It is quite humbling to have the technology of your youth suddenly branded as “retro tech”.

Nothing makes you feel your age quite like watching someone on social media excitedly discover an iPod as though they have just unearthed Tutankhamun’s tomb.

Look! It has buttons! And you have to put the music on it yourself!

Yes. I know. I was there.

But apparently wired headphones, iPods, early digital cameras and other technological relics of the 2000s are having something of a revival.

A recent BBC News article looked at exactly this phenomenon. Social media is increasingly full of younger people rediscovering digital cameras, wired headphones and dedicated MP3 players. In the UK, eBay says sales of iPods and Walkman portable audio players increased by nearly 50% during 2025, while searches for the iPod Mini rose by 48% over the following year.

Suddenly, the tangled cable at the bottom of the drawer is fashionable again…

Why Is Old Technology Suddenly Cool Again?

There is obviously an element of fashion involved.

The slightly fuzzy flash photography of an old digital camera has a distinctive look. An iPod Classic has a satisfyingly chunky click wheel. Wired earphones hanging from your ears apparently now convey considerably more street credibility than they did when half of us were spending ten minutes every morning trying to untie them.

But there seems to be something a little more interesting happening too.

The BBC spoke to people who liked older technology precisely because it does less. An iPod plays music. A digital camera takes photographs. Neither immediately invites you to check WhatsApp, answer an email, watch a Reel, buy something you don't need and then spend 40 minutes wondering why you picked your phone up in the first place.

Professor Andrew Przybylski from the University of Oxford suggested that part of the attraction comes from wanting greater control over our experiences. Choosing an album and putting it onto an iPod is a conscious act rather than something being endlessly selected and pushed towards us by an algorithm.

Which brings us rather neatly to Hi-Fi.

Because while the wider technology industry spent the past decade trying to remove every cable, button and physical interaction it possibly could, proper wired headphones never actually went anywhere.

Perhaps we weren't behind the times after all. Perhaps we were just extremely early for 2026.

Wired Headphones: Retro Fashion or Actually a Good Idea?

Wireless headphones can be brilliant.

I use them. They're convenient, noise cancelling can be invaluable on trains and planes, and Bluetooth headphones have become genuinely impressive, but wired headphones still have some very obvious advantages.

There is no battery to charge. No Bluetooth connection to establish. No software update. No wondering why your left earbud has mysteriously decided it no longer wishes to participate.

More importantly for Hi-Fi, a passive wired headphone allows the manufacturer to concentrate almost entirely on the things that actually produce the sound: the drivers, earcups, damping, materials and acoustics.

You then choose what drives them.

That might be the headphone socket on an old iPod, a laptop, a Hi-Fi amplifier or a dedicated DAC and headphone amplifier. Or perhaps you’ve fully immersed yourself in a full retro vibe and are playing your old cassettes on the WE-001 Portable Player from We Ar Rewind.

Improve the source and amplification later and a good pair of wired headphones can improve with it.

So, if you have been tempted by the so-called “retro tech” revival and fancy rediscovering the simple joy of plugging something in, here are a few places to start…

Sennheiser HD400S: Keep It Simple

If the whole attraction of retro tech is simplicity, the Sennheiser HD400S understands the assignment.

They are closed-back, foldable, wired headphones with a 3.5mm connection and an 18-ohm impedance, meaning they are not particularly demanding to drive. At £64.99*, they are also a very accessible introduction to conventional wired headphone listening.

There is no app.

There is no battery percentage.

There is a cable.

Plug cable into thing. Music comes out.. Revolutionary stuff!

Sennheiser HD560S: Your First Taste of Proper Open-Back Hi-Fi

If you are mainly listening at home, an open-back headphone is where things start getting particularly interesting.

The Sennheiser HD560S is designed to produce a more open, spacious presentation, allowing sound to pass through the rear of the earcups rather than enclosing the driver completely.

That means very little isolation, so everybody else in the room may get to enjoy your music too. Whether they asked to or not.

But in a quiet space, open-back headphones can deliver a wonderfully natural sense of scale and space. At £179.99*, the HD560S is a great entry point into serious home headphone listening and comes with connections suitable for both 3.5mm and larger 6.3mm headphone outputs.

Meze 99 Classics V2: Retro Meets Modern

Few headphones fit this particular article better than the Meze 99 Classics V2.

Walnut wooden earcups, a proper cable and absolutely no attempt to disguise themselves as another piece of disposable consumer electronics. They feel like something you might actually want to own for years.

The latest V2 version costs £319* and has a low 16-ohm impedance, making it relatively easy to drive. Better still, Meze includes a compact USB-C DAC/headphone amplifier in the box, allowing you to connect them to modern phones and tablets that have decided the humble headphone socket is beneath them.

It is essentially the perfect meeting point between old-school wired listening and the slightly inconvenient reality of owning a phone manufactured after about 2018.

Focal Azurys: Wired Headphones for the Real World

Open-back headphones are wonderful until somebody else enters the room. Or you enter an office. Or a train. Or, frankly, anywhere involving other human beings.

