2025 was awesome for consumer audio, but some key things were very underwhelming

End of year report card: C

In 2024, I took a look at some exciting consumer audio technologies and what I really wanted to see in 2025. Some things I didn’t see coming, like Spotify finally offering lossless audio streaming! I’m still shocked that it actually happened. Some things, like Auracast, saw some growth, but widespread adoption still left me a bit underwhelmed, given the technology’s powerful potential.

So, let’s take a look at what I saw in the consumer audio market in 2025 and grade how well manufacturers met the expectations I had at the end of 2024.

These things were mostly misses in 2025

I began my 2024 end-of-year look-ahead with two quality-of-life features that are “must-haves”: offline voice control and live translation. Samsung was at the top of my list for both features in 2024, and sadly, not many others have put earbuds on the market with on-device voice controls.

To recap, on-device voice controls shouldn’t be confused with connecting to an AI agent like Google Assistant/Gemini, Alexa, or Siri. On-device voice controls let you interact with basic earbud features without using a wake word or an internet connection through your phone. They were a game-changer during my time with the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro.

Yes, there are devices with head gesture controls in the wild, but outside of Apple’s AirPods lineup or Sony’s Linkbuds Fit, they’re a rare find when it comes to earbuds you can fully use with your Android devices.

All is not lost, though! In December 2025, Google expanded live translation capabilities to almost any Bluetooth or pair of wired headphones via a beta update to the Translate app.

In 2025, Google and Samsung finally baked Auracast support into some Galaxy and Pixel phones, giving you the ability to listen in on and stream audio to multiple Bluetooth LE headphones and earbuds that support Auracast. The problem is that the most significant promise of the technology, which is its use in stadiums, museums, and other public spaces, has yet to materialize.

There are select venues around the world, like the Sydney Opera House in Australia and the Marriott Theater in Chicago, Illinois, that have Auracast installations, allowing hearing-challenged people to get the full bandwidth of musical sound that traditional hearing aids don’t reproduce, but easily finding venues with Auracast support is like playing “Where’s Waldo?”

Arguably, 2025 was the year that saw open earbud designs come into their own and multiply like rabbits. It feels like almost everyone brought a pair of open earbuds to market. In 2025, companies like Earfun, Soundcore, Shokz, Huawei, and 1MORE offered compelling earcuff alternatives to Bose’s excellent but pricey Ultra Open open-ear earbuds, which debuted in 2024.

Most importantly, in 2025, the sound quality of open-ear earbuds saw net-positive improvements over earlier efforts, making some a viable option to traditional in-ear earbuds. Many of those same companies also put out more traditional open earbuds with transducers that sit over your ears instead of inside your ear canals, and they, too, saw improvements in overall sound quality. I no longer believe that open earbuds are useless when compared to just using traditional earbuds and their transparency modes.

Innovation in design and health-forward hardware

I miss the days when manufacturers took chances with their designs. Whether they moved the industry forward or were just craptastic, phones like the Nokia N-Gage, T-Mobile Sidekick, LG Wing, and Sony Walkman phones gave us something to look forward to each year, breaking the monotony of the slab.

Nothing released one of the most exciting headphones in 2025 and brought back that early-2000s risk-taking with a nostalgic design that mimicked my old trusty dual-cassette tape deck. The design of the Nothing Headphone 1 stirred up a bit of controversy with its bold take, but that’s what a unique design should do. It should make you question manufacturers who play it safe, while giving more style-conscious options to those who dance to the beat of their own drum.

That said, one place where you definitely don’t want deviation is in your heart rate monitoring. The Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 did what most manufacturers have been unable to do: deliver reliable, accurate, heart rate monitoring in a pair of earbuds that also sound good. Not only did the folks at Beats/Apple give us rock-solid HRM, but they also gave us ear hooks that make the Powerbeats Pro 2 unshakable during dynamic exercise.

And while your heart is essential to healthy functioning, you can now see how healthy your brain is, or more specifically, your ability to maintain focus. Neurable AI partnered with Master & Dynamic to launch the Neurable MW75, which has sensors embedded in its ear pads that read your brain waves and provide compelling metrics on your ability to maintain focus for extended periods.

The Neruable AI companion app also tells you when you need to take a break to keep your focus strong all day long. I tried them, and whether it was a placebo or the product actually doing what was promised, my time being “locked in” definitely felt much more productive, and less stressed when I followed the app’s break suggestions.

Land of the Lossless

Sleestacks may be frightful creatures, but DAC/Amp stacks are things of beauty! The amount of MP3/Digital audio players, mobile DACs, and headphones and earbuds with lossless or high resolution support seems to have grown by leaps and bounds in 2025, and that couldn’t have happened at a better time. Spotify finally delivered on its promise to give subscribers a lossless music streaming option.

That’s roughly 276 million reasons to make sure your setup is ready to take advantage of every note your favorite Jazz improvisationists play and feel every wave of sub bass frequency your headphones can reproduce.

All in all, 2025 was a great year for audio lovers! More affordable, high-quality active-listening “audiophile” gear reached the masses. Lossless audio saw wider adoption. Nothing brought their A game to the design table. And I’d give myself a “C” for my end-of-year report last year. Some things came to fruition, while others sputtered along. Ultimately, though, I had more fun with audio in 2025 than I had frustrations or disappointments.