I'm shocked at how the $70 EarFun Tune Pro headphones silence chaotic city noise

CNN

2 days ago

When I first unboxed the EarFun Tune Pro wireless headphones, I expected yet another predictably solid set from a great budget brand. And then I turned on active noise cancellation. These affordable headphones do a shockingly good job cutting out the chaos of everyday life for a fraction of the price of big-name rivals from Bose, Sony and Apple, all while packing a big list of special features that even some of the best over-ear headphones can't match. Factor in a nearly week-long battery life and you've got a true steal.
That said, few products this affordable come without caveats, and the Tune Pro's audio quality, call clarity and overall design are here to remind you that sometimes you get what you pay for. Are those trade-offs worth it for incredible ANC at a sub-$70 price? Here's what I think after having EarFun's latest headphones on my dome for the better part of a week.
EarFun Tune Pro Over-Ear Headphones
The EarFun Tune Pro offer excellent active noise cancellation, up to 120 hours of promised battery life and lots of features for a budget price. Both Amazon and EarFun have the already affordable headphones marked down by a significant amount right now too. A comfy, easy-to-use design
The EarFun Tune Pro's straightforward design and understated colors might not turn any heads, but they're still a perfectly nice pair of headphones. EarFun's black-and-gray budget headphones look sleeker and more streamlined than their predecessors in the EarFun Wave Pro, and they could easily be mistaken for an older Bose or Sony model from a distance.
More importantly, they're very comfortable. I wore these things for hours at a time while working, walking, commuting and doing chores, and thanks to their airy 10-ounce weight and soft faux-leather ear cups, I rarely had the urge to take them off. I did get a bit sweaty in them while out and about during this particularly brutal New York City summer, but I chalk that up to wearing any sort of leather headphones on a humid, 90-degree-Fahrenheit day and not a flaw of the Tune Pro themselves. The ear cups can rotate to lie flat and fold upward, which were very convenient for when I needed to rest them on my neck or throw them in my bag, respectively.
I also love how simple and easy to use the controls are. You've got an ANC button on the left, and a power/pause button and volume rocker on the right. That's it. No awkward touch controls to fumble with; no excessive buttons that leave you constantly guessing what does what. As someone who's struggled with finicky touch controls on even some of the best headphones (I'm looking at you, Sony WH-1000XM5), it was refreshing being able to control my music and noise cancellation with a few satisfying, reliable clicks.
Excellent ANC for the price
I live in a noisy city and share a noisy apartment with an equally noisy dog. The Tune Pro quieted down all that chaos to a blissfully bearable hiss, something I found somewhat shocking considering these headphones cost less than $70.
They made the constant clatter of my air-conditioning (which was fighting for its life during this heat wave) sound near silent, which made it extremely easy to focus while working from home. It couldn't quite fully suppress my French bulldog's domineering bark, but it certainly made it much less ear-piercing whenever she defended my home from the sudden ring of a doorbell. The Tune Pro continued to hold up as I headed out to meet some friends, significantly dampening but not fully muting the loud chatter of a packed Friday evening subway train.
They fare well against the competition too. Once I got to the bar to meet up with my pal and CNN Underscored electronics writer Henry T. Casey, I did some side-by-side comparisons with his far more premium Sony WH-1000XM6 headphones. The Sony model certainly suppressed more of the hustle and bustle of a busy Brooklyn pub than the EarFun Tune Pro did, but only slightly so. That's very impressive considering there's roughly a $380 price difference between the two.
Nearly as impressive is the fact that the Tune Pro has multiple ANC modes that you can switch between in the EarFun Audio app, which is compatible with both iOS and Android. You can toggle between standard ANC, Comfort ANC (which offers a lower level of noise cancellation that reduces pressure and isolation) and Wind-Canceling ANC, which is a genius addition for when you're walking around outside and one that worked well in my testing. These are really great options to have in a sub-$70 pair of headphones and something I haven't seen even on more expensive models like the Beats Studio Pro and AirPods Max. Plus, when I wanted to stay aware of my surroundings while walking my dog and chatting with neighbors on the street, the headphones' Ambient mode did a great job amplifying the outside world.
Great battery life
Even the best noise cancellation is useless if your headphones can't last through a long flight, and fortunately, the EarFun Tune Pro's run time is well up to par. It took me six straight days of heavy on-and-off use — much of which was with ANC on — to fully drain EarFun's new headphones. I'm not quite sure that lives up to EarFun's ambitious claims of up to 120 hours of playback with ANC off and 80 hours with ANC on, but I do know that I was able to use these headphones liberally for close to a week before having to recharge. And when you finally do need to juice up, the Tune Pro recharge quickly; I was able to get them from nearly zero percent to 95% in about an hour.
Lots of features (including wired audio!)
Thanks to recent releases like the EarFun Air Pro 4 earbuds, I've come to expect lots of features for a low price any time I'm using an EarFun product. Fortunately, the Tune Pro are no exception to this rule. These budget headphones are loaded with (mostly) useful perks, including customizable controls, a robust equalizer for fine-tuning your sound quality and dual-device connectivity that made it easy to stay paired to my iPhone and MacBook via Bluetooth at the same time.
If you run out of juice or just want to take advantage of high-resolution wired audio, you can plug them right into your phone via either a USB-C connection or the good ole' headphone jack, the latter of which you won't find on the much pricier AirPods Max. Not every feature here is a win (I'm not sure who actually uses the low-latency Game mode, and I have some issues with the EQ I'll get into in a bit), but all the essentials are accounted for and then some.
