The Most Expensive Headphones Now Cost $135,000

Most people assume the world’s most expensive headphones exist to push sound quality past every known limit. That belief falls apart above $100,000. Past that line, you’re not paying for better drivers or sharper audio. You’re paying for the idea that headphones belong in a velvet-lined jewelry case.

Price: $115,000-$135,000
Where to Buy: Loewe

Loewe Technology and Jacob & Co. just made that idea real. The two companies built a limited collection of 10 handcrafted headphones priced between $115,000 and $135,000. Earcups on both designs are set with sapphires or diamonds. Loewe has been building premium audio equipment since 1923. Jacob & Co. makes some of the most mechanically complex luxury watches in the world. Only 10 total units will exist across both designs, which puts these closer to a commissioned watch than anything you’d find in a store. The partnership alone would turn heads, but the price and the gemstone counts push it into territory that barely exists.

So we ask: can luxury headphones carrying nearly 16 carats of gemstones actually work as headphones, or are these wearable sculptures that happen to connect to your phone?

Sapphires, Diamonds, and Noise Cancelling

Two designs split the collection. Noir Rainbow carries 15.97 carats of multicolor sapphires set in a halo pattern around each earcup, and the stones scatter light that shifts color as you move your head. It’s the kind of visual movement that photos flatten but your eye catches right away. Ice Diamond goes the opposite direction with 12.47 carats of white diamonds, producing a sharper, cooler brilliance that reads as traditional high jewelry. Both models feature geometric patterns etched into sculpted surfaces that add a texture you can feel under your fingertips.

Loewe says these aren’t just display pieces. Active noise cancellation, Bluetooth, AI-powered real-time translation, and voice assistant support all appear on the spec sheet. Finding consumer-grade wireless features packed inside a jeweled headphone is a real surprise, and a welcome one if the execution holds up.

Loewe’s standard leo headphones use 50mm dynamic drivers with Bluetooth 5.3, AAC, and LC3+ codec support. Audiophile communities received that platform warmly at launch. If the limited editions share the same driver architecture, the listening experience underneath the gemstones could be fully competent rather than an afterthought.

Nothing in the press materials confirms that connection, though. No driver size, no codec details, no frequency response data. That’s unusual at any price, and competitors like the $120,000 Focal Utopia by Tournaire publish full specs alongside their craftsmanship story. At $135,000, the documentation gap feels like a missed opportunity.

Even among diamond headphones and gem-set audio, pricing sits in extremely rare company. The Sennheiser HE-1, widely considered the best-sounding headphone ever made, originally launched at around $60,000. Only the one-off Graff Beats Pro at $750,000 lands definitively higher on the all-time list. Purchase inquiries go through Loewe directly, and the process runs closer to commissioning a custom timepiece than clicking “add to cart.”

A Century of Hardware Meets Swiss Jewelry

Loewe isn’t new to premium hardware. A century of curved-glass televisions and carefully machined aluminum speakers earned the credibility, and the leo headphone line’s sharp rise in search interest during late 2025 proved that Loewe headphones could hold their own in personal audio.

Jacob & Co. brought the gemstone craft to match. The Swiss jeweler spent decades building watches where tiny orbital mechanisms rotate gems through space inside the case. If you’ve seen an Astronomia in person, you know the level of precision involved. Applying that skill to headphone earcups feels like a natural next step for the house, even if the product category surprises you at first glance. Luxury watchmaking and premium audio have circled each other for years without truly meeting at the product level. This collection is where they finally collide.

The Case Against Spending Six Figures

If you’re shopping for the best-sounding luxury headphones money can buy, these aren’t it. The Sennheiser HE-1 will outperform them on pure audio quality at a fraction of the Noir Rainbow’s price. Without published driver specs or frequency response data, direct technical comparisons against other high-end headphones aren’t possible right now. The value argument on sound alone doesn’t hold.

Anyone who needs to hear before buying faces a wall. The concierge-only purchase process means you won’t find these at a headphone show or dealer.

Loewe called these functional headphones, not art objects. That label invites technical scrutiny, and the company hasn’t provided the data to survive it. Audiophiles who expect impedance charts and frequency measurements before spending six figures will walk away frustrated. The commitment runs on trust in the Loewe name and the visual weight of the Jacob & Co. gemstone work. If that combination isn’t enough for you, these weren’t built with you in mind.

The Ten People Who’ll Actually Buy These

This collection targets someone who already owns watches in the six-figure range and understands that certain objects exist as expressions of craft rather than utility. Noir Rainbow is the more visually dynamic choice, with multicolor sapphires creating shifting color play across the earcups that you notice from across a room.

With cooler brilliance and a more restrained sparkle, Ice Diamond reads as the quieter statement. Both carry enough physical presence to sit next to a Patek Philippe on a collector’s shelf, and that’s clearly the intent. Loewe and Jacob & Co. aren’t competing with Sony or Bose here. They’re competing with Richard Mille and Graff. The signal is clear: headphones have entered the same conversation as luxury watches and fine jewelry.

Price: $115,000-$135,000
Where to Buy: Loewe

Whether that’s exciting or absurd depends entirely on where you sit. Ten units across two designs is scarcity that even most luxury collectors can’t access. For the buyers who do get through, the line between audio equipment and wearable art won’t matter.