If your current work environment is a bit on the loud side or you find over-the-ear headphones uncomfortable to wear while working out, it might be time that you finally invested in a pair of noise-cancelling earbuds.

These portable headphones will let you shut out the world so you can focus on your work or your favourite songs, with the added bonus of fitting neatly in your back pocket. An extra bit of peace and quiet every now and then never hurt anybody.

Here are six pairs of the best wireless earbuds that’ll give you top-quality audio performance and active noise cancellation (ANC).

Depending on who you ask, the first generation of the Apple AirPods Pro is either one of the best or the most over-hyped earbuds ever. If you’re looking for a new pair of wireless earbuds and are worried about paying more for the Apple brand name instead of the quality, take it from us, the recently released AirPods Pro (2nd Gen) live up to that hype.

In Gizmodo Australia’s review of the second generation of AirPod Pro, we praised the improved audio over the previous iteration, with adaptive EQ and Personalised Spatial Audio creating a rich listening experience. If you’re someone who values the sound of silence, its noise-cancelling abilities have also been improved and are now strong enough to cancel out the thunder of a metal gig.

The AirPods Pro (2ndGen) has a battery life of around 6 hours with ANC on, with a total of up to 30 hours available from the charging case. Just don’t accidentally put them through the wash.

Where to buy Apple AirPods Pro: Amazon Australia ($388) | Dick Smith ($398) | eBay ($359.10 with the code OCT202210)

The Bose QuietComfort noise-cancelling earbuds do exactly as it says on the box. With 11 levels of active noise cancellation and a soft silicone design, these earbuds will help you drown out any external noise so you can focus 100% on your music while sitting comfortably in your ears for its 6-hour playback life.

The Bose QuietComfort are easy-to-use earbuds with some of the best audio quality out there. If you want crisp audio that maintains a deep bass, along with a solid user experience, these are the earbuds you want. For the price range, you can’t do much better than these.

Where to buy Bose QuietComfort noise-cancelling earbuds: Amazon Australia ($324) | Dick Smith ($299) | The Good Guys ($324)

If you’re looking for a more affordable option when picking a new pair of earbuds, the Jabra Elite 85t combines high-quality audio with excellent noise cancellation and a crisp microphone.

These earbuds also come with three sets of silicone in-ear moulds, so you can have a more comfortable fit depending on the shape of your ear holes. Jabra’s Sound+ companion app also has a feature called “MyFit”, which will help you adjust your earbuds to improve the seal to get the most out of its ANC feature.

The companion app will also let you tinker with the earbud’s equaliser, but the Jabra 85t sound pretty well-balanced even when on the standard out-of-the-box setting. The Jabra 85t noise-cancelling earbuds have a battery life of 5.5 hours, with a total of 25 hours available with the charging case.

Where to buy Jabra Elite 85t noise-cancelling earbuds: Amazon Australia ($177) | Bing Lee ($179) | eBay ($249)

With a reduced and more comfortable design, the Galaxy Buds2 Pro are worthy successors to Samsung’s previous wireless earbuds.

The Buds2 Pro uses Samsung’s end-to-end 24-bit Hi-Fi processing to create a clear and crisp audio experience, including an immersive 360 Audio feature. Its active noise cancellation uses three high signal-to-noise microphones to detect and reduce ambient sound to improve your listening experience.

The Buds2 Pro has a battery life of around 5 hours with ANC on and up to hours total via the charging case, and can also give you around X minutes of playback with a 15-minute quick charge.

Where to buy Samsung Galaxy Buds2 Pro: Amazon Australia ($299) | Dick Smith ($275.99) | eBay ($331.55 with the code TOP5OFF)

The Momentum True Wireless 2 were already a pretty excellent pair of noise-cancelling earbuds, but Sennheiser somehow found a way to improve them with the Momentum 3.

Sennheiser has a pretty good rep when it comes to having high-quality headphones and audio, and the Momentum 3 earbuds are no different. With 7mm dynamic drivers and a fully customisable EQ, the Sennheiser Momentum 3 earbuds sound great. Their playback is crisp and well-balanced, with very punchy bass.

The earbuds have a 7-hour battery life with ANC on and an additional 21 available via the charging case. It uses adaptive ANC, so the earbuds will monitor your surrounding environment and will automatically adjust the levels of noise cancellation to help prolong battery life.

Where to buy Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3 earbuds: Amazon Australia ($349) | Catch ($399) | eBay ($359.10 with the code OCT202210)

No list of noise-cancelling earbuds would be complete without including something from Sony. Here at Gizmodo Australia, we’ve gone on about how much we love its over-the-ear headphones, and that love extends to Sony’s earbuds too.

In our review of the WF-1000XM4, we were pretty taken by the earbud’s incredible noise-cancellation and sound quality, along with its great battery life (8 hours, with an additional 16 hours from the charging case). To achieve that high-quality sound and noise cancellation, the Sony WF-1000XM4 use a V1 processor and 6mm driver, which has the added bonus of a reduced power drain. So you can listen for longer with fewer distractions.

Where to buy Sony WF-1000XM4 noise-cancelling earbuds: Amazon Australia ($339) | Dick Smith ($299) | eBay ($350.10 with the code OCT202210)

Chris Neill is an E-Commerce Editor at Pedestrian Group, working across PEDESTRIAN.TV, VICE Australia, Refinery29 Australia, Gizmodo Australia, Lifehacker Australia and Kotaku Australia. He primarily writes about videogames, comics and other nerdy topics, along with consumer and lifestyle tech. He firmly believes that pop culture peaked with Prince's 'Batdance'. You can find him on Twitter at @garflyf or you can contact him via email.

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