11 Best Noise-Canceling Earbuds of 2023 [Tested and Reviewed]

The QuietComfort Earbuds II are noise canceling earbuds by Bose, the famous American audio equipment manufacturer. These earbuds play a sound when first worn to analyze the shape of your ear canal in order to automatically adjust the sound settings to each listener. These earbuds exhibited exceedingly high noise canceling quality during testing, and were able to reduce the sound of a moving train by more than two times the overall average, at 33.8 percent. They also cut out sharp piercing noise by 39.7 percent, which leads us to believe they'll even block out the sound of dishes clanking together while being stacked. Surprisingly, they could even cut the sound of a siren by 28.8 percent. The high-quality ANC should prove quite effective in any situation or setting.

We tested sound quality and found that deep, heavy bass are these earbuds' allure. The music played was given a certain profoundness. For midtone frequencies, the sound carried for female vocals was a bit lacking, but both female and male vocals were expressed clearly and did feel as if they were actually present. Treble tones are sharp, and the sounds feel like they are carried. The vast sound spread is another characteristic of these earbuds. It feels as if the sound spreads to the outside of our headspace, which provides a comfortable and immersive experience. There's a high degree of sound resolution felt, as this model has excellent expression of delicate instrumental sounds and vocal reverberations.

The noise cancellation intensity of these earbuds can be manually fine-tuned or automatically configured using preset options. They are also equipped with in-ear detection, and are appealing for their ability to play music when worn or pause playback when removed. Although they lack multiple device pairing and wireless charging, the level of convenience in these earbuds is still considerably high. Microphone performance showed that they don't pick up too much background noise. Sounds transmitted are understandable in any frequency quite evenly. They can pick up high-frequency tones for both male and female voices, and allow for clear audio quality during phone calls.

They don't have wireless charging, but do support quick charging. Battery performance was rated moderate, given the earbuds alone have a continuous playback time of six hours, and this goes up to 24 hours with the charging case. External sound capture testing found that the mic can accurately recognize the sounds of roadways and people chatting. The sound passed through is perceived as almost natural, as if you're not wearing earbuds at all.

The WF-1000XM4 are Sony's first model to support LDAC, which is a high-quality codec developed by the company. The noise canceling quality of these earbuds was tested and found to be well above the overall average, as they reduced the sound of a train by 22.4 percent. These noise canceling earbuds sport a high capability to block out low and high-pitched noise, and gave us the impression that loud train noises will become mild while wearing these. They also cut a siren's noise by 23.5 percent and reduce sharp piercing noises by 38.4 percent, so you'll be able to use these earbuds in any situation.

When we tested sound quality, we found that they could reproduce subtle details, which offered a sense of realism. The bass has a quality where every detail of the lower frequency ranges can be felt, even if any heavy bass is accompanied by a high volume. Midtones had clarity that allowed vocals to sound beautiful, which felt quite good to listen to. They can reproduce instrumental sounds at a high level with wonderful treble, and it essentially felt like the music was being played right in front of us. These feature high sound resolution and the distance and direction of the sounds are accurately depicted. This results in an immersive music experience during use. Overall, the sound from these earbuds is flat and not too loud, but the reverberations produced are beautiful, with quite excellent sound quality.

In terms of functionality, they support Sony's original stereo sound technology, called 360 Reality Audio, to enjoy three-dimensional sound optimized to the user's liking. In addition to customizable sound quality via a smartphone app, these earbuds support in-ear detection, loss prevention tracking, wireless charging, and multiple device pairing, so they can be said to support a bountiful number of features. On the other hand, microphone performance isn't too great, and the high-pitched tones for both male and female voices aren't stressed all too well. While the mic does resist picking up background noise, we can't exactly call the mic clear.

When testing battery performance, we found they have a continuous playback time of 36 hours with the charging case, and can be used without daily charging. These earbuds have high battery performance, as they are capable of 12 hours of continuous playback time with just the earbuds, and eight hours of battery life with ANC enabled. The sound of traffic sounded a little off, while speaking voices could be heard clearly when we tested external sound capture, but overall, the quality of it wasn't much different from wearing no earbuds at all.

