I broke my Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro and can get some from Costco for $160. What else should I be considering in that price range? What do you like?
I’ve tried a bunch and I always come back to the Sony Linkbuds S. Great ANC, sound quality, battery life, phone call clarity, and app. They’re also more comfortable than the xm4. The new xm5 may be as comfortable, but they’re way more expensive.
Full agree with this. I’ve used many different buds, linkbuds s are by far my favorite. The fit is excellent, they are very discreet visually and they sound great. Battery life is perfect, anc is great etc. I really cannot think of a single negative about them.
I’ve been using the Anker Soundcore Space A40 $90 they work well and are comfortable. Link
The Soundcore Liberty 4 NC are pretty good, and well under that price
I switched to those after it turned out my galaxy buds gave me an allergic reaction and I agree, those are good. ANC is good and I like how they sound.
Just got the SoundCore Liberty 4 NCs and have to say I’m really impressed. Good fit, ANC has multiple modes and levels plus transparency modes. App is full of settings for things like EQ, loudness limits - even has a thing where you can set an EQ based on a hearing test! Plus they are a decent price.
I had a pair of Galaxy Buds 2 Pro but my dog got ahold of the case and buds…it was a total loss.
I now have a pair of Wyze Buds Pro. They sniped some senior Bose engineers to help design their buds. The ANC on the Wyze buds is superior to the Galaxy buds, but the Galaxy buds are superior for audio fidelity. The wyze buds are not a flat frequency response and tend to be a little heavy on the bass for my taste.
So, if you want superior ANC, go with the Wyze…if you want superior audio, get the Samsung.
The other big benefit of the Wyze buds…they retail for around $90.
Those look interesting. Thanks for the suggestion.
I know this isn’t what you’re asking, but I’d really recommend buying refurbished earbuds. You can sometimes get them for so much cheaper than the normal price and they work the same. I got refurbished Galaxy Buds2 (not pro or anything) from Best Buy for $60 around a year ago and they work perfectly fine.
But as you’re coming from the Buds2 Pro, you probably don’t want to downgrade to an older model. But yeah, for whatever you end up getting, buying refurbished from a reputable retailer seems to be the way to go imo.
That’s always a good recommendation. I’m pretty hard on my gear so I usually buy new to get the most life out of them. My earbuds were pretty worn by the time I washed the case. But I’ve more than one person say refurbished has worked out great.
All I can say is don’t buy the Sony wf-1000 series. My XM4s are in for warranty repair for the second time in 6 months.
The WF-1000XM4 is fine long as you don’t update the firmware to 2.0.0.
Got mine as a refurbished unit couple months ago, came with 2.0.0 by default and it ended up almost nuking the battery after two months lol. I ended up having to get the battery replaced, plus downgrading to 1.3.3 and it’s been smooth sailing ever since thankfully.
My issue has been the right earbud getting capped at ~10% volume - left is fine, right is almost inaudible. Luckily didn’t have the battery issues others had with 2.0.0
I found soudcore to be underwhelming as far as ANC is concerned, i had Phillips before them… I miss their ANC capability dearly!
The Sony C700N looks good, might be slightly too bassy for my taste by default but Sony has decent EQ options in their app
I wouldn’t recommend the C700N if ANC is important, since it’s ANC is quite weak and passable at best compared to the LinkBuds S or WF-1000XM4.
I got these mpow ones like 2 years ago, anc works great and 90 CAD.
That took my back. Mpow were my first Bluetooth headphones. Good to know they are still around.
I have both the Soundcore Liberty Pro 4 and 4 NC. Great sound out of both with adjustable environment ANC
How good would you say the ANC is?
Do those have ANC?
