Why I like them

Baseus has two new-for-2025 earbuds — the Inspire XP1 and Inspire XC1 — and one set of full-size headphones (the Inspire XH1) that feature Sound by Bose, and they’re all good values. They have impressive sound for their price, a more premium design than most «value» headphones and good performance overall. The XH1 are not only fairly lightweight (275 grams) and comfortable to wear, but they have decent build quality, respectable noise canceling and voice-calling performance, as well as very good battery life. I also liked how they not only fold up but fold flat and come with a carrying case and a 3.5mm cable for wired listening. Their controls for playback are also good, though I had to dig into the instructions to figure out that you hold down the volume buttons to advance tracks forward and back. Read review.

Reasons to buy

You’re looking for a comfortable, well-designed set of noise-canceling headphones that sound good and cost a lot less than premium models from Sony, Bose and others.

Reasons to skip/keep looking

Premium flagship models from Bose and Sony offer better sound and noise-canceling performance. In other words, you can only expect so much from headphones at this price.

Why I like them

Nothing started out with a few different wireless earbuds but has now branched into the over-ear headphones market with its eye-catching Nothing Headphone (1) and the budget-oriented CMF Headphone Pro, which also have a pretty unique look and feature interchangeable ear pads in a few different color options.

I was expecting all that much from these headphones, but after using them for a week, they check a lot of boxes for a top value headphone, including a comfortable fit (they pretty lightweight at 283 grams), decent build quality and good sound quality that’s highlighted by powerful bass that can be dialed up or down with a slider control on the left ear cup (you can also tweak the sound in the companion app). The Skullcandy Crusher 2 headphones have a similar slider, but the CMF’s bass doesn’t get to head-rattling levels (the Crusher 2’s bass literally makes the headphones vibrate).

The CMF Headphone Pro don’t offer quite as good sound quality (they lack a little bit of clarity) as the Baseus Inspire XH1 , which cost a little more and come with a hard carrying case instead of a cloth pouch and not only fold flat but fold up (the CMF Headphone Pro only folds flat). But like the Inspire XH1, they have support for the higher-resolution LDAC audio codec for Android users and strong battery — up to 100 hours with noise canceling off at moderate volume levels.

I should also point out that the noise-canceling is decent and that you get a good amount of passive noise isolation from the plush memory foam ear pads. While voice-calling performance is decent enough (I give it a B or even a B-), it’s far from top tier in terms of reducing background noise while picking your voice up clearly. And I felt the same way about the transparency mode. A cable is include for wired listening but there’s no USB-C audio.

Reasons to buy

The CMF offer a better design, fit and sound quality than many budget noise-canceling headphones that cost a little less. While they’re not exceptionally good in any one area, they’re solid all-around headphones that deliver good bang for the buck, especially when they go on sale for $15-$20 less. They also have customization options with the swappable ear pads.

Reasons to skip, keep looking

Not everybody will love the look of these headphones and you can only expect so much from a set of headphones in this price range from a performance standpoint (they sound quite good for the price but not great).

Why I like them

Earfun has made some very solid budget earbuds, and now it’s entered the full-size ANC headphone space with a few different over-ear models, including the Wave Pro (add the code EWPROCNET at checkout on Amazon to receive an additional 10% off). While they may not sound as good as premium noise-canceling headphones from Bose or Sony, they’re comfortable to wear, feature decent sound with punchy bass (they’re a bit lacking in clarity and bass definition compared to more expensive models), and they offer respectable noise canceling (you can toggle between two levels of ANC) and voice-calling performance. The headphones do come with a cable for wired listening — you can plug into an inflight entertainment system — but the noise canceling cuts off when you’re in wired mode, which is unfortunate.

Reasons to buy

For less than $60, you’re getting decent sounding headphones with effective noise canceling that are comfortable to wear and have long battery lfie. They’re also one of the few budget headphones that come with a carrying case.

Reasons to skip/keep looking

If you’re a critical listener, these probably aren’t for you as these headphones lack the treble clarity and bass definition found in higher-end models.

JLab still sells its older Studio Pro ANC wireless headphones for around $100, but its latest budget noise-canceling model is the Lux ANC Wireless. While they list for $80, they’ve dipped to as low as $46 during flash sales, and they’re a good value at $60. For budget headphones, they look pretty good (they don’t stick out from your head too much), are comfortable to wear with nicely padded ear cups and seem pretty well built (they fold up but no carrying pouch or case is included). As far as sound goes, while they just don’t offer the clarity of more premium headphones, they sound fairly decent and kick out a good amount of bass. Everything could be a little more well defined, but since they’re a bit on the warm side and have no treble harshness, you don’t experience any listening fatigue, which is one of the key things you want to avoid with headphones.

Noise canceling performance is decent (you can toggle between «smart» ANC on, ANC off and a transparency mode using the NC button on the headphones) and callers said they could hear me pretty well (though not great) when I used the headphones in the noisy streets of New York. They don’t have a port for a headphone cable so you can’t listen to them in wired mode (there’s no USB-C audio either). But they’re simple to use and the JLab companion app for iOS and Android allows you to tweak the sound profile, customize the touch controls and receive firmware updates. There’s also Bluetooth multipoint pairing and Android users can take advantage of support for Google Fast Pair and Google Find My Device.

Available in three color options, the Soundcore Space One is Anker’s latest noise-canceling headphones. They’re a good value for around $100, offering a strong feature set along with good sound quality and performance. They can’t quite compete sound-wise with many of the premium noise-canceling models, but you don’t feel like you’re giving up that much on the sound front to save a good deal of money. They lack a bit of that natural, refined quality you look for in a great set of cans, but the Space One sounds respectable, with decent clarity and bass definition and measures up well to the more expensive Soundcore Space 45.

Noise-canceling and voice-calling performance are also good for headphones in this price range, although the transparency mode is only OK. Anker has developed a version of Sony’s Speak-to-Chat feature — Anker calls it Easy Chat — that automatically pauses your music and enters a transparency mode when you walk up to someone and start a conversation. The headphones are equipped with wear-detection sensors, a feature not usually found at this price, and include a carrying pouch. LDAC audio codec support is available for Android users.

I found them comfortable to wear, but they do look a bit bulky compared to more premium models.