The Best ANC Headphones for $150?

Soundcore Space Q45

These are well-built, with nice large ear cups and a nice amount of padding on the earpads to ensure a comfortable fit, even for long listening sessions. They also offer a large range of adjustment in the headband itself and adjustability in the ear cups too. This are one of the heavier headphones here, weighing 10.3oz / 292g. In spite of that they don’t feel particularly heavy. I wore these for several hours, whilst listening to music and watching movies, without any issues.

It can be difficult using the physical buttons on these as they are quite small and difficult to tell apart. They do however cover all the basic functions that you’d expect such as adjusting your volume, playback, and ANC options.

These headphones do fold up nicely into the well-made rigid case that they come with. That makes these especially easy to travel with. These also come with a USB-C charging cable and audio cable too.

The Q45’s support SBC and AAC audio codecs, as well as LDAC for your hi-res audio needs. Out-of-the-box they have plenty of bass, but it’s not overly heavy. The mids and the trebles are pretty good too. You can also adjust the EQ if it’s not to your liking using the soundcore mobile app. This provides a number of EQ presets, such as ‘pop’, ‘rock’ and ‘jazz’ for you to choose from. There’s even an 8-band graphic equalizer so you can customise it exactly to your tastes. All up the sound quality in these are pretty good.

Noise canceling on these are particularly good at canceling out higher frequencies compared to other headphones. It also does a good job of cancelling alot of the lower frequencies too. Switching to transparency mode, and there 5 levels allowing you to choose the amount of ambient noise you want to let into your headphones.

You can also take a call on these using the inbuilt mics. The Q45’s do an amazing job of canceling out any background noise to ensure you are well heard. It does digitize your voice as a result but you can still be clearly heard.

The soundcore Q45’s provide 50 hours of battery life, and that’s with ANC turned on! Turn ANC off and that jumps up to 65 hours! They also have fast charging where a 5 minute charge gives 4 hours of playback. It will also charge up to full in around 2 hours. That is some of the best battery life our there.

The soundcore Q45’s come filled with features for their $150 price tag and so offer amazing value for money. They’re also also available in blue and white if you need a change from black.

Sony WH-CH720N

These do feel, and look, the cheapest out of all these as it is predominantly a plastic build. That does make them the lightest headphones here though, weighing only 192g / 6.8oz. The matte black finish does a pretty good job of making them look as ‘premium’ as it can though.

There’s a good amount of flexibility in these headphones. and a light clamping force . This makes them especially good for people who wear glasses. The earpads also offer a good amount of padding. So all up these are a pair of headphones that most people are going to find comfortable.

The physical buttons on the earcups are easy to operate due to the raised bumps on the buttons themselves. They also cover all the basic controls such a volume adjustment and playback.

Unfortunately there is no case with these headphones. Not even a soft pouch to store them in, which is a shame. They do at least come with a USB-C charging cable and audio cable.

The 720N’s sounded pretty flat and neutral and for my listening tastes didn’t require much tweaking at all. They were very easy to listen too. Not overly done bass or overly harsh treble. The mids and highs where well balanced and the bass was punchy without being overpowering. If you do want to change how these sound you can use the Sony mobile app to select from a few different presets, or use the 5-band custom graphic equalizer.

For taking a call on these, whilst the mic does heavily digitize my voice, and it’s a bit fuzzy around the outside, overall you can still hear me, and any background noise is kept to a minimum too. So it’s acceptable for taking a call, if you had to.

These come with ‘only’ 35 hours of battery life with ANC turned on. This would have been acceptable but for the others in this list. These also have the slowest ‘fast charging’ here as a 3 minute charge only gives 60 minutes of playback. These also take forever to charge up to full. These take a 3 hours! So compared to the other headphones in this list it’s definitely one of the CH720N’s weaknesses.

They do have pretty good app support though as Sony use the same app for all their headphones. So you get the same mobile app that supports their more expensive WH-1000XM5’s. This provides 20 band transparency mode, ANC selection, and EQ customisation using either the inbuilt presets or the 5-band graphic EQ. There’s also a “find my equalizer” option. This is similar to soundcore’s “Hear ID” which runs a test to create the best sound profile for your ears.

