Whether you commute on noisy public transit, fly a lot, sit in an office with chatty colleagues or work at home with a partner in the next room clacking away at their keyboard, noise-canceling headphones can provide solace you might not even know you needed. After testing 10 top models in various noisy conditions, including putting our five favorites to the test at New York City’s cacophonous Grand Central Station, we found the Bose QuietComfort 45 to be the headphones we’d recommend for almost anyone who wants to escape the roar of the world. Music, podcasts and phone calls sound excellent out of the box, the noise cancellation effectively blocks out distractions better than almost anything we tested, and they’re comfortable for extended wear. 

If you would like to read all about how we vetted and tested these headphones and which experts we consulted, scroll down for more details. 

These Bose headphones sound amazing no matter what you’re listening to—rock, hip-hop, podcasts, a phone call—and do a truly excellent job of muting the outside world.

Bose’s QuietComfort 45 headphones sounded stellar, especially when listening to music. They offer what audiophiles call a deep soundscape, with instruments and voices sounding like there’s a natural separation between them, rather than all being crowded together. The highs are crisp, the bass isn’t overwhelming and lyrics are clear. Bose offers equalization (EQ) adjustments through its companion smartphone app ( iOS, Android) so you can adjust the bass, treble and mid-ranges. We were equally impressed with these headphones’ active noise cancellation. They made subway sounds practically disappear, and in an office setting, coworkers talking on the phone 20 feet away went silent. The consistent crowd noise at Grand Central didn’t altogether disappear, but it did sound like someone had turned down its volume.

They were also comfortable, even after wearing them for hours, thanks in part to their weight—at 8.3 ounces, they came in at more than half an ounce under the weight of the next-lightest set we tested.

Intuitive, easy-access controls make for a better headphone experience, and in our tests, physical buttons, like those on the QuietComfort 45s, proved more appealing than touch controls. The left earcup has a single button that toggles between noise canceling and transparency mode , and the right side has a three-button setup, with the outer buttons used for adjusting the volume and the middle one for playing/pausing your music, tracking forward and back or activating your voice assistant, depending on how many times you press it. The buttons are on the backside of the headphones, where they’re easy to control with your thumbs. Our only quibble with the controls, and it’s a minor one, was that they could have been “clickier”—they felt a little mushy. 

Bose’s headphones can be synced to up to eight devices and paired with two at a time, meaning you can end a call on your computer and then hit play on your phone without having to manually change the source. This is common among the headphones we tested, but appreciated. There were two small downsides: The QuietComfort 45s don’t have adjustable noise cancellation; it’s either on or in aware mode, which is Bose’s term for transparency mode. (This mode enables more outside noise to pass through.) There’s also no on-ear detection, meaning you need to manually pause and restart your content as you take the headphones on and off your ears. Neither of those factors felt like dealbreakers given the headphones’ superior performance. 

Aesthetically, the Bose headphones are a mixed bag. Some may find the headset’s design to be a bit dated, but we appreciated that the carrying case was one of the smallest we tested. The set comes with a USB-A-to-USB-C charging cable and an aux cable for wired listening. The company says you’ll get 24 hours of playtime once the QuietComfort 45 headphones are charged.

A close second to the Bose QuietComfort 45 in both audio quality and noise cancellation, Sony’s WH-1000XM4 headphones are packed full of high-end features.

Sony ’s WH-1000XM4 headphones sound good, though not as good as the Bose headphones. We found the audio a bit more muddled and less nuanced, especially on the highs. Sony also provides a lot of room for adjustment, with eight preset EQ adjustments and the ability to set your own so you can find a sound profile you love. Sound purists will be more than satisfied. The Wall Street Journal newsroom also noted out its sound quality.

Sony’s noise cancellation was less effective against high-range sounds but otherwise comparable to the Bose headphones: The mostly low-frequency noises at Grand Central Station were effectively muffled, but higher-pitched voices in the office bled through more. Sony outdoes Bose by offering adjustable ANC levels, with 20 levels of ambient-sound control so you can control how much outside noise filters in.

