Sony WF-1000XM4 Industry Leading Noise Canceling Truly Wireless Earbud Headphones with Alexa Built-in, Black

The WF-1000XM4 are my current favorites of all the wireless earbuds I’ve owned. They have the best noise cancelling, tied for best sound. Being able to connect to two devices is quite nice. It switches between devices seemly. They are terrific, as they should be for the price they command. 13 months into ownership, I had one ear bud begin to die within 15-20 minutes of initial use. I contacted Sony’s support who walked me through a simple reset procedure. This drastically improved performance, giving me 1.5hrs before the same ear bud started to die. Better, but still less than half the expected life (per Sony). I contacted Sony again, and they elected to give me a RMA to replace them. I’m very pleased to have a corporation stand behind their product in a day and age where most will use any excuse to leave you high and dry. I’m looking at you, Apple. I realize that sound quality is highly subjective, but since I've now tried a several options when it comes to wireless headphones/earbuds, the costs of which are all over the spectrum, I'll offer my rankings based on the experience/s I've had; AirPod Pro - tied for best sound, but after 13 months the battery in one was shot, and the noise cancellation was acting up PRECISELY how Apple described they might in a service program that they were replacing faulty pros under. Mine however, were made the very next month after they magically fixed all of the subsequent AP Pro's, and since mine were made after this magical yet seemingly arbitrary cutoff date, they told me to kick rocks. Which I promptly did, and bought Sony's! Never again, Apple.... EarFun Air Pro 2 - These things really punch above their weight. Sound is great, close cancellation is good, and the battery life is excellent. The only cons I can think of is that the case is bigger than the others I’ve had, and the ear foams/pads are not comfortable. Edifier TWS1 Pro - great sound and performance, i wound up giving these to my girlfriend since she needed something for her work day. No complaints whatsoever for either of us. AirPods (OG) - great if you like the OG headphone fit. They can get really uncomfortable after a while SoundPEATS Sonic - best base of the bunch but just not loud enough to drown out louder ambiance Lenovo Droplets - budget option. Didnt expect much, and didnt get much. No harm, no foul. Not terrible. Sony SBH70 - my first Wireless. About as comfortable/uncomfortable as the OG Airpods. Sound is good but not great. They're older, so like anything else, technology improves, other players catch up. Hope this helps.

These earbuds were worth every penny. If you read the reviews you'll see the salient features -- impressive sound quality, long battery life, great noise canceling, etc. It's all very much true. The noise canceling for example is nothing short of amazing. It's basically as good as my WH-1000XM4s. I couldn't believe it when I first experienced it. So, you can trust the reviews on those points. I want to point out a few things that I've noticed from about a month of daily use. For context, these are my first Sony earbuds; I've used a lot of the Samsung buds but I've never tried the Apple buds. My impression of earbuds is that there's a lot more of a personalized experience - the fit, the sound, etc. depends so much on each person. So, here's my experience. First, the software (on Android) has a feature that will let you test which of the earbud sizes best fits your ear. This feature alone fundamentally changed my experience with these earbuds - I discovered that my ears take different sizes! I have no idea how common that is, but it's just one of those things I would never have realized on my own. I just knew earbuds never fit! Following the software's recommendation on which size to use for which ear, these buds fit and they never fall out. It's the first time in my life I've been able to trust the earbuds sitting in my ear. Without the overall excellence of the earbuds on top of this feature, I think it would be a bit of a gimmick. But for me it made all the difference in how usable these were. Chewing, speaking, etc. don't dislodge them. Every so often I'll give a twist to secure them. But it's night-and-day different from any earbuds I've ever used before. Second, the material on the earbuds is like a memory foam -- squishy and malleable -- as opposed to the silicone I've encountered on other similar products. I much prefer the memory foam! It seems to adapt and stay better to my ear, at least. I do think it puts a bit of stress on the skin and that can lead to a bit of discomfort after long periods of time using them. I also think they're a little more difficult to clean. They may need to be replaced more often as the material breaks down. But, for me these have been minor issues in comparison to how they fit and stay in the ear. I've worn them hours at a time without trouble. Third, in the negative column, there are some interesting/weird artifacts in the sound stage sometimes. In some cases there's a weird edge on voices like we're sitting inside a tin can or something. I've also noticed a short "whooshing" sound just before sound starts or ends. Both are subtle but noticeable and I did not experience anything like it in the WH