The AirPods Pro 2nd generation were released in September 2022 by Apple. They are equipped with the new H2 chip that claims to have improved sound quality and performance compared to the previous model. Our test for noise cancellation found that overall, sounds from low to high-pitched were reduced, and the sound of a train was cut by 25.8 percent. These earbuds could cut the sound of a siren by 23.1 percent. Sharp piercing noises were also reduced by 28.0 percent, slightly above average, which makes it easy to enjoy the benefits of noise cancellation while commuting to school or work, or while working in a café.

Our sound quality testing revealed the sounds from these noise canceling earbuds spreads well, and feels like it's even being emitted on a scale outside of our immediate headspace. There's also sharp bass for a powerful and varied sound. For midtone ranges, female singing voices are carried extremely well and felt natural. Relative sound quality is good, although the way that deeper tones and delicate treble sounds were expressed, such as with metallic cymbal sounds and subtle nuances of string instruments, were a little unsatisfactory. Sound resolution is clear overall and has a quality to enjoy music uniformly. Treble tones aren’t piercing, so any type of music will be enjoyable with this model.

Functions include support for volume adjustment, which was not available on the previous model, and basic playback control using on-device operation. The charging case has a built-in speaker which will conveniently sound an alarm when lost. In-ear detection can only be used when connected to an Apple device, but otherwise, this model of earbuds is convenient. Microphone performance testing showed resistance to picking up background noise, and it's easy to hear even in high frequency ranges. Female voices are picked up easily, which allows for a crisp and clear phone call even while outside.

The earbuds may have a short battery life of six hours, but battery performance with the charging case provides 30 hours of use. These earbuds also support wireless charging. However, the charging terminal is limited to Lightning cables, so those who ordinarily use Android devices won't be able to use these seamlessly. External sound capture works naturally with outdoor noises, but had a bit of difficulty in capturing high-pitched sounds for vehicle noise and the sound of people talking.

The Momentum True Wireless 3 earbuds are made by the long-established German audio manufacturer, Sennheiser. They claim to provide high quality noise cancellation through a combination of adaptive and hybrid noise cancellation. We found that midrange tones could still be heard a bit loudly, and noise cancellation was slightly below the overall average, being able to block out only 12.8 percent of train sounds. Sharp piercing sounds were reduced close to the average at 25.3 percent. Additionally, the sound of a siren was cut by 22.3 percent. Noise canceling quality isn't quite comparable to top-ranking models, but is still passable.

On the other hand, sound quality is quite excellent. We felt quite immersed in the music with how naturally sounds spread. The firm and powerful bass is another great quality, which lets you feel the depth and smoothness of your music. There were times when we felt a strange dullness coming from treble tones, but midtone quality is high and can reproduce the subtle tones of vocals to provide a sense of realism. Although the sound of these earbuds isn't flashy, they have high sound resolution, and therefore have considerably high sound quality.

As for functionality, these noise canceling earbuds have a feature to block out wind noise, however, noise cancellation intensity can't be fine-tuned. That aside, they do support other convenient features, such as wireless charging and multiple device pairing. These earbuds have comparatively rich functionality, and even feature a customizable equalizer to adjust sound settings to your liking. Battery performance features 28 hours of continuous playback time with the charging case, and seven hours of playback using only the earbuds. They also support wireless and fast charging.

The microphone is able to recognize male and female voices up to the treble tones, and provides a crisp sound quality to ensure enjoyable conversation. You'll be able to make clear voice calls while wearing these noise canceling earbuds. These earbuds also capture external sounds about the same as if you weren't wearing them in the first place, and both roadway sounds and the sound of people chatting came through clearly. They feature a quality that'll allow you to enjoy your music, while also taking in the ambient sounds around you, even in the city.