The touch controls are a drawback. To change the volume, you swipe up or down on the right earcup; skipping tracks is a swipe back or forward and you double tap to play or pause. It’s easy to “mis-swipe” and trigger the wrong function—or simply to forget which gesture does what. There are two physical buttons: the power button, which reads out the battery status when you press it while listening, and a “custom” button that can be assigned to control noise cancellation settings or activate Amazon Alexa. 

Sony’s companion Headphones Connect app ( iOS, Android) is one of the more overwhelming pieces of software I’ve used in a long time, and that’s coming from a writer who plays with apps and tech all day long. 

If you like to tweak every imaginable setting, want to switch the ambient-sound settings based on your location and type of movement or adjust the noise cancellation based on atmospheric pressure, you may be intrigued, but it’ll be overkill for many. It might be more useful if the language was less ambiguous, and you’ll be forgiven for not knowing exactly what “ambient-sound control off” means, as just one example. (Hint: It’s actually the setting with active-noise cancellation and transparency mode both turned off.) The optional “speak-to-chat” feature that turns on transparency mode when you talk sounds clever but in practice is overly aggressive. We sometimes accidentally activated it just by clearing our throats, and you have to manually toggle noise canceling back on every time. We could go on.

The WH-1000XM4s weigh only a few ounces more than the QuietComfort 45 headphones, and we found them equally comfortable for extended wear. The earcups are cushy and the adjustable headband prevented the head squeeze caused by some of the competition. Sony’s headphones look nicer, too, with a clean design (available in black, silver, white or blue) that looks current but winks appealingly to the ’70s. Sony won extra points for its compact, cleverly designed case that has space for the included cables. The company says you’ll get 30 hours of playback with ANC turned on.

Anker’s Soundcore Life Q30 headphones cost a quarter of the price of our top two picks yet pack many high-end features, including adjustable noise cancellation levels and EQ. Though they don’t perform as well as the Bose or Sony sets, they sound better than we’d expect for the price. The sound is more condensed, with a boomier bass, and lacks the crispness that we heard on better pairs. On Lizzo’s “Good as Hell,” for example, the pounding bass sounds like an isolated drum that overwhelms the song, whereas it’s more complementary to the rest of the instrumentation on the QuietComfort 45. Low voices in podcasts are also overemphasized. You can make adjustments if you’re willing to go into the EQ settings and play around, so you may be able to find a sound profile that works better for you. 

It’s a similar story with noise cancellation. Anker’s headphones do a pretty decent job of blocking out sounds, but they let more background noise through than Bose’s and Sony’s more expensive models. It’s worth it to invest more if you’re particularly sensitive to the low-frequency sounds ANC headphones are most effective against, like the noise from plane engines.

The Life Q30s have soft, faux-leather earcups and they’re only about an ounce heavier than the QuietComfort 45 headphones. That plus the adjustable headband made them comfortable for extended wear. The design isn’t as elegant as we’d like, but for the price, it’s acceptable. (You have your choice of black, blue or pink.) One minor area for improvement is the buttons: They’re quite narrow, so some might find them hard to press. These headphones promise a 40-hour battery life. 

Sony released its WH-1000XM5 headphones after we had completed this review. This latest model has a refreshed design and the promise of improved noise cancellation. We plan on testing them, but in the meantime, we’re confident that the headphones in this guide are great picks.

The Bose Noise Canceling Headphones 700 offer a more modern and attractive design than the company’s QuietComfort 45 headphones, but we found they lost some crispness in the high end of the audio spectrum compared with our pick. And unlike the other Bose set, you can’t adjust the EQ if you don’t like the sound. We also found the touch controls less intuitive. Overall these are very good headphones and a fine choice if you prefer the design, but not the first Bose models we’d recommend. 