products I've owned (the over-ear Sony headphones). They may be specific to settings that I haven't figured out yet. In both cases, I noticed it but it hasn't really bothered me. I do wish I had known about it before buying! Last, I wish it were easier to switch between devices. It's not that it's terribly difficult; you long-press both earbuds for 5 seconds, and they go into pairing mode. But, I think the target audience for these earbuds probably switches pretty often between phone and laptop (and in my case, add a few more devices) -- so the tediousness of that otherwise pretty simple process gets amplified from repetition. (To illustrate the perceptual distortion, when I was typing this out I originally put 10 seconds because it feels like "forever". But, I decided I should just look it up and found that it was only 5 seconds!) In practice, the issues I described haven't stopped me from reaching for the WFs over the WHs more and more consistently over the last month. These are hands down the best earbuds I've ever owned or used, and approaching the best portable personal audio solution in general for the price point. I paid full price and I have zero regrets. It's a truly impressive product.

Edit: Connection drops very briefly every time I use them. Down to one star from, 2. ------------------------------------------------ I've been using these earbuds since I got them. Tested them immediately out of the box. For context, I'm coming from the sony wh-1000xm4 and had a good run with it until the right cup started to have a high pitched sound, with noise canceling turned on. I needed a solid replacement. I've had that since 2020 and was sad to see it break down after 2 years. I had very high hopes that this pair which comes from the same series will deliver. For the almost 200 dollars we have to pay for this device, and the alternatives present, unless this is a faulty product I was delivered, this has been quite a disappointing buy. Connectivity: My biggest gripe with this product. Within a day of wearing this product and using it, I noticed that the right bud would lose music and the ANC, or turn itself off. I would have to touch it to try to turn it on until it pairs again with the device. This has a been a very regular thing with this pair that I have and takes you away from the immersion you'd like to have with a product like this. However this was not the worst instance, as I lost connectivity even if both buds were on full battery power and accidentally blasted my office with my work music. (That was embarrassing, but I played it off and made it funny). This has NEVER happened before with my sony wh-1000xm4's and if those did unpair for any reason, the music would auto pause. This case was just inexplicable and had made me lose trust in wearing this pair in an office or an outdoor setting, which is the reason I bought it for. This unpairing/losing audio on the right earpiece is constant, and while the random shut off was isolated, I have no doubt that it might happen again. With this being the primary function of these buds, I now have low confidence in wearing these around as a daily driver. Fit: I first noticed how big the size of these buds were, compared to some other buds that I've used. That was fine as I know that this means it must have great performance underneath. I was right about the performance (which I will talk about later). The big issue with this is even though I switch out the foam tips to the smallest size, it doesn't take long for the buds to hurt my ears while wearing them. At first I was wondering if it was the bud size, but realized that the size of the whole piece itself was a tad too big for my ear shape. With that being said, these buds won't easily fall off if you make sure you press them in snuggly. ANC: Noise canceling is still very good when the buds are working. The memory foam tips do actually work. But this all is a matter of fit, as any looseness of fit on your ears, will drastically allow ambient noise to creep back in. For context, I am able to walk around outside and not hear the cars unless one whips past you with throttling their engine. You will still hear higher pitched sounds that don't give the microphones time to cancel them out. Audio: Audio quality is generally great and what is expected from a Sony product. Recently though, I did notice some dip in audio quality which I tested with my headphones, and it was noticeably different. Know that I'm not an audiophile or a sound engineer, but have very heavy use of my sonyheadphones for music on a day-to-day basis so I notice dips in quality very easily. For the most part when the audio is good, I still love listening to it and having the companion app to switch audio profiles to my liking. Touch gestures: The gestures are quite finnicky on this. The right bud is never consistent with the paus and play on tap. The left however is more consistent with switching from ambient sound and noise canceling modes. You just have to keep your finger on it until it registers the touch. Turning on pairing mode can be often hit and miss, so I just have to keep trying until it turns pairing mode on, which can sometimes take a good 30 seconds or, putting them back into the case to reset them. Case: Case is solid and it works. A bit hefty and bulky, but this is also due to the size of the buds.

