Frequently asked head­phone questions

Relax, we're not out to drain your bank account! Valco headphones are easy on the wallet: right now VMK15 goes for €139 and VMK25.2 for €199.

As a rule, we don't run sales, so there's no point waiting around for Black Friday or any other seasonal feeding frenzy. Our margins aren't as obscene as the competition's, so we can't afford to flog our stuff at half price every other week. We just give you decent value to begin with. That said, we do occasionally have a moment of weakness and toss out discount codes to our newsletter subscribers, so it's worth keeping an eye on.

The specs? They're good! The wireless VMK15 and VMK25.2 have enough battery life to get you through a return flight to Australia or a full working week (if you're not self-employed). Both pack top-tier Bluetooth connectivity and sound quality that'll get you dancing. The VMK25.2 is a hair better on a couple of fronts. Either way, both are absolutely worth the money. You'll find the detailed specs on the product pages.

Active noise cancellation works by listening to the racket around you through tiny microphones in the headphones. Then it generates an "anti-noise" signal that's basically a mirror image of that noise. When the two meet, they more or less cancel each other out, and you end up hearing a lot less of it.

There are mics both inside and outside the headphones. That means they can pick up and cancel noise from your surroundings AND the noise that's actually reaching your ears through the ear cushions. Which makes the whole thing work that much better.

Our headphones sound great, last a long time on a charge, and are as comfy as a down pillow. Best of all, they're designed in Finland. Buy a pair of Valcos and you can rest easy knowing your money mostly ends up with the Finnish tax authority and the grocery oligopoly.

The headphones themselves don't really differ from the others (other than being excellent value for the price), but our customer service is something you won't get anywhere else. Try sending a different brand's headphones in for repair after the warranty's up. We'll wait.

The biggest difference between us and them, though, is that we're actual people. The money you give us goes honestly toward beer, child support, big gold watches and sports cars. Or, well, whatever's left after the Finnish tax authority sinks its claws in.

Unlike our competitors like Sony, Bose and Sennheiser, you can get hold of the people running Valco any time and go grab a beer with us.

Try that with Apple.

Valco headphones come in plenty of colours, just like Finnish nature! The VMK25.2 comes in two options: classic black, and stylish white. They also have swappable magnetic covers in various colours. And if you want to, you can paint them however you like. It doesn't void the warranty.

The VMK15 is available in black, and another colour option is on the way at some point.

Great noise cancelling headphones are just a click away! You can buy them straight from our website. And hey, we ship fast, so you won't be sitting around waiting to enjoy that beautiful sound.

You can also pick up Valco headphones from well-stocked hi-fi, music gear and electronics shops. If a shop doesn't have Valco on the shelf, remember to ask the salesperson: "WHY DON'T YOU HAVE ANY GOOD HEADPHONES LIKE VALCO HEADPHONES WHICH ARE THE BEST".

Of course! Valco headphones can handle sweat and a serious workout. They're over-ear headphones, so they stay put nicely while you're out for a run or at the gym. They're also comfortable and don't budge, so you can put your full focus on your training.

That said, we're mostly chubby and middle-aged ourselves, so our idea of a hard workout might not quite line up with someone who actually does sports.

If you sweat battery acid, we also sell replacement ear cushions for the headphones.

Yes, Valco headphones and Bluetooth devices go together like bread and butter!

By any reasonable logic, Valco's Bluetooth headphones work with any Bluetooth-compatible device. Whether you've got a smartphone, a tablet or a computer, Valco headphones are ready to roll.

Valco headphones come with everything you need, and then some! You get the headphones, charging cable, 3.5 mm audio cable (in case wireless is off the table), an airplane adapter and a user manual.

The headphones ship in an eco-friendly, sturdy carry box you can use to lug them around and store them. That said, they fold up small enough to live in a backpack or those 90s cargo pants with the thigh pockets.

As an add-on, you can grab a wired or wireless mic thingy (wireless only on VMK15 and VMK25.2), which makes them excellent for gaming too and picks up less background noise in a loud office.

