These cheap noise canceling earbuds saved my sanity during loud roadwork

I love my Shokz OpenRun Pro. They’ve come in clutch for everything from early morning runs on busy roads to long train rides when I want to catch up on a podcast but still be able to talk to friends traveling with me. I have no hesitations about recommending a pair to someone looking to try bone-conduction headphones. And yet, my favorite thing about them is also their greatest weakness — they don’t block any outside noise.

So, when the gas company came down my street, ripping up a strip of pavement in the name of maintenance, I thought I would lose my mind. I couldn’t escape the sound of jackhammering or the feeling of my entire apartment shaking, at least not with my favorite ‘buds in my ears. In a moment of desperation, I dusted off a pair of CMF Buds Pro 2 that I hadn’t used in a few months, and now I wish I’d been using them all along. Here’s why.

At a glance, there’s very little to get excited about with the CMF Buds Pro 2 — at least from a design perspective. They’re a simple, in my case, white pair of true wireless earbuds that look like AirPods but not quite. You know, just like almost every other pair of ‘buds on the market. Yet, when you’re paying just a shade under $60 for earbuds you can grab and go, that’s all you need. Besides, how they fit and how easy they are to control is much more important.

And, on both fronts, the CMF Buds Pro 2 delivered. I mean, there’s a reason that so many earbuds look like Apple’s signature AirPods these days, and it’s because the design just works. As long as you have rubber ear tips and a round enough body, it’s easy to nestle them comfortably in your ears. So, when I slipped the Buds Pro 2 from their case and popped them in, I got a little bit lucky that I didn’t have to swap tip sizes — they just fit from the get-go. If you need to swap ear tips, Nothing includes small, medium, and large sizes in its packaging, and there’s also a fit test to ensure you get the right pair.

Anyway, the more exciting piece of the CMF Buds Pro 2 design for me was controlling my music once I had the earbuds in. With the amount of roadwork going on outside, the last thing I wanted to do was fidget with either earbud and throw off its in-ear detection, exposing me to the sounds of jackhammering once again. So, I was relieved to find out there’s a better way to control the earbuds than tapping on either stem. Sure, you can do that, but you can also do everything with the Smart Dial built into the earbuds’ charging case. You can press it to start and stop your music, hold it to change your noise canceling settings, or twist it to adjust your playback volume — it’s kind of like a fidget toy, but it serves a purpose beyond combating boredom.

It’s also at this point that my friends over at SoundGuys would probably tell you every last detail about how the CMF Buds Pro 2 sound and how close their profile is to perfection (you can read their in-depth thoughts here). I, however, am not nearly that much of a headphone geek — my favorite headphones don’t even go in my ears — so I will just say that I quite like the sound that comes out of these budget-friendly ‘buds. I have them paired to my Nothing Phone 3a, and I’ve been using the Nothing X app to tailor my preferences, letting Dirac Opteo take the wheel as far as adjusting my equalizer, and I have no real complaints.

Now, if only these cheap earbuds could reduce the vibration rattling through my apartment. Maybe I need Nothing’s wired earbuds from April Fool’s Day for that.

Honestly, though, the real reason I turned to Nothing’s CMF Buds Pro 2 to find peace during the involuntary stretch of roadwork is simple — I needed noise canceling more than anything. And yes, I’ve had plenty of earbuds that have offered noise cancelation in the past, like the Google Pixel Buds Pro and the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, but I’ve since sent both off to other colleagues, largely because I found myself using my trusty OpenRun Pro most of the time anyway. So, before I knew it, the CMF Buds Pro 2 were all I had left.

Thankfully, they also turned out to be all I needed. Maybe the cancellation isn’t perfect (or at least it doesn’t match some of the most expensive earbuds on the market), but knocking out 50dB of jackhammering sound was enough for me to focus on my articles for the day. The CMF Buds Pro 2 also support adaptive ANC, which adjusts for the sounds around you and can let conversations through the filter, but my cats haven’t learned to speak English yet, so I kept the cancelation set to its highest level instead.

However, just because the CMF Buds Pro 2 do many good things for under $60 doesn’t mean they’re perfect. I’ve occasionally noticed that they’ll just stop playing in my ears, or the adaptive ANC will fluctuate too quickly, dropping to let a conversation in or cutting off half of a sentence. Also, while I can usually get a good fit from my workout earbuds, and I trust the IP55 rating when I’m in the gym, the glossy plastic sometimes gets a bit slippery when I start to sweat — a problem I’ve never had with bone conduction headphones.

I never expected it, but I owe my local gas company a word of thanks. If not for its roadwork that starts at 8:00 sharp every morning, I wouldn’t have touched my CMF Buds Pro 2 until Nothing released another ultra-affordable Android phone. Now, I have a new favorite pair of grab-and-go earbuds, and I’m almost willing to drop my own money on a pair of Nothing Ear 3 ($149 at Amazon) just to see how they compare. By the way, I’m not entirely abandoning my beloved Shokz, I’m just going to save them for the times I need to keep my ears free.