Beats Fit Pro are noise canceling earbuds by Beats By Dr. Dre, an audio brand affiliated with Apple and popular for sophisticated product designs. They are characterized by the flexible earwings that come with them, which enhance how well the earbuds fit to your ears. Noise cancellation quality for train sounds was above the overall average, cutting out 20.0 percent of this noise. You'll easily recognize how well noise cancellation works in these earbuds by reducing overall sound, from lower to high-pitched ones. Sharp piercing noise was reduced by 27.1 percent, which is adequate. These headphones also blocked the sound of a siren by 20.2 percent. They can't match top-ranking models, but overall, noise cancellation works well in these earbuds.

Sound quality is crisp and energetic. Bass tones are effective and outstanding to provide a firm sense of rhythm. Reproduction of midtones show weak balance, but the audio in this range is outlined well and easy to listen to. On the other hand, the reverberations and sounds carried in high frequencies aren't the best, and we could sense the difference in quality compared to other frequency ranges. Sound resolution for this model has slight distortion for things like guitars and pianos, and is therefore probably not best for expressing nuances. On the other hand, these earbuds offer a realistic sound, which gives the feeling of being surrounded by music. We recommend these earbuds for rock and live music due to how effective the low bass is.

It was a shame to see that the earbuds lack the functionality to adjust volume directly with on-device operation. If the settings are changed, volume can be adjustable, but in exchange, noise cancellation can't be operated using on-device operation. On the other hand, they do have some convenient functions, such as multiple device connection and spatial audio, if used on an Apple device. Our microphone performance tests found that these earbuds do pick up a little background noise, but they pick up high frequency and vocal frequencies completely, so a phone call with good clarity is possible regardless of voice register.

These earbuds aren't capable of wireless charging, but they do support fast charging. Without the charging case, the earbuds have a continuous playback time of only six hours, but have an average battery performance of 24 hours with the charging case. External sound capture testing showed that these earbuds found it a little difficult to capture high pitch sounds, including the sound of cars. On the other hand, the sound of people talking could be captured quite clearly.

The Soundcore Life P3i noise canceling earbuds are made by Anker. They claim to provide crystal-clear phone calls no matter the location, using four microphones and a noise isolating AI algorithm dedicated to accurately picking up sounds. Noise canceling reduced train sounds by 20.1 percent, which is above the overall average of tested products. They block out low and high pitch sounds, and possess a high enough quality to block out any troubling noise like a dull hum of a train. Reduction of sharp piercing sounds fell around the average at 23.1 percent. They cut the sound of a siren also by 23.1 percent. These earbuds have a noise cancellation that'll work easily while traveling.

They have an overall low sound resolution, and there are some cases where sound distorts when playing prominent noises, such as string instruments and pianos. Sound spread is also subdued, as these earbuds essentially produce a flat sound. However, this is balanced by strong low tones that are quite enjoyable with music, although they can't quite capture the sounds of drums and bass. There's a certain unnaturalness when midtones are stressed, and although treble tones come out clear, we felt something was out of place when female vocals used vibrato.

In terms of functionality, you'll find convenient features like an equalizer supporting fine-tuned adjustments through an app, and earbud tracking. However, they lack in-ear detection and multiple device pairing. The microphone performance is very high, as it picks up vocal frequencies accurately and captures plenty of treble tones for both male and female voices. This microphone will cut out all surrounding sounds besides those in the vocal frequency range, which makes it an easy-to-use device even in places with environmental noise.

Although these earbuds don't support wireless charging, they feature a continuous playback time above the average with nine hours alone, and 36 hours with the charging case. They also possess a quality of external sound capture that captures both roadway noise and the sound of people talking clearly. We recommend using these while running, since they sufficiently take in surrounding sounds.

These Studio Buds from Beats by Dr. Dre come in a colorful array of red, blue, pink and other colors, which makes it easy to choose a favorite shade. We tested noise canceling quality and saw a 20.1 percent reduction of train sounds. In particular, low and high-pitched noises are considerably reduced, and train noise should only come through slightly. The sound of a siren was blocked by 26.5 percent. They also reduce sharp piercing noises comparatively well at 33.3 percent and feature overall excellent noise canceling quality.

