LAB NOTES · 001
How we test.
Two weeks of daily use, three lab seatings, one 12-track reference playlist. No sponsored scores, no review-for-hire, if a product can't survive our routine, it can't survive yours.
The routine
- Two weeks daily. Commute, desk, gym, the product lives our life, not a test bench. Controls, app quirks, hinge creaks and pad wear all show up here.
- Three lab seatings. 80 dB SPL, ~60% volume, left/right channel match within 0.8 dB. No driver rattle at 100 dB peaks. Gym-ANC products get a 75 dB speaker-thump session.
- The 12-track reference. Same playlist, every product, sub-bass to dry podcast vocal. If the centre image drifts or bass smears the mids, we hear it on track 3, not track 30.
The reference playlist
- 01 Billie Eilish – No Time To Die
- 02 Eminem – Till I Collapse
- 03 Hans Zimmer – Time (Inception OST)
- 04 Massive Attack – Angel
- 05 Norah Jones – Don't Know Why
- 06 Daft Punk – Get Lucky
- 07 Miles Davis – So What
- 08 Fleetwood Mac – The Chain
- 09 Yosi Horikawa – Bubbles
- 10 Agnes Obel – Familiar
- 11 The Prodigy – Smack My Bitch Up
- 12 Dry podcast vocal (speech intelligibility)
The weights
- Sound, 40%. Detail, dynamics, tuning. If it fails here, nothing else saves it.
- Comfort / Design / Build, 25%. Two-hour wear, hinge and pad check, desk footprint.
- Features, 20%. ANC, multipoint, app EQ, inputs, tested, not specced.
- Value, 15%. What the score buys at street price, not launch MSRP.
9.0+ Exceptional · 8.5+ Excellent · 8.0+ Very good · 7.5+ Good
Money and independence
Retail links may earn us a commission, ranking never follows commission. Scores are set before any affiliate data exists for a product, and manufacturers don't see scores before publication. Our placeholder-era scores are being replaced with lab measurements before launch.