Best Black Friday audio deals of 2022: Earbuds, headphones, and speakers

Black Friday may be bringing tons of deals on phones, tablets, and Chromebooks, but the most fun category this holiday shopping season is something nearer and dearer to our hearts — and our ears. A good set of active noise-canceling earbuds can outlive your phone, and you can use it with everything from your phone to your smart TV to your watch. Earbuds are also an insanely competitive market, so deals are plentiful.

Whether you just need a spare set of affordable backup earbuds to keep in the car, are after some premium headphones for when you need to savor every note of that new EP, or want a cute little speaker for your shower sing-alongs, there's a deal out here for you. We'll be keeping these deals updated through Black Friday and clear into Cyber Monday, so if today's deals don't strike your fancy (you snob) check back tomorrow and see what new sales we've sought out.

Best Black Friday wireless earbuds deals you can buy right now

Best Black Friday Sony audio deals

Sony's been cycling its deals off and on, and right now its deals on its most popular headphones and earbuds are all off, unfortunately. But they've at least given us a glimpse of what we'll see over the next few weeks. The latest gen WH-1000XM5 headphones have only been discounted $50 to $349 so far, but its predecessor the WH-1000XM4 has come down to $225, which is a solid discount on some very solid cans.

Our favorite wireless earbuds, the Sony WF-1000XM4, have mostly seen $50 discounts but it fell to $178 for a few brief days before turning back into a pumpkin. Hopefully, it'll return soon, as these are the buds I wear myself, and I'll tell you: its sound quality and ANC combine into an unparalleled. I wear them in theme parks, I wear them on (small to medium) roller coasters, and they fit great and do a great job blocking out the overstimulating cacophony of crowds and deafening lift hills quite well.

Sony was also running preview deals on a number of its Bluetooth and connected 360-degree speakers, most notably a $200 discount on its "Reality Audio" speakers. That put the SRS-RA3000 down to half price at $200, which is a good deal for an impressive-sounding speaker that can work with Bluetooth, Chromecast Audio, or Alexa (though you need an Echo device in your home for the speaker to connect with). I regularly use its big brother, the SRS-RA5000, but even at $600, it's overkill for most of you.

The other Sony speaker deal to watch hasn't popped up yet — and likely won't until Black Friday itself if it follows the pattern established during Prime Day and Prime Early Access. It's a darling little speaker and it's my trusted shower companion after I bought it for myself on Prime Day. It's the Sony SRS-XB13 Extra BASS Bluetooth Speaker.

It retails for $60, can regularly be found for $48, and dropped to $38 on both Prime Day and Prime Early Access. The controls are consistent, the sound is great for the baseball-ish size, and it charges via USB-C Power Delivery, so you can use the same charger as your phone.

Samsung has had almost a rotating door of Galaxy Buds deals from discounts on the first-gen Galaxy Buds Pro and the Galaxy Buds 2. However, Samsung's teasing that its best Black Friday deals will come to those who sign up ahead of time with a name and email address — the same way you'd reserve a pre-order bonus before a Samsung Unpacked event.

When it comes to judging deals on Galaxy Buds, there are a few things to keep in mind beyond prices: age and design. The Galaxy Buds Live may be from 2020, but their unique bean-like design and open fit feel more comfortable for some users, especially those who prefer to hear their environment. Meanwhile, the Galaxy Buds Pro are technically older, heavier, and a tiny bit bigger, but they pack 90% of the sound and 85% of the same features while snagging deeper discounts.