CA Melomania M100/A100. Remarkable sound quality for the price in a comfortable small package, I personally toned down the bass on my M100s a bit but otherwise loved them right out of the box. Also tried the A100, but while they're at least as good for sound and seem to fix the subtle but annoying mic crackle the M100 can develop at high ANC settings the angled stems don't agree with every ear.
Noble Fokus Rex for the best within your budget.
CA Melomania M100/A100 for great value - it's useful to remember wireless IEMs are inherently disposable electronics, and I personally wouldn't recommend going past their ~$150 price point for something that'll last two years tops.
I'd add some even better value chi-fi options, but they all run afoul of #4 with janky apps and weird stock tunings. If you don't like tinkering for the best experience, you're better off staying away from those entirely.
Jabra were a good one, but sadly left the market, besides those the melomania a100 and the more expensive soundcore liberty models (4 NC is only good on the ANC side of things) are worth a look if you want a decent balance of audio, anc and price.
I have checked about 10 of them.
Most of wireless earbuds do have Noise cancelling, that you can switch off.
I think (for your budget) per sound quality - Cambridge Audio A100 is the best, followed by Creative Aurvana Ace 2.
Another point to consider is - if you pay attention to the quality of sound, then you do not want to be limited by the used codec, and might consider using lossless sound as a source.
In this case, you need to see what lossless Codec your husband's phone in fact supports aptX Lossless or LDAC).
I know your pain, I got mine recently and I went through the same rabbit hole...
I personally started with both budget and with few key important requirements like: very good sound, I need it for commuting and occasional calls in the office, I like the airpods style instead the Sony or Sennheiser one, I have an iPhone so good app for ios etc.
Once I got my priorities I went on youtube and on the usual website with lists of top XX headphones for 2025 etc, just to have an idea and once I collected few brands/models that are interesting I started refining my criteria and excluding some buds.
At the end I bought the Cambridge Audio Melomania A100. Not perfect but very happy with them.
CalligoMiles
