I have the Bose QC 2 and got these thinking it would be an upgrade. The ANC didn’t perform as well, and phone calls were horrible. I could hear my voice bass while I talked, like if you plug your nose and talk. I tried different setting etc and then would switch back to Bose and ANC was better (no noise) and calls were so much more crisp. Hearing myself was almost as bad as when you get an echo. It was hard to stay focused with my own voice sounding weird. Have to say its the first time I didn’t agree with testing. The only thing I could think of was that their ear options were too small, or buds too shallow to get into my ear correctly so testing didn’t translate to my experience. But that being said, never had an issue with buds before (but these are conspicuously tiny and did feel weird trying to get snug in my ear).
But I had to return them because I use them primarily for calls and their rating in my actual application would be significantly lower than Bose QC 2
Previous Test Versions from RTINGS showed that Bose QuietComfort II earbuds (now Ultra) were BY FAR the best ANC earbuds in the market, and I purchased them much before being rated in RTINGS. But RTINGS ratings and every other so-called “FAIR BUSINESS” are turning tables by improving, removing, tweaking, test versions, methodology, etc…, but they look trustworthy with so much equipment and detailed graphics. Let me tell you, they are 50% half-fake biased reviews no matter what they say, like every other YouTuber or Advertisement campaign. MONEY RULES… Money, money, where do you come from? I can tell you by reading the reviews!
It seems that the Jabra Elite 8 Gen 1 and Gen 2 have no significant hardware updates, and both models even appear to use the same hardware, with improvements in the Gen 2 only being applied to the case and firmware. According to Jabra support, the improved firmware cannot and will not be applied to the Gen 1. Additionally, the LE update has been postponed to 2025, leading to concerns that Jabra is slowing down firmware support for the Gen 1. The performance differences measured by RTINGS seem to result from mere firmware updates, yet none of these improvements are being made available for the Gen 1, which seems problematic. I would like to hear your opinion on this matter.
It’s even worse when you cannot find them anywhere for Black Friday as RTINGS are advertising them as the best ANC Earbuds for Black Friday… Cool… I don’t trust RTINGS anymore, as much as I don’t trust Trustpilot for example. Little tweaking here and there and the tables turn!!! Money, money…
I asked about the new category because I think this category needs special mention.
Thank you very much for the table tool, I went back to it several times until I found them.
I didn’t notice the Nura Nuraloop headphones have ANC and can also be used wired.
Well I bought the Nuraloop, and the sound and ANC were great when I just unboxed them, but I have to edit my previous opinion as the ANC is barely noticeable, the sound quality so so, the wireless Bluetooth connection is not good and I found too many problems within the firmware and the app.
Plus there is a gigantic downside to the Nuraloop, as you can’t even use them not even wired without a prior tuning of your hearing. But the fact is that I have tried too many ear tips apart from the factory ones and repeated the same tuning procedure in the same silent room. The results vary too much even using the same tips with my ear canals deep clean and the earbuds in the same exact position.
You are also forced to send your private hearing health data between different countries which may not apply the same data protection rules as your own, and if you don’t do this, you cannot use them AT ALL.
In the app you can choose to disable the special tuning for your custom hearing tests, but closing the App or connecting to a different device or even wired forces you to use your custom hearing tuning.
I cannot understand why I had such a great experience on the day I unboxed them and it’s become so poor after just 1 week.
Also there’s no way you can manually customize your hearing profile unless you tune them with different ear tips and go back to previous ear tips for random and poor results anyway.
The provided ear tips are sized small, medium (pre-installed), large and extra-large, but all of these are just 2mm in depth and it is almost impossible to keep them in-place if you ever open and close your mouth compared to almost every other earbuds and tips. I tried different ear tips including the supposedly Comply foam compatible sized ones, but they just do not fit properly due to the conic shape of the earbuds tip.
I just cannot recommend them and I’ve turned back to using the Audio Technica ATH-100BT due to the much more decent sound quality compared to the Nuraloop.
I will keep looking for “Bose QC Earbuds II” like Active Noise Cancelling or the closest I can find in wired earbuds though.
I just thought I should edit this comment.
Edited 2 years ago: I still haven't found what I'm looking for
I agree by personal experience with RTINGS.com results in the products I have tested so far.
But some people really need a new category for In-Ear + Wired + ANC headphones:
1) In-Ear (due to serious skin-health problems after 1-2 years using closed ANC over-head exhaustively)
2) Wired (due to unbearable Bluetooth latency while playing musical instruments, 13ms is the maximum and it is already caused by almost every wired audio-interface on music creation)
3) ANC (due to inability to properly isolate home-studio against street noise, loud chat, vehicle traffic, neighbors door slams), and Comply foam tips used in most wired noise-reduction IEM’s are just not enough
I found very good reviews about the noise reduction in Bose QuietComfort 20 (QC20), but these were discontinued long ago, so I can only buy fakes from China in eBay, as vendors cannot guarantee these were not rebuilt with worse pieces affecting ANC and audio quality.
I have the Bose QC EarBuds II and these are BY FAR the best ANC in-ear headphones I’ve ever used, but I cannot use them wired for music creation, playing instruments, etc… I’d love to buy the Bose QC20 but these are discontinued and I cannot buy them anymore.
I bought Audio-Technica ATH-100BT, somehow cheap on sale, that meet all these requirements, but the earbuds cable itself is too gummy and noisy compared to good cables, even using the Comply foam tips, plus the ANC is very weak and I would like a much better alternative even if it is much higher priced (the original Bose QC20 were already around $300).
