On the heels of this year's CanJam show in New York City, electronics retailer Value Electronics and Dealerscope magazine brought together eightteen of the top performing headphones and some golden-eared judges last week to figure out which of today's top headphones are truly the best in their respective classes. The event was called the Headphone Shootout and it was the first of its kind.
Value Electronics is already well known for their Shootout Events, starting with the first TV Shootout in 2004, which has been held annually ever since. The TV shootout proved so popular that the hosts decided to branch out to a Projector Shootout in 2021 and 2022, and now the Headphone Shootout in 2023.
Because of the wide price range of the headphones - $149 to $1799 - and the presence of both in-ear and over the ear models, the event was broken into five categories. Each set of 'phones competed for the crown of "King of Headphones" in their respective categories. Seven different brands were represented in the competition, with five of these brands competing in the in-ear categories.
The panel of judges for the event included professional audio engineers, audiophile headphone experts and audio equipment reviewers. Judges were tasked with rating each model on different aspects of sound quality as well as overall comfort. The specific elements of sound quality considered were dynamic range, tonal balance, clarity/detail and soundstage/imaging. The convenience factor (wired vs. wireless) should probably also have been considered as it can be a critical factor in many consumers' headphone choice. Also, for the models with ANC (Active Noise Cancellation), the quality and effectiveness of this feature also varies from brand to brand (and even model to model) so this is another element to consider when shopping for these types of headphones. But these factors were not considered in this evaluation.
The event hosts used the QoBuzz streaming service for the competition, due to its audiophile quality streaming options. Judges also used their own phones as sources for parts of the competition.
Note: for the Over-Ear categories of the Headphone Shootout, see our companion article: Best Over-Ear Headphones Compete in 2023 Headphone Shootout.
These were the competitors in the entry-level in-ear monitor (IEM) competition:
For the first category, in-ear headphones that range from $149 to $199, only two models competed (a third pair was considered but ruled out on event day). The competitors in the entry-level category were Sennheiser's IE 200 ($149), and Technics' EAH-AZ60 ($199).
Though the street prices of these in-ear 'phones are similar, the headphones themselves are quite different. The Sennheisers are traditional wired earphones while the Technics model is wireless. So while you can compare the sound quality and comfort directly, other factors like the ability to connect wirelessly or the requirement that your phone or playback device has a headphone jack should be considered. Also, since the Sennheiser 'phones use a hard-wired connection to the source, this gives them an upperhand in sound quality as the music doesn't have to go through the digital compression inherent in Bluetooth wireless communication.
When judged for sound quality and comfort, the Sennheiser model was ranked higher than the Technics in all categories, by a fairly narrow margin. This earned the Sennheiser the win. With such a limited selection, and so many other great choices available in this price range, I'd hardly rate this win as "definitive," but the fact that the judges scored these two different models generally favorably suggests that either would make a decent choice for the budget-conscious music lover.
In the higher price category ($279 to $299 in-ear 'phones), the playing field was a bit more level as all three competitors were wireless Bluetooth models with Active Noise Cancellation. In this category, the Sony WF-1000XM4 brought home the win, outscoring the Bowers and Wilkins and Bose IEMs in all of the sound quality categories.
The Sony placed last for comfort, however, with the Bost Quiet Comfort II Earbuds judged the most comfortable of the three. The margins in this category were a bit tighter, showing that the competition at this price point is pretty fierce. As with the entry-level in-ear category, there are many other true wireless earphones out there that could be contenders, including Apple's AirPod Pro and the Grado GT220, just to name two. The Sony WF-1000XM4 is generating some buzz lately though, so it's nice to see that it held its own (and then some) against two of the top performing IEMs in the price range.
Note: Scorecard has been updated as overall scores were previously calculated incorrectly.
Many of the headphones in the competition are available in store and online at Value Electronics in addition to online retailers such as Amazon.com.