Honest answer: we don't know. We don't have a comparison lab and we don't have Sony WH-1000XM5s sitting on our test bench, because the money went into making our own headphones and into the Death Star construction fund. Sony makes good headphones, no point pretending otherwise.

Here's what we do know. The VMK25.2 is €199. The Sony WH-1000XM5 is around €350. Battery life on the VMK25.2 is 55 hours with ANC on, 95 hours on calls. Bluetooth 5.4, supports the entire aptX family including aptX Lossless.

If something breaks on yours after the warranty runs out, you can get spare parts and a repair service from us in Kajaani. Hannes will have a look at them on his desk. Sony's equivalent repair route is probably out there somewhere.

That €150 price gap is real money. Your ears get to decide whether Sony's possible brand premium outweighs a long, repairable lifespan.

The Bose QuietComfort Ultra costs around €400, the VMK25.2 €199. Bose makes high-quality noise cancelling headphones, we'll give them that.

Bose's one-week marketing budget is bigger than Valco's entire annual revenue, which is why you see Bose plastered all over airport walls and not us. We spend the money differently: on Hannes's salary in Kajaani, on the spare parts warehouse, and on having a CEO who answers his own emails. Oh, and the Death Star.

Concrete differences: Valcos get repaired even after warranty. Bose doesn't. Every part on a Valco is replaceable. With Bose you buy new headphones.

Is it a €200 difference? Listen to both in a shop if you can. We think Valco's sound quality holds up against pretty much anything.

Sennheiser is a German audio giant, founded in 1945. We're a small Finnish company, founded in 2018. Although Sennheiser headphones aren't actually made by Sennheiser anymore but by Sonova, a Swiss hearing aid manufacturer that bought the headphone division in 2021. In March 2026, Sonova announced it was selling it on again. So the Sennheiser Momentum 4 is Sonova's headphones with the Sennheiser name on them, and the next owner might be some third company.

The actual Sennheiser family business still makes professional microphones and Neumann studio headphones, which are industry references. We don't even pretend to aim at that level, but yeah, we do aim at the level of those Sennheiser headphones.

Price comparison: the Sennheiser Momentum 4 costs around €350, the VMK25.2 €199. Both have noise cancelling and Bluetooth.

Valco has been under the same ownership for longer. The repair service in Kajaani keeps VMK models running for years, not months. When you buy a Valco, you know who stands behind the product.

Honestly, kind of a pointless comparison. Apple products aren't bought by comparing technical specs, they're bought for religious reasons. If you've got an iPhone, MacBook, Apple Watch, iPad, AirTags on your keys and a HomePod in the kitchen, you have to buy the AirPods Max. Otherwise the Apple god gets offended and your iCloud account gets deleted.

But here are the facts. The Apple AirPods Max costs around €600 and weighs 385 grams. Works best in the Apple ecosystem.

The VMK25.2 costs €199, weighs 300 grams and works with everything: Apple, Android, Windows, Mac. Valcos can be repaired in Kajaani if something breaks.

We're not claiming Valco sounds better than the AirPods Max. But you can buy the VMK25.2 three times for the same money. One pair for you, one for your partner, a third in case the dog gets hold of them.

VMK15 is designed for smaller heads. The inspiration was Henri's wife, who told him point blank that the VMK25.2 was too big. So the VMK15 was born out of love. The Marshall Major V is in the same category: light, on-ear, foldable. Both are good, and we're not the ones to vote on which is better.

The actual differences:

Noise cancelling. The VMK15 has active noise cancellation (ANC). The Major V doesn't. A pretty decisive difference if you use your headphones on the train, on a plane, or in a noisy office.

Codecs. The VMK15 supports aptX, AAC and SBC. The Major V supports SBC, AAC and LC3, but not aptX. On an Android phone you'll hear the difference with good source material.

Battery. The Major V lasts over 100 hours, the VMK15 around 55 hours. A clear win for Marshall if you always forget to charge your headphones.

Price. VMK15 is €139, and the price is always the same. The Major V lists at around €149, but you can usually find it cheaper.