Over the years, I've owned a number of noise-cancelling "headphones". The three I currently own are the: Audio-Technica ATH-ANC33iS ANC In-Ear Headphones Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones NC 700 Sony WF-1000XM4 Earbuds Although this review will focus on the Sony earbuds, I'll be making a variety of comparisons to the other two. Noise Cancelling (ANC) None of these devices will put you into a noise-free bubble. Babies crying? Forget it. Subways, heavy street traffic? Some, maybe significant, reduction. Jackhammers? Run, don't walk away. Second, with the exception of ANC headphones (like the Bose), take any analyses you read with a grain of salt. The noise-cancelling that comes from the ear tips for ear buds & earphones constitute a major part (50%?) of the noise cancelling. Only technical comparisons of the ANC headphones can be taken seriously since, although heads & ears do vary in shape, almost everything depends on the ear muffs and tech inside. So how good is the Sony? It's hard to choose between the Bose and the Sony. When I get a superb fit with the latter, the ear buds actually perform better out on the street than the Bose headphones, but I cannot overemphasize how important "fit" is. The Audio-Technica ranks third. With the ATH, I often must increase the volume when, for example, traffic is heavy. That isn't necessary with either the Sony or Bose. Furthermore, on windy days, the ANC in the ATH actually increases the volume of the wind. Wind barely affects the Sony (even without the wind noise adjustment via the App) and has no effect on the Bose. Ear Tips There's no way any review can assure you that a set of ear tips will work best for you. Fit is a very personal matter. Between the AHC and the Sony, I've probably spent over $50 on ear tips of various kinds. I've found that triple-flange ear tips work best for me, and because they will work with both the Sony and the AHC, I've been able to make fair comparisons between the two. Sound Quality I'm not an audiophile. I listen mainly to podcasts, but I do occasionally listen to music and was blown away by the sound quality of the Sony. The Bose is pretty much on a par. There's nothing especially noteworthy about the ATH's sound quality. Comfort: It's hard to say which are more uncomfortable: the Bose or the Sony. The Bose headphones are very heavy and make one's ears sweat after a while. An hour is about all I can take. Pretty much the same is true of the Sony. They won't make your ears sweat, but after even 30 minutes, I want to remove them. I can, and have, worn the ATH for an entire day. Battery Life: I don't care all that much how long the battery will last as whether or not I can still listen to a podcast or music if the battery is dead. Both the Bose and the ATH will work even with a dead battery. The ANC won't work, but you can still listen. And since the ATH uses a AAA battery, you can simply make sure you've always got one in a pocket or purse. The Sony doesn't work at all if the battery is dead. Sony Headphones Connect App You need this app to take advantage of the Sony ear buds. And it is a disaster. There is no "manual" per se, but an internet-based collection of hyperlinks that is hard to navigate intuitively. And the app's design is, shall we say, less than intuitive. You can't even access the app if you are not wearing the ear buds, or if they are not at least close to the device running the app. To test the fit of the earbuds (an excellent idea), instead of going to the sound tab (the logical place), you must go to "system tab". The sound level of the fit test is unbelievably loud. While testing various ear tips, I must have run this at least 20 times and fear for my hearing. There is no way to lower the volume level of the test. Some tips to get the best out of the noise-cancelling: 1. Set the Adaptive Sound Control off. 2. Under the Sound Tab, set the Ambient Level to zero. Finally, you can change, within limits, what options are available via taps on the ear buds, but this is critical: on the right ear bud you can control volume OR you can control play (next track), but you must make the selection in the app and you cannot do both. Bottom Line: the Sony WF-1000XM4 does what it is designed to do and does it well. Whether it is comfortable enough for you to wear for hours is something I can't advise you on.

