My Search For The Best Affordable Headphones Of 2024

Let me set the stage. Back when I was a woman in my 20s living in NYC who was basically throwing cash out the window, I owned a pair of Bose QuietComfort 15s.

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After several years, they started to break down and the sound wasn’t fully working so I wanted to replace them, but this was after I was fully into financial independence and balked at the $300 USD price tag. I suspected that I could find similar features for much less money.

So I went looking for a new solution. I asked y’all back when I was still on Twitter (I will never call it X…), and of course made a spreadsheet based on the responses and my own research. In the end, I went with one of y’alls suggestions and bought COWIN E7 PROs for $80.

UPDATE: Thanks y'all!!! After nerding out (#spreadsheets4life) I'm going with @thefioldguys' suggestion. (Tagging @govworkerfi for the final decision) pic.twitter.com/gJsNYnezum

— A Purple Life (@APurpleLifeBlog) May 3, 2020

Current Headphones

COWIN E7 PRO

I bought these headphones in 2020 and I loooove them. They’re so comfortable. It’s like putting squishy pillows over my ears. I wear them for 8+ hours a day without a problem and the cushions are so squishy my friend even said they were the most comfortable thing she’s ever had on her ears.

However, they’re now 4 years old and I’ve put them through the ringer so the headphone band is completely shot. I recently covered it with (super classy 😉 ) black electrical tape that my Mom claimed she barely noticed when she saw me, but this was definitely a stopgap solution.

I also noticed that because I’ve not been careful with them at all, that they’ve started to play a bit of static when I move the headphones a certain way. This led me to believe they were on their way out in the audio department in addition to the headphone band department. So I set out to buy the exact same pair because when I find something I love I stick to it.

However, unfortunately since I bought my headphones in 2020, the company seems to have deteriorated. The reviews started tanking with people saying the headphones were now poor quality and customer service was either not answering them at all or unhelpful. This is not the company I knew.

And the icing on the cake was that they were kicked off the Amazon Marketplace – you can’t find anything from COWIN on there anymore and I can’t imagine how bad you have to be for a company like Amazon to kick you off their platform.

So I was on the market for new headphones. I didn’t want mine to suddenly break when I’m in another country and be unable to get the specific type I wanted so I decided to preempt the problem and buy new ones before my old ones completely went kaput. To understand what I was looking for, let’s go through the other headphones I currently own and take with me everywhere, as well as others that I’ve tried and decided aren’t for me.

Earbuds

I’ve bought and tried a lot of earbud style headphones over the years. I’ve enjoyed ones from Sony and Skullcandy and not loved ones from Panasonic and Rovking.

As you’ll see, I am very particular about what goes in and over my ears. I also have small ears, which can make finding comfortable earbuds difficult. I have to make sure that the shape of an earbud fits comfortably in my ears and that the ear cushion is substantial.

Powerbeats

I’ve been using these Powerbeats for a few years now. They were given to me by my aunt who didn’t want them and I otherwise don’t think I would ever buy Beats headphones. They seem overpriced for what they are, but Beats is owned by Apple so what do I expect 😉 ?

However, these have been great for my new running hobby since they are wireless with bluetooth and are sweat resistant. I haven’t had any issues with sweating all over them on a regular basis. I also appreciate the cord that goes between them so I can’t lose one without the other.

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However, when these go kaput and I have to buy new headphones for running, I’m going to make sure they have a transparency mode, which these Powerbeats do not. It’s annoying to have to take them out of my ears or switch ears mid-run to make sure I can hear traffic or my partner talking. On top of that, they’re not very easy to put in and out because of the design, which I suspect is that way so they stay in your ears during exercise and I appreciate it for that reason, but it’s a challenge for me to remove them quickly without losing an ear cushion in the process.

Audio-Technica

My Partner has a pair of Audio-Technica ATH-M50x headphones and despite them being the choice of the audiophile community when he bought them, I don’t like them for myself 🙂 .

They are wired headphones so no bluetooth (which I can never go back to after going wireless), and every time I tried them, I didn’t enjoy how they felt on my head. The cushions are fairly thin and the ear cups don’t form to your head so they felt limp, like I had to work to keep them on my head even though they were adjusted to fit my head shape.

