If you’re after a pair of in-ears to wear, our list of best in-ear headphones will help you find the choice that’s best for you.
All in-ear headphones, whether or wireless, come with different features and technology, so it’s worth assessing your needs before deciding which type of headphones to go for.
We’ll help you make that choice with our own experience. We’ve reviewed pairs from all the brands, big and small, and know what works and what doesn’t work with in-ear headphones.
If you use your headphones for casual use or on your commute, then a wireless pair will offer more convenience as you’ll be free from the dreaded scenario of tangled cables.
Otherwise, headphones generally offer better sound quality because they transmit uncompressed audio without any Bluetooth interference. Wired headphones also don’t require charging, so you won’t ever be caught short on battery life (always handy for any long-haul flights).
If you’re after more options, be sure to check out our best wireless earbuds list, our best noise cancelling earbuds which are perfect for commuters or frequent fliers. Or if you’re looking for a dedicated gym companion then you should visit our best running headphones list.
Best in-ear headphones at a glance
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How we test headphones
Not just anybody can review a pair of headphones. You don’t need superhuman hearing to tell what’s good, but you do need to know what to listen out for.
Our headphone tests are done by some of the best and most prolific reviewers in the industry, with years of experience listening to everything from the plasticky freebie earbuds that come with your smartphone, to five-figure beasts of glass and marble. We love music and we want your tunes to sound good, too.
So we listen every pair of headphones we can get on or in our ears. We use a variety of sources, from basic MP3s playing on a laptop to high-quality tracks on dedicated hi-res audio players.
Our test tracks are wide-ranging to give headphones a thorough challenge. They’re also familiar, so we know every track backwards, and we know which bits might trouble the lesser performers.
We listen again and again, and we do that for weeks in case the sound changes – because it usually does. Then we’ll listen to similarly priced rivals and come up with a verdict that reflects the performance and features for the money.
Pros
- Rich but balanced sound
- Excellent noise-cancelling
- Impressive call quality
- Comfortable design
- Lots of ways to customise performance
Cons
- Battery life in LDAC mode
- Shaky connection in busy areas
Pros
- Comfortable to wear
- Impressive noise-cancellation
- Superb true wireless sound
- Same price as before
- Improved call quality
Cons
- Finding that airtight seal can be fiddly
- Not necessarily anything ‘new’ with this model
- Unchanged IPX4 rating
Pros
- Class-leading noise-cancellation
- Improved call quality
- Tweaks to audio are positive
- Comfortable to wear
- Excellent Bluetooth performance
Cons
- Technics edges it for sound
- Battery life slipping behind others
- Among the most expensive wireless earbuds
Pros
- Better fit thanks to subtle design tweaks
- Improved battery life, sound and ANC
- The HRM is such a great addition, and it’s very accurate
Cons
- Many of the best features require an iPhone
- Minimal customisation available if the audio isn’t to your taste
Pros
- Exciting, fluid, dynamic sound
- Excellent craftmanship
- Good noise-isolating performance
- Easy to drive
Cons
- Expensive
- Can sound fatiguing at higher volumes
Pros
- Comfortable, light
- Spacious, punchy and quite balanced sound
Cons
- Need greater bottom-end control and more dynamism to their sound
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Rich but balanced sound -
Excellent noise-cancelling -
Impressive call quality -
Comfortable design -
Lots of ways to customise performance
-
Battery life in LDAC mode -
Shaky connection in busy areas
Technics has been trying to crack the true wireless market for years, with the EAH-AZ100 they’ve succeeded in grand style
They are a fantastic all-round effort, that best the likes of the Sony WF-1000XM5 and Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds with its call quality, as the AZ100 latches onto your voice and blocks out all the sounds around you.
It’s the best call quality we’ve experience on a true wireless so far.
The sound is not too shabby either. It’s rich but detailed, with a better bass performance than the AZ80 model and a more dynamic and musical presentation.
The soundstage is wide, highs are clearl, the midrange is detailed while bass has depth. These are the best-sounding true wireless from Technics yet, and one of the best on the market too.
The battery life depends on the mode you’re listening to the earphones in. We found that in the AAC mode, they can last for a long time, but with LDAC we managed to get less than six hours from the battery.
The Bluetooth performance is mostly strong, though we found that in busy areas the signal can get very choppy. They do boast Bluetooth multipoint, which allows them to connect to three devices at once.
The noise-cancellation is as good as Bose, stripping away most of the sounds around us for a quiet performance whether we were on a plane, a bus on the London Undergound.
The transparency mode is strong too, though we don’t find it to be as clear as the one on the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds.
With lots of features, excellent sound and noise-cancellation, the Technics AZ100 are the true wireless earphones to beat.
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Comfortable to wear -
Impressive noise-cancellation -
Superb true wireless sound -
Same price as before -
Improved call quality
-
Finding that airtight seal can be fiddly -
Not necessarily anything ‘new’ with this model -
Unchanged IPX4 rating
The WF-1000XM6 are another excellent pair of in-ear buds from Sony, providing a better all-round performance than the (also excellent) WF-1000XM5 pair.
