Bose's overall satisfaction rating of 8.9 on a scale from 0 (extremely dissatisfied) to 10 (extremely satisfied) and satisfaction with reliability rating of 9.2 were identical to last year. Likelihood to recommend slipped slightly from 9.2 to 9.1, but that is still an excellent rating. All of Bose'due south other ratings improved over 2022. The greatest increases were for satisfaction with the speakers for audio chat (from 8.4 to viii.9), video conversation (eight.four to eight.9), and listening to podcasts (8.7 to nine.i). Bose received its highest satisfaction ratings for listening to music, listening to videos, and listening to audiobooks, all of which scored a 9.2.

Amidst Bose'due south competitors, Altec Lansing scored slightly better than Logitech for satisfaction with listening to music (8.4 to 8.3) and listening to videos (8.6 to 8.4). On the other mitt, respondents preferred Logitech'southward reliability versus Altec (8.nine to 8.seven).

Related Story See all of our survey results for Wired Speakers.

WINNER: WIRED SPEAKERS

Readers' Choice 2022 Award

Bose
If y'all want cracking sound from your PC, our readers say "give Bose a heed," something they've been saying for a while. Bose has won the PCMag Readers' Choice for PC speakers every year since 2022.

Wireless Speakers

Wireless speakers come in all different shapes and sizes. You can easily find dozens of Bluetooth headphones for less than $x though don't be surprised if the audio quality is no better than your phone's built-in speaker.

On the other terminate of the calibration, you could spend well over $2,000 for a single Devialet mono Wi-Fi speaker. Fortunately, in that location are a lot of companies making more reasonably priced alternatives that evangelize great sound and a very satisfying feel. This year, our readers' summit pick is Harman Kardon, a well-known proper noun in audio, which makes a wide range of higher-end bonny Bluetooth and Wi-Fi speakers. Harman Kardon, which was recently purchased by Samsung, wins our 2022 PCMag Readers' Choice Award for wireless speakers.

Harman Kardon and Bose received the superlative overall satisfaction ratings in this yr'southward survey with identical scores of 8.9. For both companies, these scores were an improvement over 2022, when Harman Kardon was rated eight.7 by respondents and Bose only rated 8.v. While their overall satisfaction ratings were the aforementioned, Harman Kardon slightly edged out Bose in overall reliability (nine.4 to 9.two), satisfaction with listening to music (nine.four to ix.iii) and likelihood to recommend (9.2 to ix.1).

Ultimate Ears, a 2022 Readers' Choice Award winner in this category, likewise gives Harman Kardon very stiff competition. Ultimate Ears, which specializes in portable Bluetooth speakers, had a slightly lower overall satisfaction rating (8.8), only actually rated improve in likelihood to recommend (9.iv) and satisfaction with reliability (ix.v).

Sonos, which practically invented the home wireless speaker category, also won a Readers' Choice Honor last year, but this year the company saw its overall satisfaction rating driblet from eight.ix to viii.7. Satisfaction with reliability and likelihood to recommend were also lower than last year, simply at 8.nine and 9.1, respectively, both ratings are withal very good.

Amazon's overall satisfaction rating of 8.four was the lowest in the wireless speaker category this year. The vast majority of the Amazon speakers rated were Alexa-based smart speakers from the Echo family of products; these alone had a slightly higher overall satisfaction rating: 8.v. Nosotros added several smart speaker-related questions to this twelvemonth'southward survey. Echo users were virtually pleased with using their speakers to set up timers; this task received a satisfaction rating of 9.three. Using the speakers to stream music and other audio likewise rated well (8.9), as did controlling smart habitation devices (8.five).

On the other end of the spectrum, respondents were to the lowest degree satisfied with Alexa's power to search for information (7.5) and didn't feel the speakers did a groovy chore of understanding requests (7.8). Of course, Amazon would similar to see people use their Alexa devices to club products, but this task only received a satisfaction rating of 8.0. Because Amazon was the only visitor to get the requisite 50 responses to be included in our analysis, nosotros can't compare these ratings to any other smart speaker, merely they do give a practiced sense of where consumers are finding value with the Alexa-powered Echo speakers.

