The world can be a noisy place.
From the sounds of too much traffic to others who are too much in the office, from those who play from their phone speakers on public transport to no-filter public speakers who are overly vocal, overly loud and overly annoying everywhere, sometimes it can feel almost impossible to filter the ever-wailing cacophony of everyday life out.
If that sounds like something you suffer from then headphones can help. Specifically, closed-back over-ear headphones that physically cut out some of the sound that surrounds you while you enjoy a tune or two. But if that isn’t enough to deal with the sheer white noise that dogs your daily life, then up your clamour counteracting game with headphones imbued with ANC.
Active Noise Cancellation is the gift of the headphone gods to those who want to delete the disquiet and simply sit back and enjoy their own chosen sounds, unsullied by ambient annoyance. The choice is plentiful to overwhelming, coming in many different forms and across many different price points, each pair packing its own pros and level of performance.
So, to try and clear the audio air and make some sense of the epic over-ear noise cancelling cans market, I’ve indulged my natural anti-social abilities and tested out a veritable truckload of top-notch ANC options.
Best noise-cancelling headphones at a glance:
Discover more about the best noise cancelling headphones of 2025, handpicked for superior clarity and unparalleled comfort. Explore our top selections and find the perfect pair to enjoy your favourite tunes in peace below.
Soundcore Space One Pro
Best for: Next-level noise cancellation
I had the pleasure of testing out Soundcore’s original Space One cans when they first arrived on the scene back in the late summer of 2023 and so taken was I that it seemed only right that when these already impressive over-ears went ‘Pro’ I had to give them a try.
So, if the original was so good, why has Soundcore changed it? Well, don’t think of it as a change so much as an update, no, an upgrade, no… an evolution. With advancements in audio tech coming thick and fast, there’s no time to rest on your laurels, and the Space One Pro is unliving proof of that.
The 40mm dynamic drivers, same as the original? Check. Meaty 40-hour playback with ANC on, as per the original? Check. Five-hour upgrade to 60 hours of playtime with ANC off? Check. Incredibly ergonomic with a ludicrously small fold-down system, aping the original. Check!
Then things get all enhanced. Starting with the Adaptive ANC, the cunning-as-a-foldable-fox Space One Pro features nothing less than a four-stage noise cancellation system that works absolute wonders to effectively eliminate the awful sound of the outside world, leaving you cocooned in the stunning clarity of music and crystal-clear calls the Pro produces.
With customised, triple-composite drivers smoothly oozing forth unwaveringly undistorted audio into your earholes, the Pro has the balance of a high-fidelity funambulist, whilst the Al algorithm-enhanced 4x mic array means you can be heard as cuttingly clearly as you can hear on calls.
With Bluetooth 5.3 allowing for strong multipoint connections, an accompanying app to fine-tune your experience, and even a HearID test to personalise the sound profile exactly to your ears, personal audio has rarely been so personal, and certainly not at such a remarkably low price.
Comfortable too, the Space One Pro hugs the head with a reassurance that never feels restrictive, the pressure-relieving headband and silky soft earcups allowing you to listen for longer without the worry of discomfort ending the party for one early.
A stonking set of cans that come jam-packed with cutting-edge tech, the new Space One Pro is a revelation that could cost twice the price and still be considered a bargain. An audio evolution indeed.
Buy now £150.00, Amazon
Sennheiser MOMENTUM 4 Wireless
Best for: ANC headphone heaven
I’m a massive fan of Sennheiser. Thought I’d better come clear on that before we get into it. But I’m biased for a reason, because I’ve never strapped a set of Sennheisers to my head that didn’t immediately amaze me. Take the latest, for example. This is the MOMENTUM 4, the culmination of all of Sennheiser’s many years of experience manufacturing ANC headphones that go above and beyond and refine a technology to be the very best it can be.
Relatively light at 293g and unquestionably comfortable thanks to deep cushioned earpads and a fully padded headband, Bluetooth 5.2 provides a strong connection between cans and device, while large 42mm drivers allow Sennheiser’s famous Signature Sound to flow into your audio holes as smoothly as a sonic silk, while the smartphone app allows you customise the personalise that sound until you hit the peak of perfection.
With Adaptive ANC on, you’ll get up to 60 hours free from the jibber-jabber of others around you, and no fewer than four beamforming microphones are at your oral disposal to ensure calls are like crystal and automatic wind suppression keeps the shizzle of storms at bay.
