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On the hunt for a pair of headphones that will deliver satisfying sound without clearing out your bank account? Good affordable headphones are tricky to come by, but they do exist — you just need to know where to look.
Here at TechRadar, we test dozens of pairs of headphones every year, and in amongst them we've unearthed some wallet-friendly wonders. I asked TechRadar's audio specialists which headphones they'd recommend to buyers on a budget, and rounded up their suggestions for this article.
If it's true wireless in-ears you're after, you'd struggle to do better than the Nothing Ear (a) buds, which Audio Editor Becky Scarrott awarded a perfect five stars, calling them "a resounding home run" for the British startup and praising the noise cancellation, sound quality and battery life in particular. In the over-ear arena, Becky loves the CMF Pro. In her tests, she was impressed with the "superb" sound quality, and pleasantly surprised to discover "the sort of... personal sound profile curation [we're] more used to seeing in headphones much higher up the food chain".
Read on for more budget-maximizing buys — and hit the 'View details' button for a summary of what we thought of them in our tests, plus links to the full reviews.
Top cheap earbuds and headphones Nothing Ear (a) Pros- Fun, zealous, expansive sound
- Vastly improved active noise cancellation
- Smaller, more pocketable case
- No wireless charging support
- No flagship sound profile curation
- Solid ANC
- Lightweight build
- Truly low price
- Poor eartip fit
- Lean battery life
- Aggressive transparency mode
- Fantastic listening test
- Comfortable build
- Competitive value
- Low max volume
- Cheap-feeling case
- Touch control issues
- Sensational sound quality
- Extensive software features
- Comfy, quality construction
- On-ear controls are a little sensitive
- ANC is good rather than game-changing
- Excellent hearing tests; unexpected at the level
- Emotive, circumaural sound
- Exemplary battery life
- ANC isn't amazing
- Energy slider feels a tad gimmicky
- No hard carry case or USB-C charger in the box
- Top-tier sound
- Competitive price
- Comfortable fit
- App download pains
- Middling battery life
- Would benefit from ANC
- Great sound balance
- Lots of detail in audio
- Effective noise cancellation
- Full of useful features
- Sound feels constrained
- Noise cancellation leaks in low sounds
- Plastic feels a little cheap
From the scourge of Generative AI to the RAM crisis, from PlayStation axing discs to Xbox cutting legendary studios off at the knees, it seems like gaming is under attack from every angle. The industry is in dire straits, with studios seemingly no longer able to bank on the success of AAA blockbusters or Live Service behemoths like it used to. Even the biggest game ever, the upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6, has had a troubled announcement, with its $80 price tag and discless contents getting people’s backs up.
It’s easy to feel helpless when seemingly insurmountable problems hit a medium you love, and speaking out feels like you’re merely howling into the void. But based on historic events, it's true that when enough gamers make themselves heard — and when they vote with their wallets — positive changes can occur, bad decisions can be reversed and better futures can be laid. Hey, even Xbox rolled back its Game Pass price hike (to an extent).
So we want to hear from you — which issue are you most concerned about? Participate in our poll below and tell everyone what you think. No doubt many if not all of these issues are interconnected. For instance, I can’t help but laugh at the cruel irony of the RAM being used to power the Gen AI tools for the purposes of developing games more cheaply is pushing up the price of the systems for playing those games. Of course, there’s no easy fix to any one of them, but we’ll follow up by dissecting the results and discussing the potential routes to bring gaming out from the dark place it’s currently stuck in.