I also found a review about “1-More Dual Driver ANC Pro” (EHD9001BA) but I am unable to find vendors, and probably the ANC is not as strong as I’d need it to be. These are another one of the very very few headphones that could be used wired with ANC on even if it is mostly a Bluetooth neckband.
All your BEST lists are a fraud. I’ve tested enough myself to be confident in what I say.
Best sounding? Biased ratings… Absolute k-rap
Previous Test Versions from RTINGS showed that Bose QuietComfort II earbuds (now Ultra) were BY FAR the best ANC earbuds in the market, and I purchased them much before being rated in RTINGS. But RTINGS ratings and every other so-called “FAIR BUSINESS” are turning tables by improving, removing, tweaking, test versions, methodology, etc…, but they look trustworthy with so much equipment and detailed graphics. Let me tell you, they are 50% half-fake biased reviews no matter what they say, like every other YouTuber or Advertisement campaign. MONEY RULES… Money, money, where do you come from? I can tell you by reading the reviews!
It’s even worse when you cannot find them anywhere for Black Friday as RTINGS are advertising them as the best ANC Earbuds for Black Friday… Cool… I don’t trust RTINGS anymore, as much as I don’t trust Trustpilot for example. Little tweaking here and there and the tables turn!!! Money, money…
Really disappointing in my opinion.
I completely disagree with your rankings and recommendations.
I used to think RTINGS was a trustful source but it is not.
I think none of these are Wired for a high-quality and latency free experience, be it gaming, composing or listening to music.
Not even Bose makes the QC20 anymore and in 2nd hand market you cannot trust finding the original ANC circuitry.
I wish someday I can buy Wired In-Ears with as good ANC as the latest Bose QC Earbuds II, which I also own.
But I need them to be wired for music production, gaming and more !!!
I asked about the new category because I think this category needs special mention.
Thank you very much for the table tool, I went back to it several times until I found them.
I didn’t notice the Nura Nuraloop headphones have ANC and can also be used wired.
Well I bought the Nuraloop, and the sound and ANC were great when I just unboxed them, but I have to edit my previous opinion as the ANC is barely noticeable, the sound quality so so, the wireless Bluetooth connection is not good and I found too many problems within the firmware and the app.
Plus there is a gigantic downside to the Nuraloop, as you can’t even use them not even wired without a prior tuning of your hearing. But the fact is that I have tried too many ear tips apart from the factory ones and repeated the same tuning procedure in the same silent room. The results vary too much even using the same tips with my ear canals deep clean and the earbuds in the same exact position.
You are also forced to send your private hearing health data between different countries which may not apply the same data protection rules as your own, and if you don’t do this, you cannot use them AT ALL.
In the app you can choose to disable the special tuning for your custom hearing tests, but closing the App or connecting to a different device or even wired forces you to use your custom hearing tuning.
I cannot understand why I had such a great experience on the day I unboxed them and it’s become so poor after just 1 week.
Also there’s no way you can manually customize your hearing profile unless you tune them with different ear tips and go back to previous ear tips for random and poor results anyway.
The provided ear tips are sized small, medium (pre-installed), large and extra-large, but all of these are just 2mm in depth and it is almost impossible to keep them in-place if you ever open and close your mouth compared to almost every other earbuds and tips. I tried different ear tips including the supposedly Comply foam compatible sized ones, but they just do not fit properly due to the conic shape of the earbuds tip.
I just cannot recommend them and I’ve turned back to using the Audio Technica ATH-100BT due to the much more decent sound quality compared to the Nuraloop.
I will keep looking for “Bose QC Earbuds II” like Active Noise Cancelling or the closest I can find in wired earbuds though.
I just thought I should edit this comment.
I agree by personal experience with RTINGS.com results in the products I have tested so far.
But some people really need a new category for In-Ear + Wired + ANC headphones:
1) In-Ear (due to serious skin-health problems after 1-2 years using closed ANC over-head exhaustively)
2) Wired (due to unbearable Bluetooth latency while playing musical instruments, 13ms is the maximum and it is already caused by almost every wired audio-interface on music creation)
3) ANC (due to inability to properly isolate home-studio against street noise, loud chat, vehicle traffic, neighbors door slams), and Comply foam tips used in most wired noise-reduction IEM’s are just not enough
I found very good reviews about the noise reduction in Bose QuietComfort 20 (QC20), but these were discontinued long ago, so I can only buy fakes from China in eBay, as vendors cannot guarantee these were not rebuilt with worse pieces affecting ANC and audio quality.
I have the Bose QC EarBuds II and these are BY FAR the best ANC in-ear headphones I’ve ever used, but I cannot use them wired for music creation, playing instruments, etc… I’d love to buy the Bose QC20 but these are discontinued and I cannot buy them anymore.
I bought Audio-Technica ATH-100BT, somehow cheap on sale, that meet all these requirements, but the earbuds cable itself is too gummy and noisy compared to good cables, even using the Comply foam tips, plus the ANC is very weak and I would like a much better alternative even if it is much higher priced (the original Bose QC20 were already around $300).
I also found a review about “1-More Dual Driver ANC Pro” (EHD9001BA) but I am unable to find vendors, and probably the ANC is not as strong as I’d need it to be. These are another one of the very very few headphones that could be used wired with ANC on even if it is mostly a Bluetooth neckband.