Distinctly stylish too, £310 may be considered quite the purse of a coin for a pair of headphones, but the MOMENTUM 4 Wireless really do excel in all areas and are well worth every penny.
Buy now £249.00, Amazon
Focal Lensys Pro
Best for: No ANC art of noise cancellation
Okay, a bit out of left-field as this is, yes, the Focal Lensys Pro headphones come completely free of active noise cancellation technology, which may seem perverse for a review round-up of noise-cancelling cans. However, bear with me.
You see, what we have here is an old-fashioned set of wired over-ear headphones designed for audiophile types to sit indoors and simply enjoy music on. As such, there is noise cancellation going on, but it’s of the passive type and comes about through the closed-back design creating the perfect noise isolation, so as soon as you slip these beauties on your bonce and begin playback of your high-brow tunes, the bedlam of other beings in your surroundings will be whisked away.
This then leaves you free to not worry about wireless connectivity or charge levels, rather you can just lie back, think of, say, Benjamin Britten, and let the sound of the 40mm aluminium/magnesium specially angled drivers wash over you with their perfectly precise sound reproduction across the entire sound spectrum.
Created to cater for audio fanatics at the exacting end of that rainbow, the sound here is so stunningly detailed and unerringly accurate that you’ll want to relisten to all your favourite albums again, just so you can experience exactly how the artists involved intended their music to sound. And because Focal knows this, the Lensys Pro has been suitably sculpted and padded to let you listen for longer.
Complete with leads and a hard carry case for the rare times you now leave the house, this is personal audio at the cutting edge.
Buy now £599.00, Gear4Music
Marshall Monitor III ANC
Best for: Gratifying the Gods of guitar
Hailing from the most famous name in guitar amp history, the Marshall sound is one that shaped the success of rock’s biggest icons since the 1960s, and since 2010 this best-of-British brand has expanded access to that audio awesomeness, taking it from the stacks of the stars on stage directly to the discerning ears of the public, in the form of headphones and Bluetooth speakers that come cooler than a cryogenic cucumber.
And it’s the latest iteration of Marshall’s over-ears that we look at now, the Monitor III ANC, the company’s first fully wireless cans to come bursting with all the battery and Bluetooth brawn required to cut that cord completely.
With both ANC and super-sturdy, Bluetooth 5.3 turned up to 11, you still get a truly remarkable 70 hours of playback or an incomprehensible 100 hours with Bluetooth alone, and to be clear, with the ANC on and effectively ridding you of all outside annoyance, the Monitor III’s Adaptive Loudness adjusting sound as per your changing environment, and the 32mm dynamic drivers doing their unerringly defined thing, the playback you receive is at the very pinnacle of precision.
While Marshall may be synonymous with rock music, the sonic scope of the new Monitor is so wide, so all-enveloping and so nuanced that it sweeps majestically like a herd of audio antelopes across a vast soundscape savannah to suit all sound genres, delivering absolute oomph and delicate subtlety with equal aplomb wherever required.
But, that said, first and foremost comes rock, and when you marry up these masters of music with Jimi Hendrix, as I chose to, you instantly lose yourself inside the acid-drenched panning complexity of his classic tracks, as every note of his Strat sings with the clarity of crystal and the bass of Noel Redding or Billy Cox brings a tight timbre in the background. And the space inside? You could fit two heads if you had them.
Damn good looking too, finished in the traditional Marshall amp livery of black and (now) gold, the Monitor III is subtle but striking at the same time and will immediately appeal to fans of the amps, while the plump earpads and headband make them impossibly comfortable over countless hours of wear. Blending almost unseeingly in with the noir design also sits the customisable M-button for selecting Spotify, summoning your voice assistant or switching between EQ settings, and finally, sitting proud and drawing the eye like a single golden earring, the multidirectional control knob.
With a companion app to let you tweak settings to your own, rightfully demanding specifications and easily the coolest hard carry case you’re likely to ever come across, the Marshall Monitor III is the new king of ANC cool.
Buy now £300.00, John Lewis
MIXX StreamQ C4
Best for: Affordable ANC
There’s no denying that the personal audio world can be a very expensive place, especially when you start to bring clever ANC tech into play. However, there are still some bargains to be had, depending on how demanding your nose-neutralising needs are.
