by With noise-canceling earbuds, you can enjoy your music, podcasts or audiobooks anywhere without having to worry about background noise getting in the way. Active noise canceling, or ANC, true-wireless earbuds have taken over the headphone industry, and while just a few years ago, it would have cost you $200 or more to get noise-canceling capabilities, these days you can get a decent pair of ANC earbuds for as little as $60. And to help you find the pair that’s best for you, we’ve rounded up some of the best noise-canceling earbuds on the market right now below.
Noise-canceling technology continues to evolve and improve with each passing year, with the best noise canceling able to mask a wider range of frequencies and do it on the fly (“adaptive” noise canceling) with sophisticated software algorithms and more powerful but energy-efficient processors embedded in the buds. Apple, Sony and Bose remain among the leaders in the category, but they have plenty of competition.
This list is all about great noise-canceling earbuds, but you can see more styles, including plenty of over-ear headphones, in our list of the best noise-canceling headphones. We update both of these lists regularly as new models hit the market.
Read more: Best Wireless Earbuds for 2023: Top Picks for Every Listener
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Battery Life
Rated up to 6 hours
Noise Canceling
Yes (ANC)
Multipoint
No
Headphone Type
Wireless earbuds
Water-Resistant
Yes (IPX4 — splash-proof)
The new AirPods Pro (second generation) are powered by Apple’s new H2 chip, which delivers more processing power while being more energy efficient, according to Apple. The new chip, combined with new low-distortion drivers, allows for improved sound that offers better clarity and depth. The noise canceling is also improved — Apple says the new AirPods have “double” the noise canceling of the original AirPods Pro. Additionally, the new AirPods add an extra hour of battery life, up from five to six hours with noise canceling on. Plus, a speaker in the case that emits a sound that helps locate your buds via Find My should they decide to hide from you.
Read our Apple AirPods Pro 2 review.
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Battery Life
Rated Up to 6 Hours
Noise Canceling
Yes (ANC)
Multipoint
No
Headphone Type
Wireless Earbuds
Water-Resistant
Yes (IPX4 — Splash-Proof
Bose’s second-generation QuietComfort Earbuds 2 are not only about 30% smaller than their predecessors, but their case is about 40% smaller and truly pocketable. They feature best-in-class noise canceling and improved sound, thanks to Bose’s new CustomTune sound calibration system that customizes the sound for your ears. Voice-calling performance is also significantly better than that of the original QuietComfort Earbuds.
The other big change is to the ear tips. Bose has ditched its one-piece StayEar wing tips for a two-piece Fit Kit system that features separate ear tips and “stability bands” in three size options, giving you more flexibility to get a secure fit and tight seal.
The buds initially ship in the Triple Black Color with the Sandstone color to follow later in the year. Like the originals, they’re IPX4 splash-proof.
Read our Bose QuietComfort Earbuds 2 review.
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Battery Life
Rated up to 30 hours
Noise Canceling
Yes
Multipoint
Yes
Headphone Type
Over-ear wireless headphones
Water-Resistant
No IP rating
Sony’s flagship WF-1000XM4 buds were arguably the top overall earbuds for 2021 and part of 2022. They feature excellent sound and great noise-canceling with decent voice-calling capabilities and good battery life. They’re still great earbuds but they’ve been surpassed in some ways by both Apple’s AirPods Pro 2 and Bose’s QuietComfort Earbuds 2. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t consider them, but look for them at a discount.
Read our Sony WF-1000XM4 review.
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Earfun has put out a series of wireless earbuds over the last couple of years with one important commonality: They’re very good values, made more so by frequent discounts. The company’s new-for-2023 Earfun Air Pro 3 earbuds feature the latest Qualcomm QCC3071 system-on-a-chip with aptX Adaptive for Android and other devices that support the new LE Audio standard and LC3 audio codec, which is superior to the SBC codec (they also support AAC for Apple devices).
