The Bose 'buds sure know how to cancel noise.
Maybe it's a function of getting older, but I often feel like the Grinch: “All the noise, noise, noise, NOISE!” Leaf blowers outside my window, chatterboxes at the coffee shop, the roar of jet engines on a long flight — it's enough to make me want to Van Gogh my own ears. Fortunately, there's a less extreme solution: The best noise-cancelling earbuds can greatly reduce those rackets, while also delivering sweet-sounding music, podcasts and the like. Yes, these things can get expensive, but there are some high-quality earbuds that are affordable as well. Read on for my picks, followed by tips on what features to look for, how I tested and more.
Reality check: ANC (active noise-cancelling) technology doesn’t fully combat every kind of discord. It’s best against low frequencies: the hum of a fan, the drone of an engine, everyday background noise, etc. It’s less effective against things like crying babies and barking dogs. ANC can reduce the intensity of those sounds, but you’ll still hear them.
Also, take note of a potential safety issue: If you’re out walking or jogging with ANC activated, you’re less likely to hear an oncoming car or cyclist, or even a shouted warning. (“Look out for that runaway sleigh!”) Thankfully, these earbuds all have transparency mode, which disables ANC and enables the microphones to allow for better “situational awareness.” Make sure to take advantage of it.
Oh, and if screwing silicone ear tips into your head isn't your thing, check out our roundup of the best noise-cancelling headphones, which are decidedly less invasive.
Update, May 7, 2025: We checked all product prices and availability, and replaced the discontinued Baseus Bowie MA10 with the EarFun Air Pro 4 as our top budget pick. Our number-one pick for best noise-cancelling earbuds remains unchanged.
Ear detection: Yes | Spatial audio: No | Multipoint connectivity: Yes | Case charging: USB-C, wireless | Max battery life: 11 hours on a charge | Water resistance: IPX5 | Ear tips included: 5 sizes
Looking for affordable earbuds? EarFun may not be a household name, but the company has cranked out a lot of rock-solid earbuds over the years — most of them notable for delivering real value.
The Air Pro 4 represents the company's best effort to date, combining first-rate audio with a laundry list of great features, all for less than $100.
It's a no-brainer addition to this list and a particularly good option for Android users. All that's missing is spatial audio, a feature that has yet to make its way into any EarFun earbuds. That would make this a home-run product. As of now, it's a stand-up triple.
Read my full EarFun Air Pro 4 review to learn more.
Ear detection: Yes | Spatial audio: Yes | Multipoint connectivity: No | Case charging: USB-C | Max battery life: 6 hours on a charge | Water resistance: IPX4 | Ear tips included: 3 sizes
The prize for best noise-cancelling goes to the Bose QuietComfort Ultra. In my tests, they edged out Apple's AirPods Pro 2, at the same time rivaling the latter's superb sound quality and spatial audio capabilities.
There are, however, some sour notes. For starters, the price tag is higher than AirPods. This is despite the fact that Bose's charging case doesn't support wireless charging, and the earbuds don't support multipoint connectivity. (A promised firmware update should remedy the latter.)
Even so, if any earbuds were to replace my AirPods Pro, I'd want them to be these.
Read my Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds review to learn more.
Ear detection: Yes | Spatial audio: Yes | Multipoint connectivity: Yes | Case charging: USB-C or wireless | Max battery life: 6 hours on a charge | Water resistance: IPX4 | Ear tips included: 4 sizes
If you're an iPhone user, there's simply no better option than Apple's latest AirPods Pro. Although the earbuds incorporate only minor improvements over the first-generation model, they were superb to begin with. (Android users, take note: You can use these with your phone, albeit without the panoply of software niceties. If that's a problem, opt for any of the other choices on this list.)
What you get here is even better ANC, a bump in battery life, extra-small ear tips for users with smaller ears and an adaptive audio mode that adjusts noise cancellation and transparency modes based on the sounds around you.
Meanwhile, Apple's charging case now has a speaker (for use with Find My) and a USB-C port in place of Lightning (the better to match with the USB-C iPhone 15). I don't love the charge-status LED, which isn't very helpful, but that's a minor quibble.
Indeed, AirPods Pro 2 are excellent, and the price is actually a bit lower than that of premium rivals from the likes of Bose and Sony — especially when there's a sale, which is nearly always these days.
Read our full AirPods Pro 2 review.
Ear detection: Yes | Spatial audio: Yes* | Multipoint connectivity: Yes | Case charging: USB-C and wireless | Max battery life: 12 hours on a charge | Water resistance: IPX4 | Ear tips included: 4 sizes
If you like to listen all day — and I mean all day — Sony's got your earbuds. The XM5s can last up to eight hours on a charge, and that's with ANC turned on. Turn it off and you can expect up to 12 hours. No other earbuds in this roundup even come close.
This isn't a one-trick pony. These are premium in-ear speakers, and it shows in the beautifully broad and balanced soundstage, the crackerjack ANC and the AirPods Pro-level voice call quality. I also like Sony's speak-to-chat feature, which automatically pauses playback and enables transparency mode whenever you start talking.
Unfortunately, if you want *spatial audio, you'll have to subscribe to one of a handful of obscure services supported here; the XM5s don't work with the likes of Apple Music, Spotify or Netflix. And, of course, premium earbuds mean premium pricing.
Read my Sony WF-1000XM5 review to learn more.
Ear detection: Yes | Spatial audio: Yes | Multipoint connectivity: Yes | Case charging: USB-C or wireless | Max battery life: 4 hours on a charge | Water resistance: IP54 | Ear tips included: N/A
You got me, Apple. I didn't think you could engineer hard-plastic earbuds that I'd like as much as the AirPods Pro, but the AirPods 4 with ANC kick butt (and ear). Finally, rock-solid noise-cancelling without the need to wedge silicone tips deep inside my ear canals.
