TOP 10 Earbuds Under $100 (With CUSTOM RANKING)

The value you can get on the budget headphone market today is truly impressive, so today I'll be rating and

ranking

the best budget headphones under $100 across 10 categories. I've also created a spreadsheet that allows you to

custom

ize the scoring based on what matters. For you, most of the headphones I've chosen here just have to have a retail price under $100. Many of the headphones are much cheaper than that. Some even cost less than $50. Now let's start with category one. Comfort, this is always complicated. category to rate because we all have different shapes and sizes of ears so I will keep the score pretty close here but I will explain the headphones to see if they really work for you so here are all the scores with which the Sony 700 score the most under 7 out of 10 because they have the deepest fit, I'm not saying that a deeper fit is necessarily bad.

Personally, I don't mind a deep fit, but with this they have the most suction and pressure in the year. Canal tozo n C7 have a similar deep fit but with a little less pressure Edifier Pro 2 and Eun free Pro 3 also with a 7.5 as they are larger

earbuds

which may not work well if you have larger ears but have a nice feeling of lightness in the ear. channel and all the buds with a score of eight have less pressure on the ear and simply have a lighter feel overall the three buds with a score of 8.5 have a slightly lighter feel the redmi buds 5 Pro will work better with ears and feel smaller as a more shallow fit, the OnePlus buds 3 are also very close there and the cmf buds Pro still have a light feel, they are a bit deeper, so here it really depends on the type of fit you prefer, now the category Two is the security of the fit and I test all of my headphones during my weight training sessions and take them all on a fast run, so to keep this simple, I'm rating most headphones at an eight.

All headphones work great for me when weight training where I am alone. I really had to readjust a couple of times during my workouts, the Eon free Pro 3 gets a nine as you get two sizes of wingtips to increase stability and those wingtips will work whether you have small or large ears. I have very big ears like you. I can see and most of the wingtips don't really do much for me. These wingtips are one of the few that really work for me. The Galaxy Buds Fe have a wingtip which doesn't really do much for me with my giant ears, but if you have normal sized ears or smaller ears, you can take advantage of this and have the option of no wingtip on both pairs now. , when using all stem style

earbuds

, they generally work better since the end of the stem stays in place.

Better, this will minimize the noise generated by the body due to the impact you make on the ground and your own heavy breathing. The Sony 700's have quite a bit to the point where I find the body born noise too distracting when running toza nc7 has a noticeable amount but it's not that bad and the rest of the headphones are fine some are better than others yes You want all of these important details, it's in my spreadsheet, which is linked below. Here is the dust and water resistance rating with all the headphones, so all the headphones are in.

The ipx4 rating, which will be fine for sweat and splash water use in heavy rain, should be fine, but it doesn't guarantee that you will be safer in heavy rain with an ipx 5 or 6 and some of the buds also have dust resistance with the five replacing that Battery life is now also A difficult question to qualify the main considerations here will be the overall size of the battery case of the headset battery and whether the case has wireless charging, only the Soundcore Liberty 4nc and the Eon 3 Pro 3 They do have wireless charging in terms of case size the most important factor is to be how thick or thin the case is so here is my

ranking

of slim cases with the thinnest case at the top but even the Sony 700 is still quite compact, as you can see here, compared to the thinnest and thinnest case in the middle. case, something to keep in mind is that the cmf buds Pro case looks thick as it is not rounded and it is definitely the case with the most unique look, no sticking with its classic designs now to make this nice and easy, here it is all the score I'm giving.

Besides the advertised amounts you get, tozzo and xiaomi pets are the only brands that don't advertise the battery life you get with the noise cancellation which I find super annoying and the tozo nc7 battery is crazy with the cancellation noise disabled. You typically lose about 1/3 of the battery with noise cancellation on, so the numbers I put there are just estimates. The main thing to note here is the low battery of the ebud on the edifier twws 1 pro2 and the Sound P A4 Pro, which only give you about 4 hours and the total battery life is only 15 hours on the Sony 700 , so you'll need to charge that case a lot more often now as the highlight here is the eone 3 Pro 3 and they're one of the cheapest earbuds around today. the so-called Liberty 4nc sound is the best overall, as long as you don't mind a slightly thicker case, now on the number four category controls.

The main thing I'm looking for here is the amount of touch control features you get if you use detection. and if it really works and the amount of

custom

ization you get and it's all over the place here to make this nice and easy, we'll use one earbud at a time so the Edifier Pro 2 gets a 6.5 since you only get a double. and by tapping three times, you can customize each earbud and add volume or voice assistant, but you'll still be quite limited. You get wear detection that works fine, but it will activate if you place the headset on a Surface if the sensor is covered.

