Best Cheaper Rivals to Apple AirPods Max for 2025: Sony, Bose, AirPods Pro 2 and More

Yahoo

09-02-2025

The Apple AirPods Max are one of the best mainstream headphones on the market with high-quality audio, earning a very high rating in my review. But the hefty price tag means they may not be the best option for everyone. Thankfully, there are a lot of more affordable alternatives on the market that could fit every budget without making compromises on quality. I've tested them to bring you the best noise-canceling Bluetooth headphones, along with a few wired options for those who prefer them.
The AirPods Max have a retail price of $549 at Apple. Though you may find them on sale every now and then, they're still going to be quite pricey hovering around the $500 price point, which can be a big pill to swallow for a lot of people. That's exactly why we've tested and picked some of the best AirPods Max alternatives that cost a lot less. Below are my current top picks, including Apple's own Beats Studio Pro, which costs less than half the price of the Maxes.
If I had to choose one, I'd say Sony's WH-1000XM5 headphones are the best cheaper alternative to the AirPods Max. With top-notch sound, active noise cancelation (ANC), as well as a robust feature set and best-in-class voice call quality, the WH-1000XM5s earned CNET's Editors' Choice award in 2023. If you're looking for something even cheaper, Sony's entry-level CH-720N are lightweight and comfortable with good sound and great noise canceling.
I've tested hundreds of headphones over the last 20 years, and I've fully reviewed or had hands-on experience with all my picks on this list. I'll be sure to update it as more models are released in 2025. But if you decide that you'd rather have the real thing, check out our list of the best Apple AirPods.
Before anything else, you'll want to figure out how much you're willing to spend on an AirPods Max alternative. The quality of value-priced headphones continues to improve, so you can find good affordable headphones for less than $100. The premium models, which offer better build quality and performance, tend to cost $200 or more -- sometimes much more.
It's key that the headphones you buy fit your head well. They should offer a comfortable fit that's snug yet not too snug. Ideally, you want headphones you can wear throughout the day with minimal breaks.
You want headphones that hold up well over time, so look for models that we note have sturdy build quality.
You want the best-sounding headphones with the best noise-canceling, call quality and features for whatever you're able to spend.
It's critical to buy your headphones at a retailer that has a good return policy, in case you have buyer's remorse. Some people who are having trouble deciding between two models sometimes buy both, try them out for a few days and then return one.
We test headphones and earbuds based on six key criteria. These criteria include design, sound quality, noise-canceling performance, voice-calling performance, features and value.
Design: Evaluating design, we assess not only how comfortable the headphones and earbuds fit (their ergonomics) but their build quality and how well the controls are implemented. When it comes to earbuds, we also look at water- and dust-resistance ratings.
Sound quality: We evaluate sound quality by listening to a set playlist of music tracks and comparing the earbuds to top competing products in their price range. Sonic traits such as bass definition, clarity, dynamic range and how natural the headphones sound are key factors in our assessment.
Noise-canceling performance: If the headphones we're testing feature active noise canceling (ANC), we evaluate ANC performance by wearing the headphones in the same spot indoors near a noisy HVAC unit to see how well they do at muffling lower frequencies. Then we head out to the streets of New York to test the headphones in a real-world environment where we see how they muffle not only street noise but people's voices.
Extra features: Some great-sounding noise-canceling headphones and earbuds aren't loaded with features, but we do take into account what extra features are on board. These include everything from quick-access awareness to transparency modes (your music pauses and the headphones open up to the outside world so you can have a conversation) to special sound modes to ear-detection sensors that automatically pause your music when you take the headphones off your ears. We also take a look at the companion app for the headphones if there is one and how user-friendly it is.
Voice-calling: When we test voice-calling performance, we make calls in the noisy streets of New York and evaluate how well the headphones or earbuds reduce background noise and how clearly callers can hear our voices.
Value: We determine value after evaluating the strength of the headphones and earbuds against all these criteria and what they're able to deliver compared to other models in their price class.
