Best noise-cancelling earbuds 2024: budget and premium options tested (2024)

It used to be that noise-cancelling was generally reserved for over-ear headphones, but those days seem to be over. Over time, the much-coveted tech has trickled down to wireless in-ears, so that now even some of the cheapest models, such as the EarFun Air Pro, can remove the drone of daily life with impressive skill.

With so many brands adopting ANC, it can be hard to know where to start. We've tested earbuds since they first became a thing, and our team of experts has heard an absolute mountain of over-ear, in-ear and on-ear models, making their collective experience second to none.

All too often we’ve used buds that sound great in a quiet room, but get them out into the real world and they barely have enough power to block out even the smallest of background noises, let alone the sort of sound you'd actually want to be excluded from your ears. Other lesser models may be able to block out external noise, but even if they do, ANC can also impact the audio delivered by the earbuds, making some sets a poor choice for buyers who care about audio quality as much as noise cancellation.

Hence, it's our job to help you find the best set of noise-cancelling earbuds for your specific tastes and budget, with this page covering all the best options we’ve personally tried and tested in the recent months and years.

Every set on this list has been through our stringent testing process. Our reviewers play multiple tracks from different genres to gauge the sound quality and then put their ANC powers to the test by using them in various scenarios with different forms of ambient background noise.

The quick list

The best noise-cancelling earbuds overall

We all know Bose how to make a great pair of wireless headphones and the QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds have to be considered its finest wireless earbuds to date. We didn't expect to see a new pair of successors to the QC Earbuds II, but it was one heck of a nice surprise when the Ultra Earbuds landed late last year.

The new wireless earbuds provide a comfortable fit and lots of features, with ANC performing superbly as the buds' crowning glory. Bluetooth 5.3 is a big bonus, while they are also Bose's first in-ears to offer its very own spatial audio tech, Immersive Audio, something we're not quite convinced by.

What we are convinced by, though, is the buds' noise-cancelling capabilities. The excellent Bose app allows you to alter the amount of noise-cancelling on offer via several customisable presets, with this iteration of Bose buds seeing the brand at the top of their game. The Ultra Earbuds can automatically adjust the amount of ANC on offer so your music isn’t drowned out by particularly loud noises, with an effect that feels deeply impressive and immensely comprehensive.

As for sound, it's balanced and neutral and overflowing with fine detail, with only the Sony WF-1000XM5 really offering a viable rival at this price point. The Bose Ultra Earbuds offer a little less nuance but a bit more punch, so if you like excitement and dynamic interest, they'll be the buds for you.

It's a bit of a shame there's no support for high-quality wireless audio codecs such asLDACoraptX HD, nor is there wireless charging or Bluetooth Multipoint (both of which the Sony WF-1000XM5 cater for). At the end of the day, though, that didn't matter a huge deal to us, especially as these buds nail ANC and sound quality with such breathtaking confidence.

Because the Ultra Earbuds replaced the company's 2022 What Hi-Fi? Award winner - the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II, - you might be able to find a big chunk of cash slashed off the older pair if you shop around. They're still an excellent buy, too.

Read the full Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds review

Best cheap noise-cancelling earbuds

Despite coming in at an ultra-low price point, the EarFun Air Pro prove that you don't have to spend ridiculous amounts of cash to get noise cancelling that performs properly alongside fairly decent sound. With a heaving feature set and hugely capable levels of performance, these buds are our go-to recommendation if you're being careful about how much you spend.

The EarFun Air Pro fit securely and connect up easily, but they also feature reliable controls and basic but effective noise-cancelling profiles. Battery life comes in at seven hours per charge, with the charging case providing a further 18 hours. There’s also USB-C charging and wearer detection, the latter of which we didn't think we'd get at this level.

Sonically, our testing revealed very good sound quality for the money. The EarFuns deliver well-balanced and relatively transparent audio, with tight, fulsome bass and decent musicality, leading to an overall presentation that rarely feels incohesive or out of joint. It's not quite at Sony's level (see the WF-C500 or below C700N), but it isn't bad at all.

We haven't come across any noise-cancelling earbuds at this level that does everything these EarFuns do, as well as they do it.