Take the StreamQ C4 from MIXX, for example. Fifty quid’s worth of cans that may look and feel rather plasticky, but in the hands and on the head possess an unexpectedly robust build quality. And this ‘good start’ is swiftly and solidly backed by a decent battery life of up to 25 hours plunged into full ANC mode and up to 40 hours without, while the sizeable 40mm drivers make a decent fist of delivering dynamically thrusting audio down your earholes.
Capable of connecting over Bluetooth or the included 3.5mm cable, alright, sound quality is never going to be able to compete with the cash-commanding big boys across the audible spectrum, and the ANC is not exactly akin to turning on an alfresco audio-dampening field, but performance is solid, sound clean and clear, with good balance and decent bass. Yes, you may encounter some audio performance issues at the upper echelons of volume, but then you shouldn’t be listening that loud anyway!
Comfortable thanks to earpads upholstered like a Chesterfield sofa, you don’t get much freedom of movement once in place, but – adhering to what appears to be the StreamQ 4C’s raison d’etre – for listening to that falls into the ‘casual but still keen’ camp, what MIXX has managed to achieve here is a pair of ANC headphones that deliver far superior function that the asking price would ever suggest.
Buy now £50.00, Amazon
Groov-e Harmony
Best for: Budget British at its best
Right, if you demand ANC but money is a real issue, then you have arrived at your final destination. Are there noise-cancelling cans available for less than the Groov-e Harmony? Well, yes, yes there are. But I cannot and would not recommend them.
So, why do I recommend these? Quite simply, for the money parted with you’re getting far more than you deserve, by which I mean 40mm Neodymium drivers, handsfree telephony, the absolute blistering latest Bluetooth 5.4 (but also the option to go corded), a Super Bass function for those who live for the low-end, voice assistant enabling, up to 25-hours of playback and, of course, ANC to drown out the cacophony of the clowns around you. So, yeah, the tech returns on your 35 nickels are considerable.
But what does £35 of NAC headphones feel like? A triumph of the plastic fantastic. But go look back at the tech and if you can see past the tactile, you’re starting to see just how much of a stone-cold deal this latest slice of Groov-e gear is.
With buttons on the right cup to toggle ANC on and off, turn on/off, and adjust volume, the Harmony headphones have all the basics where you need them and don’t offer any companion app nonsense, so just pair up and play the old-fashioned way.
As I said at the start, there are still cheaper ANC options afloat out there on the wild roiling waves of the personal audio ocean, but I wouldn’t touch them with yours. The Groov-e Harmony, however, is embarrassingly over-generous with the tech it brings to the budget party, so get hands-on, get head-in and brace for far more bang than buck.
Buy now £35.00, Amazon
Edifier WH950NB
Best for: battery life
I’ve been singing the praises of Edifier for years as an audio kit maker that manages to strike that perfect balance between price and performance. Indeed, between its bookshelf speakers, soundbars, and headphones, I’ve put quite a few Edifier products through their paces and always found them excellent value for money. And this is not the first time its WH950NB cans have crossed my path, after attracting my ears when it picked up a Red Dot design award back in 2023. So, why am I including them again? Simply because it’s worth repeating!
Yes, costing a middling £150, these well-built, minimalist, matte black and brushed black metal magnificent musical beasts come packing 2x 40mm composite titanium film drivers that are equally adept at whispering or shouting sweet Hi-Res sonic nothings into your shell-likes with all the superlative balance and sweet uncoloured skill you’d expect from a set of over-ears costing much more. And that’s not all, with intelligent, active noise cancellation algorithms in place to cunningly remove all surrounding stridency, the audio poured into your ears is as pure and untainted as the moment it was recorded.
Connecting over Bluetooth 5.3, hook-up with your smart devices is a string and, of course, multipoint, while the four-strong mic array keeps calls just as clear as the tunes, regardless of how wild the wind is whipping around you.
With a battery that’s good to go for 34 hours in ANC mode, you can always eke that out to 55 hours by flipping to ambient mode when a complete close-down of outside audio is not required.
Coming complete with a tough carry case, an audio lead should you want to go old-school and an aeroplane adapter, don’t just enhance your personal audio, Edify it.
