The trade war between the U.S. and overseas countries like China no longer poses a theoretical risk of price increases on audio gear — those higher prices are here. Bose told Digital Trends that starting Monday, May 12, it will bump the price of its flagship QuietComfort Ultra Headphones from $429 to $449, while its sleek SoundLink Home Bluetooth speaker will increase from $219 to $229.
Bose might be the best-known audio brand so far to announce price increases for its U.S. retail customers, but it’s far from the only one. Onkyo told me its new powered speakers, which it debuted at CES 2025, are each going up by $50: The GX-30ARC is now $349 per pair (previously $299), and the smaller GX-10DB is now $249 per pair (before, it was $199).
We don’t like to raise prices, but the current tariff context requires it.
Ultimate Ears’ parent company, Logitech, says it has announced “a set of targeted price increases on select products in the U.S.,” with an average increase of roughly 10% across affected devices. It pointed out that some prices remain unchanged.
Each company I heard from struck an apologetic tone in its response. “We don’t like to raise prices,” Logitech said, “but the current tariff context requires it.”
“We’re doing everything we can to minimize the impact of global trade dynamics on our products,” Bose said, “we’ll be keeping price increases to a minimum and avoiding a one-size-fits-all solution.”
In some cases, new products have arrived with higher prices than expected. When Soundcore released its latest wireless earbuds, the Liberty 5, at $130, it had to increase the price of the more capable Liberty 4 Pro to prevent buyers from ignoring the Liberty 5 (the Liberty 4 Pro was also $130, but is now $150).
wireless headphones and earbuds.
Levine feels that companies should resist the urge to panic. Pointing to the current 145% tariff on Chinese-made goods as unsustainable, he hopes “cooler heads will prevail.”
There are some signs that the administration is ready to relent — at least a little. On May 9, President Trump acknowledged that the tariff should be lower, touting an 80% rate in a social media post, according to CNN.
Still, 80% is too high to avoid pricing changes, and Levine acknowledged that he only had enough non-tariffed inventory to last until mid-June, at which point he may be forced to reconsider Master & Dynamic’s pricing.
I reached out to Apple, Sennheiser, Klipsch, and Sony to get their reactions, but none responded by the time I published this story. From what I can see so far, they’ve all kept prices as-is. However, early leaks suggest that Sony is going to charge up to $50 more for its as-yet-unreleased WH-1000XM6, a move that is probably tariff-influenced, given that the leaked images look a lot like the current $400 WH-1000XM5.