The Focal Azurys takes the more practical closed-back approach. Currently £349*, it is a completely passive wired headphone with no Bluetooth, battery or active noise cancellation. Its 26-ohm impedance also means it can work with a broad range of portable sources and headphone outputs.

Focal manufactures the 40mm aluminium/magnesium drivers in France, and the closed earcups provide useful passive isolation while reducing the amount of your music escaping into the outside world.

In other words, you can enjoy your music without forcing everybody within a six-metre radius to develop an appreciation for Steely Dan.

Sennheiser HD600: The Hi-Fi Classic

Then we get to something properly serious.

The Sennheiser HD600 is the sort of headphone that demonstrates why wired Hi-Fi never needed reviving in the first place.

It has remained a firm favourite among music lovers because it concentrates on straightforward things: an open-back construction, carefully matched drivers, a detachable cable and an honest, natural presentation.

The HD600 costs £399.99* and has a considerably higher 300-ohm impedance, so this is where source and amplification become more important. Plug them into something mediocre and they will work. Partner them with a good headphone amplifier and they begin to show why serious headphone systems are a thing.

This is where buying wired headphones starts becoming very recognisably Hi-Fi.

You buy the headphones today, improve the DAC or amplifier later, and hear what the headphones were capable of all along.

Meze 109 PRO: Things Are Getting Serious

The Meze 109 PRO takes that idea further.

At £769*, these are open-back headphones built from materials including walnut, zinc, manganese steel and velour, with a 50mm dynamic driver developed specifically for the model.

Despite the price and performance level, the 40-ohm impedance means they remain relatively easy to drive from a range of portable and home equipment.

They are also a good example of what spending more on headphones can buy you before you've even pressed play: better materials, greater comfort, more sophisticated driver engineering and a product that has been designed to be maintained and enjoyed rather than replaced when its battery eventually gives up.

Very retro indeed.

Sennheiser HD800S: Now We've Gone Full Hi-Fi

And then there is the Sennheiser HD800S.

Currently £1,199*, these sit firmly in high-end headphone territory and are designed to extract considerably more from a serious source and headphone amplifier. Their open-back construction is famous for producing an unusually spacious presentation, while Sennheiser developed the current S version to offer a smoother, more balanced sound than the original HD800.

Nobody is buying a pair of these because wired headphones happen to be fashionable on TikTok this month.

But that is rather the point.

The same fundamental idea scales from a £65 pair of headphones all the way into genuinely high-end Hi-Fi.

Open-Back or Closed-Back?

If you are new to proper wired headphones, this is probably the first decision to make.

Closed-back headphones keep the rear of the driver enclosed. They generally provide better isolation and leak less sound, making them more suitable for travelling, offices, shared rooms and family life.

Open-back headphones allow air and sound to pass through the earcup. They provide very little isolation but can create a more spacious and natural presentation, which is why they are so popular for serious listening at home.

Neither is inherently better.

If you are sitting alone with a cup of tea and an album, open-back can be glorious.

If you are sitting beside somebody watching The Great British Bake Off, perhaps show some mercy and buy closed-back.

But My Phone Doesn't Have a Headphone Socket...

Yes. We have successfully reached the point where the technology industry has made wired headphones fashionable again while simultaneously removing the hole you plug them into.

Excellent work, everyone.

Fortunately, a simple USB-C DAC or headphone adaptor can add a conventional 3.5mm connection to most compatible modern devices. Some headphones, including the Meze 99 Classics V2, now even include one in the box.

Meze 99 Classics V2 and the included USB-C DAC

For easier-to-drive headphones, something compact may be all you need.

Move towards more demanding models such as the HD600 and a dedicated DAC/headphone amplifier becomes much more worthwhile.

And that is where the retro tech trend potentially becomes particularly interesting for Hi-Fi.

Someone may begin with an old iPod and a pair of wired headphones because it looks cool. Then they discover that different headphones sound different. Then they try a proper DAC. Then a headphone amplifier. Before they know it, they're arguing about power supplies on an internet forum at 1:30 in the morning.

Welcome. We've been expecting you.

Maybe Hi-Fi Was Retro Tech All Along

There is something rather reassuring about younger listeners rediscovering technology that asks them to be slightly more involved.

Choosing an album. Owning some music. Plugging in a cable. Listening without six notifications appearing halfway through the first track.

Hi-Fi has always been built around that idea.

We have embraced streaming, wireless audio and all the genuinely useful advances modern technology has given us, but sometimes removing every last bit of friction also removes some of the ritual that makes listening to music enjoyable.

So if wired headphones are officially cool again, excellent.

Come in. Try some.

Just please give me another few years before you start describing CDs, MiniDiscs and the PlayStation 2 as “vintage”.

I'm not emotionally ready.

Thanks for reading.

Brad Tyler – Head of Marketing at Audio T

If you have any questions about any of the equipment featured in this article, or any other Hi-Fi or home cinema enquiries, be sure to contact your local Audio T.

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