The top 10 headphone and audio brands in Asia-Pacific

Some people like it frantic and pounding, while others prefer a slow, comfortable groove. Some like gentle whispering, while others can't reach their happy place without lots of ear-piercing vocalisations.

When it comes to music (Why? What did you think we were talking about?) different peeps like different beats. From metal to hip hop to yacht rock, and from podcasts to audiobooks to vinyl LPs, no matter what you want to hear, electronics brands want to insert themselves into your earholes and help you hear it. But which brands do Apac consumers prefer the most when it comes to headphones and other audio equipment? That's what we're here to find out.

The following facts about Asia's favourite headphone and audio brands are derived from the 2021 edition of Campaign Asia-Pacific's exclusive Asia's Top 1000 Brands research, done in partnership with Nielsen IQ. The region's most comprehensive research on consumer brand perception, Asia's Top 1000 Brands asks consumers in 14 Asia-Pacific markets to name the brands they consider the best in 15 major product and service categories. From this, we compile the overall Asia's Top 1000 Brands ranking, a list of the top 100 brands in each market, and a variety of features and category-based reports like this one.

Without further ado...

ASIA's TOP 10 HEADPHONE AND AUDIO BRANDS

NOW HEAR THIS
Turn on your noise cancellation and listen closely as we hear about the market-specific rankings of Asia's favourite headphone and audio brands.

Sony's domination

• The brand is No. 1 in 13 of the 14 markets we survey*, finishing second only in Korea, where LG gets the top spot.

BoAt?

• Yes, BoAt. The brand makes the top 10 thanks solely to a No. 2 ranking in India, where it has captured 30% of the Indian audio market in just five years. It is not ranked anywhere else.

• No. 2 in Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, New Zealand and Singapore
• No. 3 in India, Philippines and Thailand
• No. 5 in Malaysia and Vietnam

• No. 2 in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam
• No. 3 in Australia, Korea, New Zealand, Singapore and Taiwan

• No. 1 in Korea
• No. 4 in Vietnam
• No. 5 in China, Indonesia and Philippines

• No 3 in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan and Vietnam
• No. 4 in Malaysia
• No. 5 in Taiwan, Thailand and New Zealand

• No. 3 in Malaysia
• No. 4 in Japan and Thailand

• No. 4 in Taiwan
• No. 5 in India

• No. 4 in Indonesia and Philippines

• No. 4 in Singapore
• No. 5 in Hong Kong and Korea

• No. 5 in Australia and Singapore

• Beats: No. 4 in Australia
• BoAt: No. 2 in India
• Hitachi: No. 2 in Taiwan
• Huawei: No. 3 in China
• Victor: No. 5 in Japan

Where's Apple?

• Apple ranks 73rd on a regional basis in this category: Despite the popularity and seeming ubiquity of AirPods, it's simply not a brand that people think of when asked to name the best brand of headphones or audio equipment.

Brands 11-20 on a regional basis (alphabetical order)

• Beats
• Harman Kardon
• Hitachi
• Huawei
• JVC
• Kenwood
• Logitech
• Sennheiser
• Toshiba
• Yamaha

Rock on!

* The full list of markets surveyed is as follows: Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam.

(This article first appeared on CampaignAsia.com)