Entertainment
The best wireless headphones for TV in 2025
This content originally appeared on Mashable for a US audience and has been adapted for the UK audience.
Watching TV is an all-timer hobby. Who doesn’t love a good binge in front of the box? There’s nothing better than a night on the sofa with your latest Netflix obsession.
But there are distractions everywhere — even in your home — which can interrupt your TV enjoyment. On the flip side of that, you might have housemates who get disturbed by your late night bingeing. Or perhaps you’re hearing impaired and need some help listening to dialogue? If any of those sound familiar, we recommend investing in a good pair of headphones for watching TV.
Wireless headphones will make it easier to fully immerse into a show or movie — and without bothering people around you. If you need help choosing the best pair for you, here’s some useful information and a selection of the best headset options.
Do you need headphones for watching TV?
Reasons for having headphones for the TV can vary. As we’ve already outlined, viewers may be hard of hearing, or may live in busy households. But, not only that, in this day and age of everyone having different devices — often in the same room — it just makes sense to have good headphones. Even if you’re not using them all the time. And, hey, there’s always the option of getting a pair that double up for TV and everyday use.
What makes headphones good for watching TV?
Sound is important when you’re buying any pair of headphones, but if you’re buying specifically for watching TV, you’ll need to consider the sort of things you’ll be watching. Will you need heavy bass for the rumbling carnage of action movies? Or nuanced detail for quieter, emotionally-charged moments? Or maybe all-round, un-fussy performance for casually watching sport and comedy? Also consider headphones with noise cancelling technology. And wireless headphones are probably best — if you’re relaxing in front of the TV, you don’t want to actually be wired into it. In fact, check out the wireless range too, in case you like to move around your home while you’re still connected to the TV audio.
What’s best, Bluetooth or radio frequency technology?
Most wireless headphones are Bluetooth-enabled. Bluetooth is now the standard technology for syncing your headphones to a smart device. While Bluetooth is a good option for podcasts or music on your smartphone or laptop, it’s not necessarily the best tech for wirelessly watching TV. Bluetooth sometimes creates a lag between the action on-screen and the sound in your headphones, which puts the picture and audio slightly out of sync. Believe it or not, headphones that use old school radio frequency technology (RF) are sometimes better for watching TV because lag or latency is almost non-existent, ensuring that the picture and audio are virtually seamless. This doesn’t mean there are no good Bluetooth options out there — there are great Bluetooth headphones that use codecs but minimise latency — but it’s something to consider.
What are Bluetooth codecs?
If you do want to buy a Bluetooth-enabled set of headphones, check out which codecs they support. These encode and decode digital audio signals. Codecs decode at a specific bitrate, which determines whether the headphones have a high or low latency (AKA lag), which is measured in milliseconds. High latency means your picture and sound may be out of sync. Look out for headphones with low latency that support Qaulcomm’s aptX codecs, such as aptX Adaptive, which are generally rated as the best codecs for streaming video content or hooking up to a TV.
Do you need noise cancelling headphones to watch TV?
Ultimately, it’s down to personal preference (or how noisy your home is!) but if you want to totally immerse yourself in a movie or show, noise cancelling headphones will shut you off from the outside world and put you right at the middle of the action. There are two kinds of noise cancellation — passive and active. Passive noise cancellation is achieved by the build of the headphones, which physically blocks out noise. Active noise cancellation (ANC) uses a system of small microphones that pick up incoming sounds and create anti-noise sound waves to cancel them out.
What are the best headphones for watching TV?
If that seems like a lot of information to take in, don’t worry. We’ve scoured the product listings and online reviews, and we’ve come up with a list of headphones for watching TV, including devices from top brands such as Sony and Sennheiser. There’s something for everyone and every budget. Take your time to consider everything on the list and weigh up these choices against your TV watching habits.
These are the best wireless headphones for watching TV in 2025.
Entertainment
Stuff Your Kindle Day is live now — score 150+ free ebooks for 1 day only
FREE BOOKS: The latest Stuff Your Kindle Day takes place on April 23. The Cozy Mystery Book Blast, hosted by Cozy Mystery Book Club, isoffering cozy mystery books for free.
This has been such a huge month for Stuff Your Kindle Day. We’ve already been blessed by a number of free giveaways, and we’re not done yet.
The Cozy Mystery Book Blast, hosted by Cozy Mystery Book Club, is offering participants the chance to download 150+ ebooks without spending anything. Everything that you download is yours to keep forever, so take this as your sign up to stock up ahead of the summer reading season.
Looking to make the most of the latest Stuff Your Kindle Day? We’ve lined up everything you need to know about this popular event.
When is Stuff Your Kindle Day?
The Cozy Mystery Book Blast takes place on April 23. This free giveaway only lasts 24 hours, so you will need to act fast to download everything you want to read. Clear your schedule, make a list of priorities, and add to your TBR list with this limited-time promotion.
Which ebooks are free?
The Cozy Mystery Book Blast has a helpful hub page with everything on offer organized by sub-genre:
You can find these free ebooks from the Kindle Store and other popular retailers. There really is something for everyone in this latest book blast.
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Is Stuff Your Kindle Day the same as Amazon Kindle Unlimited?
