We're back with our 2017 Top Headphone List!

Every year we put together a list, not of what WE think are the best headphones, but what everyone else thinks. This way we remain relatively unbias in our list.

Our method is simple. James finds trusted sources, like WhatHiFi, Wirecutter, Linus Tech Tips, or even the Headphone Subreddit for comprehensive lists of the best headphones of the year. We then aggregate these results, equally weighted. All the sources are linked below for your verification.

This is the second year (See Last year's results here), so we included last year's sources as well, however, we double checked to make sure the posts were still live and not updated. Some were updated and last year's Reddit thread was entirely changed. We updated our results to match.

Keep in mind that this is merely a "list of lists," our attempt to deliver an unbiased list of great headphones, but it is by no means a perfect method. So as always, do more research and remember:

The ModMic works with ALL of these headphones!

Most Recommended 

Last year we had 7 winners, basically anything that ended up with four recommendations or more. Because we have more sources we ended up with six this year that had five or more recommendations, however, we felt that was a bit too few for a top list. So we once again used 4 recommendations as the cutoff, which brought our count up to a staggering 15, more than double last year!

Prices accurate on Amazon as of 12/8/17

Headphone	Price	Recs	Cup Style	Wireless?
Superlux 681 Evo	$36	4	Semi-Open	No
Sony MDR-V6 / 7506	$69	4 / 4	Closed	No
Creative Aurvana Live 2!	$90	4	Closed	No
Audio-Technica ATH M40X	$100	4	Closed	No
Sennheiser HD558	$100	4	Open	No
Audio Technica AD900X	$148	4	Open	No
ATH-M50x	$149	6	Closed	No
Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro	$149	8	Closed	No
Beyerdynamic DT990  & Pro	$169	5	Open	No
Beyerdynamic DT880 Pro	$225	4	Semi-Open	No
Sennheiser HD 600	$286	4	Open	No
B&O Beo Play H4	$289	6	Closed	Yes
Bose QuietComfort 35 II	$350	5	Closed	Yes
Oppo PM-3	$409	5	Closed	No

 

Compared to last year we ended with some interesting new options, especially at the higher budget since we pushed that about 100 dollars further. Practically the entire Beyerdynamic DT line made the list, including the #1 spot at 8 recs for the DT 770. Tied for second we have both the M50x returning from last year and a newcomer the B&O Beo Play H4, which is a great wireless option at the sub-$300 range. For the budget minded folks the Sony MDR series re-made the list, while the newcomer Superlux Evo takes the spot for lowest price. Finally at the highest price of $409 we have our first planar magnetic headphones with the Oppo PM-3.

Next year, we'll likely begin decreasing the weight of older posts as we continue to add new sources to help keep the list as up to date as possible. We recognize the flaw in this system is it may weight older models more heavily, as they've had more time to generate more placement on lists than newer ones. However, there's something to be said about the tried and true quality of headphones like the Sony MDRs and Sennheiser 558 that we're just not ready to drop yet.

Remember, you can always just add a ModMic to these for the ultimate headset!

Sources (Click to Show)