Sony MDR-M1: The new-for-2024 MDR-M1 are essentially a premium version of the 7506, delivering sound that’s hard to match for the price. These are the wired headphones that will make you realize what you’re missing after listening to wireless headphones for so long. They feature big, open sound with excellent clarity, accuracy and tight bass.
Earfun Wave Pro: They list for $80, but click the 20% instant coupon on their product page to get a discount. They may not sound as good as premium noise-canceling headphones from Bose or Sony, but 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.
QCY H3 Pro: Its new-for-2024 H3 Pro headphones are similar to models in this price range from 1More, Tribit and Edifier, but they arguably sound a touch better and I found them relatively comfortable to wear, as they feature a lightweight design and memory foam ear pads.
JBL Live 770NC: The well-designed and comfortable JBL Live 770NC offers some modest improvements over its predecessor, including better battery life (up to 65 hours with ANC off and 50 hours with ANC on) and Bluetooth 5.3 with LE Audio (via a future firmware upgrade). Equipped with 40mm drivers, you get bold, nicely defined sound with powerful bass that’s relatively tight. JBL’s Ambient Aware and TalkThru features are on board along with multipoint Bluetooth pairing (the one feature that’s missing is ear-detection sensors that pause your music when you take the headphones off).
Edifier W830NB: The W830NB looks slightly more premium than its predecessor, and 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.
Sennheiser Accentum Plus: In 2023, Sennheiser released a new midrange noise-canceling headphone called the Accentum which was sort of a slightly stripped-down version of its flagship Momentum Wireless 4 headphones with smaller 37mm drivers (the MW4 has 42mm drivers). The Accentum Plus, new for 2024, adds some extra features for $50 more, or $230. They include touch controls, adaptive noise canceling, support for the AptX Adaptive Audio codec, an analog port for wired listening and a hard carrying case. Even though it costs more, I do recommend this model over the Accentum because of those extras.
Anker Soundcore Space One: Available in three color options, the Soundcore Space One by Anker are a good value for around $100, offering a strong feature set along with good sound quality and performance. They can’t compete sound-wise with many of the premium noise-canceling models, but you don’t feel like you’re giving up that much on the sound front to save a good deal of money. They lack a bit of that natural, refined quality you look for in a great set of cans, but the Space One sounds respectable, with decent clarity and bass definition and measures up well to the more expensive Soundcore Space 45.
Beyerdynamic DT 700 Pro X: These headphones are targeted at content creators who want accurate audio reproduction, but it’s a bit more dynamic sounding and less bass-shy than many studio headphones, which tend to restrain the bass and hew toward a very neutral sound profile. The DT 700 X are revealing, clean-sounding headphones that offer invitingly open sound (particularly for closed-back headphones) and make you realize what you’re missing after listening to similarly priced Bluetooth headphones.
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