Sound quality is merely fine
The EarFun Tune Pro don't sound bad by any means — I was happy to use them as my main headphones for my usual diet of soft instrumental rock, sad emo bangers and upbeat pop bops — but nothing really stood out about them either. While everything from the lush, quirky indie-pop instrumentation of Petey's 'The Yips' to the existential club anthems that comprise Charli XCX's 'Brat' album came through the headphones' drivers just fine, there was just a general flatness and lack of dimension that I found myself missing from more expensive models like the Beats Studio Pro and Apple AirPods Max. Particularly notable is the overall lack of bass with the Tune Pro, which kept certain tracks from hitting as hard as I was used to.
I tried to remedy this with the equalizer found within the EarFun Audio app, which has a whopping 30 sound presets that range from genre-specific settings like Metal and Hip-Hop to various levels of bass and treble boost. But unlike other EarFun headphones I've tested, the presets didn't seem to make much of a noticeable difference. I had better luck messing around with the Custom Equalizer and boosting the bass myself, though the effects were still relatively subtle. There's also a Theater mode toggle that aims to deliver 'an immersive surround-sound experience,' but in my experience, it just makes everything muddier — and is a far cry from the 3D audio you'll find in more premium headphones.
The Tune Pro's call quality is likewise just fine. I never got any complaints when using them on a bunch of conference calls and casual phone chats, though my colleague Casey noted that I sounded a bit distant, as if there was some cellular interference in the way. I noticed similar issues while listening back to my voice recordings, which were far more echoey than I'd like. These are still perfectly usable for your daily Zoom calls, though you may want to consider something with clearer microphones if you're usually the one doing most of the talking.
No automatic wear detection
Few things infuriate me more than taking off my headphones only to realize much later that they're still blaring audio (and wasting battery in the process). Or when I fire up a TikTok and can't hear the audio because my phone is still paired to my headphones that are in another room. This problem isn't unique to the Tune Pro, but it's still frustrating here, and I'd really love a head-detection feature that can auto-pause your music the second you take the headphones off. I've had similar issues with the Beats Studio Pro, but when other top headphones like the AirPods Max and Sony WH-1000XM6 are smart enough to pause when you take them off, it's a bit hard to live with the omission here.
No carrying case and so-so build quality
Speaking of understandable but frustrating concessions, the Tune Pro ship without a carrying case. I don't think that's a deal breaker for a set of headphones that typically go for $50 to $70, but it's still disappointing — and something to keep in mind if you plan on traveling with these often. It doesn't help that the Tune Pro's plastic materials aren't the most durable; I noticed a pretty significant scuff on one of the ear cups after just one accidental drop. Fortunately, the Tune Pro's foldable design makes them easy enough to stash in a bag of any size, and you can always grab a cheap universal case and still come out spending less than $100. But when the Tune Pro mimic the premium competition in so many key ways, it's a bit of a bummer that protection is not one of them.
The EarFun Tune Pro are a worthy follow-up to some of the best budget headphones around, and some of the best I've ever tested in the sub-$100 range. Their excellent ANC makes it easy to relax and focus in even the most chaotic environments, they're packed with handy features and they have enough juice to get you through several cross-country flights. When you factor in sales and coupons that bring the Tune Pro down to the $50 to $60 range, you'll have a hard time finding a better value.
That said, you do make some notable trade-offs for this low price. The Tune Pro's sound quality is just okay, and their somewhat flimsy design and lack of a carrying case are here to remind you that sometimes you get what you pay for. If you don't mind paying a little more, the superb Sony WH-C720N offer even better sound quality and ANC, and they can be had for as low as $100 these days. But for people on a tighter budget, the EarFun Tune Pro are an incredibly reliable pair of headphones that let you block out the world on a budget.
Do the EarFun Tune Pro wireless headphones have active noise cancellation?
Do the EarFun Tune Pro wireless headphones have active noise cancellation?
Yep! EarFun's latest headphones actually offer three different noise cancellation settings: standard ANC, comfort ANC (which lets in a little more noise) and wind-canceling ANC, which is specifically designed to block out wind.
Are the EarFun Tune Pro wireless headphones foldable?
Are the EarFun Tune Pro wireless headphones foldable?
They sure are. The Tune Pro's ear cups can lie flat, which is ideal for when you're resting them around your neck. They also fold upward, which is great for stashing them in a small bag.
How long does the battery last on the EarFun Tune Pro wireless headphones?
How long does the battery last on the EarFun Tune Pro wireless headphones?
The EarFun Tune Pro are rated to last up to 120 hours without ANC and up to 80 hours with ANC activated. While we can't verify if those exact claims are accurate, we can confirm that these headphones survived close to a week of frequent on-and-off use before we had to recharge them.
CNN Underscored's writers and editors thoroughly test the products in our testing guides and provide full transparency about how we test them. We have a skilled team with many years of product testing experience and ensure each article is carefully edited and products are properly vetted. We talk to subject matter experts where applicable to make certain we test each product accurately and can speak about the pros and cons of each. Senior tech editor Mike Andronico has tested more headphones and earbuds than he can count in his decade-plus career doing product reviews of consumer tech and is constantly in search of new ways to quiet down the noise of living in New York City.