I abosultely love my WF XM4. I can't believe how good they sound with such small speakers and the bass is good enough without being overpowering. The battery life is really good. That being said I did buy mine not too long after they came out. Sony had some that had bad early batches and mine ran into the battery drain issue. The right earbud would end up draining faaar faster than the left. But Sony took care of me even though I was passed the 1 year warranty and sent me out new ones. I didn't have to pay for shipping to send them in either. Sony sent a QR code that pays for shipping when you show it to a FedEx location. It was about a 2 week turn around to get me the new ones. So while that was a bit of a hassle, the issue has been taken care of in later production runs. The noise canceling is amazing. It's better than thick ear plugs. That being said it's not perfect. ANC work best with repetitive noises. Like when I'm mowing the lawn and listening to music I can't even tell that the lawnmower is running except by the vibrations in my hand. But when it comes to noises that changes pitch often like voices, it's not going to do as good of a job. It'll mute them good enough but not silence them like repetitive sounds like fans, motors, etc. The adaptive sound control works good enough. I suppose it's like how a weak set of hearing aids work. You'll be able to tell you have them on but you'll still hear almost as good as if you aren't wearing them. They can handle sweat from things like being outside in the sun working but I don't know if I'd want to take them to the gym. The fit of them is only so so. You really have to have the right size eartips. One of them has fallen out once when I was using some aftermarket memory foam tips. I would have preferred if they had an arm that came down like Apple's do. This is not to say they don't stay in well, just not as well as I'd prefer. Speaking of the tips that's really my only complaint with these. The stock so called memory foam tips are a really hard variety of memory foam, if that's even what they actually are. I could only wear the stock tips for around an hour before they became way too uncomfortable. I don't know what Sony was thinking in pairing those tips with such nice earbuds but there you have it. So you'll more than likely want to look into some aftermarket tips. I prefer aftermarket memory foam but those are so fragile especially when it comes time to clean them. (lol Maybe that was Sony's reasoning with their hard ones?) I've gone though almost half a dozen different foam tips and decided to just go with some silicon instead. The silicon makes the ANC take a small hit. I mean that's just the nature of the beast of much thicker foam compared to thinner silicon but it's not that big of a hit. I still can't hear the lawnmower with silicon. You really just notice the hit when you first change them out and are able to compare them back to back. Sony's app these are paired with is really easy to use and with a recent update you can now pair these buds to two different sources at once. All in all I'm really happy I bought these.

UPDATED REVIEW 1 1/2 years later. These USED TO be the best earbuds I've ever owned - until they died, just outside of the warranty window. I am going to leave my earlier review below because all the original Pros and Cons are still valid. However, after a while, the left earbud battery starts draining at a dramatic speed, way faster than the right earbud. To the point where it takes less than 10 minutes for it to go from 100% charge to zero. I have gone to the Sony website and followed all of their suggested tips to fix this issue, but it didn't work. When I contacted the seller here, on Amazon, they told me "nothing we can do." So, folks, don't buy this product from this seller. A pair of $30 earbuds can die within a year, I don't care. A pair of Sony earbuds, so expensive -- no, they have no business dying so fast. So get yours straight from Sony instead. At least Sony would typically honor their warranty or offer paid but affordable repairs when you are outside of your warranty window. Don't buy it from a seller who will tell you that they can't do anything for you. End of story. ------- I am EXTREMELY picky when it comes to earbuds, and I have to say, these are almost unexpectedly good. In the past couple of years, I have tested multiple brands of earbuds, cheap and expensive. These are unquestionably the best. There are a few cons, but the pros outweigh the cons by a long shot. Let me start with the cons: CONS: 1. The memory foam tips are not durable. They certainly provide much better sound isolation than silicone tips would, but be prepared to purchase a bunch of replacement tips right away. 2. Ambient sound could be just a little louder. The level of ambient sound is adjustable (fantastic feature!) but even at its loudest setting, it feels a little too muffled for me. When I am out in the street, I would like to hear the cars approaching and other street noises a bit better, especially if I am jogging. But it isn't bad. I guess I am just used to Buds Pro, which actually amplify external noises a little bit during ambient sound. That's it on the cons! PROS: 1. The equalizer and other adaptive sound settings are incredible. Although be prepared