Overview Leaderboard Methodology
Industry Report

Over-Ear Headphones

Large, circumaural headphones designed for home, studio, or commuting use, often emphasizing soundstage, comfort, and noise isolation or cancellation.

Brands tracked: 32
Brands analyzed: 32
Last updated: 2026-04-23
Model: OpenAI GPT-5
Prompts: 252
Total responses: 1,285
Top Brand Overall?
Sony
95/100

Highest overall AI Visibility Score in this industry.

LBA Leader?
Apple
98

Highest score on the LBA metric in this industry.

Authority Leader?
Sony
93

Highest score on the Authority metric in this industry.

TOM Leader?
Sony
100

Highest score on the TOM metric in this industry.

Sony is the default answer in AI responses for Over-Ear Headphones

When users ask ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini about Over-Ear Headphones, Sony is the brand that surfaces first - unprompted, consistently, and usually at the top of any list the model generates. Sennheiser is a close second, but the gap between them is meaningful. If you're competing in this space and you're not in the top handful, you're effectively invisible to AI-driven discovery.

Brand Leaderboard All 32 Over-Ear Headphones brands ranked

Ranked by overall AI Visibility Score (smoothed geometric mean of LBA, Authority, and TOM with an LBA-based floor on Authority and TOM, see methodology). Click any brand for the full report.

# Brand LBA Authority TOM Overall
1
Sony
sony.com
 92
93
100
95
2
Sennheiser
sennheiser.com
 90
52
85
74
3
Bose
bose.com
 84
49
81
70
4
Anker Soundcore
soundcore.com
 76
37
38
48
5
Apple
apple.com
 98
10
64
42
6
Bowers & Wilkins
bowerswilkins.com
 85
8
43
34
7
Focal
focal.com
 85
8
23
27
8
Audio-Technica
audio-technica.com
 89
10
16
26
9
Beyerdynamic
beyerdynamic.com
 88
9
18
26
10
Audeze
audeze.com
 81
8
15
23
11
Meze Audio
mezeaudio.com
 89
9
9
21
12
Shure
shure.com
 87
9
9
21
13
Bang & Olufsen
bang-olufsen.com
 82
8
8
20
14
Dan Clark Audio
danclarkaudio.com
 84
8
8
20
15
Grado
gradolabs.com
 82
8
8
20
16
JBL
jbl.com
 82
8
8
20
17
Austrian Audio
austrian.audio
 76
8
8
19
18
Pioneer DJ
pioneerdj.com
 77
8
8
19
19
ZMF Headphones
zmfheadphones.com
 80
8
8
19
20
AKG
akg.com
 75
7
7
18
21
F
Fostex
fostexinternational.com
 75
8
8
18
22
HIFIMAN
hifiman.com
 72
7
7
18
23
Marshall
marshall.com
 76
8
8
18
24
Skullcandy
skullcandy.com
 72
7
7
18
25
AIAIAI
aiaiai.audio
 68
7
7
17
26
V-MODA
v-moda.com
 71
7
7
17
27
Edifier
edifier.com
 67
7
7
16
28
Master & Dynamic
masterdynamic.com
 66
7
7
16
29
Sivga
sivgaaudio.com
 64
6
6
16
30
Ultrasone
ultrasone.com
 64
6
6
16
31
K
Kennerton
kennerton.audio
 61
6
6
15
32
Koss
koss.com
 56
6
6
14

How is this calculated? Methodology

Every brand in this leaderboard is scored against the same set of 252 shared Over-Ear Headphones prompts. The same prompts, same model, same iterations. So differences in scores reflect actual differences in AI visibility, not differences in measurement.

Overall AI Visibility Score
Smoothed geometric mean of LBA, Authority and TOM. Authority and TOM are floored at LBA × 0.1 before the geometric mean (the same floor used in the per-metric cards above, so brand cards and the composite tell the same story). Formula: composite = ((LBA + 5)(Authority + 5)(TOM + 5))^(1/3) - 5. The floor keeps brands the model clearly recognises but doesn't yet recommend from collapsing to zero, while a single genuinely weak metric still pulls the composite down. Full methodology.
Shared industry prompts
For Authority and TOM, all brands in the industry are scored against the same 252 category prompts (e.g. "best SEO tools for agencies"). This makes brand-to-brand comparisons valid - everyone faces identical inputs. LBA prompts are per-brand because they ask brand-specific questions.
Latent Brand Association (LBA)
5 brand probes + 1 control prompt, each run 5 times in recall mode (no web search). LBA = quality × meta × stability × share × recognition × 100. Read the full LBA methodology →
LLM Authority
50 organic category prompts (discovery, comparison, problem and transactional intents), each run once in recall mode and once in retrieval mode. Score = frequency × log-decayed prominence × intent weight, then 50/50 averaged across the two modes. Read the full Authority methodology →
Top of Mind (TOM)
15 high-volume discovery prompts (sourced from Keywords Everywhere search-volume data), each run 5 times in pure recall mode (no web). Score = frequency × (0.5 + 0.5 × log-prominence), volume-weighted. Read the full TOM methodology →