I've picked the best noise cancelling headphones for all budgets, based on real-world testing of nearly 20 models

Welcome to TechRadar's guide to the best noise-cancelling headphones. Since you've come to this specific page, I'm going to assume that your biggest priority for your next headphones is their ability to block outside noise the most effectively using active noise cancellation (ANC) – so good news, that's exactly what I've tested here, along with essentials such as sound quality, battery life, smart features and comfort levels.

At a glance: the best noise-cancelling headphones:

• My #1 pick: Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones | See today's best price
• Best under $220 / £200: Bose QuietComfort Headphones | See today's best price
• Best under $100 / £100: 1More SonoFlow Pro HQ51 | See today's best price
• Best under $50 / £50: Amazon Basics Hybrid Active Noise Cancelling Headphones | See today's best prices

We've tested hundreds of pairs of noise-cancelling headphones here at TechRadar, so I've whittled the list down to 17 pairs of headphones, ranging in price from over $400 / £400 down to around $30 / £30. These are the models most likely to be worth buying for their respective prices, so I compared them all against each other in tough real-world noise-cancellation tests.

I chose these tests to be consistent, but to still really help me see how well these headphones work for how you'll use them at home, not how well they perform in a lab. You can read my explanation of the tests here.

One thing to note about prices in this guide: I'm going to discuss both official prices and the real-world prices you should aim to pay, which I call the 'target' price – I'm mainly judging these headphones on their target prices, as there's no point giving you buying advice for a pair of Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones at their official price of $349 when they regularly drop to $220 or lower. My target prices will be be based on price drops we've actually seen in the past, so they're real-world guidance.

I'll start with a quick run-through of the products I rate the highest at different price tiers, but read on for more depth on why I've chosen them – and later, I'll dig deeper into the features of each product I recommend (as well as the best alternatives).

My history as an audio reviewer

Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you're buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

Matt Bolton

I lead TechRadar's audiovisual channels, home to our TV, home theater, headphones and hi-fi articles, and manage our team of editors and writers who produce those articles. I've been with TechRadar since 2022 (though it's my second stint here, having worked on it in 2009), and before that I managed the AV and home technology channels of our sister website, T3.com. Before that, I ran T3 magazine. I've worked in technology publishing since 2009.

My #1 pick to buy today

Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (1st Gen)

The 3 key reasons why

✅ Noise cancellation as good as anything else, but cheaper
These scored joint-top in my noise-cancellation tests, matching the Bose Ultra 2nd Gen and marginally beating the Sony WH-1000XM6, but can be found for around $100 less than those models.

✅ Comfortable and portable
I love the design of the Bose Ultras. They're very light, you can wear them for long periods without any fatigue, and they fold down small for travel.

✅ Fun and energetic sound
These give you really punchy and dynamic audio, with big (but not overly heavy) bass, zinging treble, and great clarity through the mid-range. I've loved the sound since their launch.

2 reasons to choose something else

❌ The battery life isn't great
The 24-hour battery life is below average. If you want 30 hours, the Sony WH-1000XM6 or Bose QuietComfort Ultra 2nd Gen will give this to you with the same level of noise cancellation.

❌ You want a more refined sound
The Sony WH-1000XM6 offer a little more detail, a balance of bass/mid/treble that's closer to 'neutral', and a little better cohesion from bass through to mids.

See today's best prices for the alternatives:

Sony WH-1000XM6: today's best deal
Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones 2nd Gen: today's best deal

The best noise cancelling headphones I tested for different budgets

The headphones I tested for this guide

Here's the list of headphones I was testing directly against each other to settle on my recommendations for this guide:

Why only these headphones?

Obviously, there are a lot more headphones than these in the world – and not only that, there are a lot of good headphones that are not in this list. There are even entries in our list of the best headphones that have active noise noise cancellation, but that I didn't put through this testing process.

How I tested the best noise cancelling headphones

There's obviously a lot to test in these noise-cancelling headphones, from sound quality to smart features to how comfortable they are to wear – but the most important thing is their active noise-cancellation power.

I decided that I wanted to test in real-world conditions, which means I'm not taking scientific measurements of the levels of noise reduction here, based on artificially created sound from a speaker.

While that kind of test is obviously a good way to measure with absolute consistency, it doesn't reflect well the nuances of how well noise is cancelled in practical use, because there are multiple factors involved.

For example, I tested two pairs of Soundcore headphones while compiling this guide, and the noise cancellation power was very similar on them both – this applied with no sound coming through, and when listening to music that covers a wide range of frequencies.

However, when listening to a podcast, one was much weaker, because its mid-range reproduction wasn't as strong as the other pair, so voices sounded more muted and were much harder to make out over the background sounds. There was similar noise reduction in most cases, but a clear difference in how well you could make out what you were listening to.

