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The Best Noise-Canceling Headphones
We tested noise-canceling headphones in the bustle of Grand Central Terminal, and these are the best
By Nick Guy, Geoffrey Morrison
Whether you commute on noisy public transit, fly a lot, sit in an office with chatty colleagues or work at home with a partner in the next room clacking away at their keyboard, noise-canceling headphones can provide solace you might not even know you needed.
After testing 14 top models in various noisy conditions, including putting our five favorites to the test at New York City’s cacophonous Grand Central Terminal, we found the Bose QuietComfort Ultra to be the headphones we’d recommend for almost anyone who wants to escape the roar of the world. The noise cancellation effectively blocks out distractions better than anything we tested, they’re comfortable for extended wear and music, podcasts and phone calls sound good out of the box. Sony’s WH-1000XM4 headphones are a good alternative, but we found the sound quality to be a little weaker, and don’t love their touch controls. If you’re looking for a lower-price noise-canceling option, we recommend the Soundcore Life Q30 from Anker.
If you would like to read all about how we vetted and tested these headphones and which experts we consulted, scroll down for more details.
- Best overall noise-canceling headphones
- Runner-up noise-canceling headphones
- Best lower-price noise-canceling headphones
- Others you should know about
- How we picked
Best overall noise-canceling headphones
Bose
QuietComfort Ultra
These headphones do a truly excellent job of muting the outside world and sound good no matter what you’re listening to.
Pros
- Excellent noise cancellation
- Light and comfortable design
Cons
- Sound is only good, not great
The Bose QuietComfort Ultras can’t give you the sound of silence—no headphones can—but they certainly get you closer than any other option we tested, making them the clear top choice for those shopping for noise-canceling headphones. They can greatly reduce ambient noise to make any plane, train or bus ride far more pleasant. At just under 9 ounces, they’re also extremely light, and with soft padding on both the earcups and headband, they’re very comfortable. Their sound, while not amazing, is clear with plenty of bass.
When it comes to noise cancellation, Bose has been one of, if not the best, brands for years. The Ultras continue that trend, improving upon the excellent last-generation QuietComfort 45s that were our previous top pick (and still a good option if you can find them on sale in the $250 range). Low-frequency rumbles, such as aircraft engines, are significantly reduced, and even midrange frequencies are diminished to a surprising degree (though no noise-canceling headphones can fully silence voices, babies crying and other higher-frequency sounds). If your desire is to make a commute as quiet as possible, these are the best option. And if you want slightly more awareness—while walking along a busy street, for example—you can create modes with different levels of noise cancellation in the Bose Music app.
As good as the noise canceling is, the sound quality is decidedly average. There is some pronounced bass, but it’s not as full or musical as better-sounding headphones including the Sonys we recommend below. The treble is good, but it doesn’t add the clarity or realism that some headphones can provide. If sound quality is your main priority, there are better sounding headphones that cost a similar amount or less. Those headphones won’t have noise canceling that’s as good as Bose’s, though.
Bose claims to adjust the sound of the Ultras to suit your ears using a feature it calls CustomTune. Each time you place the headphones over your head, they play a sound that Bose claims helps to adjust the Ultra’s sound profile to suit your specific ear shape. You can disable this by using the app’s equalizer settings, but since there are only three bands (bass, mid and treble), and four presets, we weren’t able to manually improve the sound over the CustomTuned version.
The Ultras also have an “Immersive Audio” feature, which is Bose’s name for spatial audio. This artificially expands the “size” of the sound, making it seem bigger and more like a surround-sound system instead of two speakers. There are two distinct modes: The Still mode centers the audio, so no matter which way you turn your head, the audio stays focused in one direction. The Motion mode keeps the expanded sound, but moves with you as you turn your head. We feel this much-hyped feature is a bit gimmicky and works better with some songs over others. The Still mode is odd if you’re not watching a video where the sound has a reason to be locked in one place. The Motion mode has a delay with its movement, which can be distracting. It’s worth noting that the Ultras have a fairly wide soundstage, meaning the sound seems to come from out over your shoulders, even without Immersive Audio engaged. In other words, the sound feels big even without additional processing.
The Ultras feature an updated design that looks classier than their extremely dated predecessors, but despite three color options—Black or White, both with silver accents, and Sandstone beige with gold accents), they’re still fairly underwhelming in the looks department. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but if you prefer a more ostentatious look, something like the AirPods Max will be a better option.
