The 10 best noise-cancelling headphones we use, love, and recommend

What are the best noise-cancelling headphones of 2026? Even the best value headphones will feel lacking if they don't come equipped with halfway decent noise cancellation.

Besides, there are simply too many headphones on the market (our testing pool gets bigger by the month) for you to pay hundreds only to get subpar ANC.

So, which brand comes out on top? For most people, we think the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) offer the best overall value, with the ideal blend of comfort, sound quality, and ANC.

However, if you're looking for the best active noise cancellation overall, we have to give it up to the Sony XM6 headphones.

Fortunately, there are no bad choices here.

To help you wade through the top options from brands like Apple, Beats, Bose, Sony, and Sonos, Mashable editors and reviewers tested dozens of headphones and earbuds.

From flagship models to budget buds, we picked out the best options at every price range.

SEE ALSO: How we test headphones and earbuds How do noise-cancelling headphones actually work? Even cheap headphones can block some noise from the outside world.

And you can always blast your music loud enough to drown out nearby conversations and street noise via passive noise cancellation.

However, if you really want to turn the volume of the world down to the limit, then you need headphones with active noise cancellation.

Active noise-cancelling headphones electronically cover up the sounds coming from your surroundings.

They use internal microphones to listen to the world around you, then invert the noise and send it to the speakers.

The idea is that both the output and the input will cancel out, leaving you with near-silence.

The best over-ear headphones also create a tight seal around your ears, providing an extra layer of passive sound blocking.