Noise cancelling technology has come a long way on earbuds, and it only keeps getting better with each new generation.
In fact, the tech has become so affordable and so linked with the experience of using the best wireless earbuds that it’s unlikely you’ll be able to find a pair that don’t have noise-cancelling of some kind. Even the AirPods 5, which don’t use an in-ear design, have a version which features its own take on ANC.
We subject each pair of noise-cancelling earbuds to the same series of tests to give you a understanding of how they compare to one another. These tests include using the earbuds in busy areas that see a lot of foot traffic, as well as public transport where noise-cancelling is paramount to staying locked in with your favourite playlists and podcasts.
Keep on reading to find out which of the latest and greatest ANC earbuds are right for you, but if you’d rather save as much money as possible then head to our coverage of the best cheap headphones.
Best Noise-Cancelling Earbuds at a glance
- Best ANC earbuds: Sony WF-1000XM6
- Best Bose ANC earbuds: Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen)
- Best Technics ANC earbuds: Technics EAH-AZ100
- Best Sennheiser ANC earbuds: Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3
- Best budget ANC earbuds: Sony WF-C710N
- Best premium ANC earbuds: Bowers & Wilkins Pi8
- Best JBL ANC earbuds: JBL Tour Pro 3
- Best cheap ANC earbuds: CMF Buds 2
- Best for workouts: Beats Powerbeats Pro 2
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How we test
Not just anybody can review a pair of headphones. You don’t need superhuman hearing to tell what’s good, but you do need to know what to listen out for.
Our headphone tests are done by some of the best and most prolific reviewers in the industry, with years of experience listening to everything from the plasticky freebie earbuds that come with your smartphone, to five-figure beasts of glass and marble. We love music and we want your tunes to sound good, too.
So we listen every pair of headphones we can get on or in our ears. We use a variety of sources, from basic MP3s playing on a laptop to high-quality tracks on dedicated hi-res audio players.
Our test tracks are wide-ranging to give headphones a thorough challenge. They’re also familiar, so we know every track backwards, and we know which bits might trouble the lesser performers.
We listen again and again, and we do that for weeks in case the sound changes – because it usually does. Then we’ll listen to similarly priced rivals and come up with a verdict that reflects the performance and features for the money.
Sony WF-1000XM6
Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen)
Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 5
Technics EAH-AZ100
Sony WF-C710N
Bowers & Wilkins Pi8
JBL Tour Pro 3
Beats Powerbeats Pro 2
CMF Buds 2
Active Noise Cancellation uses an array of microphones in a headphone to detect the frequency of the sound coming at the listener, with the ANC chip creating an inverse wave (i.e. opposing sound) to suppress any unwanted external noises.
With feedforward ANC the microphone is placed on the outer edge of the ear cup, which analyses the noise and creates the anti-noise signal before sending if off to the headphone’s speaker to block the noise.
Feedback noise cancellation is the opposite of feedforward ANC. The microphone is placed inside the earcup and in front of the drive unit, and can hear the same noises the listener does. It blocks noise across a broad range of frequencies (though it can’t deal with higher frequencies as well).
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