Loewe says its £85k+ headphones are the best in the world — and is holding blind listening tests to prove it

They’ve got the yacht, they’ve got the sportscar, and they’ve put a bid in for a football team with their pocket money for the bantz. When it comes to money-can’t-buy gifts — or at least, lots and lots of money will buy gifts — what do you get the person who’s got everything?

How about ‘the best headphones in the world?’

That’s what Loewe is claiming its new luxurious headphones are, and it has conducted a blind listening session against top-tier headphones to prove it.

Partnering with exclusive watch maker Jacob & Co, the Loewe x Jacob & Co headphones come in two special editions — Noir Rainbow and Ice Diamond — and are finished with a selection of precious stones.

The more colourful Noir Rainbow is studded with 15.97 carats of multicoloured sapphires, while the cool Ice Diamond cans have 12.47 carats of white diamonds. Each is hand crafted and constructed with premium materials elsewhere too, including anodised aluminium and real leather.

As you’d expect, that puts them firmly into playboy pricing territory — the Noir Rainbow headphones are priced at €99,000 (about £85,400), while the Ice Diamond version is €119,000 (just over £113,000). And you’ll have to be quick to splash down the cash — only ten of the headphones are ever set to be made.

A best headphones showdown

Beyond the flash there’s some solid tech specs here. The headphones are good for 65 hours of playback per charge, feature adaptive noise cancellation and ambient sound awareness, play nicely with high-resolution audio formats, and feature an integrated AI assistant capable of real time translations.

Launched at a suitably-lush press event in Monaco, Loewe had the confidence to put its headphones to the test against six leading rivals in a blind-listening session, with disguised cans set up side by side for comparison. Our expert noggins were able to identify headphones from Apple and Sony by ‘head-feel’ alone and, though a more thorough listening session will be needed to really put Loewe’s new offering through its paces, the luxury cans certainly sounded every bit as good as their much-lauded competition.

However, that price tag is going to limit the amount of Christmas wishlists these new cans are going to realistically end up on. But given the audio advancements Loewe’s made on the inside of these luxury headphones, we’d be shocked not to see these reappear a little further down the line in a more affordable, jewel-free form before long. Watch this space / save up those pennies…

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