Buy now £150.00, Amazon
Sony WH-CH720N
Best for: Sony for a steal
Sony is a brand that needs no introduction. And while it may no longer be the striding all-consumer-tech colossus it once was back when it lent its hand to phones, laptops and TVs, when it comes to personal audio, the big S is still winning over the fans. Especially now that said person's audio is more affordable than ever.
In this instance, I speak of the WH-CH720N over-ears that became available much earlier this year. Priced at just under the ton mark on release, savvy ear-users can now pick these up for just £64. No, your eyes do not deceive you.
So, what do you get for this next-to-nothing, cost-of-living-pleasing price? For a start, a relatively minimalist-looking pair of ear-huggers with all the requisite buttons required to play and pause, skip back and forth, adjust volume and answer calls placed neatly on the right earcup. Which sees to the basics. Then you have Bluetooth 5.2 offering both a reliable connection and multi-point to keep your essential gadgets paired up. Effective ANC keeps unwanted racket at bay, while an Ambient option lets you allow some sound in on the off-chance you need to keep an ear out.
Then there’s the sound. Featuring a more diminutive set of 30mm drivers, what they may lack in scale is more than made up for by the inclusion of 360 Reality Audio which works to surround you in a nicely balanced bubble of audio that lends your music a welcome feel of space, helping to fend-off the annoying but inevitable issue of listening fatigue.
Light too, at just 192g, they may not be the most comfortable cans I’ve had clamped to my noggin during the course of these reviews, but for £64, they’re more than acceptable.
With the Sony Headphones Connect app available to make minor adjustments to set-up, quality, relatively expense-free ANC is now available for the masses.
Buy now £64.00, AO
JBL JR 470NC
Best for: Ensuring the kids are alright
When it comes to making sure your sprog’s shell-likes are always safe from both the aural interference of the outside world AND damage caused by high volumes, we have the musical marvels that are the JR 470NC from uber-awesome JBL.
New on the sonic scene, just because these are for kids doesn’t mean they’re any less refined than JBL’s adult offerings. Indeed, what we have here is a pair of 32mm dynamic drivers with full Active Noise Cancelling that will keep even the most easily distracted imp firmly absorbed in whatever media they’re consuming, be that music or video, stopping them from interrupting you every two minutes – which is an absolute sanity saver on epic journeys, trust me on that.
Coming complete with an audio cable, these JBLs also possess the power of Bluetooth 5.3, giving a rock-solid connection to devices and effectively eliminating any chance of signal drop-off, so wonderfully wire-free where allowed, but cable connectable for flights.
Sound quality, as you might expect, is exceptional, and keeping the kids alright, the maximum volume is limited to 85dB, while the JBL Headphones app means you can dip in on your phone at any time to check on usage, view volume reports and set daily listening time.
With a well-sized button on the left can, kids can control volume themselves too, while the built-in mic lets them chat on calls as they play or learn, and a hefty 50 hours of battery life sans ANC or 28 hours with noise cancellation in full effect means they’ll run and run for far longer than your little one will.
Comfy to boot and boxed with a selection of stickers to let your dinky one decorate his/her headphones to their own design, the JBL JR 470NC is a masterclass in engineering audio for infants.
Buy now £70.00, Amazon
Bose QuietComfort Ultra
Best for: High fidelity highflyers
I’ve been a fan of Bose QuietComfort cans for many years. I once would never have even contemplated stepping foot on a long-haul flight without my QC 2s to keep me company and, of course, free from unwanted company as I ploughed my way through G&Ts and the air.
Things have come on considerably since my 2003-issue Bose, of course, and I’ve had the pleasure of testing each subsequent advance on its legendary tech since then, so it was with excited ears that I embraced the new face of this old friend when the slick new Ultra review model arrived.
Lightweight and designed to wrap around the head like a decidedly comfortable noise cancelling crown, the Ultra feature some truly world-class ANC that, at the touch of a button, turns the outside world off to your ears, setting you free to luxuriate in the personalised audio offered by the 35mm drivers and Bose’s Immersive Audio mode which brings spatial sound to your headspace, opening up your music in a manner that makes you experience it afresh.
As you might imagine, the ANC is exceptional. Flick it on and all else is gone, just like that. And you get a decent 24 hours of that ANC – enough to see you through even the most arduous, crying baby-laden, snoring adult full, long-haul flights – while the Bose app lets you adjust the EQ and set custom modes which you can later access directly from the cans themselves.