You also get most of the other features found in the AirPods Pro, including spatial audio, wireless case charging, full support for Find My and great call quality. Missing, alas, are the Pro's revolutionary hearing-aid capabilities, but if you're not at the point where you need them, there's everything else to like here.
Read my full Apple AirPods 4 review to learn more.
ANC: Active noise-cancelling is the technology that helps reduce outside sound. Many modern earbuds pair that with noise-isolating silicone earbuds so you can listen in peace. Some now employ "adaptive" ANC as well, meaning the strength and/or frequencies of the noise-cancelling will automatically adjust based on your environment (indoors, outdoors, etc.).
Battery life: There's the battery life of the earbuds themselves and the battery life of the charging case. The former can vary dramatically depending on volume level, ANC usage, spatial audio usage and so on. The "max battery life" referred to above reflects the company's estimate, and it's based on ANC and other potentially battery-draining features being off. Thus, earbuds with a max battery life of, say, six hours might last only four hours with ANC on.
Companion app: In the old days, you would pair your earbuds with your phone, and that was the end of it. Today, you'll often find companion apps that let you check battery life, install firmware updates, tweak touch-control settings, add equalizer effects and more. It's not a crucial thing to have, but it's useful.
Ear detection: At some point, you'll need to pop out an earbud so you can hear what someone is saying or have a quick chat. If it has ear detection, your music, video or whatever will automatically pause then resume when you put the 'bud back in. It's not essential, but it's a feature I really love.
Multipoint connectivity: This increasingly common feature lets you pair your earbuds with more than one device and easily switch between them. This is great if you typically connect to your phone but also want to use, say, your laptop for work meetings or the like.
Spatial audio: This nifty feature tracks head movements to create a sort of focal point for your listening experience. For example, if you're watching a movie on your phone and you turn your head, the sound will shift, so that it seems as if it's still coming from the screen. It's tricky to explain but really cool to use.
Water resistance: Good earbuds should be able to survive the sweat that pours off you at the gym, to say nothing of getting knocked into a puddle. Thankfully, all the products here have an IPX rating of 4 or better, which means they can withstand exactly those kinds of watery encounters. And at higher numbers (6 and 7), even a full-on dunk in the pool or bathtub won't fry them.
This may surprise you, but I tested these earbuds by listening to ... lots of music, duh. I also watched some videos, played some podcasts and so on. Audio quality is a primary focus, but it's also quite subjective; what sounds good to me may sound like AM radio to you. I suspect most wireless earbud shoppers prize comfort, ease of use and noise-cancelling as much as audio fidelity. Consequently, much of my attention went to those areas as well.
As for battery life, we elected not to conduct real-world tests, and here's why: There are too many variables. Earbud run time is affected by volume, ANC, spatial audio and other factors, all of which are likely to be different from one listening session to the next. We relied on manufacturers' battery-life estimates for both the earbuds themselves and the charging cases. Anecdotally speaking, these tend to be pretty accurate, but remember what I said: many variables.
There's some pretty cool science behind it. Basically, microphones capture the sound around you, then an onboard processor generates an "inverse" sound and feeds that to your ears. Those audio waves nullify each other, resulting in reduced (i.e. "cancelled") sound.
In a way. Loud noise can damage your hearing, and ANC can reduce that noise. But the bigger benefit is that it allows you to listen to music and other audio without having to crank the volume just to hear it over, say, the roar of an airplane engine. Thus, I consider it a kind of "indirect" hearing protection.
Headphones have larger audio drivers and employ padded cups that cover your entire ear, which means that, theoretically, they can produce a stronger ANC effect. Earbuds (known in some quarters as true wireless earbuds) are smaller and more portable, and those that have silicone ear tips provide an in-ear seal — "passive" noise-cancelling — in addition to technology-powered ANC. In an anecdotal test between AirPods Pro earbuds and AirPods Max headphones, I found that the former did better against a lawn mower that was interrupting my workday.
They do! Outside sound (or ambient noise) is what drives ANC, so if you want to rest or work in silence without listening to music, you can. Of course, music offers another "layer" of outside-noise reduction, so if you want to maximize the effect, queue up your preferred playlist.
"Ingress protection" indicates the level of protection against foreign objects like dust and water. The first number after "IP" relates to solids; the second, the liquids. Thus, earbuds with an IP54 rating have level 5 protection against solids and level 4 against liquids. If you see an "IPX5" rating, that means the earbuds aren't rated (or weren't tested) for dirt, dust and such, only for water.
Think of holding your hands over your ears; that's passive noise cancellation. It's just a barrier, same as the silicone ear tips used by most earbuds. Those tips create a seal inside your ears to help reduce outside sounds. Active noise cancellation uses technology — microphones, microprocessors, etc. — to actively block sound.
Surprisingly effective! Though part of it depends on the noise in question. Get on an airplane and you'll be amazed at how well the earbuds reduce the roar of the jet engines. But try to combat the sounds of a baby crying or dog barking and you won't get quite the same results. That's because ANC works better against lower-frequency noise: engines, traffic, the hum of a fan.
That's a great question, because not all ears are created equal. While it may feel a little weird at first to insert those silicone ear tips, making sure they're deep enough for a secure fit, it's necessary to create the noise-isolating seal that works in concert with ANC. Of course, they need to be comfortable as well, which is why most earbuds come with at least three ear-tip sizes, if not four or five, You may need to experiment to find the ones that provide you with both a secure fit and a comfortable fit.
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