In the hotly contested and closely congested world of hi-fi and headphones, 2025 ends in such stark distinction to 2024 that you simply’d scarcely consider mere months separate the 2 (however that’s how time works, in spite of everything). It’s like the large canine went into hibernation for a yr – a collective re-think; a fallow yr in response to attempting financial instances – solely to emerge stronger and extra highly effective.
Last yr was a second for area of interest European hi-fi manufacturers, who noticed an empty, near-silent dance ground and selected to inherit it by dancing to their very own new tunes. Such was the dearth of enter from audio’s world heavy hitters, plucky underdogs discovered their second within the limelight. In the UK, for instance, Bowers & Wilkins launched its implausible Pi8 earbuds and Cambridge discovered a lot success with its inaugural, inexpensive P100 cans.
But if I believed these refreshing wins for the quirky, oft missed visionaries of audio would proceed into 2025, I used to be mistaken. Know this: 2025 was the yr the heavyweight hounds strolled again into the membership… and rapidly commandeered the dance ground as soon as extra.
2025 as it happened – headphones and earbuds
A quintet of product releases shaped the headphones landscape for 2025, starting out strong with the Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 in February. Why so momentous? Partly as a result of they had been the long-awaited replace to the enduring 2019 Powerbeats Pro, however most pertinently as a result of the Powerbeats Pro 2 proved that Apple may – and certainly had – used its sub-brand to nestle a correct heart-rate monitor right into a set of earbuds.
Switching to the over-ear realm for a minute, May noticed the launch of Sony’s WH-1000XM6. Everything lastly got here collectively for the tech large and these distinctive headphones lastly knocked the 2020-issue WH-1000XM4 off the highest spot in our best headphones guide (one thing the WH-1000XM5 didn’t do, again in 2022). Has any set of cans ever assumed the highest spot for over 5 years? Not on my watch – so you may see the significance of this eventual altering of the guard.
And this theme of class-leaders heading again into the sport – however even stronger and that little bit higher – continued with the June arrival of the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen), adopted by the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) in September. 2025 was a totally constructive yr for Bose general, and this two-pronged assault in the marketplace noticed Bose undeniably reinstated because the true king of ANC.
But no annual audio roundup can be full with out shining a light-weight on the most important launch of all of them: the autumn arrival of Apple’s AirPods Pro 3. The earpiece has been reworked, the ANC is doubly good and sure, in addition they monitor your heart-rate – in a barely totally different strategy to their Beats stablemates and with more and more tempting third-party health app help for iPhone homeowners. Still the most well-liked earbuds on this planet? Irrefutably.
What was the fastest-growing product within the audio trade in 2025? Open earbuds, which, in keeping with Huawei noticed a 400% enhance in manufacturing – and the February-launch Huawei FreeArc are actually a number of the greatest examples, together with the ANC-toting Honor Earbuds Open (sure actually, energetic noise cancellation in an open-ear design).
2025 as it happened – hi-fi products and music streaming
Arguably the biggest news from an audio streaming perspective is that in September, Spotify Lossless finally landed as a free providing to Premium subscribers, serving nearly-as-good-as-Apple-Music decision at as much as 24-bit/44.1kHz. Although it wasn’t an enormous hit with followers initially, the large inexperienced streaming machine’s income continues to look very wholesome certainly – regardless of ongoing issues over its fee to human artists, its tendency to look the opposite manner in the case of AI acts, plus sure monetary investments. Wrapped, even with its ‘Listening Age’ feature, was an enormous success in early December, regardless of launching a day after Apple Music Replay.
If aware music streaming issues you, do not forget that the unique hi-res music service, Qobuz, has been performing some great artist-first things in 2025 and in 2025 it introduced that it pays out a mean of US$0.01873 per stream – which the corporate says is “four times the industry average”.
It’s not all wins throughout the board for the trade giants although. When discussing the {hardware} with which to get pleasure from your music at residence, an underdog enters the fray. If you bear in mind only one audio model identify this yr, let or not it’s WiiM.
As Sonos continues to wrestle with belief points amongst its as soon as loyal fanbase (owing to that troublesome 2024 app update), the plucky multi-room underdog unveiled a screen-toting WiiM Sound speaker after which, in December, a smaller and cheaper WiiM Sound Lite possibility. And the agency can be more than pleased that will help you construct a brand new wi-fi multi-room system with them…
In Bluetooth-only audio system, January 2025 noticed music star and entrepreneur Will.i.am’s partnership with LG bear fruit – and given our glowing opinions of the LG xboom Stage 301 and the xboom Grab, it is secure to say that the team-up has been successful. The Grab might be the most important rival to JBL’s Flip 7 I’ve heard but, and I do not say that evenly.
Wireless audio and headphones: what I want to see in 2026
An alternative to Li-ion batteries in portable Bluetooth tech
Another year of wire-free listening and it seems that nobody can come up with a viable alternative to rechargeable (for a while, at any rate) Lithium-ion batteries in our portable listening gear. And the problem is that when these little batteries go south, so does the whole product, especially in cheaper models.
Fairphone is a company that has long championed more eco-conscious listening, and the December launch Fairphone Fairbuds XL headphones supply 100% fair-mined cobalt, copper and silver, 100% recycled rare-earth supplies and 100% renewable power of their building. They’re additionally modular, so if an element breaks you may exchange it while not having a complete new pair of cans, and there is a three-year guarantee – which is a yr longer than most headphones.
In audio system, the May launch Poca Pine Beat Bluetooth speaker additionally provides replaceable Li-ion batteries (and the UK specialist even claims it will be capable of replace the Bluetooth module in time) however the reality stays: even these eco-friendlier merchandise nonetheless include a battery that may deteriorate over time and can most likely find yourself in landfill.
I’d like to see this transformation in 2026. Most of us know that Powerfoyle exists, nevertheless it’s not fairly harnessing sufficient solar energy for widespread implementation on the minute.
More Wi-Fi cans and buds – or at least better support for existing models
Since April AirPods Max can support Lossless via USB-C, however crucially you do nonetheless want so as to add a wire to get it. The solely strategy to get Lossless audio in your AirPods Pro 3 continues to be to make use of a Vision Pro as a supply – as a result of though a September update initially was thought to add the super high-quality SPR AVS to iPhone 17, it appears the replace referred to iPhone 17’s high-speed charging, reasonably than any Lossless or hi-res audio addition.
Why is that this vital? Because in March 2025, Xiaomi unveiled the first earbuds with Wi-Fi, delivering hi-res audio up to 4.2Mbps (picture above). Great! So earbuds that’ll bypass Bluetooth’s compression points and ship hi-res audio along side Qualcomm’s XPAN know-how? Yes, however there is a catch: very restricted cellphone compatibility – and positively no iPhones. So, hi-res wi-fi earbuds are doable, however at the moment it is a walled backyard. Xiaomi stated in March {that a} listing of appropriate gadgets can be on its web site imminently, however in December (on the time of writing) the one supported cellphone listed continues to be the Xiaomi 15 Ultra.
Oh, I’m effectively conscious that the ‘Wouldn’t or not it’s nice if merchandise from totally different manufacturers and ecosystems would simply work with one another?’ rant is forming as I faucet away on these keys. But I’m afraid that if I bought into it, it might be the top of 2026 earlier than we knew it…
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