Ownership. Marshall is a fine British guitar amp company from 1962, but the headphones aren't actually made by Marshall, they're made by Marshall Group, which is majority-owned by Chinese HongShan Capital Group. The same company also owns TikTok, Alibaba and BYD. Valco is a small Finnish company with no outside capital.

If longest battery is what matters: Marshall. If active noise cancellation, aptX sound quality and a repair service in Kajaani matter more: Valco.

aptX is a Bluetooth audio codec developed by Qualcomm. It compresses audio more efficiently and with lower latency than the traditional SBC codec. In practice: better sound quality and less lag.

VMK25.2 supports the entire aptX family: aptX, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive and aptX Lossless. Plus LC3, AAC and SBC. The VMK15 supports aptX, AAC and SBC.

The sending device also needs to support the codec. Most Android phones support aptX, the iPhone doesn't (Apple prefers AAC). In practice, the difference is audible to good ears on well-produced music. If you're listening to podcasts on Spotify's 96 kbps tier, the codec doesn't matter. And honestly, neither do the headphones.

Multipoint means your Bluetooth headphones can be connected to two devices at the same time. Typical scenario: headphones paired with both your work laptop and your phone. When a call comes in on your phone, the headphones switch over automatically and switch back when the call ends.

Valco's VMK-series headphones support multipoint. A surprising number of competitors don't, even in the premium price range, so always ask before buying. In our case, the answer is already given.

Passive noise cancellation = the headphone's padding seals the ear canal and dampens sound through pure physics. Foam earplugs are passive.

Active noise cancellation (ANC, Active Noise Cancellation) = the headphone has microphones that listen to the surrounding sound, and a processor generates an inverse wave that cancels out the noise. It needs power, i.e. a battery.

In practice, ANC is especially good at removing steady low-frequency sounds: the drone of an airplane engine, air conditioning, the rattle of a train. High-frequency sounds like speech and children screaming get mostly dampened passively. Good noise cancelling headphones like Valco's VMK series combine both: proper padding plus active noise cancellation.

The theoretical Bluetooth range on newer standards is around 100 metres in open space. In practice, walls, people and other radio devices affect it. VMK25.2 uses Bluetooth 5.4, the VMK15 uses Bluetooth 5.3.

The headphones work fine between rooms through one wall. They don't always reach to the other side of the house. If you want to walk out onto the balcony and back while leaving your phone on the table, that works. If you want a connection from your neighbour's balcony, move the phone closer.

Depends on the device. On iPhone, your option is AAC, which works with every modern BT headphone. On Android phones, usually aptX (Qualcomm's chipset) or LDAC (owned by Sony, but widely supported).

aptX Lossless is the only Bluetooth codec that transfers CD-quality audio (16-bit/44.1 kHz) without lossy compression. So when you're listening to Tidal or Qobuz, the headphones receive the same data that's on the original record. Requires Snapdragon Sound support on the sending device. VMK25.2 is one of the few headphones under €200 that supports aptX Lossless.

LDAC supports higher sample rates (up to 24-bit/96 kHz) and transfers more bits per second, but uses lossy compression. The connection can be less stable. VMK25.2 doesn't support LDAC, because aptX Lossless does the same thing better without us having to pay Sony.

aptX Adaptive is a balance between sound quality and latency, and it's the best one for gaming and watching video.

In practice, most people can't hear the difference between a moderately compressed MP3 and uncompressed audio. With good source material and good headphones, you can. VMK25.2 supports SBC, AAC and the entire aptX family, including aptX Lossless. VMK15 supports SBC, AAC and aptX. Support may improve with firmware updates.

Short answer: we don't yet have one of those do-everything apps with EQ sliders, touch-gesture customization and five levels of noise cancellation. We haven't built one because the headphones are designed to work great straight out of the box. Every feature is on from the start, no app required.

Long answer: we do have a phone app you can use to update the headphones' firmware. Through updates we add new features and fix bugs as we find them. Auracast support and other newer Bluetooth features, for example, get rolled out via firmware.

In practice you install the app, pair the headphones, and the updates take care of themselves. After that you can forget the app exists until the next update lands.

The big app with EQ sliders and all the bells and whistles is on the list. It's going to take a while, because in a 14-person company the software department is one part-time coder and a tall stack of Post-it notes.