With rotating earcups, one of which folds into the space of the headband when not in use, the Ultras are quite compact. Their carrying case is one of the smallest we’ve tested; combined with the folding design, they’re a clear improvement over the Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 they replace. Included in the box are a USB-A-to-USB-C charging cable and a standard 3.5mm-to-2.5mm analog cable for wired listening. Unlike the lower-price QuietComfort headphones (mentioned below), the cable doesn’t include a microphone; calls will rely on your phone’s microphone when you’re in wired mode. Bose claims 24 hours of playtime per charge, cut down to 18 if you use Immersive Audio. A 15 minute charge will give you enough power for three hours of playback.
Runner-up noise-canceling headphones
Sony
WH-1000XM4
Sony’s headphones are packed full of high-end features. They sound better than our top pick, but don't cancel noise quiet as well.
Pros
- Competitive sound quality and noise cancellation
- Plenty of settings, including adjustable levels of noise cancellation
- On-ear detection: Audio automatically pauses and restarts when you take them off and on
Cons
- Touch controls aren’t as intuitive as buttons
- Confusing app settings
Sony’s WH-1000XM4 headphones sound better than the QuietComfort Ultras. Sony provides a lot of room for sound adjustment, with eight preset EQ adjustments and the ability to set your own so you can find a sound profile you love. Sound purists will be more than satisfied. The Wall Street Journal newsroom was also fond of their sound quality.
These headphones don’t offer the same excellent noise cancellation as our top pick from Bose. The mostly low-frequency noises at Grand Central Terminal were effectively muffled, but higher-pitched voices in the office bled through more. Sony offers adjustable ANC levels, with 20 levels of ambient-sound control so you can control how much outside noise filters in.
The touch controls are a drawback. To change the volume, you swipe up or down on the right earcup; skipping tracks is a swipe back or forward and you double tap to play or pause. It’s easy to “mis-swipe” and trigger the wrong function—or simply to forget which gesture does what. There are two physical buttons: the power button, which reads out the battery status when you press it while listening, and a “custom” button that can be assigned to control noise cancellation settings or activate Amazon Alexa.
Sony’s companion Headphones Connect app (iOS, Android) is one of the more overwhelming pieces of software I’ve used in a long time, and that’s coming from a writer who plays with apps and tech all day long.
If you like to tweak every imaginable setting, want to switch the ambient-sound settings based on your location and type of movement or adjust the noise cancellation based on atmospheric pressure, you may be intrigued, but it’ll be overkill for many. It might be more useful if the language was less ambiguous, and you’ll be forgiven for not knowing exactly what “ambient-sound control off” means, as just one example. (Hint: It’s actually the setting with active-noise cancellation and transparency mode both turned off.) The optional “speak-to-chat” feature that turns on transparency mode when you talk sounds clever but in practice is overly aggressive. We sometimes accidentally activated it just by clearing our throats, and you have to manually toggle noise canceling back on every time. We could go on.
The WH-1000XM4s weigh about the same as the QuietComfort Ultra headphones, and we found them equally comfortable for extended wear. The earcups are cushy and the adjustable headband prevented the head squeeze caused by some of the competition. Sony’s headphones look nicer, too, with a clean design (available in black, silver, white or blue) that looks current but winks appealingly to the ’70s. Sony won extra points for its compact, cleverly designed case that has space for the included cables. The company says you’ll get 30 hours of playback with ANC turned on.
Best lower-price noise-canceling headphones
Anker
Soundcore Life Q30
These headphones offer respectable sound quality and noise cancellation at a fraction of the price of the rest of the headphones we tested.
Pros
- Many of the same features as found on more premium models
- Much lower price point
Cons
- Flatter, boomier sound
- Only OK looks
Anker’s Soundcore Life Q30 headphones cost a quarter of the price of our top two picks yet pack many high-end features, including adjustable noise cancellation levels and EQ. Though they don’t perform as well as the Bose or Sony sets, they sound better than we’d expect for the price. The sound is more condensed, with a boomier bass, and lacks the crispness that we heard on better pairs. On Lizzo’s “Good as Hell,” for example, the pounding bass sounds like an isolated drum that overwhelms the song, whereas it’s more complementary to the rest of the instrumentation on the QuietComfort Ultras. Low voices in podcasts are also overemphasized. You can make adjustments if you’re willing to go into the EQ settings and play around, so you may be able to find a sound profile that works better for you.
It’s a similar story with noise cancellation. Anker’s headphones do a pretty decent job of blocking out sounds, but they let more background noise through than Bose’s and Sony’s more expensive models. It’s worth it to invest more if you’re particularly sensitive to the low-frequency sounds ANC headphones are most effective against, like the noise from plane engines.
