Best Noise-Canceling Earbuds: Bose, Sony, Apple, and More
Best for Sound Quality Sony WF-1000xM6 Read more $330 $298 (10% off) Amazon Best Overall ANC Bose QuietComfort Ultra 2 Earbuds Read more $299 Amazon Best Budget Noise Cancelers Soundpeats Capsule3 Pro+ Read more $100 $80 (20% off) Amazon Best for Apple Users Apple AirPods Pro 3 Read more $249 $199 (20% off) Amazon If you only own one pair of headphones, noise-canceling earbuds are the baseline.
Thanks to their pocketable designs and ability to suppress environmental sounds or invite them in with tiny exterior microphones, these buds can be your everything headphones , and I've worn them everywhere, from transatlantic flights and bustling cafés to lush forest hikes in the Pacific Northwest.
Nearly any pair of modern earbuds with active noise canceling (ANC) can give you a decent experience.
But if you want something that will last—and that you'll actually want to use—it's worth investing in a quality pair.
There's a staggering number of options, and my colleagues and I have tested nearly all of them.
These are the best of their trade, each one hand-picked for its specialized skill set.
Whether you're a die-hard Apple user, a budget buyer, or anything in between, there's a pick for you below.
For more choices, check out our Best Noise-Canceling Headphones (which includes non-earbuds), Best Cheap Headphones , and Best Workout Headphones guides.
Active noise canceling (ANC) uses a mix of passive sound isolation (blocking your ears), exterior microphones, and software to suppress environmental sounds before they reach your eardrums.
The process, which has been refined since the late 1970s, involves sampling the sounds around you in real time (up to tens of thousands of times per second) and then neutralizing them.
To understand the process, we have to dig a little into physics.
Sound moves through the air as pressure waves that eventually hit your eardrums.
The frequency of a wave is the number of times it oscillates per second, and frequency determines pitch.
So we perceive a low-frequency wave, like from an airplane rumble, as a dull bass sound.
And a high-frequency wave, like from a siren or a yapping dog, we hear as a sharp treble sound.