I can imagine some people might like that, but I use wireless headphones to their full capability and am often moving and walking around and want them to stay on my head without issue. So sadly these were out as an option for me.

So those are the headphones I own and have tried. Now let’s see where my search for new headphones took me.

New Headphones

Similar to 4 years ago, I asked y’all what headphones you loved and used that as a jumping off point. And I’m so glad I did! The headphone landscape has obviously changed a lot since I was last on the market because the suggestion I received most often was for headphones that I had never heard of: Soundcore.

I had no idea that Anker makes headphones under the brand Soundcore. I own an Anker Portable Charger and love it so I was curious why everyone was raving about their headphones. But now I get it 🙂 . One comment mentioned that Soundcore was having a big sale at that very moment – uh oh.

I do love a good deal. So I went down the rabbit hole to understand why people loved Soundcore’s headphones and if any of them met my criteria, which was just that they were comfortable, wireless and had good sound for all the music I love to listen to. I also was interested in a long warranty and a great return policy, both of which Soundcore delivers. They have an 18 month warranty on all products no matter where you buy them.

Now I just had to choose which type I wanted, which was difficult because they seem very similar:

Soundcore Life Q30

I ended up buying Soundcore Life Q30 Headphones in pink for $55.99 (on sale from $85.99) based on the amount of features compared to the price.

They seemed to have all the features I wanted and had fabulous reviews online and according to tech reviewer YouTube. I was so excited for them to arrive!

When I put them on for the first time I felt…disappointment. However, I now know this is a “me” problem. When I put on the headphones, they weren’t comfortable to me. I felt the edges of the headphones digging into my head and ear through the ear cushions.

However, I wanted to check if this was just me so I had my partner and a female friend try them. This is the same friend that said my COWINs were the most comfortable thing she’s ever had on her ears.

She told me that the Q30s are comfortable, but my COWINs were more so. Interestingly my partner had the exact opposite response. He thought the Q30s were comfortable as well – even more so than my COWINs. Say whaaat?!

So I had determined that it was a “me” problem. I don’t know if it’s my head shape, ear shape or ear piercings, but these Q30s weren’t comfortable to me and that was a dealbreaker. And while we’re on things that didn’t work for me, I also didn’t love:

• The Q30s have a light that flashes at all times on the side of the headphones, which is annoying at night
• The headphones are (understandably for their price) plastic, but they still felt surprisingly cheap compared to my COWINs (and the Soundcore Space Ones as you’ll see below 😉 )

But enough of that negative stuff. What did I like about the Life Q30s?

• The cute color 🙂
• 3 modes of active noise canceling (ANC) as well as a transparency mode
• They come with a free app with a fully customizable EQ and customizable white noise sounds
• They can connect to 2 devices at once (however these didn’t connect automatically to my computer when I turned them on like my current headphones. I had to go into Bluetooth and reconnect it, which was not the seamless experience I was looking for based on my current $80 headphones)
• 40 hours of playback with ANC and 60 hours without
• 5 minutes of charging gives 4 hours of playback
• They have a beautiful carrying case that’s smaller than my current one that these headphones fit into because they can fold, which would save me space while traveling. They also have a lovely mini pouch for cables

So there was a long list of things I liked, but unfortunately the one thing I really didn’t love (comfort) meant I was going back to the drawing board. I returned the headphones and should be receiving my refund shortly (and I’ll update this here if that’s not the case in the future 🙂 ).

Refurbished or Renewed

So after all that headphone exploration, the Soundcore sale had understandably ended. I was now a bit worried that my unique head/ear needs would make finding headphones I love a challenge so I started looking into ways to not pay full price in case I didn’t love them and had a hard time returning them for some reason.

I was open to refurbished or lightly used options because that would include the headphones I had just sent back that had nothing wrong with them. One option I discovered is that Soundcore has a Refurbished section on their website for items they confirm work properly and if not, you can return them for a refund or replacement within 90 days. Refurbished items are also eligible for the same guarantees as new items, such as their 18 month warranty.

However, my next attempt to find the perfect headphones was going to be Soundcore’s Space Ones, which are their newest over ear offering and because it’s so new they didn’t have any available refurbished.

