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From the best noise-canceling earbuds to workout-friendly headphones and open-back designs, CNET’s audio experts have put together a comprehensive guide to help you find your next favorite pair of headphones. We’ve personally tested or reviewed every pick on this list from the likes of Sony, Bose, Beats and more — no guesswork here. Recent standouts include the Noble Fokus Apollo and the Sony MDR-M1 wired headphones. Whether you’re on a budget or ready to splurge on premium audio gear, we’ve got something for everyone. These are the best headphones and earbuds of 2025.
Best Bose noise-canceling headphones: Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones
Bose’s new flagship QuietComfort Ultra Headphones may not be a huge upgrade over the company’s Noise Cancelling 700 headphones, they feature a more premium design along with Bose’s new Immersive Audio feature, which delivers some sound-quality enhancements. Along with excellent sound and great noise canceling, the QC Ultra Headphones are also superb for making calls, with top-notch background noise reduction. All that adds up to a worthy adversary to Sony’s highly rated WH-1000XM5 and Apple’s AirPods Max.
Pros
- Design is an upgrade
- Lightweight and very comfortable
- Excellent sound and great noise canceling
- Voice-calling performance is top-notch
- Immersive Audio mode offers some sound-quality enhancements
Cons
- Higher price than the previous model
- No USB-C audio
- Immersive Audio mode hurts battery life
Battery Life: Up to 24 hours
Noise Cancelling: Yes (ANC)
Bluetooth Multipoint: Yes
Headphone Type: Over-Ear Wireless Headphones
Water-Resistant: No
Price: $$$
Best noise-canceling headphones from Sony: Sony WH-1000XM5
When you have a product that a lot of people love, change can be risky. Such is the case for Sony’s WH-1000XM5, the fifth generation of the 1000X series headphones, which were first released in 2016 as the MDR-1000X Wireless and have become increasingly popular as they’ve improved with each generation. Over the years, Sony has made some tweaks to the design, but nothing as dramatic as what it’s done with the WH-1000XM5. Other than the higher $330 price tag ($80 more than the WH-1000XM4), most of those changes are good, and Sony’s made some dramatic improvements with voice-calling performance, as well as even better noise canceling and more refined sound.
Pros
- More refined sound and even better noise canceling
- Slightly more comfortable
- Best-in-class voice call quality
- Robust feature set
Cons
- Higher price tag than the previous model
- Larger carrying case (headphones fold flat but not up)
Battery Life: Up to 32 hours
Noise Cancelling: Yes (ANC)
Bluetooth Multipoint: Yes
Headphone Type: Over-Ear Wireless Headphones
Water-Resistant: No
Price: $$$
Top new budget noise-canceling headphones: Earfun Wave Pro
Earfun has made some very solid budget earbuds, and now it’s entered the full-size ANC headphone space with its 2024 Wave Pro headphones. They list for $80, but they’re often on sale. Use code EWPROCNET at checkout for an additional discount. 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 offer respectable noise canceling (you can toggle between two levels of ANC) and voice-calling performance. I found them to be a step up from the Soundpeats Space headphones, which sometimes cost a little less.
They’re rated for up to 80 hours of battery life with noise-canceling off and 55 hours with it on and support multipoint Bluetooth pairing as well as Sony’s LDAC audio codec for Android smartphones and other compatible devices. I also like that they come with a hard case and a cable for wired listening (though noise-canceling is disabled when you go wired, which is a bit of a bummer).
Pros
- Good value
- Comfortable fit
- Good sound for their low price
- Decent noise-canceling and voice-calling performance
Cons
- ANC disabled when in wired mode
- Lacking a bit of clarity
Battery Life: Up to 55 hours
Nosie Cancelling: Yes (ANC)
Bluetooth Multipoint: Yes
Headphone Type: Over-Ear Wireless Headphones
Water-Resistant: No
Price: $
Best value noise canceling headphones: Edifier W830NB
The W830NB is the successor to Edifier’s popular W820NB Plus, one of the better value noise-canceling headphones of the last few years. The W830NB looks slightly more premium than its predecessor, and the like that earlier model, is fairly lightweight (265 grams) and comfortable, with cushy memory-foam ear pads. They also sound very good for their price, offering decent clarity and fairly well-defined bass with an amply wide sound stage (they lack the refinement and depth of higher-end headphones, but you can’t expect the world from sub-$80 headphones). You can tweak the sound profile in Edifier’s companion app for iOS and Android.
