Looking for a new pair of headphones? Take a look at a few of the top headphones and earbuds announced at CES 2024. Sennheiser and Shokz led the pack with new over-ear headphones, a pair of premium wireless earbuds, and a refresh of Shokz’s OpenSwim bone conduction headphones.
Here’s what we know so far.
1. Sennheiser ACCENTUM Plus
First up is Sennheiser’s ACCENTUM Plus over-ear headphones. These are a new addition to Sennheiser’s mid-range line-up, bringing in some favorite features from their flagship MOMENTUM range, but at a slightly more affordable price.
Launching on February 20th at $229.95, the ACCENTUM Plus features Sennheiser’s Adaptive ANC noise canceling, 50 hours of battery life per charge, Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity and touch controls built into the earcup.
The touch-enabled earcup is one of the features Sennheiser brought over from its MOMENTUM headphones, and I’m excited to see it added to the ACCENTUM Plus. Instead of poking around on your headphones for specific buttons, you just use tap gestures on the touch-sensitive earcup for controls like volume and song skipping.
2. Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 4
Sennheiser also announced a refresh of their flagship in-ear headphones, the MOMENTUM True Wireless 4. The True Wireless 3 was one of our Editor's Choice picks in 2022, so we have high expectations for the next generation in this line. The True Wireless 4 earbuds feature a slew of premium upgrades for both connectivity and sound quality, including Bluetooth 5.4, Auracast support, Adaptive ANC and more.
The MOMENTUM True Wireless 4 has Snapdragon Sound Technology’s aptX, which brings several quality and latency improvements. It helps cut out background noise and emphasize your voice on calls, optimizes music streaming quality, and minimizes lag.
The MOMENTUM True Wireless 4 gets about 7.5 hours of listening time, which isn’t much compared to on-ear or over-ear headphones, but the charging case helps make up for that. There are three metallic color options available including silver, graphite and copper (my personal favorite). They’ll all be available starting on February 15th for $299.95.
3. Shokz OpenSwim Pro
Ever wanted to listen to your favorite playlist or podcast during a morning swim? Shokz is making that a lot easier with a much-needed update to their OpenSwim bone conduction headphones.
The new OpenSwim Pro is IP68 waterproof and includes 32GB of onboard storage, 8 times as much as the original model had. Plus, the Pro edition has Bluetooth 5.3, a major upgrade considering the original OpenSwim didn’t have Bluetooth at all. You also get about nine hours of battery per charge and a built-in microphone.
For those who aren’t familiar with bone conduction headphones, they sit next to your ears and emit sound through vibrations the bones in your skull pick up. This means you can listen to audio content without covering your ears, which is great for swimming, running or anytime you want to be able to hear your surroundings.
The OpenSwim Pro is expected to launch sometime in 2024, although Shokz hasn’t announced a specific price or date yet.