Sony MDR-M1: The new-for-2024 MDR-M1 are essentially a premium version of the 7506, delivering sound that's hard to match for the price. These are the wired headphones that will make you realize what you're missing after listening to wireless headphones for so long. They feature big, open sound with excellent clarity, accuracy and tight bass.
Earfun Wave Pro: They list for $80, but click the 20% instant coupon on their product page to get a discount. They may not sound as good as premium noise-canceling headphones from Bose or Sony, but they're comfortable to wear, feature decent sound with punchy bass (they're a bit lacking in clarity and bass definition compared to more expensive models), and offer respectable noise canceling (you can toggle between two levels of ANC) and voice-calling performance. I found them to be a step up from the Soundpeats Space headphones, which sometimes cost a little less.
QCY H3 Pro: Its new-for-2024 H3 Pro headphones are similar to models in this price range from 1More, Tribit and Edifier, but they arguably sound a touch better and I found them relatively comfortable to wear, as they feature a lightweight design and memory foam ear pads.
JBL Live 770NC: The well-designed and comfortable JBL Live 770NC offers some modest improvements over its predecessor, including better battery life (up to 65 hours with ANC off and 50 hours with ANC on) and Bluetooth 5.3 with LE Audio (via a future firmware upgrade). Equipped with 40mm drivers, you get bold, nicely defined sound with powerful bass that's relatively tight. JBL's Ambient Aware and TalkThru features are on board along with multipoint Bluetooth pairing (the one feature that's missing is ear-detection sensors that pause your music when you take the headphones off).
Edifier W830NB: The W830NB looks slightly more premium than its predecessor, and like that earlier model, is fairly lightweight (265 grams) and comfortable, with cushy memory foam ear pads. They also sound very good for their price, offering decent clarity and fairly well-defined bass with an amply wide sound stage (they lack the refinement and depth of higher-end headphones, but you can't expect the world from sub-$80 headphones). You can tweak the sound profile in Edifier's companion app for iOS and Android.
Sennheiser Accentum Plus: In 2023, Sennheiser released a new midrange noise-canceling headphone called the Accentum which was sort of a slightly stripped-down version of its flagship Momentum Wireless 4 headphones with smaller 37mm drivers (the MW4 has 42mm drivers). The Accentum Plus, new for 2024, adds some extra features for $50 more, or $230. They include touch controls, adaptive noise canceling, support for the AptX Adaptive Audio codec, an analog port for wired listening and a hard carrying case. Even though it costs more, I do recommend this model over the Accentum because of those extras.
Anker Soundcore Space One: Available in three color options, the Soundcore Space One by Anker are a good value for around $100, offering a strong feature set along with good sound quality and performance. They can't compete sound-wise with many of the premium noise-canceling models, but you don't feel like you're giving up that much on the sound front to save a good deal of money. They lack a bit of that natural, refined quality you look for in a great set of cans, but the Space One sounds respectable, with decent clarity and bass definition and measures up well to the more expensive Soundcore Space 45.
Beyerdynamic DT 700 Pro X: These headphones are targeted at content creators who want accurate audio reproduction, but it's a bit more dynamic sounding and less bass-shy than many studio headphones, which tend to restrain the bass and hew toward a very neutral sound profile. The DT 700 X are revealing, clean-sounding headphones that offer invitingly open sound (particularly for closed-back headphones) and make you realize what you're missing after listening to similarly priced Bluetooth headphones.
Often, the biggest difference is build quality. Premium headphones tend to feel sturdier and tend to be built with more premium materials. They also have a more premium look and feel to both the headphones themselves and any accessories (carrying cases, charging cables, etc.). In theory, premium headphones should hold up better over time. Additionally, they tend to have more features such as ear-detection sensors and they pair with a companion app so you can upgrade the firmware (as well as tweak the sound and possibly customize the controls). Finally, while some cheaper headphones have active noise cancellation, the performance of the noise-canceling and transparency modes tends to be better with more premium models.Some do. Many cheaper buds now feature multiple microphones and some do a surprisingly good job when it comes to voice calling. A few models on this list have surprisingly good noise reduction and measure up well against the AirPods, which are known for their strong voice-calling performance.The short answer is, not really when you're talking about spatial audio with head tracking for movie and TV watching. While the AirPods Max offers the best sound overall, using the spatial audio virtual sound feature is largely the same experience on all headphones that support it.