As difficult as long distance travel can be, many aspects of travel in 2025 are a lot easier than they were twenty years ago. We’ve gone from needing to bring a good book (or two) and hoping that you like the in-flight movie, to being able to bring a massive collection of movies, music, and video games in our pockets, making even the longest trips more bearable. The improvements in headphone technology – both wired and wireless – allow us to pass the time on our flights with the in-flight entertainment of choice and the perfect headphones.

Rather than having to ask which movie to watch on the flight, now we can ask, “What are the perfect headphones for travel?” To help answer that, I thought of three main categories for portable travel setups:

1. Wireless: Nothing but a phone and wireless headphones.

2. Minimalist Wired: Just a DAC dongle and a set of headphones or IEMs.

3. Full Stack: No compromises. Portable/Transportable DACs, DAPs, and whatever else you need to get the absolute best sound, regardless of the location.

Traveling with Wireless Headphones

If you’re going with wireless headphones, you have a second choice to make: over-ear headphones or TWS earphones. Whichever way you go, the mains pros are:

• No wires make it easier to manage in a cramped seat or while walking around a crowded terminal.

• Good ANC is better than passive isolation for blocking out noises like a plane engine.

But there are a couple of disadvantages:

• Pairing and connectivity issues can come out of nowhere, especially with TWS options. You don’t want to be stuck with sound out of only one side for a long flight.

• It’s easy to lose or misplace one side of a TWS: especially in a situation like getting on and off a flight.

• If you’re traveling over an extended period of time, you’ll need to make sure you keep everything charged up.

As far as recommendations, there’s a pretty wide range of options, but some of our favorites for wireless over-ear headphones are the Focal Bathys MG, Noble FoKus Apollo, Sennheiser HDB 630, and the Sennheiser Accentum Plus. For TWS, Noble has really been dominating the audiophile market with their FoKus series.

Traveling with a Minimalist Wired Setup

If you’re not ready to give up the wires, but you want a setup that’s going to be small and unobtrusive, you’ll need IEMs or highly efficient closed back headphones, and likely be pairing them with a small dongle style DAC that connects directly to your phone or tablet. Alternatively, you can keep the phone in your pocket, and use a dedicated digital audio plater. Some benefits of this style are:

• Better sound quality than wireless headphones

• You won’t need to worry about any batteries or chargers except your phone.

• A DAP can offload work from your phone and hold countless hours of music in internal storage that you can access without WiFi

• Some people prefer the natural noise isolation of IEMs with a tight seal or sealed closed back headphones over the Active Noise Cancellation of wireless sets

But there are some drawbacks:

• Having wires will make for extra steps when you’re setting things up or putting them away – or just getting up to go to the bathroom

• Additional equipment means you have some level of added complication, and another item that can be potentially lost.

While IEMs are personally my favorite for air travel, closed-back headphones with good natural isolation can be great as well.

While some of these might be able to plug directly into a laptop or tablet, generally speaking, you'll want an external DAC to go along with your wired headphones. Luckily there are a number of options that are small, lightweight, and work directly in line with your headphones and phone with no extra charging or batteries required.

Is This Even Portable Anymore?

Maybe you don’t want to keep it small and clean, maybe the only thing you’re not going to compromise on is sound quality, so you’re bringing the biggest, most powerful stack you can find that runs on batteries. There are certainly some benefits:

• Best possible portable sound quality

• Some more moderate setups aren’t really any more inconvenient than more minimalist wired portable setups

• Depending on your preference, you might be able to use a single setup for home and travel

But the downsides are there too:

• More gear means you’ll need more of everything: more wires, more devices to charge, and more space in your luggage

• A more complicated setup has more points of failure, potentially leaving you 40,000 feet in the air with no way to listen to music

• Maximum sound quality often means minimum battery life

For a moderately sized setup, you can keep it relatively small by combining a portable DAC like the Cayin RU9 with your phone, or go extra large with a combination of portable DAC or DAP with a separate amp like the iBasso PB6. But some devices like the iFi iDSD Valkyrie push the limits of portability by not compromising on sound or features for the sake of size.

If you have any questions about any of these products, shoot us an email at hello@bloomaudio.com, or hop in our live chat by clicking the red chat button on the bottom right corner of your screen. We would love to chat with you answer any questions you have for your next audiophile purchase!