Read the full EarFun Air Pro review

Best mid-price earbuds for noise-cancelling

The WF-C700N are fantastic-sounding five-star earbuds, offering impressive performance and good ANC for a fraction of the price of some rivals. That 2023 What Hi-Fi? Product of the Year Award wasn't handed out for nothing, you know.

During our time with the C700N, we've noted how the buds are conveniently small and compact, with a lightweight design that actually makes them feel more comfortable in our ears than the more premium Sony WF-1000XM5 (below). In fact, they might just be a nicer pair of buds to hold, look at and wear than the XM5, and that's noteworthy considering the gulf in price.

Battery life is competitive at seven and a half hours, and while they lack aptX HDandeven LDAC, this isn't the end of the world, as Sony's DSEE (Digital Sound Enhancement Engine) upscales low-res digital audio files to higher quality. Adaptive Sound Control automatically switches listening modes depending on your location, leaving a noise-cancelling experience that is just as comprehensive and clever as we'd expect from Sony.

What really counts, though, is how the C700N sound, and it's another box ticked on that front. The affordable Sony buds are superbly balanced and poised, with deep, detailed bass, expressive mids and genuinely engaging highs, all knitted together with a musicality and refinement that you just don't expect for this kind of money.

Downsides? The charging case only provides one extra charge, which seems a little mean, but the superb sound, extensive feature set and great noise-cancelling make these Sonys extremely easy to recommend, especially now that recent software updates have filled in a few of the buds' potential blind spots, such as multipoint Bluetooth.

Read the full Sony WF-C700N review

Best noise-cancelling earbuds for audiophiles

If it’s pure noise-cancelling performance that’s top of your wishlist then Bose’s QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds are still your best bet. If you’re willing to sacrifice a little bit of silence in return for what we consider to be even more refined sound quality (and plenty of high-performing features), our choice recommendation would be Sony’s Award-winning WF-1000XM5.

Sony has fitted its premium buds with 8.4mm drivers and some improved internal engineering, and it certainly shows. There’s a newfound level of detail and openness that gives them a different character to the outgoing XM4, but overall they feel like a big improvement. They don’t sound quite as fun as their predecessors initially, but they’re still hugely musical and will open up and bloom the more you run them in.

Bose might still be setting the gold standard, but we think the noise-cancelling performance is still highly effective with the XM5, with an extra layer of midrange noise filtered out compared with the XM4. They’re packed full of features too, such as Adaptive Sound Control, Speak-to-Chat, Multipoint Bluetooth and support for 360 Reality Audio, all of which help make Sony’s latest premium buds yet another Award-winning smash hit.

Some users might not find them quite as stable in their ears as the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II, so ensure you experiment with the provided eartips to get the best seal.

Read the full Sony WF-1000XM5 review

Best noise-cancelling earbuds for battery life

If you’re the kind of person who is always forgetting to charge their earbuds, the JBL Live Pro 2 TWS might be here to save you. With ANC turned on they’ll last a decent eight hours, but there’s also up to 30 hours extra in the case which gives them excellent stamina over many similarly or higher-priced rivals.

The JBL Live Pro 2 TWS hover in an odd tranche of the wireless market, sitting above the sub-£100 / $100 "cheap" wireless earbuds but a long way below the likes of the premium Bose Ultra Earbuds or Sony XM5. Sometimes these "mid-range" options can result in compromised or confused results, yet that simply isn't the case with the Live Pro 2.

Our testers were all able to get a comfortable and solid seal using one of the three tip sizes, with the buds proving capable of easily blocking out the substantial background noise of our busy London office. We were also impressed by their adaptive noise-cancelling, which removed the need for us to manually adjust the ANC level in the app.

If that wasn’t enough to tempt you, while many of the more expensive sets on this list sound slightly better, for the money the JBL’s deliver excellent audio that can't really be faulted for the price paid. Compared with their stablemates, the JBL Reflect Flow Pro, we found the Live Pro 2 sound clearer and more insightful without losing any of that fun or sense of urgency. As a pair of semi-affordable, rugged and go-anywhere buds, they make a lot of sense.

Our only slight quibble is that the buds don’t support the aptX HD or LDAC which makes them a poor choice for people subscribed to higher-quality streaming packages on Tidal, Spotify and the like.

