The best. The ultimate superlative is one of those dicey things that tech reviewers shouldn't play around with, owing to how different everyone's needs and preferences are, but I'm sorely tempted to use it about Bang & Olufsen's updated Beoplay H6 ($299, sold under the B&O Play sub-brand) headphones. These might just be the best portable headphones out there.

Credit where it's due: it was Marco Arment, creator of Instapaper and Overcast, that first alerted me to the existence of a second generation of B&O's already well liked and reviewed H6 headphones. He recently crowned this second gen "the new headphone king" of his portable headphones mega-review, which he's been conducting for two years as a quest to find the ideal cans. All I can say is that I agree with him wholeheartedly.

They sound even prettier than they look

What makes the H6s special is their sound. It is instantly engaging and gratifying. Bang & Olufsen has noticeably bumped up the bass response from the first edition while retaining impeccably clear and prominent highs. The extension in both directions is excellent — from growling sub-bass to the tinkliest of treble — and there are no recessed mids to spoil the party either. Compared to analytical or audiophile headphones, the H6s have a definite bass bump, but you know how I feel about extra bass (it's a good thing!).

I initially lulled myself into thinking B&O had gone too far into populist territory with its fun sound signature, but no, dammit, these are as articulate and as detailed as many of the $1,000 cans I have dotted around my home office. Consider that I have at my disposal the Focal Elear, the Beyerdynamic T5p.2, the Technics T700, and the open-back Audeze EL-8, and I'm favoring a set of cans that costs a fraction of their price. The over-ear H6s are closed-back, and they insulate external sound well, but their presentation of music doesn't feel closed at all. They have a very wide (for their class) soundstage and delightfully precise imaging. I'm getting goosebumps-inducing bass wobble from one spot and hard percussion hits from another.

Everything coming from these headphones has impact and presence, but also refinement. The highs never become piercing — something I'm especially sensitive to — and the bass, while slightly exaggerated, is never anything short of satisfying. Something to keep in mind on the portable front is that when you're listening to music with commuter noise all around you, the bass is the first thing to be lost, and so headphones that give you a bump in the department are, in fact, more faithful to the music in their most likely usage scenario.

The true definition of premium headphones

Besides performance, the H6s are also rich on practicality. These headphones' design is, firstly, gorgeous in a way that almost everyone can appreciate (would DJ Khaled ever steer you wrong?). But more importantly, the H6s are feather-light and unbelievably comfortable. Yes, their earcup is shaped like a perfect circle, which the human ear never is, but the soft leather and memory foam make that irrelevant — I basically feel like I'm wearing a pair of puffy clouds around my ears. The whole set is built out of high-quality materials: leather on metal on metal on leather on top of your head. No creaks, no flaws.

I always second-guess myself when I'm quite so enthusiastic about a gadget, so I'm sitting here listening to the Beoplay H6s trying to find something wrong with them. There isn't. I love these headphones with my favored electronic music, but they're just as pleasurable with Rage Against the Machine's hard rock or Schubert's classical compositions. This is the sort of perfectly tuned, immediate sound that makes everything sound good.

Maybe $299 is more than you're comfortable paying for a set of cans, and that's alright, but it's actually cheap for what these headphones provide. The market for stylish, portable, high-quality audio gear is usually $100 higher (such as the Bowers & Wilkins P7), so the Beoplay H6s are winners on performance, practicality and price. Just make sure to get the second-generation I've reviewed here as Bang & Olufsen is still selling the original H6s at a discounted price. This is the good stuff you want.