The Best Wireless Earbuds, According To Rigorous Testing (2024)

The best wireless earbuds deliver incredible audio whether you’re jamming out to music, listening to podcasts or talking calls. After testing more than a dozen different options from Sony, Bose and others, the Technics EAH-AZ80 impressed us most with its winning blend of features, sound and active noise cancelation (ANC). But if you’re looking for other features, this list has got those covered, too.

Our picks cover budgets from $30 to north of $300, taking into account plenty of features, from noise canceling to comfort and much more. And if you’re looking to pair your earbuds with a new smartphone, check out our guide to the best smartphones you can buy. Without further ado, these are the best wireless earbuds available now, according to our testing.

The funny thing about testing earbuds is you have to consider a number of criteria—and this top overall pick isn't really the best in any of them. Below, I have contenders for the absolute best sound, the best active noise cancelation and the most built-in features you could ask for. Despite all that, the Technics EAH-AZ80 earbuds always end up in my pocket when it's time to head out.

These earbuds fare extremely well in every category, and though they may not be the best in any single one, they outclass all of them in the combination of features they provide. That means if you want maximum value for your dollar (and these earbuds cost a lot of dollars), this is where you're going to find it. (But if you happen to be looking for a particular trait, that's what the rest of this list is for.)

The first thing you'll notice about the Technics Earbuds is how comfortable they are and how well they fit into your ear canal. The earbuds come with seven different-sized ear tips—more than most, in my testing experience—from extra small up to extra large. The rest of the earbud slips right into your ear and has flat, touch-sensitive pads on the outside.

The flatness is attractive because it gives you a definitive place to tap the earbuds to relay commands. Many earbuds are round on the outside, which can make it tricky to identify the touch-sensitive area by feel alone. Here there is no doubt, and you can make those touch-sensitive pads do basically anything you want them to. You can configure options on either bud for a single tap, double tap, triple tap and long tap. And, of course, you can assign them any command you want.

If you want to tap once on the left earbud to increase volume but tap on the right side to pause or vice versa, you can do that with this pair. Any combination is up to you. Many earbuds give you the ability to configure your touch commands, but they limit customizability either by locking specific commands to specific functions or by forcing parity between the earbuds (tap left to go back and right to go forward, for example). It's that customizability that goes above and beyond what you normally find on an earbud.

The sound is also quite good. 10mm drivers push sound across the spectrum without garbling other frequencies. You can get thumping bass and clear high notes from dubstep music without burying the vocals on a metal track. The headphones also work well for spoken-word content, like NPR or podcasts, as well.

The active noise cancelation, along with the superior isolation you get from these buds, is also quite good. Even loud ambient noise, like driving with a window open, is reduced to a whisper. The ANC can get overwhelmed at times when there's too much outside noise, but it can usually recover quickly enough. Often, turning ANC off and on again helps in those situations.

Overall, the Technics EAH-AZ80 earbuds give you the absolute best balance of features you might look for in a good set of earbuds. But there are others to consider, depending on your priorities, too.

On the low end of the budget, I tested the Baseus Bowie MA10 earbuds, which retail at $50 but are currently on Amazon for less than $30. As you might expect, Baseus makes some compromises to get to this price, and chief among these are sound and connectivity.

These earbuds lack the clarity you get from a more expensive set of buds. But they still manage to sound good, which is a delightful surprise. The buds have different EQ presents to choose from, or you can set your own. ANC is also present—that’s not always a given at this price—and it’s not bad.

There’s good news and bad news about the gigantic charging case. It’s a whopper—you can’t carry the case in your pants pocket, and a jacket pocket is questionable. The huge case doesn’t have wireless charging, either. What it does have is an extra 132 hours (advertised) of playback stored in it, which is simply ridiculous. To be fair, I didn’t test all 140 hours of playback—there simply wasn’t enough time—but I did not charge the case at all during my two-week testing period, so I’m inclined to believe Baseus’ claim.