Bluetooth headphones aren't ideal for gaming because of latency. A standard Bluetooth connection over your phone gives you about 100-200 ms of lag. Too much for competitive play, fine for pretty much any single-player game.

Three better options:

1. AUX cable. Plug in the 3.5 mm AUX cable that comes in the box. Zero latency.

2. Dingel Dongle. Valco's USB-C Bluetooth audio transmitter, with a low-latency mode (~20 ms) for games. Stick it into the USB-C port of your computer or console and you get Bluetooth even on a device that doesn't have it.

3. Microphone thingy. Need a mic? The Microphone thingy (wired €39.90, wireless sold separately) plugs into the 3.5 mm jack. Directional boom mic, mute button, volume control. It basically turns your headphones into a proper gaming headset that still works fine for normal music listening.

They do. Active noise cancellation kills the steady drone of a jet engine almost entirely. Your seatmate's kid won't disappear quite as effectively, because ANC is best at flattening low-frequency steady noise, not high-pitched screaming.

Battery life is 55 hours, so even a long-haul flight is no problem. You can plug into the plane's entertainment system with the included 3.5 mm AUX cable. Some flights still need a separate airplane adapter (the two-prong headphone connector), and that's in the box too.

Flight mode on your phone doesn't affect the headphones' Bluetooth: it's a short-range transmission and it's allowed on flights.

What matters for remote work: a good mic, a comfortable fit for long stretches, and a stable Bluetooth connection to your laptop and phone at the same time (multipoint).

VMK25.2 and VMK15 tick all of those boxes. The built-in mic handles calls. If you're in a noisy open-plan office or running big webinars, we recommend the Microphone thingy. There are two of them: wired (analog, €39.90, works with anything) and wireless. The directional boom mic picks up your voice, not the background noise.

Thanks to multipoint, your Teams call on the laptop won't drop when a WhatsApp call comes in on your phone. And if the headphones break, you send them in for repair. You don't have to upgrade the whole office because one device went down.

We've tested the headphones on unsuspecting children (our own) and they've turned out to be especially good, but Valco headphones aren't specifically designed for kids. There's no automatic volume limiter, which a lot of kid-specific models do have.

As a parent, you'll need to cap the volume yourself from the operating system. On iPhone: Settings → Sounds & Haptics → Headphone Safety. On Android, you'll find the equivalent in your sound settings.

VMK15 is light and fits smaller heads, but for very small kids (preschool age) we'd point you toward purpose-built kids' models that are smaller still. For teenagers, Valcos work great: proper ANC helps with homework when the little siblings are losing their minds and mom's on a marathon call to her cousin.

The Dingel Dongle is Valco's USB-C Bluetooth audio transmitter. Stick it in the USB-C port of your gizmo and you get Bluetooth audio out of a device that doesn't have it built in, or has a bad version of it (e.g. most Windows machines).

Works with: phones, Mac, Windows PC, PlayStation. Doesn't work with Xbox, because Microsoft charges a licensing fee we can't afford to pay. Not tested with Linux because we don't know any Linux people. Should work, though, since the device is dead simple. Let us know if it does.

Three audio modes:

High audio quality for listening to music.
Low-latency mode (~20 ms) for gaming and TV use.
Broadcast mode with Auracast support, which lets you send audio from one device to multiple receivers at the same time (requires an Android phone). This one will work properly once our own app is finished.

Bonus: through the female USB-C port you can charge your device at the same time the Dingel Dongle is plugged in. No running out of juice mid-session.

If your gizmo doesn't have a USB-C port, use an adapter or an extension cable. You can find them anywhere. Your TV also needs to be able to send audio out over USB.

Short answer: for a lot of people, yes — though we're not doctors and we're not neuroscientists.

Longer answer: sensory hypersensitivity to noise is a common experience for people on the autism spectrum and people diagnosed with ADHD. Studies suggest up to 70% of autistic adults experience some form of noise sensitivity (hyperacusis, misophonia, phonophobia), and many describe noise as something that actively limits their ability to study, work, or get through the day. Noise cancelling headphones are one of the most commonly used tools for it.

