Best Lightning headphones for iPhone and iPad in 2023

To listen to music on any iPhone since the age-old iPhone 7, you either need a pair of Bluetooth headphones, a 3.5mm to Lightning adapter (no longer included in the box since 2018) or a pair of wired Lightning headphones, that connect to the Lightning port.

It’s not something you see in every store or from every brand, but Lightning headphones do exist, and they allow you to plug a pair of headphones directly into the port on the bottom edge of your iPhone.

That was a job that used to be fulfilled by the bundled Apple Earpods, but Apple stopped including the wired Lightning earbuds in the box back in 2020 as part of its attempt to reduce electronic waste.

Of course it’s worth us pointing out that wireless headphones are infinitely more convenient, and the majority of people will be better served by them. But if you are looking for the very best wired headphones for your iPhone, here are our top picks.

Best Lightning headphones

The Belkin Soundform makes our top pick because we believe what most people want is an affordable, unfussy pair of in-ears to replace the wired earpods that used to come in the iPhone box. These are arguably the closest thing to those you’ll find.

Available in both black and white, these wired Lightning headphones also come in a USB-C version for Android phones. They’re Apple-certified and come with a tangle-free cable. Naturally, they’re at home with calls or music, while there’s also an in-line volume control.

As you can see, they’re inexpensive compared to many other Lightning-headphone options, too.

The Pioneer Rayz Plus have built-in noise-cancelling technology that promises to adapt to your ears, but also lets in enough external noise to make sure you stay aware of your surroundings. When you take them out of your ears, the music you were listening to automatically pauses and starts again when you put them back in.

A convenience key on the in-line controls can be set to open a music app, mute calls or launch Rayz controls, which allows you to adjust various headphone settings. Perhaps one of the best features of the Rayz Plus though, is they let you charge your iPhone while listening to music.

All this is great, and the sound quality is brilliant for the money as well. But the fit is one area that has let some users down. They often need pushing back in or adjusting to maintain the sound quality and noise cancelling.

Still, for the money, it’s hard to argue with what’s on offer here.

The sound quality on these 1More Triple Driver in-ears is superb for the money, with three drivers in each bud handling every element of the frequency range – plus a 24-bit/48kHz DAC for distortion-free sound.

The aluminium alloy design looks the part too, while a 5-in-1 control handles playback – and can be controlled with one thumb for ultimate convenience.

The mic isn’t great here though and call quality suffers because of it. There’s no noise cancellation either, which you’ll find elsewhere in our picks if that’s important to you. But for great sound quality alone, for under $100, these are a great option.

Libratone’s Q Adapt in-ear Lightning headphones use the power from the Lightning port to power their CityMix noise cancellation technology. There are four varying levels of noise cancellation, which either lets some external noise in, so you’re aware of your surroundings, or blocks it out entirely.

What Libratone has going for it, as with a lot of its products, is style. The Q-Adapt in-ears look fantastic. They’re sleek, pretty, and come in four different subtle colours.

While they might not be that cheap – considering they’re wired – they’re far from being very expensive. If you want good wired sound without having to pay a small fortune, these are the buds for you.

While Apple has stopped putting the Earpods into the box with its iPhone, it has continued to offer them at a very reasonable price for those who would prefer to have the option of straightforward wired headphones.

The fit will divide opinion. There’s no doubt it’s comfortable and lightweight, but they aren’t the most secure and certainly aren’t a good option for workouts. Sound isn’t bad at all though – far from the very best but for under $20 there’s nothing to grumble about here.

The mic on the cable makes you easily heard on calls and also makes for easy track and call control via the in-line remote. Sound can be a little bit leaky to those around you, but for basic wired Lightning buds, these will do the trick for most people.

This one’s a bit of a wild card entry: Sennheiser’s Ambeo Smart headset. They were among the first to launch with Lightning connector included, but Sennheiser didn’t want to launch an promedio everyday pair of in-ears. Instead, it launched with a very unique selling point.

The Ambeo headphones feature two omnidirectional microphones to produce a 360 effect in recorded audio, which means they double as a microphone for when you’re recording videos on your phone. The idea is that you’re immersed in your audio landscape.

They feature ANC but can also allow sounds through so that you can hear what’s going on around you. Plus, now that they’re older, they’re very affordable.

How did we choose the best Lightning headphones?

We checked back to our reviews (when we were still reviewing Lightning headphones), and had a look at which of those we liked and which of them are still available. Then, we took a look at the market, read hundreds of first-hand user reviews and combined them with our experience of the brands – in terms of sound quality, build quality and reputation.

FAQ

Q: Should I buy Lightning headphones?

We would probably recommend investing in wireless headphones instead, since Lightning headphones are tied to Apple devices and also pretty limited in availability now. However if wireless isn’t for you, or if you want the very best sound from your Apple device (and have the source material to make the most of it), they’re still a viable option.

Q: Do Lightning headphones sound better?

When Apple first debuted the Lightning connector on its devices, better audio was one of its sweeteners for removing the 3.5mm jack. Specs stated it was capable of receiving lossless 48kHz stereo digital audio output from Apple devices and those with microphones could also send a 48kHz macaco digital audio input.

Apple also hoped to see more advanced Lightning headphones with integrated digital-to-analogue converters (DACs) and amplifiers built in. With these, audio travelling through the Lightning port would pass into the headphones digitally, thus avoiding typical analogue signal interferences you get with other headphones – creating purer sound quality.

However, investment into these kind of Lightning headphones by brands was relatively low and Apple’s proprietary connector was soon snubbed in preference for investment in wireless headphones instead. Even Apple itself has removed the Lightning connector from its most recent iPads. However, if you do want the best quality audio possible from an iPhone, a wired Lightning connection is the way to do it, since iPhones don’t support lossless Bluetooth codecs, like LDAC or aptX Lossless.

Q: What happens if I can’t find any Lightning headphones I like?

There are a couple of options here. First, you could happily just buy the Lightning-to-3.5mm adapter from Apple, and then the world of wired headphones is your oyster. Plus if you already have cabled buds you love it means you don’t have to get rid of them. But otherwise (and we don’t mean to labour the point but stick with us), think about trying wireless headphones. Bluetooth technologies have advanced a lot since the early days, to the point of them being close to lag-free with much improved sound quality. Apple AirPods are popular for a reason.