Earbuds are the one piece of audio gear nearly everybody owns, and they're also the easiest place to blow a couple hundred bucks on something that pops out of your ear on the stairs at Penn Station. The field got a real shake-up this year. Sony put out the WF-1000XM6 in February, Bose is on the second generation of its QuietComfort Ultra buds, and Apple dropped the AirPods 5 in September with noise cancelling on both models.
I'll be upfront about where my opinions come from. I've been an audio engineer since 1978 and I've had in-ear monitor rigs like Shure's PSM 1000 on tours I've worked, but I don't run consumer earbuds through a lab, so for the wireless pairs I lean hard on RTINGS and SoundGuys, who measure this stuff for a living. Every price here is what Amazon showed on October 29, and earbud prices bounce around like a pinball.
Earbuds, IEMs and everything in between
Ask for earbuds at Best Buy and you could walk out with any of five pretty different animals. Knowing which one you're actually shopping for saves a lot of grief down the road.
True wireless earbuds are what most of us mean these days. You get two separate buds with no wire between them, Bluetooth to the phone and a little case that charges them up, and the AirPods Pro, Sony's XM6 and the Bose QuietComfort Ultra all live here. Nothing beats them for convenience, but you pay for it with short battery life per charge, sound squeezed through Bluetooth and tiny parts that don't always go the distance.
Then there are neckband models, two buds joined by a cable that drapes behind your neck. They hang on with longer battery life and a hair better sound, and Sony's WI-1000XM4 is the classic example (Bose's QuietControl 30 still turns up used, though Bose stopped making it years ago). True wireless has mostly eaten their lunch.
Open-fit earbuds sit in the outer ear and leave the canal unplugged, the way Apple's old wired EarPods did. You hear more of the room and give up bass and isolation for it. Apple's AirPods 5 are the modern take, and this year they picked up noise cancelling, which is a neat trick for something with no seal. If you want your ears completely open, clip-ons and ear hooks are a different breed, and I've rounded up the best open-ear and clip-on earbuds in a guide of their own.
Wired IEMs (in-ear monitors) seal in your ear canal with silicone or foam tips and run off a cable. Dollar for dollar they still sound better than wireless buds, there's no battery to babysit and the delay is next to nothing. The Truthear Hexa, Moondrop Aria, Sennheiser IE 600 and Etymotic ER4XR are all in this camp, and it's the same family of gear singers wear on stage, which is the world I come from.
Custom IEMs sit on the top rung. An audiologist takes impressions of your ears and outfits like 64 Audio, Empire Ears and Vision Ears build shells to match. Working musicians live on them and more audiophiles are catching the bug every year, and I wrote up when custom molds are worth it over universal-fit IEMs if you're curious.
This page sticks to the everyday stuff. That's mostly true wireless, plus a couple of wired IEMs for folks happy to plug in.
What actually matters when you buy earbuds
The checklist is different from over-ear headphones, and fit sits at the top of it by a mile. If a bud doesn't seal in your canal, the bass drains out, the isolation goes with it, the noise cancelling struggles and the whole thing works itself loose on a jog. Ears vary a crazy amount from one person to the next, so the best earbud on paper can be the worst one for you. Check the return policy before you buy anything pricey.
Battery comes with three numbers worth reading. There's how long the buds play before they need the case, how many top-ups the case holds and the grand total. Sony rates the XM6 at 8 hours a charge with noise cancelling on and 24 with the case, while Apple's AirPods 5 manage about 4 or 5 hours with ANC running, which is a big spread on a flight to the West Coast and no big deal on a 20-minute bus ride.
Noise cancelling has come on like gangbusters since 2020. SoundGuys measured about 90% average noise reduction on the AirPods Pro 3 and 88% on the XM6, and even the $59 CMF Buds 2 Plus got to around 83%. If you fly a lot or ride a loud train, it earns its keep every single day. In a quiet house you can take it or leave it.
Transparency mode, the setting that pipes outside sound in, gets used more than people expect. Most of us flip between music and hearing the barista all day long, and a cheap transparency mode can sound like somebody talking through a tin can.
Call quality is the sleeper. RTINGS rates the XM6 its best earbud for phone calls and found the Bose mic records a touch better still, while down at the cheap end the mics can get pretty rough. If you're on Zoom half the day, give this a lot of weight.
Ecosystem pull is real too. Apple's chips let AirPods hop between your iPhone, iPad, Mac and Watch without you lifting a finger, and nobody else pulls that off as smoothly on Apple gear. Sony and Bose both make perfectly decent apps, but on an iPhone they're playing an away game.
Then there's water. IPX4, which is what the XM6 has, shrugs off sweat and a bit of drizzle but doesn't want a dunking. IP57, like the AirPods Pro 3, keeps dust out and is rated to survive a short dip. For the gym or a run in the rain that counts, and at the office it hardly matters.