The Apple AirPods Max sound truly great, and the noise cancellation is incredibly effective. But at 13.6 ounces, these are the heaviest headphones we tested by far, which means they’re not as comfortable to wear for long periods, and those few ounces make a difference when you’re carrying them around all day. The “Smart Case” is a confounding single sheet of a silicone-like material folded into a holder that covers just the earcups, but not the headband. At $550, the AirPods Max are also the most expensive headphones we tested by $200 or more, although they’re often on sale.

The Anker Soundcore Life Q20+ feel cheaper than the other headphones we tested due to their plastic design. They perform well for lower-priced headphones, but only a few dollars more gets you the Life Q30 headphones, which sound about the same, look and feel nicer, and offer adjustable noise cancellation levels.  

The Anker Soundcore Life Q35 look just like the Life Q30, and although we heard a little bit more bass, generally sound about the same. The main differences between the two are the Q35’s on-ear detection, adjustable noise cancellation levels and support for the LDAP audio streaming codec—none of which we believe to be worth a sizable increase in cost. 

The Beats Studio3 are bass-heavy and have very little audio depth compared with the best models we tested. The smaller earcups may rest uncomfortably on top of your ears, rather than around them, and the headphones lack premium features including adjustable noise cancellation levels and EQ, and on-ear detection. Beats (owned by Apple) first introduced these headphones in 2017, and they’re showing their age, especially when you stack them up against newer models.

The Shure AONIC 50 sounded similar to the Bose QuietComfort 45s that ranked tops in our tests. But they’re large, heavy and have a gigantic carrying case that weighs almost a pound and a half, which knocked them out of the running.

The Shure AONIC 40 sounded muddier than the more expensive AONIC 50 with perhaps a bit more bass, and the noise canceling isn’t as strong.

I’ve been reviewing consumer technology for more than a decade, including at a leading national product-reviews site. In that time I’ve tested myriad headphones and closely followed the top audio brands. To get a deeper understanding of active-noise cancellation, the technology that powers these headphones, we consulted Kevin Franck, Ph.D., a licensed audiologist and the chair of the board of directors of the Hearing Loss Association of America. Franck has graduate degrees in hearing science, biomedical engineering and healthcare management. He walked us through ANC’s capabilities (and limits) as well as how specific headphone design specs might enhance or detract from performance.

The gold standard for both sound quality and sound reduction, over-the-ear active-noise cancellation headphones do their job in two ways. First, ANC “listens” to the environment using built-in microphones, and then emits an inverse sound wave, literally canceling out the noise. Second, over-the-ear headphones (as opposed to earbuds) block sound simply by acting as a physical barrier between your eardrums and the environment. 

We began by researching headphones from every major manufacturer, based on familiarity with the brands’ reputations and external reviews and ratings. To qualify for testing, headphones had to have a transparency mode and multi-device pairing. Transparency mode switches on the headphones’ external microphones so more outside noise passes through. That allows you to be more aware of your surroundings and even hold conversations without removing the headphones. Multi-device pairing means the headphones will automatically switch between, say, your laptop, where you might be listening to music while you work, and your phone when a call comes in.

We deemed 10 pairs of headphones to be worthy of testing in real-world conditions. Here’s what we were looking for:

We tested the headphones by listening to a range of audio content, including podcasts, phone calls, Google Meet video meetings and of course music—everything from The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” to “ Morbid Stuff” by PUP. We then put the five pairs that rose to the top of our list through the noise gauntlet that is New York City, wearing them while walking around Brooklyn and Manhattan, on crowded subway cars and at one of the loudest environments we could find: New York’s Grand Central Station during rush hour. To assess their ability to tamp down typical office noise, we wore them working both at home with a partner one room over and at our noisy open-plan Buy Side from WSJ headquarters.

Kevin Franck, Ph.D., licensed audiologist, chair of the Hearing Loss Association of America’s board of directors, and senior vice president of strategic marketing and new product planning at Frequency Therapeutics , a biotechnology company focused on repairing hearing loss; with graduate degrees in hearing science, biomedical engineering and healthcare management; previously worked at Bose (although he didn’t provide any specific product recommendations for this piece). 

By Buy Side from WSJ Staff

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