Then I discovered something else interesting. Amazon has an Amazon Renewed section on their website. I didn’t know this existed and was pretty skeptical about it after I discovered in 2017 that their “Refurbished” items didn’t mean they were refurbished in the slightest based on my experience buying 3 ‘certified refurbished’ Kindles that were all broken and then hearing from an Amazon customer service employee that Amazon just ships out items they receive and slapped ‘refurbished’ on it without checking they work at all. Wow 🙂 .

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So my eyebrow was fully raised. However, this program seemed to be pretty different because they claim that everything has actually been inspected, tested and refurbished. But I don’t trust their word at this point, but what made me curious enough to try it was that they have a 90 day return window where you can return the item for ANY reason for a full refund or replacement. That wasn’t offered when I attempted to buy used items from them 7 years ago so I decided to see what was up.

Soundcore Space One

I bought a light blue pair of Amazon Renewed Soundcore Space One Headphones for $74.99. The previous sale priced them at $79.99 and they are usually $99.99 so I felt pretty good about this price. Though hilariously, the day I received them, Amazon Renewed had a limited sale on these exact headphones for $59.99. Oh well 🙂 .

At first I was kicking myself until I realized that my usual practice of tracking prices with CamelCamelCamel apparently doesn’t log limited time deals like this one. So I’ll try and let this $15 price difference go…one day 😉 .

Anyway, I felt good about getting them 25% off and now know that limited time sales on Amazon Renewed exist. Now I won’t keep you in suspense: I like these headphones a lot and I’m keeping them 🙂 .

And I can now confirm that Amazon Renewed seems to be legit. There was absolutely nothing wrong with my headphones and they looked exactly as new and clean as the brand new Q30s I bought.

What Do I Like?

Here’s what I like about these headphones:

Comfort: The Q30s were uncomfortable the second I put them on and I couldn’t wait to take them off. In comparison, these Space Ones are not like that though they’re still not as comfy as my pillow-like COWINs. However, the headband on the Space Ones is super plush and more comfortable than even my COWINs.

Weight: These headphones are surprisingly light. So much so that I forget I’m wearing them, which never happened with my heavier COWINs. 

Sound: Though I’m not an audiophile as you’ll see below, the sound on these headphones is lovely. Music, videos and calls all sound fantastic, way better than my COWINs.

Bluetooth: The Bluetooth signal on these is incredibly strong. As I mentioned, I stretch how “wireless” headphones are by going all around a house with them on. And often I don’t have my computer with me so the Bluetooth has to work hard to go through all that space and at times several walls. My COWINs did that well, but these do it even better. I have yet to find a distance in a house where these cut out.

Buttons!: When investigating options, people often suggested $350+ headphones from Sony or Bose. I told you my experience with Bose, but I also tried some new Sonys recently that my aunt bought and I was frustrated to discover that many of the high end headphones from these brands no longer have buttons. Everything is based on gestures you do on the ear cups and it was a challenge to get it to work for my aunt. However, these Space Ones (and the Q30s) have buttons for everything and I love them so much 🙂 .

3+ Sound Modes: In general, the Space Ones have 3 modes:

1. Normal
2. Noise Canceling (which you can customize the level of or have it be adaptive based on the sounds around you)
3. Transparency (which you can also customize the level of)

I don’t know if active noise canceling technology has come a long way since 2020 or if the ANC on my COWINs just isn’t very good, but the Space Ones (and Q30s) are WAY better than my COWINs at noise canceling. For example, I was listening to music in the Space Ones and didn’t hear someone vacuuming in the same room as me. That’s wild 🙂 .

In addition to the sound modes above, the Space Ones also has something called Easy Chat which is like an enhanced Transparency mode that amplifies voices, which is really helpful to have a quick convo. This feature has 2 options for how it works that you can change in the app. It can either turn on when you’re talking or when you hold the left ear cup.

I use the latter because otherwise it turns on when I’m singing while listening to music, which I often do 🙂 . I also like to just control how long this feature is happening because if I’m listening to my partner tell me something that’s longer than 5 seconds, it turns off. So just keeping my hand there makes it easier to have a conversation and if I want what I’m listening to automatically pause, I can just take off the headphones.

Wear Sensor: After calibrating it, the headphones automatically pause whatever I’m listening to (music, video etc) when I take off the headphones. And then when I put them back on, it starts the sound back up. Super cool!

