My Favorite Affordable Earbuds Make Reading in a Noisy Home Possible and Enjoyable

I love reading books on my Kindle, and my preferred place for doing so is in my bed or stretched out on a comfy couch in the living room. I also love my family, but they can get pretty loud even through a closed door, making it impossible for me to concentrate. 

Because I don’t really want to yell at the kids (again) to keep it down so daddy can enjoy his stories, my favorite solution is to wear noise-canceling headphones while reading. I usually play white noise or nature sounds — my current favorite playlist is 10 hours of Thunderstorm Sounds on shuffle — in combination with the noise canceling ability.

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Although I love my over-ear Sony headphones, they’re bulky so I started searching for an affordable pair of earbuds that offer good noise cancellation. That’s why I bought the Earfun Air Pro 4s, CNET’s 2024 Editors Choice for affordable in-ear headphones. In short, they’re great.

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How these earbuds silence the noise around you

I prefer in-ear headphones because they offer active, electronic and passive noise cancelling. Passive noise cancellation basically consists of plugging your ears with the rubbery tips included with the earbuds. The Earfuns fit well for me when I use the second-largest of the five swappable eartip sizes, and they stay sealed and comfortable for hours. Sometimes I have to reseal one after I yawn or something, but that’s the case with other in-ear headphones too.

For reading, I prefer the Earfun’s “Strong ANC” noise canceling mode, which makes a big difference when blocking out the noise around you, but there are a bunch of other noise cancellation options too. The Ambient Sound function is good for when I want to pay attention to my surroundings. Overall I found the app easier to use than Sony’s and just as capable. The main difference is that Sony’s app has a variable slider for ambient sound.

The Earfun app also includes a white noise section in the app. Normally I prefer Spotify for white noise (and I download my favorite playlists for offline listening) but this feature is useful for people who don’t have another music service. It includes birdsong, waves and rainfall, all of which are short clips that repeat automatically.

Why these earbuds make a great gift

These headphones have every other feature I’d expect, including the ability to connect to two devices simultaneously and programmable touch-sensitive controls on the buds. Plus, Battery life has been more than ample for me even after a marathon reading session, which makes them an ideal gift for yourself or anyone in your life who may need a few hours of peace each day. 

There’s also a finder function if you misplace either earbud (unlike Apple FindMy, however, they have to be connected and in Bluetooth range). And for actual music and voice calling quality they sound fine, albeit not as good as my big Sonys.

I have an iPhone and briefly thought about buying Apple AirPods, but I didn’t want to spend the money. The new AirPods 4 with noise cancellation cost $100 more than these Earfuns and have an open-ear design, so they rely entirely on the electronic (not passive) method. The AirPods Pro 2 are in-ear and superb, but I didn’t want to spend $250 on a pair of secondary headphones. 

Yes, I could probably save some money on an even less-expensive pair of in-ear noise canceling headphones, but I’m not sure I’d be as happy with their fit, long-term comfort, battery life and noise cancellation performance. The Earfun Pro 4 buds help me relax and concentrate on my book, and for me that’s priceless.

For more gift ideas, here are 31 of the best tech gifts under $100 and 50 unique gifts for people who have everything.