We Asked Audio Pros to Blind Test Headphones. When it comes to choosing a good pair of headphones, what happens when you take features, design, and brand awareness out of the equation, and leave it all up to the sound? All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links. What makes a really great pair of headphones? The basic answer used to be sound quality, but modern headphones offer so much more than just audio chops.

When Apple previews the upcoming version of iOS at WWDC, we expect to see all of the new features that will improve the iPhone. However, it's not guaranteed that the company will take that opportunity to also update its popular wireless earbuds. But, alongside the arrival of iOS 17, a firmware update adds a few new features to the second-gen AirPods Pro, most of which will automatically adjust to your environment or activity so you don't have to touch the earbuds or reach for your phone. The headline addition is Adaptive Audio, a tool that automatically and "dynamically" blends transparency mode and active noise cancellation (ANC) based on your surroundings. Apple says it will change the noise control settings continuously throughout the day, making the proper adjustments as you move to different settings. Thanks to the H2 chip in the AirPods Pro, the earbuds use a combination of computational audio and machine learning algorithms that can discern between consistent and transitory noise.

If you're still hunting for the perfect gift for dad ahead of Father's Day this weekend, a bunch of our favorite gadgets are on sale right now. The Apple TV 4K remains discounted to $130, its cheapest price yet, and a couple of colors of the AirPods Max are $120 off. Amazon's Fire tablets and basic Kindle are on sale, too, plus you can pick up three video games for the price of two in the online retailer's latest 3-for-2 sale. Here are the best tech deals from this week that you can still get today. The latest Apple TV 4K is down to a new record low of $130.

Remember surround sound home theater & 3D TV? The promise was real but the technology was premature. Unlike my younger Millennial cohorts, I can remember a time before the Internet took off. Al Gore may have invented it (or not) before my lungs first cried "Hello, World!" but like all nascent technologies, the Internet took a while to develop & fan out. A few years before the awful sound of dial-up modems became commonplace, my first experience with this new thing called the Internet was at my mom's workplace - the local community college.

This week was a good one if you were looking for a good deal on the latest Apple gadgets. Not only are the AirPods Max still $100 off, but you can also grab the Apple Watch Series 7 for $339 and the latest 16-inch MacBook Pro for $200 less than usual. Elsewhere, Sony's WH-1000XM4 headphones remain on sale for $278 and Amazon's Echo Show 5 is 47 percent off and down to only $45. Here are the best tech deals from this week that you can still get today. Apple's AirPods Max are $100 off right now, bringing them down to $449.

It's been a busy few weeks here at Engadget. In addition to celebrating the holidays, ringing in the New Year and prepping for next week's virtual CES, we've kept reviewing all the new gadgets and components that we can get our hands on. We start off with the long-awaited Apple AirPods Max headphones and, more recently, the Amazon Echo Frames which are now finally available. We also checked out Sony's portable A7C camera, HP's Reverb G2 mixed reality headset, NVIDIA's RTX 3060 Ti and the flexible Hologram Electronics Microcosm effects pedal. Long-rumored and quietly revealed last month, the AirPods Max are high-end, over-ear headphones constructed from aluminum and metal and available in five colors.