But I still wanted to create some consistent testing conditions so that I could fairly compare all the headphones to each other for noise cancellation, and dig into where their strengths and weaknesses are.

The test scores of these headphones

After completing the testing described above, I ranked the headphones from best to weakest in each individual test, and assigned a score out of 5 to each (including half marks).

I didn't just go with a system of '5 for the best one, 1 for the worst one' – I started with 5 for the best one, and then dropped a mark or half a mark whenever there was an obvious step down in effectiveness between models. This means that in some cases, no headphones scored right at the bottom of the scale.

First, here's a table purely of the scores I gave, including the total across all tests.

However, I think the Traffic and Café tests are more important than the Hair Dryer and Microwave tests, because they're more like the environments in which you'll mostly rely on ANC, and at the same time are harder tests. If you agree, then here's the same table as above, but with the Traffic and Café scores doubled when counting the total score, to increase their importance.

My list of the best noise-cancelling headphones, in-depth

The best noise cancelling headphones overall

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Let me sum this up quickly: Bose's first-gen Ultra Headphones offer noise cancellation that's basically indistinguishable from newer premium models, but can be bought for around $100 / £100 less than them. That's it, that's the tweet.

These were first released in late 2023, and since then Bose has released its own Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) and Sony has released the Sony WH-1000XM6, both of which should in theory overtake these the noise-cancellation stakes, being newer and fancier.

But, having compared the three extensively – swapping between them maybe ate up more time than any other testing I did – my conclusion is that they're still best-in-class for blocking noise in a meaningful sense. I think the 2nd Gen are marginally superior, but only if you spend ages looking for differences because you're writing a long guide to the best noise-cancelling headphones (for example).

As you can see in the tables above, I actually think these are even marginally better than the Sony XM6, based on superior performance for more chaotic real-world sounds, particularly with higher-frequency noises – I felt that that the Bose Ultra clamped down on sound better across all frequencies, while the Sony cans leaked in a little more hiss, although again I'm talking about very minor differences.

I love the design of the Bose Ultra too – they've very light, very comfortable for long periods, and fold up for travel use, which I always appreciate.

There are good reasons to choose the other two big competitors over the original Bose Ultra, though: the main two are battery life, and your sound profile preference.

Battery life is simple: theBose Ultra only manage 24 hours with active noise cancellation turned on, compared to 30 hours each for the Bose Ultra 2nd Gen or the Sony XM6. And let me clear: the 24 hours of the Bose is a real-world figure that I've tested – you won't secretly get more out of them.

If you're good about staying on top of charging your devices, this won't be a problem; but 30 hours leaves more margin for error, in my experience, and generally means you won't find they need charging halfway through a lengthy session of use.

The sound profile issue is more complicated. I love the sound of the Bose Ultra – they're so dynamic, they have a huge range, with every frequency well-represented and offering plenty of detail, and they're punchy and fun. But they lean on having more energy in the bass and treble, and some people prefer a sound that's a closer to neutral.

Both the Bose Ultra 2nd Gen and the Sony lean more this way – I think the Sony is the superior option when it comes to sound fidelity, especially with its tighter representation of lower mids and the detail within them, creating a slightly more cohesive soundstage than the Bose Ultra, just without the extra bass depth the Bose offer.

(Though I'll mention here that the best sound in this kind of price range is offered by the Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S3, which blows away the Sony in this regard – but the noise cancellation is far behind the three options I'm talking about, which is why I dismissed it from my testing list after early comparisons. The AirPods Max are also incredibly strong for people who like a neutral sound, and have great ANC that's a bit weaker than these in the high frequencies.)

The other reason you might choose the Sony WH-1000XM6 are the superior smart features compared to Bose's headphones. Both have a spatial audio option and the ability to customize your levels of noise cancellation, but the Sony have a few other useful options – one we particularly love in practice is the ability to just hold a hand over the earcup to active transparency mode temporarily, so you can speak to someone quickly without finding the button. And speaking of buttons, the controls are a little easier to use on the Sony, in my opinion, but Bose's are fine.

Despite all this, for me, it comes down to bang for your buck. I regularly see the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones drop to around $300 / £300, and I think the huge saving of up to $150 compared to the newer models more than negates any small advantages those have. For elite noise cancellation at a reasonable price, these are my favorites after testing all the options.

The best noise cancelling headphones under $250 / £250

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At full price, the Bose QuietComfort are arguably a little too expensive. But there's no reason to pay full price – having originally been released in 2023, these are now generously discounted throughout the year. I've picked them for an 'under $250' category, but I'm playing it safe there – you will almost certainly find them available for more like $200 / £200 during the sales season.