Related Story See all of our survey results for Wireless Speakers.

WINNERS: WIRELESS SPEAKERS

Readers' Choice 2022 Award

Harman Kardon
Harman Kardon continues to expand its line of innovative, attractive Bluetooth and Wi-Fi speakers. PCMag readers like what the company has to deliver, rating highly in every category.

Headphones and Earphones

If y'all're yet using the headphones that came with your smartphone, information technology'southward time for an upgrade. Yous have several brands from which to choose, just this year two companies lead the way: Audio Technica and Bose. The companies share our PCMag Readers' Choice Award for headphones. Audio Technica also receives an honour for its wired headphones, while Bose earns an actress for wireless headphones.

Several PCMag readers rated the headphones that came with their Apple and Samsung phones and both companies got very mediocre overall satisfaction ratings of 7.8 and 7.5, respectively. On the other hand, Audio Technica and Bose both rated nine.2 for overall satisfaction. In all, 10 companies received overall satisfaction ratings over viii.0 and six were over eight.5.

Our two Readers' Choice Laurels winners, along with Sennheiser, had very impressive likelihood to recommend ratings: ix.3. Bose and Sennheiser also led in satisfaction with reliability (9.3) with Audio Technica right behind at nine.2. Bose had the highest rating for satisfaction with listening to music at 9.five and Sound Technica and Sennheiser both rated nine.4. Klipsch (9.two) and Beats by Dr. Dre (9.1) also rated over 9.0 on this measure. If y'all're a gamer looking for headphones, consider Logitech and Sennheiser which had the highest ratings for satisfaction with gaming at 8.9 and eight.eight, respectively.

When choosing your upgrade, one of the biggest decisions you'll have to make will be whether to cut the cord or not. The obvious do good of wireless headphones is that you're not physically tethered to your phone, tablet, or PC. On the other hand, wireless headphones are often larger and heavier than equivalent wired headphones; they need to be kept charged and frequently the audio quality isn't quite equally skilful. Still, the convenience of no wires might exist enough to sway you.

For those who adopt a wired headphone, our readers recommended Sound Technica. The company had the peak ratings for overall satisfaction (9.ii), likelihood to recommend (9.3), and satisfaction with listening to music (9.5). Bose and Sennheiser were very close behind with Sennheiser matching Sound Technica'south reliability rating. None of the other companies came close to these three companies' ratings.

Bose's satisfaction ratings for its wireless headphones improved on every measure over last year's performance. Overall satisfaction went from viii.ix to ix.2 and likelihood to recommend went from ix.1 to ix.5. Several other measures improved to nine.v or better including satisfaction with listening to music (ix.six) and satisfaction with listening to videos, podcasts and audiobooks (all ix.5). Satisfaction with noise cancellation also rated nine.5.

Apple tree fabricated an impressive debut in the wireless headphone categories with its tiny AirPods. Respondents rated overall satisfaction at 9.0 and ease of setup was 9.six, the best in the category. (Bose was correct backside at 9.5.) Apple was also rated best for satisfaction with talking on the phone (9.ane). Bose was next closest at eight.seven.

Sony besides received an overall satisfaction rating of 9.0 and had several ratings of 9.0 or better, including satisfaction with listening to music (nine.3). Sennheiser'south overall satisfaction rating of viii.9 was behind Bose, Apple, and Sony, but the company'due south likelihood to recommend rating of 9.3 only trailed Bose.

Related Story Meet all of our survey results for Headphones & Earphones.

WINNERS: HEADPHONES AND EARPHONES

Readers' Choice 2022 Award

Audio Technica—Overall and Wired
Consistently first-class, Audio Technica is now a PCMag Readers' Choice Honour winner for the third straight year. If you prefer the high allegiance audio of wired headphones, particularly if yous demand studio-quality audio, check in with Audio Technica outset.

Readers' Choice 2022 Award

Bose—Overall and Wireless
Bose is dorsum on top, earning a Readers' Choice Award after just missing out last year. If you're going wireless, Bose is your commencement stop, and they don't do badly with wired headsets overall, either.