My seven earbud picks for 2026
Sony WF-1000XM6
The pair the whole review world keeps landing on this year
If reviewers agree on one thing in 2026, it's this pair. RTINGS ranks the WF-1000XM6 its top wireless earbud and its best for calls, SoundGuys crowned it best overall in September, and What Hi-Fi and Stuff both call it the one to beat. SoundGuys got 9 hours 41 minutes out of a charge and about 88% noise reduction. It plays just as nice with Android as with an iPhone, with LDAC, LC3 and two-device multipoint. Now the bad news. The buds are chunky and there are no wings, so small ears may never get a solid fit, and it's only IPX4. TechRadar also felt the cancelling wasn't much of a jump over the old XM5. Amazon had it at $328 on the 29th, but 9to5Toys spotted it at $258 on October 5, so I wouldn't pay full freight.
Photo: Apple press image
Apple AirPods Pro 3
Apple's best buds, now running about $50 under list
SoundGuys calls these the best earbuds for iPhone and its top noise-cancelling earbud, full stop, at around 90% noise reduction, and Tom's Guide says they're the best earbuds you can buy right now. Apple piled on the extras too, with IP57 on the buds and the case, a heart-rate sensor and hearing-aid features. At $199 on Amazon against a $249 list, they're more than $100 under the Sony. Here's the rub. Most of the clever stuff needs an iPhone, so on Android you'd be paying for party tricks you can't use. SoundGuys also found the new foam-silicone tips lose their grip once you're sweaty, and the mics crackle in the wind. On an Android phone I'd buy the Sony or the Bose instead.
Photo: Bose press image
Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen)
The comfiest of the big three, with a battery that taps out early
Bose's stability bands tuck into the ridge of your ear, and that grip is the most secure of the premium buds here, which makes these the fallback for anyone the Sony just won't fit. SoundGuys picked it as the best noise-cancelling earbud for Android, at about 85% noise reduction, and RTINGS found its mic records slightly better than the XM6's. The battery is where it comes unstuck. Designbeep puts it at around 6 hours a charge and SoundGuys flags it as trailing several rivals, and there's no LDAC for Android folks who care about codecs. It's $299 on Amazon, a little under the Sony's price that day, so I'd let your ears make the call between the two.
Still on the fence?
Tell the matcher what phone you use, where you listen and what you'd like to spend, and it'll cut the list down to a few pairs.
Try the matcher →
Photo: Apple press image
Apple AirPods 5
Noise cancelling with no ear tips, for about $129
Apple brought these out on September 18 and put noise cancelling on both versions, $129 or $149 with the wireless-charging case. Apple claims they cut up to 50% more noise than the AirPods 4 with ANC. CNN rates the cancelling about on par with the AirPods Pro 3, while AppleInsider calls it close but a step behind, and I'd split the difference. The big draw is the open fit. There are no silicone tips at all, so if tips drive you up the wall these are a godsend. The flip side is a short battery. Apple says up to 5 hours with ANC on the wireless-case model, BGR measured about 4 on the $129 one, and Tom's Guide heard a little hiss with ANC on. With no seal they also let a fair bit of airplane drone sneak in.
CMF Buds 2 Plus
Fifty-nine bucks for buds that run with the big dogs on paper
SoundGuys can't stop handing this thing trophies. It's the budget pick in their wireless earbuds guide, their best value under $100, their best budget noise cancelling and their best budget pick for calls. For $59 you get a 4.8 out of 5 on their sound-quality score, about 83% noise reduction, a hair over 10 hours a charge and LDAC for Android phones. That's a lot of earbud for the price of a tank of gas. So what's missing? There's no true multipoint, only what CMF calls Dual Connection, no wireless charging, and the stock tuning leans bassy. I'd also point out that nearly all the praise comes from one outlet, SoundGuys, with a Designbeep list the only other place I found it.
Truthear Hexa
A four-driver IEM for less than a nice dinner out
If you're willing to plug in, this is where your money goes furthest. The Hexa pairs one dynamic driver with three balanced armatures, the kind of hybrid build that used to cost a few hundred bucks before Chinese brands like Truthear knocked the floor out of the price. Crinacle puts it at B+ on his IEM ranking list, and SoundGuys gave it an 8.1. At 20.5 ohms a phone dongle drives it with no sweat, and the cable comes off at a 2-pin socket, so a snapped cable doesn't mean a dead pair. The catch is the wire itself. Your phone probably has no headphone jack, so budget for a USB-C dongle like Apple's own adapter. Amazon has it at $89.99 right now, a bit over the $80 this page used to quote.
Photo: Sennheiser press image
Sennheiser IE 600
Sennheiser's one-driver flagship, now a few hundred under its old price
This is the pair for people who want the real deal in a shirt pocket. Sennheiser builds it around a single 7 mm TrueResponse dynamic driver, so there's no crossover juggling several drivers, and it comes with a 3.5 mm cable and a 4.4 mm balanced one on MMCX connectors. At 18 ohms it's an easy load for a decent dongle. Sennheiser US has it marked down to $599.95 from $899.95, and Amazon matches that. For my money a good wired IEM like this still out-details any true-wireless bud going. Two flags, though. Sennheiser's US page shows an Add to Cart button and a notify-me signup at the same time, so stock looks iffy, and at home a good over-ear pair gives you more for the cash. My roundup of universal-fit IEMs has more pairs in this league.