The Baseus app allows you to set the equalizers and configure some playback controls. However, the playback controls are limited to a single, double and triple tap or tap and hold. You have options for skipping tracks, adjusting volume, summoning your voice assistant and turning ANC on and off, but there aren’t enough button combinations to do all of those.

Connectivity is also a sticking point. Often during my tests, pulling the earbuds out of the case and popping them into my ears didn’t actually turn on both buds, or they didn’t connect to each other, or they didn’t connect to the phone. This wasn’t a common occurrence, but it happened enough that I noticed it. Most of the time, simply replacing the buds in the case and taking them back out solved the problem. This isn’t surprising when you’re paying $30 for earbuds—you get what you pay for, but it’s worth mentioning.

The bottom line is that if you have a very limited budget for sound, these are a great, comfortable option for long hours of listening to your music. The sound you get will suit casual listeners or teens, and ANC is rare at sub-$30 prices.

When it comes to the absolute best sound you can find in a pair of earbuds, the Sony WF-1000XM5 earbuds are a great option. They cost just as much as the Technics EAH-AZ80 earbuds at around $300, but offer superior sound, along with a very capable equalizer so you can customize your sound even more. While the earbuds’ software is very much a strength, it’s also something of a weakness, which I’ll get into in a bit.

The sound quality that Sony manages to get out of the 8.4mm drivers is nothing short of exquisite. Regardless of what you’re listening to, from metal to hip hop, Sony presents a sound filled with nuances that you simply don’t hear from other earbuds. You can really pick up every detail of music or movie that you might not have noticed before.

Plus, Sony’s software is a win, starting with an equalizer with 11 presets, each of which you can further tune to your taste, and three customizable EQ options. The software also has an integrated player so you can adjust playback and scrub without leaving the app, which is a nice add-on. But unfortunately, that’s where the software superiority ends. You can’t control playback by skipping tracks or fast-forwarding at all, and you can only control volume by tapping multiple times on either bud to make the volume lower (left) or higher (right). That’s fine, but it doesn’t really allow you to change volume with anything approaching precision.

Beyond that, the tap controls can be prone to accidental touches when you’re adjusting or reseating the earbuds. The buds come with four tips (SS, S, M and L), but even the large ear tips didn’t quite make the seal I look for on a set of earbuds. The design of the ear tips is much straighter and less bulky than typical earbuds; that design sans bulge can form a nice seal with a wedge in smaller ears, but in bigger ears like mine, it’s tough to get a good seal. As a result, that makes it hard for the ANC to be really effective. The ANC itself is good, but the isolation—which is just as important—falls short.

The earbuds are very small and comfortable to wear for long periods of time. They can be tricky to pull out of the charging case if you have sausage fingers like mine. The case supports wireless charging, and battery life is sufficient. Sony advertises up to eight hours of sound with ANC on, which is consistent with my testing. But really, the sound and the nice software are the main selling points for these buds.

Bose has long had a reputation as the best ANC you can find in a set of headphones. The Bose Quiet Comfort Ultra earbuds are a remarkable example of that reputation. The ANC of these earbuds is simply breathtaking, as any sound in your environment is just gone, with the exception of loud, sudden noises like a person sneezing. The level of quiet is almost eerie. From drowning out plane engines to eliminating noise from a TV show playing nearby, you get mostly silence, so you can enjoy your music without outside noises.

The audio is also quite good, though the app's equalizer is limited to just four bands with no presets or customized profiles. Further, the Bose QC Ultra earbuds come equipped with immersive audio that gives more depth to the overall sound, so you feel like the sound is around you rather than just pumping into your ears. The feature has two immersion settings: The first positions the "stage" for the music directly in front of you, so as you turn, it moves with you; and the second positions the stage in front, but as you turn your head, the sound “source” stays in the same place. If you look to your right, the music source is to your left, and vice versa. It's really cool technology—but all of this comes at a price.

Battery life for the QC Ultra earbuds is not great. Bose advertises about six hours of listening with ANC on, but without immersive audio, which seems about right. I wore the Bose earbuds on a long flight from Maui to Los Angeles, and they made the trip easily. However, that was with immersive audio turned off. Turning it on reduces your battery life by one-third, to about four hours. Battery life is already not great, so anything that reduces it, especially by that much, is a pretty big hit.