that it won't be excellent right out of the box. In fact, the factory settings might suck. But the equalizer settings are superb, so you should be able to adjust it to your liking very quickly. Your first step is to make sure you identify which ear tips fit you best, as it will make a major difference in your sound adjustment. Once you've got the right size ear tips, you can start adjusting the sound settings on your phone. I would start with the phone's own settings first, and then go to the Sony Buds app and fiddle with the equalizer there. It comes with an app that has a variety of other smart settings. For instance, the level of noise cancellation and the volume of ambient sound can be adjusted. You can also program these buds to recognize the environment you are in, and have a few pre-set operation modes, such as for sitting at your desk at the office versus walking in the street, versus jogging. And the buds will adjust ambient sound, noise cancellation and other features based on your pre-set modes for the above conditions. You can also have several equalizer settings customized and saved. Since I have an Android phone (Samsung, to be exact), I started with first adjusting the sound on these earbuds by going to Samsung's own sound settings and customizing my equalizer through the "Adapt Sound" menu. And then, when that was done, I went into the Sony Buds app and worked with the equalizer there. It allows you to play music straight through that app (via Spotify or whatever else you have) and adjust your equalizer while music is playing, so you can hear the difference right away. For those who don't know how an equalizer works, I strongly advise you to watch a couple of YouTube videos on that first, so that you know what you are doing. A lot of people discard good earbuds and headphones because their sound is "bad" when in fact they just don't know the first thing about setting up the equalizer. I am very picky and demanding in my music settings. I love having such a strong bass that my spine feels the vibration (slightly exaggerating here, but only a little bit), but at the same time I like to hear the vocals loud and clear without distortions. I like hearing high-pitch vocals, and yet, I am not too fond of having excess treble. On most of the earbuds I've tried before, achieving such highly customized sound was impossible. But these Sony buds promised and delivered. I got my settings exactly how I want them, and it is pure heaven. 2. Amazing sound cancellation. Here is what I mean. They don't just cancel out external noises. They are very smart about distinguishing between different types of noises, both incoming and outgoing. And you can program the sound cancellation settings to differentiate between, say, human voices and cars honking. As a result, I can listen to music while vacuuming and not hear the vacuum, but if my roommate talks to me, I will hear what she's saying because that's how I programmed my buds. 3. Excellent sound clarity during phone calls, even in loud surroundings. I was recently riding my bike with wind whistling in my ears, but I could clearly hear the person I was talking to, and the person could hear me just fine. They didn't hear the wind, and my voice was loud and clear, and not cutting out. This, to me, is just unbelievable. I have not been able to get this with any other earbuds. Buds Pro, for instance, are absolutely impossible to talk to in any loud surroundings. Some other brands, cheap and expensive alike, do a good job of muffling background noises but they also muffle your own voice in the process. This is not the case with Sony Buds. They keep my voice clear while muffling everything else around me. I was also recently walking in the street, and there was a siren. Prior to that, I was in the ambient sound mode. When I heard the siren, I tapped on one of the buds to switch them to noise cancelling. I could barely hear the siren while still hearing the person I was speaking to loud and clear, and the person could not hear the siren in my background at all. I have no idea how Sony did it, but my hat is off to them for achieving such high-quality smart sound. 4. Very comfortable. I was hesitant about getting these because they seemed bulky to me. I have very small ears and usually struggle with bulky earbuds. But these are very comfortable, probably mostly because of the memory foam ear tips. Once they are in my ears, they stay there. I've taken them out jogging and bike riding, and they didn't shift at all. Finding the correct size of the ear tips plays a key role here, so you should make sure you got the right size. But once you do, they are comfortable and stay in place for a while. And I didn't notice any burning sensation, or any other sign of earbud fatigue. They stay in my ears for hours, and I am comfortable. 5. The case and the buds hold the battery very well. No complaints there. I am either listening to music or having phone calls all day long, and they hold the battery just fine. 6. A function that I have not personally used: it allows you to sync the buds with two different devices at once. I don't like doing this, but this is probably a great feature for those who might want them connected to the laptop and the phone at once. VERDICT: Superb earbuds. 10/10 would recommend.

