The best noise-cancelling headphones under $100 for 2023

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When it comes to sound, comfort level and build quality, you’ll be hard-pressed to do better than Anker’s SoundCore Life Q30 for the money. It doesn’t have quite the clarity or bass definition of some of the best premium models, but it’s less than a third of the price and gets you about 75% of the way in terms of sound. It’s well balanced overall, with powerful bass, and has an app that lets you adjust the sound. Noise cancellation is good for the price, though not to the level of the Sony WH-1000XM4 or the Bose Noise Canceling Headphones 700. Battery life is rated at an impressive 40 hours on a USB-C charge.

The only area where the Q30 falls short is for voice calls. It picks up your voice well in quieter environments, but it just doesn’t reduce background noise as well.

Compared to the Q20 (see below), the Q30 does offer improved sound (the difference isn’t huge, but it’s definitely a notch) and a more premium design. There’s also the new Life Q35 ($130), which adds support for Sony’s LDAC audio codec for streaming high-resolution audio with music services that support it. I’m not sure it’s worth the $50 more upgrade, but hopefully the price of the Q35 will come down over time.

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Edifier’s makes some good-sounding computer speakers and true wireless headphones, and they’ve done a good job with their W820NB noise-canceling headphones. The first thing you’ll notice about them when you put them on is that they’re comfortable – the ear pads are well cushioned and the headphones fit snugly on your head. They also sound good for the price, offering plenty of clarity and decent bass. Their sound didn’t blow me away, but I was fine listening to these headphones for a while; they sound quite nice.

There’s also an ambient mode that allows for external sound and a low-latency gaming mode. They’re decent enough for voice calls and battery life is quite impressive with up to 49 hours of battery life on a single charge at moderate volume levels (and noise canceling off).

A few things are missing. There’s no carrying case or headphone jack – they’re Bluetooth only. But the 820NB headphones are still a good value.

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Anker’s SoundCore Life Q20 is arguably the best value among noise-canceling headphones. Not only do these budget noise-cancelling over-ear headphones sound pretty decent for their usual $60 list price (they’re often on sale for $10 off with an Amazon instant coupon), they’re also comfortable to wear thanks to their puffy ear pads ears . Expect that price to drop a bit more, as Anker has now released the SoundCore Life Q20 Plus, which adds app support and USB-C charging (instead of Micro-USB).

No, the Life Q20 doesn’t sound as good as premium Bluetooth headphones like the Sony WH-1000XM5, but the sound quality sounds pretty good, which is all you can ask for in a noise-canceling headphone at this price. It’s reasonably well balanced with a reasonable amount of clarity and a solid bass that isn’t bloated or muddy (there’s a bass boost or BassUp mode if you want an extra dose of bass with your music). Also, the noise cancellation is acceptably effective at reducing noise and blocking out ambient sound, and it’s decent enough as a headset for making calls. Battery life is good at 40 hours. A simple carrying bag is included.

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Founded by four ex-Amazon employees, Wyze is known for its pricey security cameras, but now it’s doing a good job with pricey headphones. Its noise-canceling over-ear headphones offer a comfortable fit with deep memory foam pads and solid overall performance. Their noise cancellation is pretty good, although you do get some added passive noise isolation from the tight seal the ear pads give you (your ears will get quite steamy in warmer weather). They’re Alexa-enabled, so all you have to do is press a button to access Amazon’s voice assistant, or you can use your phone’s own voice assistant if you prefer. There’s also a transparency mode that allows for ambient sound.

In terms of sound quality, they’re on the warmer side – they have plenty of bass and a fairly open soundstage, although they lack that extra clarity and definition you get from higher-end models (the bass is a bit loose). . In other words, the sound is pretty good for the money, but not ridiculously good.

Battery life is rated at up to 20 hours at moderate volume levels, and I find the performance of the headphones to be decent as well. A cloth carrying case is included along with a USB-C charging cable and a cable for use as wired headphones.

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There’s no such thing as too many in-ear noise canceling headphones. Beats’ Solo Pro is one of the best, but it’s quite expensive at $300, although we’ve seen it on sale for half that price. Meanwhile, these cheap noise-canceling headphones, the JLab Studio ANC, cost less and deliver solid overall performance for a budget model with decent sound quality, noise-canceling, and battery life (28 hours with ANC on). While they may not be stellar for making calls, they work well as headphones—callers said they could hear me clearly, even with outside noise around me. A carrying bag is included.

The Studio ANC headphones are reasonably comfortable for an on-ear model (I prefer over-ears), but those with larger heads may feel they clamp a little too tightly.

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Amazon

Tribit makes one of our favorite budget pairs of headphones for sound quality, the Tribit XFree Tune. However, these are not active noise canceling headphones. This model is. You can find similar wireless ANC headphones from other generic headphone companies on Amazon (Taotronics, for example, has a model with a similar design), but these in-ear headphones sound pretty decent, and their noise cancellation works pretty well and eliminates a lot of ambient noise and background noise. It doesn’t sound as good as the XFree Tune with music, but it’s among the better-sounding budget models in this roundup, and it also features USB-C charging. It also has a decent battery: battery life is rated at 30 hours.

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Panasonic calls the styling of its RP-HTX90N Bluetooth headphones “retro-modern,” and it’s exactly that. Based on one of our favorite budget pairs of wired over-ear headphones, the RP-HTX80, this active noise-canceling wireless version is comfortable and lightweight. These are warmer, closed-back headphones that lack treble clarity and aren’t very dynamic, but overall sound quality is nice. Battery life is rated at 24 hours of playback, and a 15-minute quick charge gives you two and a half hours of juice.

Noise cancellation is decent, though not stellar. Ultimately, for its slightly higher price, the biggest reason to buy this model is its design and level of comfort.