Lightweight and comfortable to wear — I got a good seal with the largest ear tip size — these aren’t a huge upgrade over the Earfun Air S, but they are better. They have slightly larger wool-composite drivers (11mm versus 10mm), slightly improved noise canceling and better battery life (up to seven hours with noise canceling on, according to Earfun).
In short, the Earfun Air 3 deliver strong performance for their modest price, with robust bass, good clarity and a relatively wide soundstage. They also pack in a lot of features, including a wireless charging case and “multidevice” connectivity. (I could pair them to two devices simultaneously but had to pause the music on one device and hit play on the other for the audio to switch.) They’re IPX5 splash-proof and also work well (though not exceptionally well) as a headset for making calls.
Note that after you activate the instant 10%-off coupon at Amazon, adding the code EAP3CNET at checkout gives you an additional 20% off, bringing the buds’ price down to $56.
Read our Earfun Air Pro 3 review.
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While the Beats Fit Pro ($200) technically aren’t AirPods, they’re built on the same tech platform as the original AirPods Pro (yes, Apple owns Beats). Unlike Beats’ earlier and less expensive Studio Buds, the Beats Fit Pro include Apple’s H1 chip and have most of the original AirPods Pro’s features (the AirPods Pro 2 have the H2 chip), including active noise canceling, spatial audio and Adaptive EQ. I’d venture to call them the sports AirPods you’ve always wanted. And for those folks looking for a more secure fit for a little less money, they might be a better fit than the AirPods Pro 2, especially when on sale.
Read our Beats Fit Pro review.
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Bowers & Wilkins has upgraded its fantastic-sounding PI7 noise-canceling earbuds. The new S2 model has better battery life and Bluetooth range, now up to 25 meters (double the previous range). Additionally, the buds now integrate into the new Bowers & Wilkins Music app for iOS and Android and have a much improved setup experience.
While not a major upgrade from the originals, the PI7 S2s, which feature a dual-driver design, are easily among the very best-sounding true-wireless earbuds. The step-down PI5 S2s, which have a single driver design, don’t sound quite as good but are more affordable.
Read our Bowers & Wilkins PI7 S2 review.
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Earfun
Battery Life
Rated up to 6 hours
Noise Canceling
Yes (ANC)
Multipoint
Yes
Headphone Type
Wireless earbuds
Water-Resistant
Yes (IPX5 — protection against low-pressure water streams)
In the past, we’ve recommended Earfun’s AirPro SV and Air Pro 2 as excellent budget noise-canceling earbuds choices (they’re still good values). But the Earfun Air S may be the best of the trio, with multipoint Bluetooth pairing, the latest Qualcomm QCC3046 SoC (system on a chip) with the AptX audio codec for Android and other devices that support it. It has the same 10mm wool drivers as the AirPro SV and features surprisingly impressive sound for its modest price point. They also work well as a headset for making calls with decent background noise reduction.
The buds have an IPX5 water-resistance rating, which means they’re splashproof and can withstand a sustained spray of water.
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The Galaxy Buds 2 Pro offer improved noise canceling along with very good sound and voice-calling performance, plus support for high-resolution wireless audio streaming if you’re a Galaxy device owner with the right setup. That said, their biggest upgrade may their new design and smaller size, which make them a better fit for more ears. Aside from their somewhat high price, their only drawback is that some of their key features only work with Samsung Galaxy devices.
Read our Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro review.
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Featuring excellent sound, improved noise canceling and voice-calling performance as well a smaller, more refined design that includes stabilizing fins (so the earbuds stay in your ears more securely), the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3 are among the best new true-wireless earbuds for 2002. They’re also among the best true-wireless earbuds overall, giving the Sony WF-1000XM4 a run for the money.
Read our Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3 review.
