4 headphone trends we expect to see this spring

The clocks have moved forward, the sun is out for longer, and flowers are blooming outside. Now that spring is here, not only is it time to enjoy the better weather and the countdown to summer, but there are audio trends to look forward to.

Coming up this season, we’re seeing people going back to wired headphones and retro tech like the Walkman, and we might have some new audio announcements and drops on the way. To know what to stay tuned for this spring, read on.

1 Walkmans, MP3 players, and iPods are back

What’s old is new again

A lot of people, myself included, are feeling pretty tired of being attached to screens all the time. Being beholden to our phones, and especially the streaming apps on there, is becoming a little overwhelming. For some of us, that might mean going back to the basics, whatever that means for each of us. Some might be getting out their cassette tapes and a Walkman, or their old CDs from high school and a portable CD player, or for the younger among us, busting out our old iPods.

The return to older personal audio technology is exciting for a lot of reasons. First, it’s good to play around with technology that you might’ve not touched for years, or ever, and build a new familiarity with it. It’s also great to get a break from our screens when we only ever seem to be inundated with more and more. And lastly, when it comes to formats like CDs, it’s good to take the time to listen to high-quality music instead of the MP3s we’re used to in the digital age.

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2 Wired headphones are bigger than ever

This one is a low barrier to an entry-level trend with high return

Speaking of analog, wired headphones are making a comeback. Celebrities have been seen wearing them, it-girls on TikTok are rocking Apple’s EarPods, and like the previous point, retro is back.

Wired headphones are not only really cool looking and trendy, but they’re also really fantastic audio technology. They’re classics for a reason. You get a longer lifespan out of them since there’s no battery to deplete, they allow you to listen to lossless audio, and there’s no latency problems like wireless headphones have. Plus, a lot of them are on the budget-friendly side.

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If you’re looking to follow this trend, you don’t even have to buy a new pair of headphones. Chances are you still have a pair of wired earbuds you used seven years ago that you can fish out of a drawer, and they’ll probably work just as well as they did back then. But you can also get a new pair if you want, there are so many to choose from at different price ranges.

3 Over-ear wireless headphones are still in

Noise-cancelling and Bluetooth are undeniably convenient

Some people just don’t vibe with wires, and that’s okay. Wireless headphones are obviously still sought after and trendy, with headphones like AirPods Max and Sony WH-1000XM5 being just as popular as they were a year ago. Premium noise-cancelling and long battery life, along with sleek looks, will probably never die.

You definitely don’t have to pay an arm and a leg to partake. AirPods Max are exorbitantly expensive, and you can get a great pair of wireless noise-cancelling headphones for a lot less. For example, Sony WH-1000XM4 are very popular and frequently go on sale. There are also headphones like the Sony WH-CH720N and the Anker Soundcore Life Q30 that are cheaper at their full prices.

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4 WWDC could bring Apple audio announcements

Nothing is confirmed yet, but we can hope

Apple’s annual Worldwide Developer’s Conference (WWDC) is happening on June 10th this year, which means we could get some new announcements from Apple about their audio lineup. Could we get a new AirPods Pro 3, or perhaps the AirPods Max 2?

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While there have been rumors floating around that the AirPods Max 2 might be released this year, and it would be great to get new over-ear AirPods, there isn’t much to go off of. We don’t really know yet if we’re going to be seeing any announcement about it at WWDC this year, since most of what we know about WWDC has to do with the next generation of iOS and generative AI. But I think it’s still worth considering that we might find out some more about both of these potential releases either in the lead up to or at WWDC, since it would be pretty huge news for Apple’s audio lineup.