Of course, if you're not trying to use these through an entire shift at work, that might not be so bad. If you're only listening to music for short jaunts in the car or when going for a walk or run, that's perfectly fine, but that's an important aspect to consider if you listen to your music for long periods of time.

The touch controls on the buds felt mixed. The bad news is that you cannot change the controls on the earbuds at all—there are simply no options to configure what your taps and swipes do. The good news is that you can still do just about everything you need to: You can turn ANC on and off, summon your phone's assistant, skip the tracks forward and back, and you can adjust volume with intuitive swipes along the stems.

The controls are there, but it’s Bose's way or the highway. And for the impressive ANC and sound these wireless earbuds come packed with, it's worth sacrificing a bit of control. I just wish the battery lasted about 75% longer, and these buds would be nearly perfect. Read our full review here.

The Poly Voyager 60+ UC earbuds are easily the most expensive on the list. These buds start at $336—a pretty penny, by any means. But these buds might also have the most features to benefit frequent travelers you have seen in a set of earbuds.

First and foremost, these buds come with a pretty bulky carrying case. But it earns its bulk by having a touchscreen on the outside that allows you to control your music, volume, ANC, Bluetooth connection and more. That’s pretty cool, because instead of having to memorize a lot of different button presses, you can just control everything from the top of the earbud case.

The earbuds case also acts as a Bluetooth transmitter, so you can use the included 3.5mm-to-USB-C jack (or any other USB-C cable) to plug your case in and transmit audio to your earbuds. The most common scenario is when you’re flying and the in-flight entertainment has a 3.5mm headphone jack. Instead of listening to the audio with those cheap earbuds the flight attendants give out, you can just plug in your case and transmit audio to the buds. You’ll also find a Bluetooth dongle built into the case in case you need to plug into your laptop for a more direct connection.

As for active noise cancelation—an important feature to have when dealing with the buzz of a plane cabin—the earbuds performed pretty good but not amazing. The point of ANC is to reduce the noise around you so you can reduce the volume of what you’re listening to and preserve your hearing. In that respect, the Poly Voyager 60+ UC earbuds does the best job of all the wireless earbuds I tested.

The fit is also a little off for some ears, specifically mine. The ear tips have a downward angle that is supposed to slot into the ear canal with a little twist, but the stem of the earbuds doesn’t fit right in my ears, leaving the buds with a bad seal, which is another reason for the less-than-great ANC. All the noise cancelation in the world won’t help if you can’t form a good passive seal.

Put simply, the Poly Voyager Free 60+ UC earbuds are built for the utmost convenience and versatility so a road warrior can plug in anywhere, anytime and use the same earbuds each time.

Some will say that if you want a set of earbuds for working out, you need buds that are going to be sweatproof and maybe rainproof, just in case. Then you have the Jabra 8 Active, which Jabra claims is the toughest set of earbuds in the world. Jabra might just be right about that, because not only are these earbuds rated IP68 for water- and dust-resistance, but they are also shock-resistant and survive HACT testing, which dunks the earbuds in salty water for 10 to 15 cycles. Just in case you're not convinced, Jabra also backs up these earbuds with a full 2-year warranty against water, dust and sweat damage.

If you’re wondering whether these can stand up to your 10-mile run in 100-degree weather, yes, they can—and they'll still look like you just took them out of the box. They're certain to survive your workouts, but if you also happen to work outside or in extreme environments, you might want these in your pocket.

The buds are small and coated with a soft-touch silicone that feels really nice to hold. They're comfortable in your ears as well. Unlike most wireless earbuds I tested, this pair features actual physical buttons, not touch controls. The buttons could be easier to press—doing so pushes them into your ears further, which may not be the most comfortable experience. Those buttons are configurable, except for volume controls that are locked to pressing and holding. Single, double and triple presses can all be configured as you like, which is nice but makes it extra annoying that volume is the only thing you can't change.