The Life Q30s have soft, faux-leather earcups and they’re only about the same weight as the QuietComfort Ultra headphones. That plus the adjustable headband made them comfortable for extended wear. The design isn’t as elegant as we’d like, but for the price, it’s acceptable. (You have your choice of black, blue or pink.) One minor area for improvement is the buttons: They’re quite narrow, so some might find them hard to press. These headphones promise a 40-hour battery life.
Others you should know about
Lower-price Bose with less impressive noise cancellation
The Bose QuietComfort headphones are the direct replacement for our previous pick, the QuietComfort 45s. With the exception of some additional bass, this new model is essentially identical to its predecessor. They’re comfortable, have a handy and welcome physical switch to turn them on and off and offer very good noise cancellation. We found they actually sound a little better than our current pick, the QuietComfort Ultras, but the non-Ultra model’s noise canceling isn’t quite as strong. (They also lack the Ultra’s Immersive Audio, but we don’t consider that a deal breaker.)
Previous-generation Bose headphones
Bose
Noise Cancelling Headphones 700
Bose’s QuietComfort 45s and Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 are older versions of the QuietComfort and QuietComfort Ultra, respectively. They’re both good headphones in their own right, but their noise-canceling features aren’t quite as strong as the newer models. If you can find either at a significant discount while they’re still available, they’re worth considering.
Better sounding Sonys with some drawbacks
The WH-1000XM5 headphones are Sony’s latest, building on what made the XM4s successful but with some drawbacks that make us prefer the older and less expensive version a bit more. We found the XM5’s audio quality to be a little better, with stronger performance in the highs and mids that made for overall clearer sound. But the newer set costs $50 more at full retail price (both are often on sale) and has a much larger case because the headphones don’t fold in on themselves like most others in the category do. This makes them harder to travel with, and travel is one of the main reasons to buy this style of headphones.
Great for fans of Beats
Beats
Studio Pro Wireless Headphones
The Beats Studio Pro Wireless Headphones are an update to the popular Studio3 design. Although they look nearly identical, the audio quality is improved. We still prefer the QuietComfort 45’s livelier audio profile and more resonant bass, but if you like the signature Beats look, you probably won’t be disappointed by how these sound. You can toggle between three sound profiles, and play lossless audio, when connected to your phone, tablet or computer with the included USB-C cable. The Studio Pros squeeze the head more tightly than the Bose headphones, so some may find them less comfortable (we did). And there are still some notable premium features missing, including adjustable noise cancellation levels and on-ear detection.
Bowers & Wilkins’ Px7 S2 headphones are arguably among the best-looking pairs we tested, and they sound quite good. That’s why we were disappointed to find issues outside of the audio quality that prevent us from strongly recommending them. The first pair we received for review didn’t have any sound coming from the right earcup. Bowers & Wilkins swapped them out with another set that was tested to ensure this wouldn’t be an issue again. We got proper audio from the second set, but noticed a “dead zone” in the noise cancellation: When we turned our head about 45 degrees to the left, sound on our right made it into that side’s earcup. Additionally, the headphones would just stop playing during normal activity like walking, likely due to the sensitivity of the “wear sensor” setting designed to pause audio when you take the headphones off. There are three levels of sensitivity in the companion app—low, normal (which is where we experienced issues) and high—and a note below saying you should switch to low “if audio pauses unexpectedly while on your head,” suggesting the company is aware of the issue.
The Apple AirPods Max sound truly great, and the noise cancellation is incredibly effective. But at 13.6 ounces, these are the heaviest headphones we tested by far, which means they’re not as comfortable to wear for long periods, and those few ounces make a difference when you’re carrying them around all day. The “Smart Case” is a confounding single sheet of a silicone-like material folded into a holder that covers just the earcups, but not the headband. At $550, the AirPods Max are also the most expensive headphones we tested by $200 or more, although they’re often on sale.
The Anker Soundcore Life Q20+ feel cheaper than the other headphones we tested due to their plastic design. They perform well for lower-priced headphones, but only a few dollars more gets you the Life Q30 headphones, which sound about the same, look and feel nicer, and offer adjustable noise cancellation levels.
The Anker Soundcore Life Q35 look just like the Life Q30, and although we heard a little bit more bass, generally sound about the same. The main differences between the two are the Q35’s on-ear detection, adjustable noise cancellation levels and support for the LDAP audio streaming codec—none of which we believe to be worth a sizable increase in cost.
We found the noise cancellation on Anker’s Soundcore Space Q45 to be subpar. Anytime we’d turn our head, sound would leak in, making them effectively unusable.
