Bose 700 takes the headphone crown in the Tom's Guide Awards 2020

The Bose 700 has sat at the top of our best headphones list ever since they launched a year ago, fending off stiff competition from the likes of Sony and Sennheiser. And that's why Bose's superb noise-cancelling cans win the first-ever Tom's Guide Award for the top headphones you can buy. 

Building on the excellent pedigree established by the Bose QuietComfort 35 series, the Bose 700 packs excellent noise cancelling, rich sound quality and intuitive controls into a stylish set of cans you'll be happy to wear all day. And you actually can wear them all day, as Bose's headphones offer up to 20 hours of battery life on a single charge.

The Bose 700 mark a significant design evolution over the QC 35 I and II, ditching the somewhat bulky, basic look of previous models in favor of a sleek stainless steel looks that connects the slickly curved earcups with a thin metal headband. And it looks just as great in silver as it does in black.

But these headphones really shine when it comes to noise cancelling. The Bose 700 offers 11 levels of noise-blockage, which were strong enough to drown out even the buzzing streets of New York City in our testing. Couple that with rich, balanced sound quality that highlights bass and high-end with equal aplomb, and you've got a set of headphones that make it easy to get lost in your favorite tunes for hours. 

The Bose 700 isn't without some serious competition. The excellent Sony WH-1000XM3 offer superb sound quality with a built-in EQ and a wonderfully lightweight design, and the Jabra Elite 85h comes loaded with smart features. But the Bose 700's superior noise-cancelling, aesthetic and battery life have kept it at the top of the pack for nearly a year straight, making them the obvious choice for Tom's Guide's inaugural headphones award.