Read the full JBL Live Pro 2 TWS review

Best noise-cancelling earbuds for Apple users

It will come as no surprise to you that we're recommending the AirPods Pro 2 as the best noise-cancelling buds for keen iPhone and Apple users. The original AirPods Pro were pretty good, but we think the Pro 2 have taken things to new heights, not just regarding sound quality, but with their noise-cancelling abilities, too.

Not only is noise-cancelling far better than before, but battery life is considerably longer, and you'll enjoy new features like Adaptive Audio which reacts to the noise levels in your surroundings and adjusts the level of ANC dynamically, as well as more in-depth customisation and app support. Best of all, they cost the same as the original AirPods Pro, which we think makes them a really attractive option considering that Apple isn't always keen to keep its prices stable.

During testing we found the fit to be very good, and the tweaked design feels a lot less intrusive than some in-ears. Apple has finally added on-bud volume controls, which also help elevate that user experience and keep you in control on the fly.

Even though the Bose Ultra Earbuds are still the ones to beat, Apple's noise-cancelling works a treat, while Adaptive Transparency reduces the impact of loud noises when letting in ambient sounds. As far as sound quality goes, this is as good as Apple has managed from a pair of wireless buds, offering up weight, detail and a good dose of dynamic subtlety to produce a pair of accomplished performers that make a huge step up from their predecessors.

Add to this the fact they just work so seamlessly with Apple devices and they become a no-brainer if you're immersed in the brand's ever-popular ecosystem.

Read the full Apple AirPods Pro 2 review

How to choose the best noise-cancelling earbuds for you

Obviously, the quality of noise-cancelling is key when it comes to choosing the right pair of ANC earbuds. Thankfully, you can be confident that we've tested the noise cancelling in all of the pairs on our list and that the five-star models do the best job cutting out noise. Yes, there can even be differences between the noise-cancelling of five-star products, but they are usually very subtle.

It does need to be pointed out, though, that a great pair of noise-cancelling wireless earbuds still won't be as effective as the best noise-cancelling headphones that sit on or over your ears. Earbuds are small, so while they're great for portability there's only so much tech you can squeeze in.

Active noise cancelling puts extra demands on battery life, so you'll want to make sure the buds you want will have enough juice for your travels. Charging cases can help here so you just need to think about how, where and when the wireless earbuds are going to be used. All can be charged via USB while some pairs offer wireless charging too.

As is the case with any pair of wireless earbuds, fit and comfort are vital. We can give you our experience of testing a pair, but it's no substitute for trying them out for yourself. Try the different sizes of silicone tips and maybe even combinations of different sizes to find the best fit for you. If you can't hear any bass, chances are you don't have a good enough seal.

You'll find that noise-cancelling earbuds tend to cost a bit more than wireless earbuds without the feature, so you'll have to budget accordingly. The good news is we've tested some exceptionally talented and affordable options which you'll find in this list and thanks to the way the market works, even previously pricey pairs have now been discounted so there are definitely bargains out there.

Our list of the best noise-cancelling earbuds spans a range of prices, so there's sure to be a pair here that's right for you and your budget.

How we test noise-cancelling earbuds

Testing ANC earbuds requires venturing into a number of different environments to see how the headphones handle certain frequencies. We'll use our office, the city streets and public transport to get a feel for just how effective the noise-cancelling is. We'll also compare them to one or two of our favourite pairs at the money to see how they stand up to the competition.

We'll also use rivals to help us peg the audio quality on offer. We have dedicated test rooms in London, Reading and Bath so we can use these while making the final judgement with a selection of our favourite test tracks.

During the testing process, we'll also go over areas like fit and comfort, see whether the battery life claims ring true and also check to see if there are any lip-sync issues when watching video content.

Many noise-cancelling earbuds come with a control app that allows you to tweak their performance and their controls so we'll see how it impacts the user experience too.

All our review verdicts are agreed upon by the team rather than an individual reviewer to eliminate any personal preference and to make sure we're being as thorough as possible, too.

There's no input from PR companies or our sales team when it comes to the verdict, withWhat Hi-Fi?proud of having delivered honest, unbiased reviews for decades.

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