The earbuds also sound quite good. They come equipped with spatial and Dolby audio, which added a lot of nuance to my music. There's a five-band equalizer in the app as well, and you can program different custom profiles to your taste. I set up eight different EQs with the option to program more, so the sky appears to be the limit.

The ANC is a hybrid ANC, which works pretty well but isn’t the best I've ever heard. You can get a detailed, rich audio, but requires a bit of tweaking on the EQ to get it right. There are no lost frequencies, and spatial audio adds a very nice dimension to the sound overall. But at the end of the day, these earbuds are built to be tough as nails, and they definitely meet that requirement.

Because these earbuds are designed to survive just about anything, you can treat them as such, making them great for those that go the extra mile during their daily fitness routine. That they’re comfortable means you can wear them for extended periods, say, practicing for a marathon, without any discomfort, too. The physical buttons on the earbuds ensure that you're able to control them even if your hands are wet or sweaty, which I felt was another plus.

The charging case (which supports wireless charging, by the way) is slim and should fit very nicely into a pocket or gym bag. The battery life, based on my testing, is long enough to withstand any workout. So if you're looking for a pair of buds that works as hard as you do, the Jabra Elite 8 Active buds are up to the task.

For the price point, the Samsung Galaxy Buds FE have no right to sound as good as they do. Usually retailing for around $100, these earbuds have really great sound, making it obvious where Samsung put most of the focus in the buds’ development. But doing so cost Samsung in other areas that are becoming table stakes for $100 earbuds these days. With no shortage of earbuds at this price, Samsung is counting on its sound to set it apart from the competition.

That makes sense: These are earbuds, after all. If you're going to bet the farm on something, it may as well be the thing the device is designed to do. But there are two or three other considerations at this price that have become more common that Samsung left out. The two big ones are a lack of wireless charging and a very low IP rating. Depending on your preferences, wireless charging may or may not be a deal-breaker, but it doesn't change the fact that at $100, most earbuds have it.

The IP rating could also be better. An IPX2 rating means the earbuds are protected from vertically falling water (read: rain) but no spraying or splashing. While protection from rain is a nice feature, it may not protect the buds from sweat while working out or just walking around on a hot summer afternoon.

The Samsung Galaxy Buds FE also lack an app for the iPhone. This isn't the worst thing, since it's a fair bet that most iPhone owners aren't shopping for earbuds in the Samsung store. All the same, the Samsung Galaxy Buds app in the app store hasn't been updated in two years and doesn't list the Buds FE as an option. I tested the Buds FE with the Samsung Galaxy S23 FE, but all the same, it'd be nice to be able to use an iPhone.

On the plus side, these buds sound great, with very clear tones across the spectrum and very solid active noise cancelation. It's not the best ANC in the world, but in combination with the isolation you get from one of three ear tips and wings sizes, they do quite a good job on both the sound quality and the ANC fronts.

You can find EQ presets in Samsung’s Galaxy Wearable app, which it allows you to set the equalizer and minimally configure your earbuds. You can turn on double and triple taps to skip forward and go back, and you can program a long press to make the volume go up or down, switch ANC on and off, summon Bixby (but not any other assistant) or launch Spotify, but you have to choose just one of those four options. That is also not ideal.

That being said, these are all minor gripes, and for the price point, you’re getting pretty darn detailed audio. Plus, if you’re in the Samsung ecosystem already, it’s one of the best earbuds for optimizing your Samsung wearables setup. For a set of earbuds at a mid-range price, in a tiny case that easily slips into a pocket, these are a solid option.

If you’re an Apple Mac or mobile device user, the Apple AirPods Pro (2nd Generation) take your audio listening to a new, realistic and immersive level. Not to be confused with the AirPods 2 (an updated version of the lower cost and less technologically advanced AirPods), the new AirPods Pro (2nd Gen) are now Apple’s premium wireless earbuds. Here’s a summary of my findings from my comprehensive review of these earbuds.