With calls also rendered as clear as though you were chatting to the person next to you, the Ultra came Bluetooth 5.1-enabled but also arrived supplied with an aux cable for times when only wired will do or, indeed, battery is precariously low.
Another absolute winner from this personal audio heavyweight, if I ever returned to the airborne business-heavy days of yore, I’d want these babies as my constant travel companion.
Buy now £176.00, Amazon
OneOdio Focus A5 Hybrid
Best for: A Hi-Res hybrid under one hundred
So freshly launched that you can still smell the factory on them, I’ve reviewed OneOdio’s Monitor Series cans in the recent past, but this is the first time I’ve made a foray into the Focus Series, and the new A5 Hybrid is quite the introduction.
Firstly, there’s the price. Currently retailing at just £56, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the A5 is not a serious contender in the noise cancellation stakes, but you’d be underestimating what OneOdio can achieve for less.
For starters, it has dual Hi-Res Audio and LDAC certification, so you can indulge in the very purest sound without paying out all the extra pennies this normally entails. Then there’s Adaptive ANC which comes AI-enhanced so that it automatically adjusts to your surroundings as you move from scenario to scenario. And then there’s an epic battery life of up to 45 hours with ANC on and a staggering 70 hours with ANC off.
Wireless only, you’re ensured of a mighty connection via the inclusion of Bluetooth 5.4, while the 40mm drivers make a decent fist of doling out the frequency spectrum, even if it does seem lacking in oomph at times. Interestingly, there is no companion app, so the EQ settings are the EQ settings, which might put more particular listeners off.
Comfortable and light, the build quality is reassuringly solid and they feel and look considerably better than the price tag might cause you to expect, however, they are not water-resistant, so don’t go testing that ANC out in nature.
Is the OneOdio Focus A5 Hybrid the perfect budget ANC headset? Well, no. The ANC is actually a little on the weak side so outside noise is still quite noticeable in busy environments. But at £56, if you’re simply after a comfy set of cans that can keep you cocooned from nominal noise in the domestic domain, then they’re money well spent.
Buy now £60.00, Amazon
Beats Studio Pro
Best for: Androiding with ease
Surprisingly light and stunning compact, the Studio Pro are the latest and some would arguably say the greatest addition to the Beats pantheon of high-performance headphones. Minimalist in looks and design, one of the first things you’ll notice is how little movement there is in the earcups, barely a wiggle, in fact. Regardless of this, the generously upholstered earpads and shallow but firm headband hold them in place snuggly and agreeably, allowing for long periods of use without any discomfort.
And that’s a vital selling point for the Studio Pro for, alongside churning out perfectly precise music, it’s been designed with the cinematic experience in mind. Infused with Spatial Audio technology, the soundtrack to your favourite Dolby Atmos films is lovingly levered into your ears in spectacularly immersive 360° surround sound, elevating your home cinema experience to whole new heights. I particularly recommend slapping these on and giving Mad Max: Fury Road a rewatch or give bad-day-at-the-beach epic Dune another listen as the Beats carve you a savage new sonic profile. And, of course, flip on the Adaptive ANC and anyone sitting near you choosing to watch something entirely different on their phone but without headphones (as seems to be a thing these days) will be enveloped in utter silence.
Featuring updated 40mm drivers with a two-layer diaphragm and stringer magnets than found in previous pairs of Beats, the sound is deliciously rich and free from distortion, even when you ramp up the volume so that all audio is reproduced faithfully and free of colouration.
Hooking up over Bluetooth 5.3, the Studio Pro is compatible with both Apple and Android phones, but it’s with the latter that you’ll get the best of your Beats. While there’s a host of native Apple features, the Android side of things allows for Google Fast Pair to instantly connect with all devices registered to your Gmail account, Audio Switch lest you seamlessly segue between Android, Chromebook and similar devices, Find my Device pinpoint misplaced Beats on a map, and the Beats app for Android means you can tweak and customise performance to suit your style of sounds.
With around 40 hours of playback with ANC off and 24 hours on, for those who love a bit of lossless audio, there is even a built-in digital-to-analogue converter that serves it up using USB-C.
A masterfully engineered ANC option, for audio that’s pure and powerful, surround sound superiority, and noise cancellation that filters out exterior noise at 48,000x per second for perfect peace, the Beats Studio Pro can’t be, well, beat.
Buy now £239.00, Amazon
