Best Noise-Canceling Earbuds: Bose, Sony, Apple, and More

Ryan Waniata Gear Mar 29, 2026 6:30 AM Best Noise-Canceling Earbuds Everyone needs a good pair of ANC earbuds. These are the best of the bunch. Save this story Save this story Featured in this article 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 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. What Is Noise Canceling and How Does It Work? AccordionItemContainerButton Active noise canceling 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 rum...