Sound quality is characterized by rich bass with a good tone. Unfortunately, overall sound resolution is low, and sounds barren. These earbuds can express treble tones a little, but they contain a shrill harshness. Although there was some sound spread, we found that singing vocals lacked a sense of realism, and midtone quality was also not that good. These are not great at expressing the subtleties of string instruments. They're also inconvenient, as they lack not only in-ear detection and multiple device pairing, but also wireless charging. They aren't equipped with an equalizer function, so sound settings can’t be personalized. Although they do feature mainstream functions, like on-device operation and external sound capture, functionality still felt unsatisfactory.

Our microphone performance tests found that lots of background noise was picked up in the mid-ranges and treble tones, resulting in a poor rating. They reproduce the vocal frequencies, but aren't the best at picking up treble tones, and have a muffled sound quality that won't be easy to listen to. Battery performance is of average quality, providing eight hours of continuous playback time with the earbuds by themselves, and 24 hours with the charging case included. They do support quick charging and will allow one hour of playback time after five minutes of charging. External sound capture testing saw that these earbuds have a little trouble capturing the sound of high-pitched noise of both cars and people talking. The most common sound frequencies are captured in full, so we believe this feature will work well with these earbuds.

These are the Galaxy Buds2 Pro by Samsung Electronics. They support the Galaxy Seamless Codec aimed at Galaxy smartphones. When testing noise canceling quality, we found that sharp piercing noises have a high reduction rate at 32.4 percent, and believe these earbuds are resilient towards clanking noises. Low and high-pitched sounds, and even the noise of a moving train, were reduced by 18.8 percent. Although they could only cut out a high-pitched siren noise by 7.9 percent, they should work well enough during your morning commute.

When testing sound quality, we found they can fully reproduce even the smallest spaces between individual sounds for a submersive and realistic experience. The lively treble quality excels at expressing instrumentals and female vocals. While it feels that midtones blur together slightly, these earbuds offer a sense of presence to enjoy when expressing vocal sounds, and the deep bass provides impact given off by any drums and bass. Although, depending on the type of music, there were some areas we found not suitable for expressing finer detailed sounds.

We found it unfortunate that the functionality of these earbuds doesn't allow for noise cancellation and external sound capture using on-device operations. On-device operation can be customized using the dedicated smartphone app. However, enabling noise cancellation and external sound capture using the earbuds will forfeit the ability to adjust volume settings. There's no multiple device pairing either, so functionality can be said to be lacking. Microphone performance testing results showed that this model isn't the best for vocal audio, as it picks up a lot of background noise. The microphone doesn’t pick up treble tones of either female or male voices easily. They wouldn't be the best for use in places with lots of background noise, such as public spaces.

Battery performance tests found that these earbuds support wireless and quick charging. Continuous playback time using just the earbuds is short, at only five hours, and this goes up to only 21 hours with the charging case, which is below the overall average. These earbuds have external sound capture that sounds about the same as wearing nothing at all, as they can distinctly take in the sound of cars and people chatting.

Tune 230NC are noise canceling earbuds by JBL. This model won the 2022 Red Dot Design Award for international product design. They have overall below average noise canceling quality, given these earbuds only block 11 percent of train sounds. They are fit for reducing high-pitched noise like the sound of people talking, however, since we saw that these earbuds reduce sharp piercing noise by a high 34.3 percent. Additionally, they reduced the sound of a siren by 23.1 percent.

We found that sound quality covers a good extent, meaning that wide breadth of sounds can still be felt properly. On the other hand, sound lacks depth and some qualities lack impact, so there's a low sense of realism. There’s volume to the bass frequencies, but the sounds that constitute it weren't high quality, and some portions of our music were distorted. Vocals come through sounding natural, but the vocal reproduction quality is low and sounds flat. The musical compositions played with these earbuds weren't captured as needed, resulting in low sound resolution ratings. This showed us that this model isn’t fit for expressing subtle sounds.