Why fit beats the spec sheet every time
I'll say it again, it's the thing first-time buyers trip over most. Whether a bud fits your ears decides how happy you'll be far more than which model you bought, and that's how a pair everybody raves about ends up in a kitchen drawer.
Fit does four jobs at once. The seal between the tip and your canal is where the bass comes from, and with a leaky seal even a $300 flagship sounds thin as a dime. That same seal does a lot of the noise blocking, so a poor fit leaves the ANC fighting more racket and losing. Comfort is the third job, as a pair that fits disappears while a bad one leaves your ears sore by lunch, and staying put is the fourth. Loose buds pop out on a jog, or just from turning your head too fast at a crosswalk.
So try every tip in the box. Most premium buds ship with several sizes, the medium that comes fitted is often wrong and plenty of people need a different size in each ear. If none of them work, aftermarket tips from Comply, SpinFit or Azla's SednaEarfit line come in other shapes and materials, and a pack of tips costs peanuts next to the earbuds.
Run the fit test if your buds have one. Sony's app has one, Apple has its Ear Tip Fit Test and Bose builds one into its app too. They're handy for catching a bad seal, though I'd trust your own comfort over whatever the app tells you.
Lean on the return window. Amazon, Apple and Best Buy all take earbuds back for a limited time, so wear them hard that first week. Buying pricey buds and hoping they'll fit is the most expensive mistake in this whole category.
And if nothing seals no matter what you try, custom IEMs might be your answer. Expect to spend $500 and up plus a trip to an audiologist for impressions, but the fit is made for your ears and nobody else's.
How to pick between them
Still stuck? Find the line that sounds most like you.
Questions people ask about earbuds
Should I get wired or wireless earbuds?
For most people most of the time, wireless wins on convenience, plain and simple. If you'll plug in for serious listening, a wired IEM gets you better sound for the money, and on sound alone I'd put the $89.99 Hexa up against wireless pairs costing three times as much. Plenty of keen listeners keep one of each, wireless for the commute and wired for the couch.
What if AirPods don't fit my ears?
You've got lots of company. Apple's shapes suit a lot of ears but nowhere near all of them. Try third-party tips first (Comply makes foam ones for the Pro line), or look at the AirPods 5, which skip tips altogether and sit in your ear differently. The Sony XM6 is a different shape again with different tips, and it often fits people AirPods don't. One brand not working doesn't mean every earbud has it in for you.
How long do wireless earbuds last?
Figure on three or four years. The battery is what gives out, and once it fades the buds won't make it through a long commute anymore. A few makers will fix a battery or replace a single bud for a fee, but most won't, so I'd plan on buying a new pair. A wired IEM with a detachable cable can keep going for ten years or more if you swap the cable when it frays, which makes the math look a lot better over time.
Do I need noise cancelling in earbuds?
That depends on where you listen. On planes, subways and in loud open-plan offices it pays for itself every day. In a quiet house you won't miss it, and some people can't stand the plugged-up pressure feeling ANC gives them anyway. I suspect a lot of us pay for cancelling we hardly ever switch on, though at $59 for the CMF it's not much of a gamble anymore.
Which earbuds are best for the gym?
Workouts want different things, mostly a fit that won't budge and enough sweat resistance. Ear-hook buds like the Powerbeats Pro 2 and wingtip ones like the Powerbeats Fit are built for it, and the AirPods Pro 3 do fine for lighter sessions. I've got a whole list of gym earbuds that stay put through burpees.
What are the cheapest earbuds worth buying?
Right now I'd start with the CMF Buds 2 Plus at $59, or Sony's WF-C710N, which Amazon had around $79 when I looked. Below $50 it turns into a coin toss, and the noise cancelling is often more sticker than substance. If sound matters more than the wire, the Hexa is the cheap seat I'd take. My picks for headphones under $100 cover both kinds.
What about Samsung Galaxy Buds or Sennheiser's wireless buds?
Samsung owners should take a look at the Galaxy Buds4 Pro, out since February at $249.99 with IP57. SoundGuys gave them an 8 out of 10, though there's no multipoint. SoundGuys also names Sennheiser's Momentum True Wireless 5 ($299.95) its pick for Android. Neither made my seven, but I wouldn't talk you out of either one.
My bottom line
For most people I'd buy the Sony WF-1000XM6, ideally on a dip toward that $258 low. iPhone folks should grab the AirPods Pro 3 at $199, and if you're counting pennies the CMF Buds 2 Plus do an awful lot for $59. Whichever pair you land on, wear it hard inside the return window, and if it won't seal, try a different set of tips before you send the whole thing back.