Best Travel Headphones, Tested and Reviewed by the Esquire Editors

If the plan for your trip is use your headphones for music listening, go for the Sonos Ace. We've been able to try the debut from the makers of the Arc soundbar (one of our personal favorites) and have been thoroughly impressed by the comfort and sound quality. Move aside, AirPods Max; there is a new king in town.

When we use these, it's safe to say we don't believe that music can sound much better. The ANC creates absolute silence and allows us to hear those high trebles and truly feel bass notes. The headphones themselves feel sturdy and high-quality, with special emphasis on the adjustable steel headband (a key feature it shares with the aforementioned Apple product). It also has physical buttons, which we still vastly prefer over touch controls. The latter system is way too unreliable.

The only thing we can reasonably complain about with these is the regular listening mode is controlled in the Sonos app. With the on-headphone control button, you can cycle between full-on ANC or transparency modes. To have a normal headphone experience, you have to drop into the app and toggle. Not a huge deal, and it's standard within the industry, but we'd love to quick cycle between all three.

It may be brat summer, but not everyone around here celebrates. Instead of banging the new Charli XCX, some of us will be enjoying our summer vacations with a nice, relaxing audiobook or podcast. If listening to human beings speaking words is what you use headphones for, the Px7 S2e from Bowers & Wilkins is the best pair you can buy.

If you're familiar with the storied audio brand, you'll understand why we made this pick. The high end is where Bowers & Wilkins shines. We aren't talking about the materials and fabrics, which are indeed high-end as well as comfortable. No, we are talking about the treble. High notes and frequencies sound especially clear and crisp when listening on the Px7 S2e.

You won't get the bass you will from the Sonos Ace or the next pair on this list, but these are still damn good headphones. More suited to highlighting the production of well-mixed TV shows, movies, and podcasts than listening to Brat, sure, but that doesn't mean your music will sound like shit. These are $400 headphones from a brand we love. Your music will sound just fine.

The Dyson Zone air-purifying headphones were a fun gimmick, but we weren't fully convinced the brand knew what it was doing yet. Now we know they mean business. With the OnTrac headphones, the tech giant known for its vacuums has finally delivered a device that lives up to the brand's reputation.

The Dyson OnTrac headphones have yet to be released, but our commerce editor Luke Guillory has been using them for the past week and has nothing but praise to share.

Dyson's new headphones are nearly perfect. The materials are lightweight but substantial and clearly high-quality. The look is cooler than anything else on the market, with interchangeable cushions and caps. And the sound—my original gripe with the Dyson Zone—has been improved upon, especially on the low end.

The best feature so far is the noise canceling. Normally I hate noise canceling. It physically gives me a headache. Something about the sensory deprivation makes me feel like I'm in a white-room torture chamber. These haven't done that yet. I'm not sure about the science, but for some reason the Dyson OnTrac presents me with the total absence of sound, not the man-made mechanical cancellation of sound I get from other headphones. —L.G.

The gripe we hear most about wearing earbuds for extended periods of time is that they get uncomfortable—making the inside of your ear itchy and sweaty. We get it, and that's why we've recommended mostly over-ear headphones for travel. But some of us around here wear glasses, and for some of us around here wearing bulky headphones for hours often leads to an uncomfortable itch in the spot where the frames of our glasses rest above our ears. It's a specific use case, but if you find yourself nodding in agreement right now, you have got to try these earbuds from Bose.

The QuietComfort Ultra are some of the best noise-canceling earbuds around. You remember that effect Luke hates? Well, these are remarkable at creating it. They also have listening modes, spatial audio, and adjustable EQ. Everything you'd expect from high-end over-ear headphones, only in a much smaller package.

Technically, the best way to avoid forgetting to charge your headphones is to buy ones that don't need charging. That's where Audio-Technica enters the conversation. The brand is a favorite of audio engineers and especially popular with people who think their taste in music is way cooler than yours. Pretentious? A little, but at least the brand doesn't overcharge for it like every other one.

The M50X headphones are the best wired option Audio-Technica offers. The audio quality shines (especially on bass-heavy tracks), and the detachable cord is beyond convenient. Really the only downside is that most modern smartphones don't have a 3.5mm headphone jack. If you're still rocking an iPod classic or MP3 player, or don't mind buying a dongle, these affordable wired headphones are a no-brainer.