These earbuds allow volume adjustments using on-device operation and preset or fully customizable equalizer options to customize the sound. However, they lack in-ear detection and loss prevention. They have a microphone that didn't pick up much background noise, which resulted in clear sound quality. The mic is able to pick up sounds, not only in the vocal frequencies, but also in high frequency ranges. We found it extremely easy to listen to. Although they don't support wireless charging, these earbuds do feature fast charging, and can even be used over a long time period, since the earbuds by themselves have 10 hours of battery life and eight hours of playback time with ANC enabled. They have a little trouble capturing high-pitched sounds like people talking when using external sound capture, but can pick up all other frequencies beautifully.

The Pixel Buds Pro are noise canceling earbuds made by Google. They are equipped with an 11-millimeter driver, which claims to reproduce sounds with a powerful and high level resolution. Noise canceling quality was found to only block train sounds by 4.2 percent, which is frankly about the same as if you wore nothing at all. You won't really feel the effect of noise cancellation, even if it's enabled, as sharp piercing sounds were only reduced by a meager 5.8 percent. A sound of a siren could only be reduced by 1.2 percent.

Sound quality features depth in bass tones, and we could feel the high level of reproduction for the sounds of synthesizers and drums. Midtone frequencies possess a sound quality which will let you enjoy the subtleties of vocals and instruments. These earbuds produce sufficiently enjoyable treble tones of voices in a chorus and the reverberations of cymbals. They have a sound spread with high resolution that can capture the minute details of your music.

These earbuds support the main features, including in-ear detection, wireless charging, and multiple device pairing. We also love how easy it is to pick your favorite sound settings using the seven preset options, or using the equalizer to set the strength of each frequency to your liking. Although noise canceling strength can't be adjusted, these earbuds still feature great functionality.

They have a somewhat longer continuous playback time of 31 hours with the charging case and seven hours using just the earbuds. We recommend these to anyone who wants to use noise canceling at work and while on-the-go. These earbuds feature an external sound capture that will reduce the risk of accidents during a run, since they can thoroughly pick up the sounds of cars and people talking in any frequency.

Galaxy Buds2 are earbuds by Samsung. These earbuds are known for being extremely lightweight, as each earbud only weighs five grams. They aren't really able to reduce sounds in any frequency, as noise canceling quality results showed train sounds reduced only 8.8 percent. The sound of a siren was cut by 7.9 percent. However, you won't really benefit from the noise cancellation feature in these, as sharp piercing tones were barely reduced, at only 4.8 percent.

Sound quality, on the other hand, was found to have high resolution, as we enjoyed relishing in the realistic sounds. Vocal sounds are fully reproduced with all detailed nuances and tones, and we sensed a good midtone quality. Bass had a lack of depth, so we couldn't really feel the presence of these tones. Classical string instruments, which are difficult to express well with speakers, could be heard beautifully within treble quality testing. The spread and three-dimensionality of these earbuds are excellent, and using them provides a realistic experience.

They don't allow fine-tuned adjustments in every frequency range and have an equalizer with simple preset options. There's no on-device operation for noise cancellation and external sound capture, and we found it unfortunate that changing these settings in the dedicated app means losing the ability to adjust volume settings. They do have in-ear detection and wireless charging support, but besides this, the functionality is limited. Microphone performance testing shows these earbuds pick up a lot of bass-toned background noise. They are able to pick up the vocal frequencies of 100 to 1,000 hertz, albeit quietly, but they can hardly pick up the treble frequencies of either male or female voices. It'll be difficult to talk in a clear voice during phone calls with these.

Wireless and quick charging are both possible. Continuous playback time is adequate with the charging case at 20 hours, but is insufficient using the earbuds by themselves with only five hours of battery life. External sound capture testing found that the microphone picks up the sounds of people chatting and cars with beautiful sound quality.