Galaxy buds Fe get a seven, you can customize a long hold, so if you want to add volume or voice assistant you have to lose environmental control, usage detection only works when you remove both ebds, but you always get Bixby which is Will be on a Samsung device Only the Sound pedes air4 Pro gets a 7.5, as you get a single triple double tap and long press, you can control everything except skip tracks back, but you don't get any customization, you do get voice detection. use that works. Great, but you can't customize the environmental control switch, so you're limited to having to switch between transparency, noise cancellation on, and noise cancellation on.

All other headphones let you customize this so you can switch between, say, noise cancellation on and transparency. only now the tozo nc7 gets a 7.5, you get full control with decent customization, wear detection works fine unless the sensor is face down on a surface and you can't turn off that wear detection. Sony gets a 7.5 and they are also the only ones. Pair it with physical button controls and you can control everything with a quad tap to adjust the volume up and down. However you barely get any customization and there is no usage detection but at least you get everything you need now, we have three buttons with an eight, the sound call 4 and C have full customization with everything you need, the usage detection It works great and the sensor can be face down on a desk without activating.

The cmf buds Pro have the same amount of control, but wear detection will activate face down on a desk and the Eon 3 Pro 3 does not have wear detection, but you get the most freedom of customization with each feature, you have the option to set up whatever you want where you will be slightly limited with all the other earbuds what you can add now the redmi buds 5 Pro gets an 8.5 you have the ability to control everything with solid customization and the wear detection actually works even if you put the earbud away in your pocket, for example, they don't actually advertise skin detection, but that's how it works, so they get an extra half point.

The OnePlus buds 3 usage detection also does this, but they get an extra point as they have a swipe gesture to turn the volume up and down or go back and forth, basically with this you're going to be able to control everything, play , pause, track forward and backward, ambient control, as well as volume up and down when using just one earbud, and since you can also use that swipe gesture to skip tracks forward and backward, you have even more options, they would get a score of 10 if they had pressure controls instead of touch because sometimes swiping would accidentally trigger single tap if the swipe failed, but this would rarely happen now.

Category 5 is connectivity, we have a lot to cover here first, let's start with the CeX you get if you are looking for high RAR or lossless Eon OnePlus redmi sound core and sound pedals have ldac lhdc Apex adaptive hybs or Apex Lossless Galaxy buds Fe It has high resolution with its Samsung Scalable codec only in Samsung devices, of course, can transmit at 24 bits and 96 kHz, but they exceed 500 kilobits per second, while ldac and abex adaptive are closer to 900 kilobits per second, lhdc hits 1000 and apex lossless 1200 now if you're thinking what. Does this all basically mean that if you're using any of those higher codecs, they all sound more or less the same to me, but as I always say, the codec only makes a small difference to the sound quality?

What really matters is how the headset is. Tuned in now, let's talk about which headphones have multipoint connection. About half of the headphones here today have it, so this means that you will be able to connect two devices to the headphones at the same time, only the Pates air4 Pro sound has control, so you don't even need to pause playback in one device before playing it on the other device where the rest of the headphones have a multipoint connection. You must do it. The Galaxy buds Fe don't have a multipoint connection, but they do have seamless switching between your Samsung devices now let's talk about using a single earbud, so on all the pairs here today you can use one earbud at a time and leave the other on the case, but not all earbuds will work in mono mode, so mono mode is when you are using only one earbud, it is the ability to listen to the left and right audio channel no matter which earbud you are using, so only half of the headsets here today will work in mono mode and finally these are all headsets that have a low latency gaming mode so this is mainly useful if you like mobile gaming and reaction games more fast like Shooters and let me know in the comments if you want specific millisecond readings because I can do it, but it takes a long time.

If so, if I see enough comments I can always add them to the spreadsheet at a later date, but anyway, all things considered, here are all the scores and sound. Pats gets a solid 10 out of 10 because they have it all when it comes down to it. to the connectivity and again, if you want to compare all of this nice and easy, it's all in my spreadsheet, now in Category 6 core quality and I run three tests, a simulation of a quiet room with a loud noise from children because It's something like spontaneous voices and a simulation of Windy City. with construction noise and here are all the scores, the final score that you're seeing here is the average of the three tests and I'll leave you with some samples in just a second, you'll want to check them out because some buds really struggle in the wind. noise and voices But first, you can't mute your microphone using the touch controls on any of the headphones here today.

