[Asim lau]

• What is the TOP 20 headphone brands in the world until today?
• And why?

 

[ProtegeManiac]

• What is the TOP 20 headphone brands in the world until today?
• And why?

How do you measure what counts for Top 20?

If you count by sales then it's probably AKG since part of what you can count for sales are the ones that come with Samsung or other smartphones. And Plantronics selling headsets to customer support firms will definitely edge out HiFiMan and Audeze even if you're ranking up to 20.

 

[Asim lau]

How do you measure what counts for Top 20?

If you count by sales then it's probably AKG since part of what you can count for sales are the ones that come with Samsung or other smartphones. And Plantronics selling headsets to customer support firms will definitely edge out HiFiMan and Audeze even if you're ranking up to 20.

Thanks for your reply.

This should be mainly a comprehensive factor to count this TOP 20, especially the market share and consumer recognition of the brand.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

If it's just market share try Google with search keys like "headphone sales statistics 2017 2018."

If you ask site by retail site you have to go with Amazon since it has a wider representation of everything from Chi-Fi to the Germans all the way to low volume, higher price bracket headphones, unlike headphone.com that has no cheap Chi-Fi or how asking on Head-Fi users what they use based on profile data (you can check with Head-Fi mods about that since most registered users input what gear they have on their profiles) will include Chi-Fi but then ignore absolute sales stats that include for example AKG selling OEMs to Samsung and Sony selling their earphones bundled with their smartphones and players. Conversely stock market stats on headphone manufacturer brands will likely not distinguish between Sennheiser and AKG selling headphones vs microphones, just total profitability.

 

[HBen]

Thanks for your reply.

This should be mainly a comprehensive factor to count this TOP 20, especially the market share and consumer recognition of the brand.

It its basically impossible to answer your question the way you expect it since your question is not well enough defined. Already the two measures you mentioned (market share and consumer recognition of the brand) are likely going to yield different results.
Also, do you ask world wide, or in a specific region/country, etc? Probably in some of the biggest markets like China and India not the same products are popular as the ones in the US or in Europe...
What's problematic as well is the fact, that "market share" and the broad "consumer recognition of the brand" have barely anything to do with what the best headphone brands are in terms of sound or product-quality or similar measures of headphones. The two variables you mentioned are mostly about a company's marketing ...

Where I come from the by far most used headphones are those generic apple earpods that come with almost every apple product. So they are the most used, but if they are also the most sold (market share) seems debatable to me, since they are mostly not sold alone - rather as a byproduct of another product.

According to your measures and assuming we are talking about Europe or the US, the list would be led by all the big brands in the business there and would probably read something like this (which likely highly correlates with the most sold headphones according to the biggest electronics shops in my area):

Sennheiser, Sony, Bose, Beats, Apple, JBL, Marshall etc.

Taking a different approach - here is a list of brands that are likely among the better or best sounding products on the market (in no specific order): (in my humble opinion of course)

Sennheiser
AKG
Beyerdynamic
Sony
Denon
Focal
Audio-Technica
Fostex
Bowers&Wilkins
Campfire Audio
Audeze
Shure
Hifiman
Mr. Speakers
Final Audio
Grado
JPS Labs
STAX

Hope I was still able to give some insights ...

Cheers and all the best on your headphone journey

 

[Asim lau]

It its basically impossible to answer your question the way you expect it since your question is not well enough defined. Already the two measures you mentioned (market share and consumer recognition of the brand) are likely going to yield different results.
Also, do you ask world wide, or in a specific region/country, etc? Probably in some of the biggest markets like China and India not the same products are popular as the ones in the US or in Europe...
What's problematic as well is the fact, that "market share" and the broad "consumer recognition of the brand" have barely anything to do with what the best headphone brands are in terms of sound or product-quality or similar measures of headphones. The two variables you mentioned are mostly about a company's marketing ...

Where I come from the by far most used headphones are those generic apple earpods that come with almost every apple product. So they are the most used, but if they are also the most sold (market share) seems debatable to me, since they are mostly not sold alone - rather as a byproduct of another product.

According to your measures and assuming we are talking about Europe or the US, the list would be led by all the big brands in the business there and would probably read something like this (which likely highly correlates with the most sold headphones according to the biggest electronics shops in my area):

Sennheiser, Sony, Bose, Beats, Apple, JBL, Marshall etc.

Taking a different approach - here is a list of brands that are likely among the better or best sounding products on the market (in no specific order): (in my humble opinion of course)

Sennheiser
AKG
Beyerdynamic
Sony
Denon
Focal
Audio-Technica
Fostex
Bowers&Wilkins
Campfire Audio
Audeze
Shure
Hifiman
Mr. Speakers
Final Audio
Grado
JPS Labs
STAX

Hope I was still able to give some insights ...

Cheers and all the best on your headphone journey

Thanks for all.