Everything you download on Stuff Your Kindle Day is yours to keep, and there’s no limit on the number of books you can download. Stuff Your Kindle Day downloads don’t count towards the 20 books that Amazon Kindle Unlimited subscribers can borrow at the same time, so don’t hold back.
The best Stuff Your Kindle Day deal
Why we like it
These popular e-readers let you take your entire library on the go. With weeks of battery life and an anti-glare display, you can read anywhere and anytime with the Kindle. Plus, you can get three months of Kindle Unlimited for free with your purchase for a limited time.
Entertainment
Moon phase today: What the Moon will look like on April 23
We’re almost at the First Quarter which means the Moon is almost half illuminated. Each night it gets a little brighter, and this will keep happening until the Full Moon when the reverse will then occur and each night it will appear less.
What is today’s Moon phase?
As of Thursday, April 23, the Moon phase is Waxing Crescent. Tonight, 41% of the moon will be lit up, according to NASA’s Daily Moon Guide.
If you’re looking at the Moon with just your naked eye, you should be able to catch a glimpse of the Mares Serenitatis, Tranquillitatis, and Fecunditatis. If you have binoculars, the Mare Nectaris and Endymion and Posidonius Craters should also come into view, appearing from halfway up the Moon to near the top. And, finally, with a telescope you’ll see all this plus the Apollo 11 and 17 landing spots, and the Rupes Altai.
When is the next Full Moon?
The next Full Moon is predicted to take place on May 1, the first of two in May.
What are Moon phases?
NASA says that the Moon completes a full orbit around Earth in about 29.5 days, during which it passes through eight stages. Although the same face of the Moon is always turned toward us, the portion illuminated by the Sun shifts as it travels along its path, producing the familiar cycle of full, half, and crescent shapes. These variations are referred to as lunar phases, and there are eight altogether:
New Moon – The Moon is between Earth and the sun, so the side we see is dark (in other words, it’s invisible to the eye).
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Waxing Crescent – A small sliver of light appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere).
First Quarter – Half of the Moon is lit on the right side. It looks like a half-Moon.
Waxing Gibbous – More than half is lit up, but it’s not quite full yet.
Full Moon – The whole face of the Moon is illuminated and fully visible.
Waning Gibbous – The Moon starts losing light on the right side. (Northern Hemisphere)
Third Quarter (or Last Quarter) – Another half-Moon, but now the left side is lit.
Waning Crescent – A thin sliver of light remains on the left side before going dark again.
Entertainment
Tinder responds to viral video about tricking facial scan
Earlier this month, journalist Christophe Haubursin published a YouTube video called “Something very weird is happening on Tinder.” In the video, which has over 1.5 million views as of this publication, Haubursin described a way to workaround to Tinder’s Face Check feature — the facial recognition that is now required for all U.S. users as of Oct. 2025.
What Haubursin and his interviewees discovered is a bunch of profiles that appeared normal, but the last photo on each profile was…off. It was usually a digitally-altered image of a different person in a weird scenario, like on a billboard or in a Victorian painting. And if someone matched with this person and asked about the image, they dodged the question. Instead, they asked to move the conversation to WhatsApp, where it became clear they were romance scammers.
But how did they evade Face Check? Haubursin found that Tinder and Hinge, both owned by Match Group, only need one photo for the facial recognition software. So these people may be the actual person in that odd image, and able to pass the face scan. Then, they could grift images of other people from the internet to use for the bulk of their profile.
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Tinder didn’t respond to Haubursin’s request for comment, but it did respond to Mashable’s.
“We’re aware of the concerns raised about our Photo Verification and Face Check features. In recent weeks, we’ve taken action to strengthen our Photo Verification badging logic, including requiring greater consistency across profile photos and additional reviews to achieve higher confidence in cases that warrant extra scrutiny,” a Tinder spokesperson told Mashable. “Face Check, our more recently launched verification system, builds on Photo Verification to help confirm accounts belong to real users. We are committed to continuously improving and investing in our systems to keep Tinder safe and authentic for our users.”
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Mashable also recently spoke with Hinge’s Chief Product and Technology Officer, Ben Celebicic, about this, as Haubursin also replicated this on Hinge (which began implementing Face Check after Tinder). Celebicic hasn’t seen Haubursin’s video, but he did say that there’s a constant battle between trust and safety teams and policy-violating actors.
“They’ll find new ways,” he said. “We’ll find ways to prevent them from accessing the platform.”
There’s not going to be a single product the team builds that will fully prevent people from bypassing our solution, Celebicic continued. He said they have a big team working on these issues, and they’re in tune with new ways bad actors try to penetrate the platform and work to fix them.
Around one-third of Hinge’s workforce is dedicated to trust and safety, the app told Mashable, and Match Group invests $125 million annually in this area.
Trust and safety is a major concern for dating apps. In Sept. 2025, two senators sent a letter to Match Group CEO Spencer Rascoff, urging him to do something about romance scammers on the platforms. In Dec., a class-action lawsuit against Match Group claimed that a serial rapist was allowed on Tinder and Hinge after several women reported him.
Facial recognition scans have boomed recently thanks to the influx of age-verification laws, which require a robust method of proving someone’s age in order to access certain content, usually explicit content. These methods include uploading a government ID to a platform, using a credit card, or in other cases, scanning your face. But, like with Face Check, people have found workarounds to evade the scan and see the content they want to see.
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