The Eun 3 Pro 3, Liberty 4nc, A4 Pro and tozo nc7 sound pedals do not allow you to switch between noise cancellation. on and off or transparency mode when you're on a phone call, so once you answer that phone call you'll be stuck on whatever setting you had last time, honestly it's pretty annoying, the Edifier Pro 2 is the only problem with your own voice, so that allows you to hear your own voice, but it doesn't sound very good. I just prefer using transparency mode in a call as it's much clearer, but here are all the samples, from worst to best.

We are now testing the microphones' ability to block out some loud simulation child noises. We are now testing the microphones' ability to block out some construction noises, some SE noises, and some simulation winds.Here is the core quality of the sound. Peak Air4 Pro. here is the excellent quality of the sou PE air4 equipment. here is the call quality of the S PE A4 cre. here is the call quality of the Sony WF c700. Here is the call quality of the Sony wf700. of everything, here is the central quality of the too nc7, here is the quality of the too nc7, here is the central quality of the edifier twws 1 pro2, here is the central quality of the edifier twws 1 Pro, here is the central quality of the Samsung Galaxy buds Fe good here is the call quality of the Galaxy buds Fe good here is the call quality of the Galaxy buds Fe good here is the core quality of the OnePlus buds 3 all good here is the call quality of the OnePlus buds 3 okay, here is the call quality of the OnePlus buds 3. okay, here is the call quality of the Liberty 4nc sound core. okay, here is the sound call quality. called Liberty 4nc. well, here is the call quality of Liberty 4nc sound. well, here is a call quality of Eon 3 Pro 3, here is the call quality of Eon 3 Pro 3, here is the call quality, eone 3 Pro 3, here is the main quality of cmf buds Pro, here here is the core quality of cmf buds Pro, here is the cmf buds Pro with some city noise, construction noise and noise, here is the core quality of redmi buds 5 Pro, here is the core quality of redmi buds 5 Pro, here is the core quality of redmi buds 5 Pro with some city noise, construction noise and wind simulation, okay, category seven is app customization and additional features.

I've already covered a few aspects so I'll touch on everything in each app and continue. We'll talk a little more in detail later so the Sound Pates get a six, you get a band equalizer with presets, the hearing test doesn't work at all. less for me and you can't customize the controls, you can only turn them off or activate usage detection. The On/Off edifier gets a 6.5, you only get EQ presets with no customization prohibited, but you do get customization control, noise cancellation options, wind noise reduction, ear detection, toggling, and a find my headphones feature which will beep from the ebds and you also get a seven, you get EQ. band, as well as presets, individual control, custom imization noise cancellation strength and wind noise reduction, which is pretty impressive for its price, so you get a seven.

They have solid EQ transparency customization and some niche additional features, like adaptive sound control that will automatically change your vibe. control based on the locations you visit or movement they also have 360 ​​audio which is like spatial audio but can only be used with compatible apps the cmf buds Pro genon 8 use the regular Nothing X app which has a great design the band equalizer sounds strange at least at the time of this video and at least at this time the headphones haven't been officially released yet so I feel like that will be fixed with some firmware but you do get great control, customization, noise cancellation, power options , use detection, toggle low latency game mode and Find my headphones with a beep, if I get an eight, they have all the basics.

You get excellent EQ noise cancellation customization based on your ear type, which works surprisingly well. Find my headphones with a beep. Low latency gaming mode and gain noise. reduction toggle The Galaxy buds Fe also get an eight, you only get preset EQ so there's no ban on customization, control customization is limited, but they do have some cool extra features like find my friends based on location, always on Bixby on Samsung devices, you can read notifications out loud. on any Android device and some audio accessibility with left and right audio balance and you can customize that transparency quite a bit, the redmi buds 5 Pro get an 8.5, they use the chiai ebds app, you need to create an account which is quite annoying but The app has everything you need, a band equalizer with presets, a wear detection switch, custom noise cancellation which doesn't do much at least for me and they have special audio, but honestly it's not that good, the OnePlus buds 3 get a nine, use the hey.

The Melody app and all these apps are available on iOS or Android except the Galaxy buds Fe app which is only available on Android devices, but in the hey Melody app you get everything here, plus a solid hearing test for personalized sound and some of the best spatial results. audio I have tested on any headset in any price range, the only thing missing here is a wear detection switch, now the sound core gets a 9.5, they have everything I just mentioned plus a few extras like safe volume listening and a wind reduction switch and the app is super reliable it has a great user interface they also have special audio but like the red headphones it's not as good now at category 8 noise cancellation and how do I test my Noise Cancellation.

