+iPad iPhone Life - USA (2019-Winter)

(Antfer) #1

BUYER’S GUIDE


HEADPHONES


WHAT SOUNDS GOOD?


BY CULLEN THOMAS


Sony WH-1000XM3 ($299.99)
Call the king the king. The iPhone Life offi ce is
twenty steps from a rail line, but you’d never know
it while wearing the best noise-canceling head-
phones in the world. The WH-1000XM series es-
tablished Sony as the king of the hill of audiophile
headphones for your iPhone. With voice assistant
integration, best-in-class sound canceling, gesture
controls, and 30 hours of battery life, these have
what you expect from the one wearing the crown.
You can even grab a refurbished pair off Amazon
at a discount that cuts a chunk off the ticket price,
making the best headphones on the market cheap-
er than anything else in their weight class.


JBL Live 650BTNC
($199.99)
Associate Editor Leanne
fell in love with these head-
phones. Their active noise
canceling didn’t really
impress me, but nearly ev-
erything else about them
did. The lightweight and
comfortable fi t is good for
any head size, the audio
quality is above average,
the battery life is advertised
as a completely suffi cient
20 hours, and you can use
Amazon Alexa or Google
Assistant with a dedicated
on-headphones button sepa-
rate from the still-functional
Siri button. For a smart set
of over-ear headphones that
you can wear throughout the
day, look no further.

Apple AirPods 2 ($199)
Rock solid wireless connection, easy
pairing, peerless Siri integration, and
Apple’s top-notch design aesthetic all
come together to set the standard against
which all other true wireless earbuds
must be measured. Sound quality is still
only middling; but for most consumers,
the convenience of the case, which now
allows wireless charging, and the overall
elegance and freedom of the design are
more than enough to make the AirPods
the fi rst and last stop.

Jaybird Tarah Pro ($159.99)
I never cared all that much for the behind-the-neck wire situation,
but these stand out for their 14-hour battery life and IPX7 water-
proofi ng that will keep them safe in up to a meter of water. These
are robust, well-designed headphones with a lot of subtle but im-
portant design features, such as a magnetic charging cradle and a
cloth-wrapped cable. One note: install the associated app. It gives
you EQ controls and many of the profi les available make the Tarahs
sound substantially better than when they come out of the box.


Creative Outlier Air ($79.99)
Don’t let the great price point fool you, these aren’t
your average budget buds. The sound quality is
comparable to or maybe a little better than the
AirPods, but the battery life is much better—10
hours consecutive playtime, with a fast-charge
case that pushes the total to 30 hours. Their con-
nection is faultless, you can listen to phone calls
in both ears and not just one, you can stow either
bud and keep listening on the other, the voice as-
sistant and microphone work great, the controls
are intuitive, and the charging case actually fi ts in
your pocket. The Creative Outlier Airs aren’t just a
budget alternative to the AirPods—I prefer them.

KING OF
THE HILL

GREAT


VALUE

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