Issues: I have had these headphones for almost 3 years now. I purchased them back in Jan 2022. On Nov 2022 I had to get a replacement but I cant figure out why from my email (I think it was a charging issue or a software issue). It was very annoying because it took almost 10 days before getting the headphones so I had to buy another pair to hold me over during the shipping. After receiving my new headphones they lasted until Aug 2024 before I am having another issue with the headphones not holding charge. The left headphone dies significantly faster than the right and only last about 35 minutes or so. The microphone is also terrible on these. I have to use my laptop microphone and these never worked well for phone calls. Often people would say they couldn't hear me or I sounded like a robot. Not good for running. These have a weird "clanging" sound you can hear inside of the headphones when you run and its very disruptive. They worked fine for lifting weight and other gym routines. Not good for cardio work. The sound quality when connected to a laptop compared to a phone (with the app) is drastically different. Not sure why this has to be the case but the sound quality and the noise cancellation is worse on a laptop. Maybe better with the app but I cant download the app onto my work laptop. Minor issue but still annoying at times. Positives: Noise cancellation is great. Drowns out coworkers really well. It also drowns out loud machines very well. Comfortable fit and never caused ear fatigue after multiple hours of usage. These were used like a work horse so the charging failure could be due to battery fatigue. These were used 5 days a week for almost 6-8 hours depending. I like listening to music and podcasts during work so these were on constantly and recharged many times. Probably close to 400-500 uses and recharges. Sound quality is great for music. Bass is good and the sound is clean and immersive. Charges very quickly for the amount of usage you get out of them. Easy to deal with customer service (even though the shipping times were stupid long). TLDR: These headphones are amazing and terrible at the same time. For the price I would say they were worth it since I used these mainly for the sound and the noise cancelling but they have their downfalls. Not sure if they have iterated and fixed these issues. I am heavily debating getting the newer versions but I am also looking at different headphones due to the issues listed above.

I was looking for new earphones specifically for fitness with the main usage test being running. I wanted to test across several price points to see which would be most worth the money. I've only had cheap running earphones before (though I have nicer cans that I use to listen with in other scenarios and some nice wired in ears for when I perform live). I don't really care about noise cancelling. My primary criteria were about comfort (and if it can stay in my ear while running), and the sound quality vs price (how much marginal return do I get per dollar). I ended up picking a premium pair because you can really notice how much more digital/fake the audio sounds when testing side by side, the lower down in price you go. (note: a lot of what I put were just notes I was jotting down while testing them. I try to do a more succinct summary in the first line of each option, and then it gets more rambly/random after that) In the running: Sony WF-1000XM4 $189.00 | Beats Fit Pro - $179 | Power Beats Pro - $179 | Jabra Elite 4 Active - $89 | JBL Endurance Peak 3 - $89.95 | Soundcore Sport X10 - $69.99 | JLab JBuds Air Sport - $69.88 | Golrex $29.99 | BMani T16 $39.99 Here are my thoughts: Power Beats Pro - $179 (149) - My winner overall Sounds great. It is not the best sound I've heard in earphones, but doesn't seem to lack anything. Has good thumpy bass, presence in the mids, and good clarity up high. Nothing to complain about the sound. Big/heavy case (doesn't matter that much, but I do take these on big hikes so smaller case would have been nicer) I think ultimately will be more comfortable for long use than the Fit pro. The stock medium tips fit fine, unlike the fit pro for some reason. Sounds essentially the exact same as the fit pro which makes sense Beats Fit Pro - $179 I wanted this to be my favorite. It's light, small, has fun color options, and sounds great. But it ultimately was just not comfortable enough to leave