I turn it on my sound bar and it's playing simulation airplane noise and crowd noise. so I get low, medium, high, consistent and inconsistent sounds, and here are all the scores. It's pretty close here, even the Pates A4 sound and toza nc7 have pretty strong noise cancellation, but Edifier takes the overall win when it comes to noise dollar. cancellation strength ratio and some buds work slightly better with low frequency sounds compared to high frequency sounds, so think the score here is more of an average, but there's a lot more to noise cancellation than just how strong It's what we have to talk about. wind noise reduction changing equalizer and using a single earbud this is pretty niche stuff but this is demanding audio this is what we do here so all of this won't count towards the score because it gets too confusing to be honest but let's start with wind noise here so with the noise cancellation on as the headphones use microphones to block out external sounds and a lot of times the microphones will pick up the wind quite easily so some of the Some have built in automatic wind noise reduction to stop this, some will I have a switch you can turn on and off now.

I'll be here all day if I explain each ebud individually so you can pause here and take a look if this is something you're looking for next: EQ change. This is how the sound quality changes with noise cancellation on compared to noise cancellation off and with transparency, and it's nice to see that on most headphones when switching between noise cancellation and transparency there is a minimal amount equalizer change and these are the two most common options. that you're going to use now, switching to noise cancellation is generally when you're going to see the biggest change and with some buttons it's quite noticeable.

I have it represented here as a rough percentage and with some ebds just the base change maybe just the treble sometimes it's both and finally there is a single earphone use so can you use noise cancellation when using just one earbud while leaving the other one in the case? It's good to see that most of the pairs can do this and if I appreciate all this additional information, please Shu like it because it takes a good amount of time to try all this, especially in these top 10 videos. I appreciate it now in category 9 transparency mode and here's all the scoring, so with this.

Considering how clear and natural the transparency mode sounds, as well as the amount of white noise they have and the occlusion, occlusion is when you talk to yourself with the transparency mode on and with some headphones, you get a kind of feeling of blocking in your ear canal and your own voice do not sound very natural, so the Pates air4 Pro sound with the best transparency mode is the easiest to hear both in the environment and in the voices, but they have a moderate hiss of white noise and a small amount of occlusion with The Galaxy Buds Fe are not as clear, but they have less white noise and less occlusion, and some earbuds give you some customization options where you can focus on voices instead of your surroundings, but at least I like the transparency mode. like transparency mode, just to have a setting, you don't need to change anything and to make it work well with the environment and with the vocals, now in the final and most important category, at least for me, the sound quality, so Let's start with the volume first, here are all the I got results on my maximum volume test and most of the headphones here are much louder than average compared to my premium ebud rating, so even the Edifier Pro 2 at the lowest DCB 113 it's still incredibly loud, honestly over 100 DB you're starting to hear something.

Now we lose territory when it comes to low level listening. Here is a rough ranking. None of the ebds use a special equalizer to boost the base and treble at those lower volumes as we are naturally here a little less. What's going to matter here is a type of tuning, so if it's a more formed tuning that's naturally going to sound a little bit better at those lower volumes, so most headphones aren't amazing at low volumes, but they will all sound pretty good but now on to the sound quality itself and when I'm talking about the sound here this will be with my favorite equalizer customization on and keep in mind that even the lowest rated headphones here still sound very decent , the sound quality in budget headphones has come incredibly far in recent years, which is why the tozo nc7 gets a 6.5 this is the most v-shaped tuning here the bass is on the boomy side the mids are quite recessed and the upper treble is a bit too high for my taste and I like the treble a lot, this can be fixed in the EQ but only to a certain extent, the treble is quite detailed and well separated but the soundstage is a bit closed in the mids. redmi buds 5 Pro, they also get a 6.5 without eqing, they sound super flat, which you might like, we all have different preferences. but I increased the base and treble but this only helped a lot as I always say you can only go so far from the original tuning with many headphones but overall you get a pretty balanced tuning with the front and clear mids being the most prominent and you get spatial audio without head tracking, but it's pretty bad.

Honestly, I wouldn't even call it usable. The edifier twws 1 Pro 2 gets a seven, you only get presets, there is no band EQ customization. I like the rock preset, but the treble is a bit. a little harsh so classical or pop to me will sound better and this is a pretty balanced roll here with a slightly boosted subbase that is still quite powerful. The punchy soundstage isn't too bad, the mids are forward with vocals that can be a little squeaky. times and the treble can get a little muddy at times, also the upper treble is a bit lacking so you don't get much brightness but the lower treble is over boosted which I think causes some civility and just sounds a bit out of place.