In my noise-cancellation tests, I scored these only a couple of points lower than far more expensive models, including Bose's own Ultra models, plus the Sony XM6, and the Sonos Ace. In fact, I rated them higher than the pricey AirPods Max when weighting the real-world tests higher. When it comes to the quality of noise cancellation for the price, nothing beats these – especially at a lower sale price.

These headphones pretty much match more premium headphones when it comes to noise cancellation, but it's the sound quality and the design that makes them feel like they're a step down.

They sound good, don't get me wrong – rich bass, strong detail and clear highs all stand out – but there's a thinness to the mids that betrays the fact that these aren't Bose's highest-end offering. I found that you can improve the sound noticeably by playing with the EQ settings in the app and boosting the mids just a couple of points, giving a more well-rounded soundstage. If sound is your focus at this price, I'd steer you towards the Cambridge Audio P100 SE, but their noise cancellation is a step down.

The design, again, isn't bad in any way; it's just more utilitarian than the Bose Ultra, or the Cambridge Audio P100 SE. It's got more seams, and more square edges. This leads them to be superior to fancier sets in some ways, I have to say – for example, the on/off slider is a simpler thing to deal with than a button, and makes it easy to see at a glance if you've left them on – but it still won't excite aesthetes.

Crucially, though, the Bose QuietComfort Headphones are really light and comfortable for long-term use, matching the venerable (and similarly priced) Sony WH-1000XM4 in this regard. The Cambridge P100 SE are among the heaviest here, and are 38% heavier than the Bose, and so to keep stable and comfortable they use a much stronger clamping force. Some people don't like this (and it tends to affect glasses users like me more than the non-bespectacled), though some don't mind it – I tend to think it makes them more fatiguing for long-term use (such as flights) in particular.

I also prefer headphones that fold up, which is another reason I'd lean towards the Bose or Sony over the Cambridge. And I think the Bose are probably superior to the Sony in every way, even if it's not by a huge margin in some areas. Where it counts though – the noise cancellation – they're undoubtedly better.

The clear downside to these headphones is the 24-hour battery life. Sony's XM4 give you 30 hours, while the Cambridge P100 SE offer a colossal 60 hours. So if you're forgetful when it comes to charging, these may be preferable, since you're less likely to run out of power when you're in the middle of using them.

As someone who a) prefers a lighter pair of headphones that fold up, and b) is prioritizing noise cancellation in this guide, the Bose QuietComfort Headphones beat the competition for me, though there's a chance you'll find the Sony WH-1000XM4 for less during sales events, and I'd happily recommend them if price is a deal breaker for you.

The best noise cancelling headphones under $100 / £100

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Having tried competitors from the likes of Sony and Soundcore, I think the 1More SonoFlow Pro HQ51 stand out – they could cost twice their price, and I'd still say they were excellent value.

The money you're spending here is all going into into the sound, both in terms of music quality and the active noise cancellation. I rated these at basically the same level of ANC power as the Sony XM4 or Cambridge Audio P100 SE, but those headphones cost more than twice as much.

What's so impressive here is how well they lock down the sounds across the whole frequency range – as noise-cancelling headphones get more budget, they tend to get weaker at blocking higher-pitched noises. That's not the case here; whatever you throw at the 1More, it's ready to respond.

Similarly, cheaper headphones are usually weaker if you're trying to listen to spoken-word content, because their mid-range is less expressive, so not only is more sound leaking in, the headphones are also less able to overcome it when the frequencies are similar. Again, that's not the case here – the mid-range is full-chested and capable of overcoming background sound without you needing to crank the volume to silly levels.

The sound is pretty bassy, but in a good way – the bass is controlled, and gives the headphones great energy. Keeping the bass in check helps that mid-range to come through fully, and despite the low price these are capable of expressing all the elements of really dense and complex tracks.

It's mostly the expansive of the soundstage here that lets you know you're listening to cheaper headphones – it's a little more compressed than better headphones, with less space between the instruments, and the feeling that the sound is coming from a set of headphones, not from the space around you. But for the price, that's absolutely normal.

It's a similar story for the design – they look fine. They feel fine. But you won't mistake them for anything premium. However, they're among the lightest pairs here, and so are very easy and comfortable to wear now matter how long you wear them for.

And that might be a long, long time because these are capable of 65 hours of continuous use with noise cancellation turned on, which is the best of any headphones here. If you like the idea of something you'll very rarely need to remember to juice up, look no further. That makes them ideal for travel, as does their folding design and case included in the box – something that gets more rare as the price drops.

While we like options such as the Soundcore Space One and Sony WH-CH720N a lot – and have slightly better apps if you're into customization – the 1More are simply a step above in terms of value.