Active noise cancellation (ANC) is particularly good at dampening steady background sound: air conditioning, train rumble, the hum of an open-plan office, café chatter. That can ease the cognitive load in situations where everyone else doesn't even notice they're being worn down by background noise. For some people it's the difference between being able to handle public spaces and not.

Important caveat: everyone's senses work differently. For some people headphones help, for others the pressure of headphones on the ears is itself unpleasant. Some get on better with plain earplugs. There's no single right answer, and the only way to know is to try.

Some sources if you want to read up:

The Conversation: Noise-cancelling headphones, earplugs and earmuffs – do they really help neurodivergent people? (academic summary, 2024)

Effectiveness of Noise-Attenuating Headphones on Physiological Responses for Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders (peer-reviewed study, NCBI/PMC)

Effects of Noise Cancelling Headphones on Neurocognitive and Academic Outcomes in ADHD (clinical study, ClinicalTrials.gov)

Valco is a Finnish company, officially founded in 2018. All the owners are Finnish. The name comes from a failed Hitachi picture-tube factory from 1976, but the Valco of today has been making audio products since 2018. Service and the office are in Kajaani.

The headphones are designed in Finland. Audio designer Jasse "Jazmanaut" Kesti tunes the sound here. Our lead engineer Heikki Juntunen comes from Nokia, and the design side is handled by Lauri Lumme and Jussi Timonen. The actual manufacturing happens at contract manufacturers in China, which is true of basically every headphone brand on the planet, Sony, Bose and Sennheiser included.

We try to be honest about this: fully Finnish-made Bluetooth headphones don't exist, because component supply chains are global. The design, the sound tuning, the customer service, the repair service and the company itself are Finnish. We pay our taxes in Finland.

Our goal is to start manufacturing headphones in Finland. That takes big investments, and those investments get made with the money we earn selling the current models. So the more VMK25.2 and VMK15 units that go out into the world, the closer Finnish manufacturing gets. No date yet, no promises, but that's the direction. One more concrete reason to throw money at us.

Short answer: yes. We've been at this for eight years now (2026) and things are going pretty well. Valco is owned by its founders and employees. No VC money, no outside majority owner.

Long answer: don't take our word for it, obviously we're biased. Check for yourself:

Customer reviews. The product pages on this site show Judge.me reviews, which we collect from every buyer.

Trustpilot. Read the Valco reviews on Trustpilot. We haven't paid Trustpilot protection money in years, because the service got too expensive for our small budget. The reviews still keep on living their own life over there.

Independent tests. There are unbiased reviews and tests of Valco's headphones out there. Search for "VMK25.2 review" or "VMK15 test". We don't get to pick what you read.

Company details. Valco Oy's business ID, annual reports and responsible persons are all in the Finnish trade register and the usual company info services. You can email our CEO Henri and you'll get a reply. No guarantee it's a fast reply, but a reply you'll get.

The only way to run a successful business and build a Death Star is to exceed customer expectations and actually be trustworthy.

The webshop supports the usual payment methods: card (Visa, Mastercard), MobilePay, Finnish online banks, and Klarna's payment options (invoice, instalments, pay later).

So a pair of headphones at €199 can be split into, say, four payments via Klarna. Tip: if money is tight, take a look at the VMK15 (€139) or hunt down a warranty-serviced unit (from €109). Same repair service, same warranty, smaller hit to the wallet.

Straight answer: we're probably not a carbon-neutral company, and we're not going to pretend we are. The headphones are made in China and shipped to Finland. Nothing about that process is particularly eco-friendly.

But here's what we do:

Repairability. We repair your headphones in Kajaani, even after the warranty runs out. Earpads, cables, drivers, circuit boards, all replaceable. A single pair of headphones can last years if you maintain them instead of binning them. Our goal is for every product we sell to be repairable in the future. Most of the first VMK-series headphones we sold back in 2019 are still in use.

Battery recycling. We participate in the Finnish and European battery recycling program. Old batteries end up in the right place, not in household trash.

