I have a pair of noise cancy Beats ear buds that I love but my husband would start talking at me and get annoyed when he realized I couldn't hear him. (Not rude annoyed - more like frustrated that he had to repeat himself.) My sister in law asked me for a Christmas list and I put some silver Anker Soundcore noise cancelling over the ear headphones on
my Amazon wishlist. I LOVE them and now he can easily tell when I'm using them.
Ear buds. Provided that they have active noise cancelling.
Even if you planned to use them throughout the trip, I'd still go with the ear buds. Unless you find them terribly uncomfortable, it's the way to go to save space.
I'm not an audiophile, so I tend to use cheaper stuff. Several years ago I got some Anker Soundcore Life Q20 over-the-ear headphones. The active noise cancelling was a godsend on flights.
But then last year I got a pair of Anker Soundcore Space A40 ear buds. These don't isolate sound quite as well, but the ANC is still good enough on a flight to be able to hear the audio without cranking the volume.
I swapped out the standard tips for foam ones, which are more comfortable and seem to help with noise isolation.
They take up so little space, I rarely ever bring the over-the-ear headphones anywhere anymore.
I've been happy with Soundcore q20 and Soundcore q35. Both on Amazon for fair prices.
https://a.co/d/f43t2sK
https://a.co/d/0uzonED
I bought q20 on Amazon after my husband lost his job and was home, while I work from home. I got the q35 off of shopgoodwill.com because I liked that it could connect to 2 devices at once. I use both interchangeably.
I got Soundcore Q20 from Amazon for less than $70. People can hear me and I can't hear anything going on around me. Everyone wins! Upgrade to the Q25 if you want to connect to multiple sources at once (like your computer and phone).
What’s your budget?
In the sub-$100 range, the Anker Soundcore models are great. Several models at different price levels but even the low end QL20s have good noise canceling. (All seem to be on sale at Amazon for Prime Day right now!)
What you get at different price points is various features, additional modes, and better audio quality.
I have used the QL20s for years, and they’ve improved since I got mine. Noise canceling is quite good, and the audio quality is good but not going to please serious audiophiles. For streaming audio, podcasts, videos, things like that, they’re fine.
Comfort is good. They’re light and can be worn for hours at a time. Battery life is good too.
The higher end makes and models such as Bose will usually have more features, better materials, and better audio quality. They’re not worth the expense for me; I have other headphones I use for “serious” audio and playing/recording music.
Top Headphones (Over / On Ear) on Reddit
1
Sennheiser
HD 560S
79% positive of 626 users
Budget gaming king with clear sound, but tight fit.
Big_Seaworthiness948