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David Carnoy/CNET
Battery Life
Rated up to 9 hours
Noise Canceling
Yes (ANC)
Multipoint
No
Headphone Type
Wireless Earbuds
Water-Resistant
Yes (IPX4 — splash-proof)
Unlike the “open” LinkBuds, the LinkBuds S are traditional noise-isolating earbuds with tips you jam in your ears. They’re more compact and lighter than Sony’s flagship WF-1000M4 and also feature Sony’s V1 processor. While their sound and noise canceling don’t quite measure up to the WF-1000XM4’s, they’re close and cost less. They’re the Sony buds for people who can deal with larger buds like WF-1000XM4 but want 80% to 85% of those buds’ features and performance for $80 less.
Read our Sony LinkBuds S review.
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Battery Life
Rated up to 10 hours
Noise Canceling
Yes (Adaptive)
Multipoint
Yes
Headphone Type
Wireless earbuds
Water-Resistant
Yes (IPX5 — protection against low-pressure water streams)
Over the years, JBL has put out some decent true-wireless earbuds, but nothing that really got me too excited. That’s finally changed with the arrival of the Samsung-owned brand’s new Live Pro 2 and Live Free 2 buds. Both sets of buds — the Live Pro 2 have stems while the Live Free 2 have a pill-shaped design — offer a comfortable fit along with strong noise canceling, very good sound quality and voice-calling performance, plus a robust set of features, including multipoint Bluetooth pairing, an IPX5 splash-proof rating and wireless charging.
The Live Pro 2 and Live Free 2 are equipped with the same 11mm drivers, six microphones, oval tubes and oval silicon tips. Aside from the design, the biggest difference between the two buds is battery life; the stemless Live Free 2 is rated for up to seven hours, while the Live Pro 2 is rated for 10 hours. The Live Pro 2 is available in four color options.
Read our JBL Live Pro 2 first take.
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The Pixel Buds Pro are Google’s first earbuds to feature active noise canceling. While it’s nice that they finally have a feature that a lot of true-wireless earbuds have had for a while, what ultimately sets the Pixel Buds Pro apart and makes them worth considering — particularly for Android users — is their distinct design and winning fit. That helps enhance their performance on both the sound quality and noise-canceling fronts. While not quite elite for voice-calling, they did perform well as a headset for making calls. A couple of features were missing at launch — spatial audio and a five-band equalizer — but the equalizer has now been added with a firmware update. We’re now just waiting for spatial audio.
Read our Google Pixel Buds review.
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Anker
While their sound isn’t quite up to the level of higher-end buds like Apple’s AirPods Pro 2 and the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3 that cost significantly more, the Soundcore by Anker Liberty 4 earbuds have a strong set of features, including a spatial audio mode with head tracking, multipoint Bluetooth pairing, up to nine hours of battery life, wireless charging and support for Sony’s LDAC audio codec that can offer sound improvements if you have the right setup.
Compared to top-sounding buds I’ve reviewed, they lack a bit of overall clarity, accuracy and bass definition. But most people will think they sound quite good — they play plenty loud and deliver strong bass — and you can tweak their sound profile in the app or create a personal HearID Sound profile (it’s also for noise canceling).
Read our Soundcore by Anker Liberty 4 review.
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The OnePlus Buds Pro 2 have a lot to like about them. They’ve got a more premium look and feel than many AirPods Pro 2 clones and feature a dual-driver design and very good sound quality with just a bit of bass push (by that I mean they’re slightly bass heavy at their default sound setting). Equipped with Bluetooth 5.3, they also have support for a good range of audio codecs, including AAC (iPhones), LHDC 4.0, SBC, and LC3 (the successor to SBC). OnePlus says an upgrade to LHDC 5.0 will be available via a firmware upgrade. (LHDC stands for low-latency high-definition and it’s supposed to be close to on par with Sony’s LDAC audio codec.)
I found the noise-canceling to be good but not up to the level of what you get with Apple, Sony and Bose earbuds. Voice-calling performance was also above average with decent though not fantastic noise reduction on the streets of New York. (Callers said they could hear me well despite some background noise so the microphone quality seems good.)