The best noise cancelling headphones under $50 / £50

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Amazon's snappily titled Basics Hybrid Active Noise Cancelling Headphones (at least there's no confusion over what you're getting here) were only release in the second half of 2025, so I didn't know what level of quality to expect here at all. It didn't take long for them to impress me.

Obviously, for around $40 / £30 full price, my expectations were pretty low to begin with – but in basically every respect, these make you nod your head and make your 'hey, that's pretty good!' face. You know that one you make.

Build quality is good – it doesn't exceed the likes of the similarly priced Soundcore Q30, here, but they both feel like they basically match the quality of the more-expensive 1More SonoFlow Pro HQ51. The pattern on the earbuds is nicer than pretty much any other cheap headphones (though the Soundcore Q30 has classier buttons).

I'm always happy with headphones that fold small for travel, though these don't come with a protective case, and I found that the headband scuffed very quickly from being carried around in a back with other headphones while I was doing my tests. Not in a way that ruined them, but you can see the effect, so bear that in mind.

They're comfortable to wear – they have more clamping force than the Soundcore Q30 (or 1More SonoFlow Pro), so you feel them a little more, but they're very lightweight, so I didn't find it fatiguing – even as a glasses wearer, they stayed comfortable. They just made the area around my ears a little warmer than other headphones generally do.

When it comes to sound, the balance is impressively good, the soundstage is well-organized, and treble is clean and clear. The latter element stands out because it's admittedly a compressed soundstage overall, as is usually the case with cheaper headphones.

Super-dense musical mixes is one area where you'll hear this limitation – there's generally a loss of precision in detail compared to the 1More Sonoflow, while bass is lightweight in impact and doesn't dig very deep. However, the bass is tightly controlled, and I'll take that as a fair trade off for the price – accuracy over scale.

I can live with all of this – the songs may not sound audiophile, but they do sound correct and pleasing. And with the strong noise cancellation, you can really hear them.

This is another pair of headphones set apart by how well it tackles noise cancellation across all frequencies in the real-world tests in particular. I was especially impressed with how well it handled the noise of a café, where its noise-stopping power was only a tiny bit weaker than not only the 1More SonoFlow HQ51, but also far more expensive headphones such as the Sennheiser Accentum Plus.

Compared to the cheaper headphones I tested – the Soundcore Q20i and Runolim WH301A – the Amazon Basics were a major step up and worth spending the small amount extra. The Q20i were way better at pure noise cancellation than I expected (and very close to the Amazon and Soundcore Q30 overall), but their actual sound quality is so poor that I couldn't recommend them. And the Runolim are just too cheap for their own good – they try, bless them, but choosing them over the Amazon would be a major false economy.

There's not much between these and the Soundcore Q30, but these seem to generally come in a little cheaper, and I marginally preferred their sound balance and noise cancellation skills, especially in the real-world tests.

A noise-cancelling headphones glossary

There's a lot of jargon associated with tech-focused headphones, so it's helpful to understand some of the key terms when you're browsing different options. I've collected some of the most useful and common terms below.

Active noise cancellation (ANC): A technology that reduces unwanted background noise. It works by using external microphones that can measure ambient sounds. The headphones then generate an opposing soundwave (often called ‘anti-noise’) to cancel out the background noise, which is mixed into whatever you're listening to. With ANC, you can listen to your audio at lower volumes and with improved clarity, especially in noisy environments, like on planes or in a busy cafe.

aptX: A Bluetooth audio codec designed for higher-quality streaming. aptX comes in different forms, with aptX Adaptive being the most common in newer headphones. It adjusts sound quality based on the strength of your connection. aptX Lossless delivers top-tier, high-resolution audio. There’s also aptX Voice, which enhances call clarity, especially when you're in noisy surroundings.

Auracast: A new Bluetooth technology that allows for easy, seamless connections without pairing. Auracast enables you to connect your headphones directly to public audio sources, like TVs in bars or announcement systems at airports. Originally developed for hearing aids, it’s expected to become widely supported in upcoming headphone models for its user-friendly approach.

FAQs about noise cancelling headphones

Latest updates to the best noise cancelling headphones

November 12, 2025
Completely rewrote this guide from scratch, retesting the best options at different price points using a new system of consistent real-world noise-cancellation tests.

October 11, 2025
Made some big structural changes to this design, including moving the Sony WH-1000XM6 into our 'best overall' spot. Made the the Bose QCU Headphone our 'best premium' pick. Put the Sony WH-1000XM4 into our 'best mid-range' spot, the Dali iO8 to 'best for design' and made the new B&W PX8 S2 'best for audiophiles'. Moved the Sony WH-CH720 and B&W Px7 S3 that were in the guide down to the 'also consider' section.