Packaging. The headphones come in a practical carrying case that doubles as a storage box. No extra styrofoam, no oversized plastic packaging.

The factory. We push our factory to use renewable energy, and we keep an eye on where materials and components come from, aiming for a responsible supply chain. We're working to cut shipping-related CO2 emissions significantly.

Planting trees. We plant a tree for every pair of headphones sold. For us this is mostly a humorous way to point a finger at the childish and transparent greenwashing other companies do. We actually plant the trees, but at the same time we want to show how easy greenwashing is. Instead of cranking out greenwashing ads and empty promises, we used the time to build a repair service.

The future. Our goal is to manufacture our products sustainably in Finland, monitor the supply chain more closely, and become a carbon-neutral company.

Unofficially, we're probably carbon-neutral already, because our own electricity use is almost entirely renewables (and nuclear) to the extent we use any at all.

Pairing is as easy as throwing a rock into a lake! Just hold down the power button on the headphones until you hear a sexy male voice. Then open your device's Bluetooth settings and pick the Valco headphones (different models have different names, but you probably figured that out). And voilà, you're ready to enjoy your music!

If they're being stubborn, holding the plus and minus buttons down at the same time can also get you into pairing.

If you can charge a phone, you can charge headphones. Just plug the included USB-C cable into the headphones and the other end into any regular power source. When the LED turns green, they're fully charged and ready to rock! A small word of warning: headphones don't draw as much current as, say, a tablet or laptop. We recommend not using any turbo charger to charge them. If you're not sure, plug them into a computer.

If the sound is cutting out, something's wrong somewhere. Valco headphones should have pretty top-shelf audio quality. First, try moving your device closer to the headphones. If that doesn't help, try turning Bluetooth off and back on. If the problem continues, get in touch with our customer service. Every once in a while we've run into situations where, for example, a strong electromagnetic field interferes with Bluetooth connections. In that case the fault isn't with the headphones but with the location, and there's nothing to do but change locations. That said, very few of us wear headphones inside a microwave oven.

Cleaning the headphones is as easy as wiping flour off a mirror! You can twist the earpads off with a light flick of the wrist and wipe them with, say, a damp cloth or even a mild cleaner. The decorative fabric covers on the VMK15, VMK25 and VMK25.2 headphones can be treated with stain remover if they're really gross. Earpads and fabric covers have demonstrably been removed and washed in a washing machine, e.g. inside a laundry bag, but we don't exactly recommend it. The headphones themselves don't enjoy swimming, so don't splash water directly onto them.

Once you've paired the headphones with your device, the microphone activates automatically during calls and voice commands. Now you can talk freely! Your phone will run out of battery and people to call long before Valco headphones get tired of listening to your rambling.

A good fit is the key to comfort and the best sound quality. We've done our best to design models that fit every head. If you happen to have an exceptionally fat head, the VMK25.2 has more room side to side. For smaller heads, the VMK15 is easier to get sitting right. For most heads, both models work just fine. The metal core of the headband can be carefully bent inward or outward by gripping it roughly where the size adjustment is. Just be gentle, plastic doesn't take everything.

Warranty is two years on both the headphones and the speakers. We honestly think we handle warranty claims better in practice than most of the competition. Our starting point: if you didn't break them yourself, we'll fix them under warranty.

The more interesting stuff starts after the warranty ends. You can have your headphones repaired years later, even if you broke them yourself. Cushion, cable, driver, circuit board: all swappable in Hannes's workshop in Kajaani. Concrete example: most VMK20 headphones bought in 2019-2020 are still in daily use, either as originals or partly serviced. You can keep a single pair going from father to son.

Nordell speakers are not repaired after the warranty period. The 2-year warranty applies, and after that you're on your own.

The easiest way to reach our customer service is straight from this page. For anything headphone-related you can also email us directly at info@valco.fi or hunt us down on Facebook and try us via chat.

You can also try calling, but we don't always pick up. Our number is +358 8 666 0 333

As mentioned earlier, we have low-paid minions on the payroll whose entire purpose in life is to make sure you get the perfect headphone experience after you've first shoved some money our way (that small salary has to come from somewhere).