I played with the Spotify EQ many times by lowering the treble and upper mids and this helped a little, so if you want to use an external EQ this can be fixed a bit now that the cmf buds Pro get a 7.5, the focus here It's on the Bas, which is what they advertise on their website, so you get a powered sub with the most subwoofer-like feel that's a little boomy, so I definitely wouldn't call this an answer based on Punchy, but not completely over the top or messy, you get a super smooth midrange here where the vocals are natural but clear and the treble is on the darker side, so you get just enough to make them stand out from the base, but there are no amazing details here and with bass boost tunings like this The Sound Stage is a bit closed on the band EQ and it doesn't sound good either, it just makes the button sound super weird like I said.

I think this can be fixed with a firmware and if so I will review a comment below. now the E in the free Pro 3 also gets a 7.5, the original tuning is fine. I like a little mid and treble boost, so here you get a V-shaped tuning with a good subbase that's a little boomy. the vocals are slightly recessed but still cut very well the treble has a nice shine to it and you get a fairly open soundstagethe sound called Liberty 4nc gets an eight you get a listening test here which works great for me I just use what mainly boosts the mids and treble slightly and you can EQ the knobs even more after doing that listening test.

Now this is a pretty basic boost tuning, but with solid overall clarity, great vocals, nice detailed highs, it's just a soundstage that's a little average, but not too bad 3D. The surround sound is like its spatial audio without head tracking, it's a little better than the red headphones, but I wouldn't call it usable either now the sound Pates air4 Pro gets an 8.5. The stock jack here is a little flat for me, they need a little bit of base boost and a lot of treble boost, but after this adjustment they sound really impressive. They have the most punchy bass response of all the headphones, but you still get a good amount of sub and mids, the mids here are a bit. boosted with vocals that sound direct but natural, you get a smooth treble response here and even with my EQ it's still a little lacking in terms of detail and brightness, but I combined an open soundstage and now it's just a nice, clean and energetic tuning .

We have two headphones here with a score of nine, starting with the Sony 700 after some bass and treble that increase my goto aqing. If you don't realize, these are just a nice dynamic sound, the bottom is full but you still get good power, the mids. The rich male and female vocals are the best of all the buds here today, the treble is smooth with a subtle boost in the upper treble to give it a bit of that sparkle that I love at the same time without going harsh on the Galaxy buds. Fe actually sounds somewhat similar only with a little more emphasis on the subbase than the midbase, the vocals aren't as direct but the treble has a bit of extra detail and Sparkle also has a nice open soundstage , but you only get EQ presets on the buds and honestly all of them aren't that good now, the one plus buds 3 score 9.5 just a little better than Sony and Samsung and you get EQ presets from band, as well as a base wave slider. which will focus more on the sub-base and try to retain as much clarity at the same time.

They also have a hearing test that works very well. I just like to use that hearing test and put the base slider on one and this is just the best overall. Base Response A perfect balance of mids and subbase so you get a rich, full response as well as some punch. The mids are slightly recessed but still sound great. The highlight here is the treble, the best of all current headphones. They are the only headphones that achieve that great balance of details and Sparkle. So female vocals sound great, high hats and crashes have a nice sound and Sparkle, so with this you get solid instrument separation and Sound Stage is on par with Sony and Samsung. the spatial audio they use is actually very decent, it's on par with Pearl Pro denim and they cost five times as much.

Now you don't have head tracking here, but it will open up the soundstage enormously and add nothing. There's too much extraneous echo and reverb that most EBs that use spatial audio have, so this is actually usable and quite fun to play with, but I prefer the sound with spatial audio disabled, which summarizes all 10 categories and before Going into the final score just keep in mind that this is my scoring system it just makes it easier to compare all of these headphones but if it also helps all the way it's great and this ranking doesn't matter much if certain categories have a higher importance to use, that's why I created my custom scoring spreadsheet for free download, linked below, so that there you get all the scoring notes for each scoring specifications, a core quality set section, but it's a score personalized where you can have fun, so simply fill in a number in the importance column. and that will multiply all that category zero to get rid of it, 0.5 for Har it two to double it and that in turn will change the total score giving it a new custom final ranking, but now here are the final scores: Eon 3 Pro 3 and Galaxy buds Fe They tied for third place, both with 80.5 out of 100, the sound called Liberty 4nc takes second place with 81 points and the OnePlus Buzz 3 wins by an overwhelming majority with 8, 5 out of 100 and that is currently the highest score I have given, now there will always be certain factors that will determine whether or not the bud works for you, but this is the first time in one of my ranked videos where I can easily, if you ask me which earbud is the best to get, it will be the OnePlus earbuds. 3 the price you are paying here, they are actually beating most premium headphones, even five times their price, so if you want to see my full review, I compared them to the best headphones in any price range, check out that video In the meantime, stay picky, see you next time, bye.