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German Luxury Meets High-End Wireless Sound

If you love good sound, but don’t own a great set of headphones, you might consider a pair, especially wireless noise-cancelling headphones. Enjoying your favorite songs without bothering anybody – late at night, at a coffee shop, on the train – is fun. Today we look at a Red Dot Design award winner, Best of the Best for 2026: Leo by Loewe. 

What makes Loewe Leo special? First, Leo is comfortable. If a pair of headphones isn’t comfy, you won’t use them. Leo is engineered for lasting comfort. The aluminum frame is light yet strong; the earcups have a nice oval shape and soft leather. The headband has a good feel to it. 

Second: the design looks good and is modular. Over time, you can easily replace the magnetic ear cushions, the headband, and the battery. Leo looks cool and is built to last, designed in Germany by the Loewe In-House Design Studio. The intuitive dual-dial system on the earcups is discreet and makes controlling volume and song selection easy.

Third, Leo sounds great. In a blind shootout vs five other wireless noise-cancelling headphones, David Guetta, voted five times the biggest DJ in the world, picked Leo as his favorite. One of our best salespeople then took the Leo blind shootout challenge at a consumer show against 5 other headphones. He also picked Leo as being the best sounding.

So, what happened when we listened to music? For female vocals, we listened to Eva Cassidy singing Fields of Gold. Her voice sounded great, and very balanced in the mix. Her voice didn’t dominate the instruments, as happened with a more entry-level headphone we tried with the same song.

Dada’s song Dorina kicks off with a heavy bass line. It sounded clear and clean, not bloated at all. Snare drum comes in next, and it sounded crisp and snappy. The more affordable pair of ‘phones sounded midrange-thin by comparison, with the bass line dominating the rest of the music. 

Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man starts with those massive bass drum whacks. With Leo, it sounded very musical, and we heard the deep bass part of the drums clearly. Unlike a lot of wireless noise-cancelling ‘phones, we’re convinced these will sound good with any music you try

Adaptive noise canceling or ANC is a great benefit of portable ‘phones, as shutting out the noise on trains and crowded coffee shops lets you clearly hear your music. Loewe Leo’s intelligent noise cancellation balances the amount of noise reduction vs your music. If you’re walking down the street, you don’t want total noise reduction, as you need to hear when a car approaches. You can adjust the relative amount of noise cancellation

One note on the sound: the Adaptive Noise Canceling is controllable with the left earcup wheel, and it will affect the sound. The more noise canceling you dial in, the less full and rich it sounds, although it still sounds quite good.

Another benefit of Loewe Leo is the convenience with it’s Smart AI companion. With the Loewe app, you can use your voice to get weather updates, or leave yourself a note. It even has a voice translation feature that’s handy for traveling to other countries. 

Leo is also able to pair with several devices at the same time, for a great wireless experience. You can easily switch between your smartphone, tablet, and laptop, so your audio is able to follow you wherever you go.

Is the Loewe Leo the ultimate headphone? Perhaps, and perhaps not, but for a lot of folks, Leo may be exactly what they want. It’s wireless, and folds flat in the cool included case, so you can easily take it with you. It also sounds great, which some wireless noise-cancelling headphones simply don’t. 

The noise-cancelling and phone call features are excellent, and work smoothly. Leo is comfortable, which is huge for long listening. Leo even looks cool, and the modular construction makes for easy replacement. Yes, Loewe’s new headphone is a stone-cold winner.

For more information on Loewe, and all our fine brands, visit SKY by Gramophone, where you’ll get a secure check-out with fast and free shipping. We’d love it if you can visit our stores, in Timonium, Columbia and Gaithersburg, MD. Thank you for reading, and feel free to ask questions: ask@gramophone.com.