Owners of the new OnePlus 11 smartphone can take advantage of the buds’ spatial audio feature. (Other smartphones may support spatial audio with the the Buds Pro 2 in the future but for now, it’s exclusive to the OnePlus 11.) The buds are rated for 6 hours of battery life with noise canceling on and are IP55 splashproof. The compact charging case supports wireless charging with a little more than four extra charges in the case.
The Buds 2 Pro list for $180, but hopefully we’ll see some discounts that bring them down to $150 or less.
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Battery Life
Rated up to 7 hours
Noise Canceling
Yes (Adaptive)
Multipoint
Yes
Headphone Type
Wireless earbuds
Water-Resistant
Yes (IPX5 — protection against low-pressure water streams)
Samsung-owned JBL has a couple of new sets of earbuds, the Live Pro 2 and Live Free 2 that are surprisingly good. Both are equipped with the same 11mm drivers, six microphones, oval tubes and oval silicon tips. And they also combine a comfortable fit along with strong noise canceling, very good sound quality and voice-calling performance, plus a robust feature set, including multipoint Bluetooth pairing, an IPX5 splash-proof rating and wireless charging.
Aside from the design — The Live Pro 2 has stems while the Live Free 2 is pill-shaped — the biggest difference between the two buds is battery life. The stemless Live Free 2 are rated for up to seven hours, while the Live Pro 2 are rated for 10 hours.
The Live Free 2 fit securely in my ears and are smaller and superior to Samsung’s Galaxy Buds Pro, particularly in terms of comfort level. The buds are available in three colors.
Read our JBL Live Free 2 first take.
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Bang & Olufsen’s Beoplay EX buds are the company’s best true wireless earbuds yet. They feature a comfortable, secure fit (except perhaps for those with really smaller ears), top-notch build quality, great sound, good noise canceling and improved voice-calling performance over B&O’s EQ buds; with three microphones in each earbud they help with reducing background noise while picking up your voice. While they’re out of most people’s price range, they’re arguably the best earbuds out there with stems and offer superior sound to the AirPods Pro with better clarity, deeper more powerful bass and richer, more accurate sound.
Battery life is rated at 6 hours at moderate volume levels with noise canceling on and there’s an extra 14 hours of juice in the brushed aluminum charging case (wireless charging is supported). The buds have an IP57 water-resistance rating, which makes them waterproof and dust-resistant. They feature Bluetooth 5.2 and multipoint Bluetooth pairing so you can connect to two devices at the same time, such as a computer and smartphone. You can use a single bud independently and the earbuds have ear-detection sensors so your music pauses when you remove them from your ears.
The buds support AptX Adaptive for devices like Android smartphones that support Bluetooth streaming with the AptX HD audio codec (AAC is also supported). They’re available in the gold tone pictured as well as a graphite color.
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David Carnoy/CNET
Battery Life
Rated up to 8 hours
Noise Canceling
Yes (ANC)
Multipoint
No
Headphone Type
Wireless earbuds
Water-Resistant
Yes (IPX4 — splash-proof)
The Momentum True Wireless 3 are Sennheiser’s flagship true-wireless earbuds. But if you can’t afford them, the CX Plus, which feature very good sound and decent noise canceling, is a good alternative for a lot less money (the step-down CX, which has no active noise canceling, costs even less). Battery life is rated at up to 8 hours at moderate volume levels and these are splash-proof, with an IPX4 rating. While they do stick out of your ears a fair bit, these are all-around solid noise-canceling earbuds that can count sound quality as their biggest strength.