Thanks to the spatial audio with dynamic head tracking feature, I consistently felt as if I was in the middle of the scene—not just watching it. When listening to audio from TV shows or movies produced for playback using surround sound, these earbuds replicate that experience wonderfully. In fact, even when I moved my head around, the audio automatically adjusted to match my movements.

These earbuds complement this immersive listening experience with improved noise cancellation. Within minutes of using these earbuds, I could immediately hear a difference. These earbuds do a much better job adapting the level of noise cancellation to match the environment, and the personalized spatial audio created an immersive cocoon—particularly when watching movies or TV shows.

The auto-pairing and auto-switching feature (between Macs, iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch) makes it easy to switch between devices in real time. I could easily begin watching a movie on my iPad, switch to the iPhone when I received an incoming call and then switch back again automatically.

Unlike other wireless earbuds which have a proprietary app, you control the AirPods Pro earbuds through your Apple device’s operating system. From an iPhone or iPad, for example, simply access Control Center and press down on the AirPods button to make product-specific controls appear on-screen to adjust volume or turn on/off noise cancellation and spatial audio.

When listening to audio with noise cancellation turned on, the earbuds automatically adjust to compensate for ambient noise levels that surround you, so there's less need to adjust the volume when moving between louder and quieter areas. I found this feature works very well, especially when outdoors. Apple’s H2 chip does an excellent job creating three-dimensional sound while noticeably reducing or eliminated unwanted noise. This worked particularly well for me when streaming music via Apple Music.

Meanwhile, the new onboard touch controls make it easy to answer or disconnect calls, play/pause music, or switch between noise cancellation and transparency mode without having to access the device that audio is streaming from. While you can’t make manual audio EQ adjustments, I discovered that the AirPods Pro’s adaptive EQ did a strong job adapting to whatever type of audio I was listening to. I could hear and enjoy every intricate detail of a highly produced pop song, for example.

Other Wireless Earbuds We Tested

While our selected winners rose to the top of the heap, these are the runners-up for the best wireless earbuds.

Beats Fit Pro ($200 at Best Buy): For Apple users, these earbuds not only offer useful features like iOS integration, but they also provide a good overall listening experience. The downside: you can’t manually adjust the spatial audio and noise cancellation, as you can with many other earbuds I tested. The charging case does not have wireless charging, and it is a bit large and feels cheaply made.

Bowers & Wilkins Pi7 ($399 at Amazon): Though these expensive earbuds look stylish and have good audio quality, I think our winners offer better features for the price. But for someone looking for a great listening experience from a well-known audio brand, these won’t disappoint.

Google Pixel Buds Pro ($150 on Amazon): Since these Google earbuds are optimized for use with an Android smartphone, I tested them with a Google Pixel 6a. They paired instantly and automatically with the phone and produced rich and immersive audio. Although the noise cancellation works extremely well, but when I spoke, the noise cancellation feature automatically deactivated, so I could chat with people at will.

Marshall Motif II ANC ($200 at Amazon): The Motif II ANC earbuds sound pretty great, and packs punchy basses and high trebles for an enjoyable listening experience. In fact, we loved how immersive Cowboy Bebop’s jazzy soundtrack sounded on these earbuds. Upon further testing, the noise canceling and construction could be improved.

Master & Dynamic MW08 Sport ($350 on Amazon): Simply put, everything about these earbuds is elegant. They’re accented with shatter-resistant sapphire glass and the charging case has a Kevlar coating. Unfortunately, these earbuds lack spatial audio support. While they sound good, the MW08 Sport aren’t as impressive as our other winners.

Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3 ($200 at Best Buy): You get premium-quality audio and a premium feel with these earbuds–but it comes at a high price. The earbuds offer everything you’d expect, but they’re not superior to lower or equally priced competitors. I found the specialized audio EQ presets enhanced how audio sounded, and the earbuds did an impressive job with hands-free calling.