The Sony WH-CH720N’s cost $150, and sound good for that price. However, they don’t have the best battery life, and some will lament the lack of case.

Edifier WH950NB

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These are some premium looking headphones. They have a leather look to the side of the earcups which is a design similar to the Sony WH-1000XM4’s. That premium look does come at the cost of weight though with these weighing 10.4oz / 296g. However, they offer a good amount of adjustability. Both the pan and tilt of the ear cups, and the headband itself, offer plenty of range for adjusting. So comfort isn’t an issue. The earpads also have a nice amount of padding, and were a decent enough size. I didn’t find my ears overheating even whilst wearing them for a long time.

The physical buttons on these are rubber, which does detract from the premium feel of these headphones, but it does at least make them easy to use and distinguish from the ear cups.

These nicely fold up into the provided case. Which, like the headphones, feels premium. I’d be happy to have this case with headphones costing twice as much. These also come with both a USB-C cable for charging, and a 3.5mm audio cable for listening over a wired connection. You can still listen to these over a cable even when the battery has run out.

You will get standard SBC and AAC audio codec support with the WH950NB’s, as well hi-res LDAC support also. These are headphones that place a HUGE emphasis on the bass. These are thumping! There was just so much of it! Fortunately you can jump into their mobile app and tweak it. There are only 2 EQ presets to choose from,but you can also use the 4-band EQ to adjust the sound yourself. So yes, they sound good (if you like bass), but they’re aren’t as customisable as some others in this list.

The mics on these headphones however do a fantastic job in pretty much canceling out any background noise if you use them to take a call. They do digitize your voice a little bit as a result of that but not as badly as some other and so considering how loud the background noise was when I tested them, they did a really good job.

Battery life is average for these headphones, with 34 hours with ANC turned on. They do as least have fast charging though where a 10 minute charge provides 7 hours of playback. Even charging these all the way up to full only takes 90 minutes. That’s twice as fast as the Sony WH-CH720N’s!

Overall the Edifier WH950NB offer bass thumping sound, with all the accessories you could need, in a premium looking package. It’s available for $180 in both black and white.

Cleer Audio Enduro ANC

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There is a real retro vibe to the design of these headphones which, in a sea of similar looking headphones, is a refreshing change. They are fairly adjustable for getting a good fit, and weigh 10oz/280g. So these certainly aren’t heavy on the head. I did find the earcups and earpads to be quite small though, and I don’t have large ears either! So I did find my ears getting quite hot after listening on these headphones for a while.

The buttons on the ear cups are at least easy to use thanks to their prominent bumps. They cover all your basic controls related to volume and playback.

What does let these headphones down though is the build quality. These headphones creak a fait bit. Whether it’s adjusting the headband, stretching them, or even just wearing them. It really detracts from listening to music on this.

Unfortunately these only come with a pouch for putting the headphones in. It is better than nothing, but not as good as some others in this list. They do at least come with two USB-C cables. One for charging and one for connecting to an audio port. That does mean you can’t charge and listen to these headphones over a cable at the same time though.

The Cleer Enduro ANC not only supports SBC and AAC, but also aptX Adaptive audio codec. This is great news if you have a phone that supports it.

These are definitely bass heavy out-of-the-box. They sounded more balanced after I used the 5 band custom EQ in the Cleer mobile app.

The mics on these do an okay job at picking out my voice for a call. They’re not great at canceling out background noise though. So you can take a call on these at a push, but it’s certainly not these headphones strong point.

Battery life is an area the Enduro ANC’s excel in though. With ANC turned on they will last a claimed 60 hours on a single charge! However, in real world testing I got closer to 50. That still leaves them on a par with the Q45’s though. They don’t fast charge as fast though as a 10 minute charge will just give you 2 hours of playback. These also take 3 hours to charge up to full, which is pretty slow.

The Cleer Enduro ANC’s are the cheapest headphones in this list at $130, available in navy blue or light gray.