By Maisie Arnold-Barron
Digital Journalist | Kairīpoata Matahiko
Let’s talk the best, worst and most surprising headphones trends of this year.
1. Air conduction
Move over bone conduction; here comes your younger and cooler cousin! Air-conduction headphones have been having a moment this year, with releases by brands like Shokz and Soundcore.
Sound travels through tiny speakers positioned near the ear canal, not over or inside the ear. It’s different from bone conduction, where sound vibrates through the skull to reach the inner ear (sounds way scarier than it actually is).
At its best, air conduction feels like a useful middle ground: you can listen to music or podcasts without fully blocking out the world around you.
There’s also a hygiene benefit – because these headphones sit outside the ear, they avoid the moisture and bacteria build-up that can come with in-ear models.
You can filter by air conduction in our headphones reviews and see the 21 current models we’ve tested.
2. Surround sound
I don’t know if this is cool or just trying too hard.
Surround sound helps artists and sound engineers build a more immersive listening experience by letting them isolate individual sounds.
It works by separating a song’s sounds and placing them in a virtual “sphere” around the listener, transporting them to a concert or recording-studio environment.
Did the Sony WH-1000MX6 Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones live up to the “virtual surround sound” hype for us at Consumer?
3. Voice control
“Hey Google, play ‘4 Minutes – Glee cast version’.” I may or may not have asked this on my way to work this morning.
I have mixed feelings about this feature. Do we really need our headphones to be Siri- or Alexa-enabled? Well, apparently there’s a market for it, because over half of our Consumer Recommended models do.
I understand that it’s useful when you’re carrying groceries with no hands free. It’s also useful for people with physical limitations. But, for me, there is too much annoyance built in.
Sometimes I want to talk to Siri through my wireless headphones in the middle of Lambton Quay, but the street noise drowns out my requests. And if my headphones do manage to activate the voice control, it rarely gets it right.
In short, while this feature may really benefit some, it’s not my top pick of this year.
4. Wired headphones
This was an unexpected trend for me this year, but it’s really having a moment. The revival of wired headphones is upon us.
It’s the era of TikTok influencers in baggy jeans and faux Tabis sporting white-wired earbuds – and I suspect it’s more about the fashion statement than about sound quality or even convenience.
Similarly, we are seeing the Walkman – and Discman – make a comeback. In fact, if you are on that nostalgic buzz, you can still buy an assortment of portable CD and cassette players online.
British Vogue’s fashion news editor, Daniel Rodgers, told the Guardian that wired headphones were a rebellion against our current high-tech landscape.
“It’s an analogue way of opting out – of both tech but also life,” said Rodgers. “They’re visible in a way that AirPods aren’t. There is a sense of ‘do not disturb’.”
It’s interesting that physical music like vinyl records and CDs have had their comeback, and now the headphones that we binned five years ago are trendy again. I must be honest: I love my big, bulky wireless Sennheisers, but I always have my $15 wired headphones handy too.
5. The future of headphones
Ok, so we have noise cancelling, 360° spatial sound and air-conduction headphones – could anything be more cutting edge? Introducing TDM Neo Hybrid, the first Bluetooth headphones that can twist into a portable speaker.
TDM (Tomorrow Doesn’t Matter) debuted the product in January at the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The design can twist from a pair of over-ear headphones into a handheld speaker in seconds, without any extra parts.
The first run of the headphones is all gone, unfortunately, but the next batch is available for pre-order on the TDM website.