in my ears for longer than 45 minutes. This would vary from person to person obviously. Pretty comfortable, but had to switch to the small eartips (only earbuds I had to switch from the medium/stock tips). Stays in the ears well, but I think that the whole thing being in there will get uncomfortable pushing my ears after a while. Really little case which is nice. Really great clarity, feels perfect Can't find any eq in the app, but I didn't feel the need to adjust any eq settings either, every band/frequency was very satisfying, so that's kind of nice not having to set it myself Sony WF-1000XM4 $189.00 I believe this has a slightly fuller sound quality to it. Can't really pinpoint how or why, but seems to be the most superior sound quality of all of them. I thought it might be better bass but that's not it. I can't pick a part any individual component that seem superior, it just has an overall fuller sound There just doesn't seem to be any way that these are going to stay in during a run. Would be great for any non-exercise application, but just wasn't what I was looking for. I would choose these if I were looking for just walk around town kind of earbuds. Jabra Elite 4 Active - $89 Great clarity and bass out of the box. I am the kind of guy who can only really tell sound differences when a/b testing it. If I only listened to these earbuds, I would have been fully satisfied with the sound quality, the comfort, and the security. It's only because I tested it next to the premium models above that I decided not to go with this. But if this is your budget range, these are definitely the winners. Excessively comfortable, like the most comfortable of any of the earbuds (premiums included), and feel like they will stay in on a run even though they don't have any sort of little hook like the soundcore or powerbeats, or over ear hook like the others. Definitely the best ergonomics. Would take this over the JBL endurance or any other in the sub $150 price range. Soundcore Sport X10 - $69.99 more satisfying for non edm music than the other options down below. Better separation for instruments and vocals. Compared against JLabs with blue tips in, the bass is more comparable. Soundcore keeps more clarity than on higher end (albeit a little tinny sounding), than JLabs Bass is definitely much better than JLabs. It does feel a bit more muddy because of the heavier bass, there may have been better vocal clarity with JLabs Everything else seems fine ANC is decent small profile is light, really comfortable and stays in the ears JLab JBuds Air Sport - $69.88 bigger profile, slightly less comfortable than the Soundcore. Bass is lacking out of the box. There's better mid and high clarity on these than the soundcore. Bass improves a noticeable amount by switching to blue tips, but you lose some clarity higher up bass feels punchier in edm in these than x10 These are definitely more satisfying for thumpy edm music than the x10 The sound quality just feels lacking in depth, no matter which eq setting you choose. Has a connected usb charger on the case as a charger (rather than a separate chord to plug into both charger and power), which I don't think I like JBL Endurance Peak 3 - $89.95 Clear vocals and instruments in mids and highs. Slightly more clear and crisp than the soundcore Nice bass as well, (slightly worse bass than soundcore), less satisfying than the sound core on lyrical song but actually has punchier bass on edm Plenty loud (other reviews saying they don't get loud) The equalizer app gives lots of control This bass is also superior once equalized. So both bass and instrumental/vocals have more clarity. After messing with eq, is better than soundcore. This sounded perfectly fine until compared with higher tier, then when a/b compared it sounded a bit more fake, a bit more digital, definitely enough to notice a difference Golrex $29.99 It is okay sound, probably the best in this price range. If you just want something cheap that will give you sound, these are fine. If you care about sound quality even a little bit, it's worth it to get a better headset. There is no clarity at any frequency, just a decent amount of noise. Has an attempted cheap premium look with led interfaces. BMani T16 $39.99 Sounds way below average, worse than the golrex. Really similar packaging and look to the golrex, so they're either just copying each other or made by the same people