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📂 **Category**: Gear,Gear / Buying Guides,Gear / Products / Headphones,Best Buds
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Other earbuds we like
It seems like every month brings new sets of earbuds with longer battery lives, new features, and more compact designs. As such, we can’t include everything we like. But if you’re still hunting, here are some other recommendations.
Nothing Ear (A) for $59: It’s taken a lot for me to recommend a pair of virtual AirPods Pro clones as the best earbuds for most people, but that goes to show how much I actually like the Nothing Ear (A). These stylish little yellow earbuds come in a sleek, clear charging case, have excellent sound and decent noise cancellation for under $100 retail. I liked how easy they were to pair with Android and iOS devices and that the lightweight, compact design helped them stay comfortable during long listening sessions. The larger, more expensive Nothing Ear is also good, but doesn’t quite match the (a)slim shape of the ear.
Pro X Audio Case for $239: The array of multiple drivers inside these great-looking earbuds from little-known brand Status Audio helps them rise above the rest when it comes to sound quality. A dynamic driver for the lows pairs with a set of balanced Knowles bodies for the mids and highs, providing a great deal of musical separation between instruments, and delivering some of the best detail we’ve heard in a pair of buds to date. The warm EQ works well with pop and acoustic music alike, and the Pro We’ve compared it with the best from Sony, Bose, Sennheiser and Technics, and found the Pro
Technologies EAH-AZ80 for $165: Technics’ follow-up to the impressive EAH-AZ80 brings sequential playback technology from the brand’s own hi-fi earphones, the EAH-TZ700. The result for the AZ100 is a richer, more detailed sound that delves into musical textures to reveal new dimensions in old songs. The headphones add new features like Dolby-powered spatial audio and future-proof Bluetooth LE Audio support, along with old favorites like three-device multipoint pairing and slightly improved noise cancellation. The slimmer design isn’t as comfortable as the AZ80 to my ears, but it’s still comfortable, and up to 10 hours of battery life per charge with ANC lets you listen for as long as Bose and Apple headphones. —Ryan Wanyata
Beyerdynamic Amiron 300 for $150: These premium earbuds from Beyerdynamic look nondescript and sound great, but they lack any of the premium qualities of the headphones on the list above. If you’re looking for a clean-looking pair of headphones with great audio fidelity, these are worth considering.
Audio-Technica ATH-CKS50TW2 for $159: These headphones from Audio Technica have up to 15 hours of battery life with noise cancellation, which is the longest we’ve tested in a pair of earbuds. Despite their somewhat bulky appearance, they’re actually still very comfortable, with multiple pairs of eartips included to ensure a good fit. The nifty magnetic feature allows you to attach the buds together when they’re not in their wireless charging case for standby mode. These aren’t the best-sounding buds for the money, nor do they have the best noise reduction, but if you want a pair that will last you through multiple workdays (or a really long one), these are a great option. (Note: These products have been in and out of stock on Amazon.)
Soundcore Space A40 for $45: Although they’re no longer on our main list, the Space A40 are still among my favorite headphones for the money, offering good features, clear sound, and excellent noise cancellation for their price category. It also looks refined, with its lack of pause sensors giving away its low price.
Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro at $100-200: The Galaxy Buds 2 Pro are getting older, but they’re still among the best headphones to pair with a Samsung phone. These buds don’t have the same multi-device connectivity as our top picks for Android users, and their five-hour battery life seems pretty short these days, but they offer excellent sound quality, IPX7 water resistance, and a distinctive design that doesn’t just mimic the AirPods Pro. This makes it worth considering for sale.
Sony Linkbuds are decent for $200: Sony’s Linkbuds Fit offer rich, powerful sound, a natural transparency mode, and a light, comfortable fit, helping them achieve their goal as a “wear anywhere” solution. It offers some powerful features, but it skimps on battery life with only 5.5 hours per charge, and its noise cancellation is just okay. The strangely unresponsive touch controls and reliance on flimsy silicone sleeves detract from their value further, but they’re still Sony buds and might be worth getting at a good price.
Montblanc MTB 03, $395: These earbuds are priced out of reach for most buyers, but if you have the money, you’ll be rewarded with a luxurious experience befitting the brand. Montblanc has called in some of the audio industry’s leading professionals to design and articulate these headphones. The result is a compact, comfortable and very cheerful pair of wireless earbuds that sound really impressive.
Raycon everyday earbuds for $80: The earbuds, beloved by YouTubers, are actually a decent, cheap pair. It’s small and lightweight, and comes with an IPX6 rating, making it great for working out.
Earphones to avoid
As a general rule, you should avoid earbuds that don’t support the Bluetooth 5.0 standard (or higher), or that don’t offer at least five hours of battery life, like six hours these days. The batteries in wireless headphones degrade over time, so the better the battery life is initially, the more durable it will become over two to three years.
Apple AirPods (previous or current generation) for $119-$170: These headphones do a few things well, but we don’t like them very much. (Read our latest review.) They have good battery life, come in a compact case, and work well for calls, but they don’t fit all ears well, and since they don’t have ear tips or wings, you’re out of luck if they come loose. The more expensive model adds noise cancellation, which works as well as you’d expect for a pair that doesn’t offer a proper seal. Want clear music, good noise cancellation, and advanced features built for iPhone at a lower price than the AirPods Pro 3? Get the AirPods Pro Gen 2, which sometimes cost more (sometimes less) but are legally great.
It beats the Solo Buds for $70: This is lackluster in almost every possible way, especially when it comes to features for the money. Their best features are their small size and large battery, but that’s about it. It’s weird, because we like other headphones from the brand, but they’re not keeping up with the pace. The best we can say is that it is cheap.
Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 for $170: A Cybertrucked pair of AirPods clones, the headphones in the new Galaxy Buds line actually perform worse than they look. With no ear pads, they are uncomfortable to wear for long periods, and the noise cancellation is useless.
How do we identify wireless earbuds
We’ve seen this category go by many names: True wireless earbuds, truly wireless earbuds, fully wireless earbuds, fully wireless earbuds, wire-free earbuds, etc.. These days, if a pair of earbuds connects to your phone/computer via Bluetooth and doesn’t have a wire connecting the left earbud to the right, we just call them wireless. Wireless devices typically come with two popcorn-sized earbuds, each with a battery inside, and a charging dock that holds extra battery power and keeps them safe when you’re not wearing them. Some wireless earbuds have a cable or neck strap that connects the two earbuds together, usually found on workout headphones from brands like Shokz.
Getting rid of all the wires can feel liberating, but they come with issues, like limited battery life (don’t buy any with less than five hours to go), confusing controls, and reliance on the charging case. They’re also easier to lose than traditional earbuds, and replacing one can be expensive. However, this is one of the most innovative categories in technology, offering a range of new features from heart rate monitors to over-the-counter hearing aid functionality, with more being added in each new generation. These days, features like noise cancellation and transparency mode are standard, while the burgeoning open-ear category offers a more natural way to stay aware of your surroundings.
We test headphones and earbuds the way we live. We take them to the gym, wear them around the office, travel with them, and generally try to use them where we expect potential buyers to use them. If the pair declares dust or water resistance, we test it. We drop test cases, test cables, charging times, and battery life, and report back to our readers on everything we find exceptional.
Although we don’t typically use a specific playlist of music to test each pair, we aim to test vocal, rock, hip-hop, pop, country and a variety of other genres with each pair of headphones, ensuring we provide a good perspective on the sound signature across genres and sizes. To reduce noise, we tested the headphones in real environments and noted our results. When possible, we try to have a variety of people wearing headphones with different head and ear shapes, to make sure we’re considering the widest possible audience.
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