Stop Buying Noise-Cancelling Earbuds. Here's Why.

I get it. They're small. They're wireless. They fit in your pocket. But after 40 hours of A/B listening with the same tracks on four different earbuds and four different over-ears, I want to talk you out of this.

§The math problem

An earbud driver is roughly 6-11mm. An over-ear driver is roughly 40-50mm. That's 4-8x the cone area — and cone area is most of what determines dynamic range. The best earbud in the world is physically limited by the fact that its speaker is the size of a pea.

"ANC in earbuds is a miracle of engineering working against a physical law."

— Kenji

§What we'd buy instead

• 01Sony WH-1000XM6 — $398. The obvious answer. Best ANC on the market, 30-hour battery.
• 02Sennheiser HD 600 — $399. Wired, open-back, boring-looking, devastatingly good if you're at a desk.
• 03Apple AirPods Max (USB-C) — $549. If you need Apple's ecosystem and you don't care that you'll look like you're in a commercial.

We tested AirPods Pro, Sony WF-1000XM5, Bose QuietComfort Ultra earbuds, and Nothing Ear 2. All of them lost. The WF-1000XM5 came closest, and it still sounded like a good portable radio compared to the WH-1000XM6's control room monitor vibe.

Your commute deserves better. So do your ears.