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While most of the world is content to rush toward a wireless future, audiophiles know the truth: the best sound quality still comes from wired headphones. Without Bluetooth compression to worry about, you can listen to music in full fidelity, enjoying every tiny detail and nuance that made you fall in love with music in the first place. A great pair of headphones can breathe new life into your favorite music. The best can let you hear details you may have never heard before. Others can sweep you away with their spacious and immersive listening experiences.
Finding the best pair of headphones isn’t always easy. If you can’t listen to them for yourself, you’re stuck with a mountain of research and recommendations that can be more confusing than helpful. That’s where we come in. We’ve done the research for you and have spent hours listening to countless sets to bring you the headphones that kept the cord and struck a chord with us. These are the best wired headphones for every kind of listener.
How we chose the best wired headphones
I’ve been writing about tech online for more than a decade and have been a music lover my whole life. Over the last 10 years, I’ve written about headphones, in-ear monitors, and other audio equipment extensively for MMORPG.com, IGN, PC Perspective, and, of course, Popular Science. During that time, I’ve tested hundreds of headphones and have a personal collection that most people would consider unhealthily large. I love headphones almost as much as I love music; they are the lens through which we experience what moves us.
For this collection, I began by considering the many headphones and IEMs I’ve tested over the years and seeing which truly stood out as something special. After that, I expanded my search to include the many sets I didn’t personally experience but have…
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