The Best Basic Bluetooth Headphones

Sometimes boring is good!

Photo taken by the author.

The tech industry loves to play the features game. More bullet points on the box or store listing means more things to market at potential customers — and higher prices. There’s no need to make cool fundamental advancements when you can make a big profit with flashy one-off additions or limited edition colors, right?

I spent years reviewing headphones and gaming headsets online, and I eventually got tired of this trend chasing. Marketing sadly always bests a solid foundation in the audio gear business, and while it’s sometimes fun to experience a weird new connection protocol or an excessive battery or the best noise cancelling technology — sometimes you’re just a person who wants to listen to good-sounding music.

I stumbled upon my favorite no-nonsense wireless headphones completely by accident, while wandering through a chain book store of all places. My local Barnes and Noble location went through a brief window of madness where they decided to carry a bunch of headphones and other audio gear — and most of it was from the venerable Japanese company Audio-Technica. On a random fateful day last year, they just so happened to have several pairs of their lower end M20XBT headphones sitting there next to the books, and I bought a pair on a whim.