Why Trust Forbes Vetted

• Contributors Adam Doud and Jason R. Rich spent months testing over 20 different wireless earbuds in a wide range of settings and situations.
• Jason has covered consumer technology for over 25 years, for publications like AARP the Magazine. Adam has been a leader in the tech media field for over a decade and stays busy getting his hands on as many phones, tablets and laptops as possible.
• We consulted two experienced music industry professionals: singer, songwriter and multi-platinum music producer Drew Ryan Scott and Hollywood-based music producer, singer and songwriter Gabe Lopez. They discussed what key features they look for when choosing wireless earbuds and what you can expect from the listening experience.
• We frequently update this guide as new earbuds are released. It was last republished in February 2024.

How I Tested The Best Wireless Earbuds

With a stockpile of wireless earbuds to review, I put each of them through a series of real-world listening tests.

Noise cancellation

To test this, I listened to music while standing at a busy city intersection. I sampled the same pop music from Katy Perry, Harry Styles and Charlie Puth, for example, as I stood amidst noisy traffic and crowds. I chose these pop artists because their highly produced music typically has rich harmonies and vocals panning between the left and right audio channels. It’s also in Dolby Atmos, which lets compatible earbuds take full advantage of spatial audio with head tracking to make it sound like the audio surrounds you.

Sound and dialogue

I tested the earbuds at home while watching TV, using them during an episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds to see how they dealt with dialogue, sound effects and music. My expectations were high: I wanted the best earbuds to make me feel like I was in the middle of an action sequence—not just passively watching and listening to it.

Phone calls

To see how well the various earbuds performed during phone calls and around ambient and wind noise, I took them outside and noted whether I could clearly hear and converse with someone without the earbuds picking up unwanted background noise.

Exercise

I tested the earbuds for comfort and fit while working out.

What To Consider When Buying Wireless Earbuds

Audio Quality

Lopez explained that when he produces pop music, he takes into consideration how people listen with wireless earbuds. “I try to make sure the mid-range can always be heard, so the vocals leap out of the track as much as possible,” he said. “I like when the high-end is crisp, so I can hear the clarity of the production. When the high-end is clear—whether it be on earbuds or headphones—it serves the [music] well and the listener gets a good sense of what the intent was.”

Many people opt to boost the bass when listening to certain genres of music, but Lopez doesn’t focus on it too much. “I try not to get too overwhelmed by bass,” he said. “I find that bass can muddy up the mix, so you lose the clarity of the vocals within the production. For me, the most important parts of the music are the mid-range and [the] high-range.”

Active Vs. Passive Noise Cancellation

Wireless earbuds limit unwanted background noise in two different ways. Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) allows the earbuds to analyze the ambient noise and automatically adjust the level of noise cancellation and other audio features to create what it believes is the best listening experience possible. By contrast, passive noise cancellation—also referred to as noise isolation—relies on the form-fitting ear tips made from noise filtering material to block ambient sounds from seeping into your ear canal. Most earbuds today use active noise cancellation, and often simply refer to it as noise cancellation.

Comfort

Lopez believes when buying earbuds, comfort is essential—especially if you plan to wear them for between eight and 10 hours per day, like he does during a recording or mixing session. Scott agrees: “I always seek out a comfortable fit.”

Battery Life

When shopping for earbuds, Scott suggests finding earbuds with long battery life. In general, most wireless earbuds last around eight hours on a single charge. If you opt for a charging case, battery life could increase to 24 hours or more.

Waterproofing

If you only plan to use earbuds while sitting at your desk or watching TV, waterproof and sweat resistance won’t likely factor into your buying decision, though this feature would be handy if you accidentally drop your earbuds into a sink, toilet or cup of coffee. However, if you plan to use your earbuds while being more active—say commuting, taking a walk, or during a workout—your best bet is buying a model with water and sweat resistance.

Which Earbuds Have The Best Sound Quality?

If your number one priority for wireless earbuds is sound quality, we recommend the Sony WF-1000XM5 earbuds. Based on our testing, they offer the most superior sound and a customizable capable equalizer.

More Audio Stories To Shop

For more recommendations on the best audio, browse the rest of our listening guides below.

• Best Workout Headphones
• Best Noise-Cancelling Headphones
• Best Running Headphones
• Best Headphones For Sleep
• Best Over Ear Headphones