Big-name brands like Apple, Sony, and Bose tend to dominate the headlines when it comes to wireless earbuds, but that doesn’t mean you need to spend a ton to get something good. It’s more than possible to find a pair with clean sound, strong noise cancellation and a rich set of features for less than $100. That said, there’s still plenty of junk in the bargain bin, so you need to be careful.
If you’re looking to make an audio upgrade on the cheap, we’ve read countless reviews, compared specs and tested a few dozen models ourselves to find the best budget wireless earbuds you can buy. This is an extremely busy market with new releases arriving all the time, but we intend to keep this guide as up-to-date as possible as new contenders arrive.
The Anker Soundcore Space A40 is often available for $60 but offers the kind of performance and features you’d see from a pair of earbuds that costs twice as much. Its little round earpieces are light and evenly balanced, so they shouldn’t be a pain for most to wear for hours at a time.
The default sound profile is good enough: It’s warm, with a bump in the upper-bass and a dip in the treble that can dull some finer details, but pleasant on the whole. It doesn’t completely blow out the low-end the way many cheaper headphones do.
You can also customize the sound with EQ tools in the Soundcore app. Using those won’t make the Space A40 sound as nice as the best wireless earbuds on the market, but they can add a touch more deep bass or high-frequency emphasis. The app in general is easy to use, and it saves any changes you make directly to the earphones.
The Space A40’s best feature is its active noise cancellation (ANC), which is outstanding for the money. It won’t totally block out higher-pitched sounds, but it’s plenty effective at muting the rumbles of a train or jet engine. By default, Anker uses an adaptive ANC system that automatically tweaks the intensity based on your surroundings, though you can manually set it to strong, moderate or weak levels, too.
That’s great for those with sensitive ears. There’s also a transparency mode, which isn’t nearly as good as what you’d find on a high-end pair like the AirPods Pro but works in a pinch.
Most of the little touches you’d want from a modern set of headphones are here as well. The Space A40 can connect to two devices simultaneously, and you can use one earbud on its own.
Battery life is solid at roughly eight hours, while the included charging case can supply another 40 or so hours. It also supports wireless charging. The IPX4 water resistance rating isn’t anything special but still allows the earphones to survive light rain and everyday sweat.
The touch control scheme can feel somewhat busy, as it lets you assign up to six different shortcuts to different taps and long presses and effectively forces you to omit a function or two, but it works reliably. We’ve had no real connection issues, either.
The only major shortcomings are the mic quality and the lack of auto-pausing when you remove an earbud. The former doesn’t handle sibilant sounds very well and can lose your voice in particularly noisy areas, so this isn’t the best option for phone calls, but it’s usable.
The Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 NC is a commendable option if you prefer a larger “stem” design akin to Apple’s AirPods. In many ways, these earphones are just the Space A40 in a different shape.
Like our top pick, they deliver an impressive adaptive ANC system, a relatively stable fit, wireless charging, an intuitive app, IPX4-rated water resistance and the ability to connect with two devices at once. Battery life is about the same as well, but we were usually able to get a half-hour or so more out of the Liberty 4 NC.
By default, this pair has an exciting sound with big, thumpy bass and a noticeable spike in the treble. It’s a good example of the “fun” EQ curve we often see from mainstream headphones nowadays, one that lends a nice sense of clarity to vocals and higher-range instrumentation.
It fits especially well with EDM and pop music. That said, it’s intense, so some might find it fatiguing. The Space A40 doesn’t exactly sound neutral, but it comes off as easygoing by comparison, so it should be more agreeable for most. You can still personalize the Liberty 4 NC’s sound profile through a variety of EQ settings in the Soundcore app, but it’s hard to fully rein in the bass even with those.
Beyond that, you can manually adjust the strength of this pair’s ANC on a five-step scale, which is a little more granular than the Space A40’s three-step system. The touch controls are slightly more extensive, as you can triple-tap each earbud to change volume or access other commands.
It also supports wear detection, plus its integrated mics are a bit better at resisting wind noise. However, it’s sluggish to auto-pause whenever you remove an earbud, and call quality is still mediocre in general. The included transparency mode is still merely serviceable too.