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Battery Life
Rated up to 7 hours
Noise Canceling
Yes
Multipoint
Yes
Headphone Type
Wireless earbuds
Water-Resistant
Yes (IPX4 — splash-proof)
Panasonic’s Technics EAH-AZ60 buds don’t have quite as premium a feel as the earlier EAH-AZ70W, but they sound sweet with clean, well-balanced sound, well-defined bass and good detail. They feature good active noise canceling, a transparency mode and multipoint Bluetooth pairing so you can connect to your computer and phone at the same time. They give very solid voice-calling performance with good noise reduction. The buds are IPX4 splash-proof and are rated for up to 7 hours of battery life on a single charge at moderate volume levels.
They’re missing a couple of features usually found at this price point: namely, an ear detection sensor that automatically pauses your music when you pull the earbuds out of your ears, and wireless charging (the former feature is more important). The step-down EAH-AZ40 earbuds also sound good but the EAH-AZ60 not only have larger drivers (8mm compared with 6mm), but they support Sony’s LDAC audio codec and have two additional microphones for voice calling and noise canceling (the EAH-AZ40 model doesn’t have noise canceling).
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Battery Life
Rated up to 12 hours
Noise Canceling
Yes (ANC)
Multipoint
Yes
Headphone Type
Wireless earbuds
Water-Resistant
Yes (IPX5 — protection against low-pressure water streams)
Master & Dynamic’s earlier MW07 and MW07 Plus delivered top-notch sound for truly wireless, but they were a little lacking in the features department and weren’t so great for making calls. The 2021 MW08 offers some significant improvements, including the addition of solid noise canceling and call quality. Battery life is also very good (up to 12 hours with noise canceling off).
These buds may not fit everyone’s ear equally well, but they certainly have a distinct look, as well as excellent sound and a great listening experience if you can get a tight seal (I was able to get a secure fit with the largest tip). They deliver more of an audiophile sound profile, with smooth, well-balanced sound and well-defined bass.
Like their predecessors, the MW08 includes a swanky stainless-steel charging case (it charges via USB-C) that’s compact but carries more weight than your typical buds case. I prefer the matte finishes of the cases that come with the black and blue versions, and you also get a secondary pouch for safekeeping (yes, the charging case can get scratched up if you leave it in a bag).
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Honorable mentions:
Soundpeats Air Pro 3 — The Soundpeats Air Pro 3 are lightweight buds that sound quite good and offer decent noise canceling for their modest price point. They use Qualcomm’s latest QCC3046 chipset (Bluetooth 5.2) with aptX Adaptive Bluetooth audio streaming that’s supported by many Android smartphones. IPX4 splash-proof, they have a battery life rating of six hours, with an additional three charges in their compact charging case, which is around the same size as the AirPods Pro’s case.
While the buds’ biggest strengths are their lightweight design, sound quality (you get big, bold sound with strong bass that only lacks that extra bit of clarity and definition that higher-end buds offer), the only downside is the voice-calling performance is only so-so — callers said the microphone pick up and voice clarity just wasn’t as good as some earbuds we’ve tested and reduction of background noise was not great either. In other words, don’t buy these if voice-calling is a priority.
Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 — Available in four color options, the Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 noise-canceling headphones don’t feature as good sound or noise canceling as the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro, but they’re compact (15% smaller and 20% lighter than the earlier Buds Plus, they barely stick out of your ears) and cost significantly less. Because they sit more flush with your ears — and have that curved design — they also pick up less wind noise. They’re IPX2 sweat-resistant while the step-up Galaxy Buds 2 Pro are fully waterproof (IPX7).
Is it ‘noise canceling’ or ‘noise cancelling’?
Short answer: both. Either spelling is correct, as “canceling” is more common in American English while “cancelling” is more common in British English. CNET uses “noise canceling” since the company is based in the US, but the noise is canceled just the same, regardless of spelling. If you’re looking to see what different noise-impacting technology is out there for headphones, check out our article on noise-canceling versus noise-isolating headphones, which highlights differences in function — and not just a difference in spelling.
More earbud and headphone buying advice
#NoiseCanceling #Earbuds
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