Before we dive into the earbuds, there is one caveat you need to keep in mind. While the XM6 buds are slimmer in profile than the predecessor, they can be very fiddly to place in your ear. You can use the Sony Sound Connect app to measure whether the seal of the earbuds is airtight or not, however we found this app was very hard to please.
Even without the approval of the Sound Connect app, we still found the XM6 buds were comfortable to wear and offered a truly brilliant noise cancelling performance. In fact, we concluded simply that “these are the quietest pair of earbuds” we’ve ever used as the buds cancel noise naturally without any of the processed sounds found with the Technics EAH-AZ100.
We also found the XM6 did a brilliant job during calls too, with a brilliant voice pick-up without any external sounds seeping in.
Unsurprisingly, the XM6 is a feature packed pair of earbuds, with Sony including plenty of tools to level up your listening. There’s Quick Attention Mode, Speak to Chat, Adaptive Sound Control and Scene-Based Listening. The latter will instantly resume the audio from music services as soon as you put your earphones in, or when you start moving.
Otherwise, overall we found the sound quality to be exceptional with the buds providing a clear and balanced approach across the frequency range. In fact, we noticed an improvement over the brilliant XM5 buds as highs were improved with more clarity and detail and a “sturdier” bass too.
Essentially, if you want a brilliant sounding pair of earbuds that are not only comfortable but offer some of the best noise cancelling around, then the Sony WF-1000XM6 is a hard set to beat.
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Class-leading noise-cancellation -
Improved call quality -
Tweaks to audio are positive -
Comfortable to wear -
Excellent Bluetooth performance
-
Technics edges it for sound -
Battery life slipping behind others -
Among the most expensive wireless earbuds
With some of the best noise cancelling on the market, brilliant sound quality and a much-needed improvement in call quality, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra (2nd Gen) are a worthy successor to the original pair.
Packed with support for SBC, AAC, and aptX Adaptive (Snapdragon Sound), there’s also Google Fast Pair for quickly connecting the buds to an Android, Bose SimpleSync for pairing with other Bose devices and Spotify Tap too.
Where the QC Ultra (2nd Gen) shines, however, is with its brilliant ANC performance. We concluded that when ANC was enabled, it was “almost dead silent” when wearing the buds outdoors and on public transport. Even on planes, our reviewer hailed the buds as offering one of the quietest experiences ever tested. That’s a seriously impressive result.
Aware mode also impressed, as it offers a clarity, detail and natural-sound when letting in relevant outside sounds.
If you already own the original QC Ultra earbuds, then you’ll likely have noticed voice calls aren’t the buds’ strong point. Fortunately, Bose has rectified this with the second generation, as we’ve confirmed that both voice pick-up and isolation to be brilliant. Even when taking calls in busy areas, hardly any external noise was heard on the other end.
Finally, and perhaps unsurprisingly, we also concluded that the Bose QC Ultra (2nd Gen) are the “best sounding Bose earbuds”, with a more confident sound than its predecessor. In fact, we found the buds handled the entire frequency range with ease.
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Better fit thanks to subtle design tweaks -
Improved battery life, sound and ANC -
The HRM is such a great addition, and it’s very accurate
-
Many of the best features require an iPhone -
Minimal customisation available if the audio isn’t to your taste
The AirPods Pro 3 are a brilliant upgrade over their predecessor, with a more immersive sound, stronger ANC and redesigned buds for a more comfortable fit.
On the latter point, the tips of the earbuds are now fitted with foam inside the silicone to help aid noise cancellation. The ANC here is adaptive, which means it intelligently changes depending on incoming noise. While this means that there isn’t any direct control over its level, we still found the ANC did a brilliant job at removing background noise – even in difficult environments such as flights and on the London Underground.
Alongside its ANC prowess, the AirPods Pro 3 offers brilliant sound quality. Even without the addition of spatial audio, we found songs sound bigger and more immersive than they did on the AirPods Pro 2.
While these may seem like niche additions, it’s worth noting that the AirPods Pro 3 are fitted with a handful of useful features. Not only can the buds double as a medical grade hearing aid but you can also benefit from Live Translation and monitor your heart rate thanks to the buds’ built-in sensor. However, just remember that an iPhone is required to access such features. If you’re sporting one of the best Android phones, then you’ll be better off with another option on this list.
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Exciting, fluid, dynamic sound -
Excellent craftmanship -
Good noise-isolating performance -
Easy to drive
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Expensive -
Can sound fatiguing at higher volumes
The Andromeda earphones are one of Campfire Audio’s most popular models. Since we reviewed the 2019 Classic version, there’s been a 2020 version, and now there’s the Andromeda Emerald Sea.
The Emerald Sea is not as brash as its predecessor, offering a better balanced across the frequency range in terms of highs, midrange, and lows.
It’s still an energetic, dynamic, and propulsive listen across a range of genres, the warmth it treats music to gives it an enjoyable performance. These aren’t in-earphones that need much encouragement to go loud, but broad, wide soundstage and the way it places and positions voices and instruments within it, makes for an immersive sound.