The W830NB do have a few additional improvements over the W820NB Plus. First, you get Bluetooth 5.4 (instead of 5.2). Also, along with the LDAC and SBC audio codecs, the W830NB support the AAC audio codec. The noise canceling is a tad better (it’s decent but not up to the level of what you get with Bose and Sony headphones) and battery life is rated for up to an impressive 54 hours with noise canceling on, up from 49 hours. A couple of things are still missing, however. There’s no official carrying case or headphone jack, although you can connect them to your computer with a USB-C cable (a USB-C to USB-A cable is included but most computers and smartphones have USB-C now).
Pros
- Affordable
- Lightweight and comfortable
- Good sound quality and ANC for the price
- Strong battery life
- USB-C audio
Cons
- No carrying case
- No 3.5mm jack for wired listening
Battery Life: Up to 54 hours (with ANC on)
Noise Canceling: Yes (ANC)
Bluetooth Multipoint: Yes
Headphone Type: Over-Ear Wireless Headphones
Water-Resistant: No
Price: $
Best Apple noise-canceling headphones: Apple AirPods Max
Yes, they’re expensive, but the AirPods Max delivers richer, more detailed sound than lower-priced competitors from Bose and Sony. They also feature arguably the best noise canceling on the market along with premium build quality and Apple’s virtual surround spatial audio feature for video watching. They’re heavy, but they manage to be surprisingly comfortable, although I did have to adjust the mesh canopy headband to sit a little more forward on my head to get a comfortable secure fit when I was out walking with them. They should fit most heads well, but there will be exceptions.
Pros
- Surprisingly comfortable for their weight
- Impressive sound and build-quality
- Adaptive noise canceling is top-notch and so is transparency mode
- Good headset performance for calls
Cons
- Expensive
- Equipped with Apple’s H1 chip, not the newer H2
- No cable included for wired use
Battery Life: Up to 20 hours
Noise Cancelling: Yes (ANC)
Bluetooth Multipoint: Yes
Headphone Type: Over-Ear Wireless Headphones
Water-Resistant: No
Price: $$$$
Best Headphones: Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones Wireless
Sennheiser’s previous-generation Momentum Wireless headphones have always had a pretty distinct look that was part retro, part modern, and stood out for the exposed metal on their headband. For better or worse, that’s all gone now, and the new Momentum 4 Wireless, Sennheiser’s flagship noise-canceling headphones, look a bit more subdued and also a bit more like some of their competitors.
The Momentum 4 Wireless offers superior performance over the Momentum 3 Wireless in every regard, though the biggest gains are with noise canceling and voice-calling performance as well as battery life, which is outstanding — up to 60 hours at moderate volume levels. There’s also a transparency mode that allows ambient sound in, as well as the ability to create a custom sound profile in the Smart Control app for iOS and Android using the built-in EQ, sound modes and a new Sound Personalization feature that “assesses the user’s listening preferences and adjusts the listening experience according to their taste.”
Equipped with 42mm drivers, Sennheiser says the Momentum 4 Wireless offers “best-in-class” sound, which is debatable. I’d say the Momentum 4’s sound quality is right there with other models in this price range — they sound excellent, with the requisite well-defined, punchy bass, relatively wide soundstage (they sound pretty open) and smooth treble that brings out some of the finer details in well-recorded tracks. They’re a pleasure to listen to.
Pros
- Fantastic battery life
- Included app is handy
Cons
- Overall design could be better
Battery Life: Up to 60 hours
Noise Cancelling: Yes (ANC)
Bluetooth Multipoint: Yes
Headphone Type: Over-Ear Wireless Headphones
Water-Resistant: No
Price: $$