1More’s SonoFlow are generally well-regarded as a good lower-price option. We found them to feel cheap, though, and the volume buttons on our review unit (which we had to purchase after several attempts to contact the company went unanswered) weren’t responsive. We had to press them several times to register an input, and because a double-click is used to skip back and forth between tracks, we often found ourselves inadvertently changing songs when we wanted to adjust the volume.
The Shure Aonic 50 sounded similar to the Bose QuietComfort Ultras that ranked tops in our tests. But they’re large, heavy and have a gigantic carrying case that weighs almost a pound and a half, which knocked them out of the running.
The Shure Aonic 40 sounded muddier than the more expensive Aonic 50 with perhaps a bit more bass, and the noise canceling isn’t as strong.
How we picked
Trust us
Nick Guy been reviewing consumer technology for more than a decade, including at a leading national product-reviews site. In that time he’s tested myriad headphones and closely followed the top audio brands.
Geoffrey Morrison has been reviewing audio products for two decades for many print publications and websites including CNET, Forbes and Sound & Vision magazine. He was the A/V editor of Wirecutter for five years, where he tested and reviewed hundreds of headphones, speakers and other audio products.
To get a deeper understanding of active-noise cancellation, the technology that powers these headphones, we consulted Kevin Franck, Ph.D., a licensed audiologist and the chair of the board of directors of the Hearing Loss Association of America. Franck has graduate degrees in hearing science, biomedical engineering and healthcare management. He walked us through ANC’s capabilities (and limits) as well as how specific headphone design specs might enhance or detract from performance.
We tested
The gold standard for both sound quality and sound reduction, over-the-ear active-noise cancellation headphones do their job in two ways. First, ANC “listens” to the environment using built-in microphones, and then emits an inverse sound wave, literally canceling out the noise. Second, over-the-ear headphones (as opposed to earbuds) block sound simply by acting as a physical barrier between your eardrums and the environment.
We began by researching headphones from every major manufacturer, based on familiarity with the brands’ reputations and external reviews and ratings. To qualify for testing, headphones had to have a transparency mode and multi-device pairing. Transparency mode switches on the headphones’ external microphones so more outside noise passes through. That allows you to be more aware of your surroundings and even hold conversations without removing the headphones. Multi-device pairing means the headphones will automatically switch between, say, your laptop, where you might be listening to music while you work, and your phone when a call comes in.
We deemed 14 pairs of headphones to be worthy of testing in real-world conditions. Here’s what we were looking for:
- Sound quality: Headphones need to make whatever you’re listening to sound great, whether that’s music, podcasts or phone calls. Some models offer adjustable EQ, meaning you can adjust the volume of the high-, mid- and low-frequency audio bands; if you like a lot of bass, you might turn up the lows, for example. We gave preference to those headphones that delivered impressive sound without needing any fussy setting adjustments.
- Noise cancellation quality: No pair of noise-canceling headphones can completely drown out the outside world. A good pair will effectively dampen the disruptive noises around you, especially those on the low end of the audio spectrum, like the roar of a plane engine. An even better pair will also cancel out some mid- and high-end sounds, like voices.
- Comfort, weight and overall design: The headphones we rated highest neither gripped your skull too tightly nor had uncomfortable ear cups that compressed the outer ear. They needed to be lightweight, which leads to less fatigue from wear and makes them more convenient for travel. We preferred physical controls over touch-based surfaces because they’re far easier to use. Aesthetic appeal was a factor, too. While you won’t see the headphones while you’re wearing them, everyone else can, so a good set should pair as well with a business suit as casual wear.
- Other features: We also took into account the adjustability, if any, of the level of noise cancellation; on-ear detection for automatically pausing your music when you take the headphones off and starting it again when you put them back on; and promised battery life.
We tested the headphones by listening to a range of audio content, including podcasts, phone calls, Google Meet video meetings and of course music—everything from The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” to “Morbid Stuff” by PUP. We then put the five pairs that rose to the top of our list through the noise gauntlet that is New York City, wearing them while walking around Brooklyn and Manhattan, on crowded subway cars and at one of the loudest environments we could find: New York’s Grand Central Terminal during rush hour. To assess their ability to tamp down typical office noise, we wore them working both at home with a partner one room over and at our noisy open-plan Buy Side from WSJ headquarters.
Our expert
- Kevin Franck, Ph.D., licensed audiologist, chair of the Hearing Loss Association of America’s board of directors, and senior vice president of strategic marketing and new product planning at Frequency Therapeutics, a biotechnology company focused on repairing hearing loss; with graduate degrees in hearing science, biomedical engineering and healthcare management; previously worked at Bose (although he didn’t provide any specific product recommendations for this piece)