It can sound fatiguing at higher volume levels, and it’s worth considering which sources this in-ear monitor is paired with as it can affect the performance. We found it sounded clearer and sharper when matched with the Astell & Kern SR35 than the FiiO M15s portable music player.
The build quality is excellent, the housing derived from a 3D printed shape that fits snugly in the ear. They’re comfortable to wear although we’d suggest not wearing for hours upon hours. They can start to make the wearer aware of their presence after about an hour. It’s worth breaking up listening sessions every now and then.
They also come in an attractive packaging with various cases, a certificate or purchase and a wooden box to keep them safe (or adorn on your mantelpiece). They also come with a selection of ‘Time Stream’ cables that terminate in 3.5mm unbalanced and 2.5mm and 4.4mm balanced options, giving you the option of how you want connect to a player/hi-fi equipment.
While they’ve gone up in price to £1499 / $1499, if you can afford them we’ve found them to be nothing but enjoyable over the course of listening to them.
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Comfortable, light -
Spacious, punchy and quite balanced sound
-
Need greater bottom-end control and more dynamism to their sound
From the Campfire Andromeda to the Final E500, we go from one end of the price spectrum to the another. At $25 / £19.99, the E500 in-ears are as inexpensive as you can get for a pair of in-ears.
At that price we’re not expecting much flash in the design, and that’s confirmed upon looking at the E500.
These aren’t of the calibre of Final’s more expensive Sonorous headphone range, though our reviewer felt the in-ears carried a more robust build quality than the freebie earphones that come packaged with smartphones, with the attached 1.2m cable felt heftier and more robust. At 15g they’re lightweight, good enough to wear for hours at a time without causing any consternation.
As you’d expect for a pair of earphones there’s not much on the feature front. However, the E500 does come with a supply of various silicone and/or foam ear tips to find the right fit, and boast the same 6.4mm small aperture dynamic driver that can be found in all of Final’s E-series in-ears, which cost much more than the E500.
On the sound front we found the E500 lacked a degree of bass control, though the low end is nicely textured and is provided with good detail. Another area where they are lacking was in creating the sense of three-dimensionality in its stereo image, along with a sense of dynamism to its performance.
But these are a £19.99 pair of in-earphones after all, and for that price they are streets ahead of other similarly priced alternatives, pitching a confident, musical listen with an even-handed approach to the frequency range that doesn’t over- or understate highs, mids and lows.
We found them to be a spacious performer, displaying a good sense of timing across the frequency range to elicits a coherent and satisfying sound. If you want better, you’ll need to spend more to get an in-ear from SoundMagic.
FAQs
Technically speaking, earbuds present a one-size fits all body that sits on your ear canal, while earphones come with ear-tips to burrow further into the ear for a better fit.
No, that’s dependent on the headphones. Wired in-ears won’t feature any noise cancellation, instead relying on creating a passive noise isolating seal to fend of noises. Not all wireless earphones support noise cancellation, so you will need to check to specs to see if it is supported.
Full Specs
| Technics EAH-AZ100 Review | Sony WF-1000XM6 Review | Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) Review | Apple AirPods Pro 3 Review | Campfire Andromeda Emerald Sea Review | Final E500 Review | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK RRP | £259.99 | £250 | £299 | £219 | – | £20 |
| USA RRP | – | – | $299 | $249 | – | $25 |
| EU RRP | – | €300 | – | – | – | – |
| Manufacturer | Technics | Sony | Bose | Apple | – | Final Audio |
| IP rating | IPX4 | IPX4 | IPX4 | IP57 | – | No |
| Battery Hours | 36 | 24 | 24 | 8 | – | – |
| Wireless charging | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | – | – |
| Fast Charging | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | – | – |
| Size (Dimensions) | – | – | – | – | x x INCHES | x x INCHES |
| Weight | – | 60 G | 77 G | 5.55 G | – | 15 G |
| ASIN | B0C4LTWXFH | – | B0F7M3HPBD | – | B0BW4S5V39 | B07YKM3875 |
| Release Date | 2025 | 2025 | 2025 | 2025 | 2021 | 2020 |
| First Reviewed Date | – | – | – | 20/10/2025 | – | – |
| Model Number | EAH-AZ100 | – | – | – | – | FI-E05PLBL |
| Audio Resolution | SBC, AAC, LDAC, LE Audio | SBC, AAC, LDAC | SBC, AAX, aptX Adaptive | SBC, AAC | – | – |
| Driver (s) | 8mm magnetic fluid driver | 8.4mm | – | – | – | 6.4mm dynamic |
| Noise Cancellation? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | – | – |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth 5.3 | Bluetooth 5.3 | Bluetooth 5.3 | Bluetooth 5.3 | – | – |
| Colours | Black, Silver | Black, Platinum Silver | Black, Whie, Plum, Violet | White | – | Black |
| Frequency Range | 20 40000 – Hz | 20 20000 – Hz | 20 20000 – Hz | – Hz | – | – Hz |
| Headphone Type | True Wireless | True Wireless | True Wireless | True Wireless | – | In-ear |
| Sensitivity | – | – | – | – | – | 96 dB |
| Voice Assistant | – | Siri, Google Assistant | – | – | – | – |
