If you're a headphones fanatic, you'll no doubt be aware that it's been a good year for big new releases entering the pantheons of the best noise cancelling headphones you can buy today – including the five-star Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3, and the new best-in-class noise blockers, the Sony WH-1000XM6.
And yet it's neither of these that sits atop our list of the best headphones as our pick that's the best for most people – it's the five-year-old Sony WH-1000XM4. This is not a mistake, and it's something we reassess with our audio specialist team effectively every week, and we still come to the same conclusion: for a lot of buyers, the XM4 still make more sense than newer models.
