2024 Best Earbuds Ranked! 👑 (Budget to Premium)
2024's Best Earbuds Ranked!
Today I’m going to nominate the top wireless earbuds of 2024 in terms of specific categories such as best noise cancelling, best mic pickup, transparency and sound quality. And these top earbuds will be listed on loudnwireless.com/recommendations. At the end of this review, I will also highlight the ones I daily drive currently and explain why.
Best Active Noise Cancelling
The earbuds with Best active noise cancelling is the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds 2024. They are powerful at cancelling low frequencies, and decent at rejecting mid range noise. I found them to be the most effective at delivering awesome silence in noisy public places, and in public transport they do a great job at cancelling background rumble. In fact, they are just as effective as last year’s best noise canceller, the QC Ultra, only that they’ve now got all the additional features and functions that people have been requesting from Bose.
👉 Have a listen to the ANC samples.
Best Microphone Quality
Moving on to the best Microphone Pickup, the Huawei FreeBuds Pro 3 takes the crown. I’ve compared them to other earbuds in different environments both indoors and outdoors, and they make it sounds as if I’m speaking in a quiet room. The closest competitor is the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro, which have my voice sounding smoother and more natural. However, there are some limitations with it which I recommend you learn more about in this review.
👉 Have a listen to the microphone samples.
I’ve also noticed that many of you disagreed with my choices during the mic quality comparison and that’s totally fine. To keep things fun, I’ve uploaded those very same samples on my Instagram. Head over there and vote in the next couple of hours, and tell me which earbuds you think have the best mic pickup. I’ll announce the winner on Instagram, so stay tuned!
Vote for the winner!
Best Transparency Mode Quality
Best Transparency goes to the Galaxy Buds3 Pro. There are others like the AirPods Pro 2 with amazing transparency, but the Samsungs also stand out. When I activate the transparency on these, and remove one earbud, it’s like there’s no difference between both sides. That’s the ultimate test because you should be able to have full awareness, and it has to sound natural. These earbuds also avoid occlusion in the vocal range, so you can have verbal exchanges with people easily without taking one earbud out.
Best Sound Quality
Choosing the Best Sound Quality is subjective, as it depends on personal preference. However, I’m leaning more towards dual driver designs in earbuds like the JLab Epic Lab and Galaxy Buds3 Pro, because they tend to have superior layering and separation. But the best earbuds I’ve heard so far is with the B&W Pi8. They have super clean separation that brings clarity to even the more intense or messy audio, delivering a smooth bass and vocals. They resolve so much background detail in the soundstage that you can hear more of the recording, especially transient details like reverbs. This quality makes the Pi8 one of the best sounding earbuds I’ve tried. If you have a chance to listen to them in person, you must. Otherwise, you can listen to the following sound samples, and compare them to other earbuds on loudnwireless.com/soundsamples.
👉 Have a listen to the sound samples.
Best Budget Earbuds
In my opinion, the best budget earbuds of this year are the CMF Buds Pro 2. One of the best earbuds under $100, because at $69 they have almost everything found in premium earbuds, and more. For example, they are Hi-Res certified and support LDAC codec, with an app that unlocks a whole slew of features and custom options. They also sound great, basically they’re loud, thumpy and clear. At this price, they’re already a great value, but what sets them apart is the control knob on the case. It’s a very convenient and satisfying way of controlling volume, music playback and calls without touching your earbuds. You don’t see this on any budget product, that’s special. Coupled with their performance and features, these are very easy to recommend.
My daily driver...
But my Personal Pick, as well as my current daily driver is the AirPods Pro 2. Yes, it’s not a new model, and I do have a few issues with it. One drawback is the lack of an app on Android, and its fit since it slips out of position easily, which means I have to readjust more frequently to recover that noise cancelling power. But I use multiple iPhones and an iPad, so the seamless switching between devices is addictive. It’s also much better now with iOS18. The new Voice Isolation features, and hearing aid features approved by the FDA have made a difference for me, especially someone over 40 who could use a bit help with hearing certain frequencies. It also helps that they’re super tiny and just so easy to carry around. And if I need a better fit, Comply does sell foam tips for them which makes them feel more snug and stable.
But, occasionally I still do use the Jabra Elite 10, which was my previous daily driver. I like its sound quality, and it’s a fantastic all-rounder with a feature-rich app on both iOS and Android. As winter is coming, these have button controls that will work even if you are wearing gloves. Sadly, I’ve learned that since Jabra’s not making earbuds anymore, they’re only releasing the 2nd Gen in a few key markets, not Singapore, which means I can’t review them. That’s why I’m still mentioning Gen 1, but those are in my opinion, still the safe choice.
So those are the best earbuds of these categories, if you want to check their latest prices, I’ve got Amazon links below. If you guys think some other earbud should have won, tell everybody in the comments.
Check latest prices:
AirPods Pro 2 USB-C - https://amzn.to/3UoeJG8
Bose QuietComfort Earbuds 2024 - https://amzn.to/3zuKirs
Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 - https://amzn.to/3U8n9lT
CMF Buds Pro 2 - https://amzn.to/3zwPivw
Jabra Elite 10 - https://amzn.to/3EHIp9J
Huawei Freebuds Pro 3 - https://amzn.to/47grLvC
Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro - https://amzn.to/4fvUNLn
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