Multipoint Connection: Now this is life changing for me. The Space Ones (and Q30s) allow you to connect to 2 different devices at once. This is a game changer for me because then I don’t have to take off my headphones to take a phone call or find other headphones to listen to an audio message on my phone or watch a quick video. When I get a call, I can just accept it on my headphones, which pauses my music on my computer. Sensational.

Microphone: In a similar vein, the microphone is crystal clear. The Q30s have 2 mics and the Space Ones have 3 and it makes a difference. Sounding good on a phone call is important to me as is having clear audio for podcast interviews. I used to travel with a microphone when I did a lot more interviews, but after the number I did per year decreased, bringing that everywhere didn’t make sense. However, these Space Ones have fantastic mics and I’m excited to use them for interviews.

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The Soundcore App: This free app lets me control and customize every aspect of my headphones, which I love. I mentioned how you can customize your ANC and transparency modes, but you can also have the app set a Safe Volume that stops you from increasing your volume past a decibel you set. Cool!

I appreciate that because I can accidentally make my music really loud if there’s lots of outside noise like on an airplane. I also appreciate that the app has Sleep Sounds like the Q30. However for some reason, the Space One version of the app has way more sound options you can mix, but doesn’t have a fan sound AKA my go to. I have an entire free app that does this for me every night called White Noise Lite, but I was surprised by the exclusion. However, since I got these headphones the app has already been updated with additional sounds so maybe another update will fix that soon.

LDAC: This is another option in the app for even better audio, but if you turn it on, you can’t use a multipoint connection, which is one of the things I love most about these headphones. So I was skeptical about it, but I tried it and I guess I’ll never be an audiophile because I literally couldn’t tell the difference at all with it on or off. So I’m going to stick to the regular audio setting and my beloved multipoint connections. I like that this option exists though if you have musician ears.

HearID, Custom EQ and Audio Presets: HearID is another thing that I love the idea of, but seem to be doing wrong 🙂 . The app also has many options to customize your sound from choosing pre-sets based on music genres, to completely customizing your EQ and finally to HearID.

HearID customizes the sound in your headphones based on your own ears, what pitches you can hear and what kind of sounds sound best to your ears. I love this idea! Especially since certain pitches in our ears become harder to hear as we age and the fact that this should be helpful to people with hearing loss as well.

However, I either did it wrong or my ears are completely in the middle of the road. This test started with me telling the app if I can or cannot hear a certain tone. I responded and the tones all sounded different. But then I was asked which of two songs sounded better to me and I literally couldn’t distinguish them. And finally it let me listen to a HearID version of a song and the regular song – and I couldn’t tell the difference. So once again, there goes my nonexistent music career. However, this feature might be one of the reasons these headphones sound so good to me.

Cute Colors: And finally, for the most superficial reason – the color of the Space Ones! I am usually a utilitarian person and I buy what’s great and affordable and I don’t buy technology based on aesthetics. When I bought the Q30s on sale, I paid the same price for the pink version, but usually the pink version is $5 more than the black version so I probably wouldn’t have bought them for that small extra amount.

However, these blue Space Ones are so pretty and just looking at them on or off my ears brings me enough joy that it made it onto my list of what I like about these headphones. Maybe I’m becoming more superficial in my preferences in my old age – and that works for me 🙂 .

What Don’t I Like?

The list of things I don’t love about the Space Ones are more nitpicks than concerns and that’s why I’m keeping these headphones. However, I think it’s important to talk about so here are the things I don’t love about the Space Ones:

No Case: I raved in the Q30 section about their beautifully pink and wonderfully compact headphones case and pouch for cords. Well, the more expensive Space Ones have neither of those things. These headphones come with a bag and that’s it. It’s a nice bag, but not receiving a hard case and needing to buy it separately for $30+ if I wanted one, surprised me since these are fairly expensive headphones and I would think protecting them from damage would be a priority.

It’s possible that these would be ok because of how much they can fold, but it makes me a bit nervous to have them in a regular soft bag given how much I travel. So I’ll keep you posted if this becomes an issue. Another option is that I might just put them in my COWIN case to protect them if it makes me too nervous.

Super Short Charging Cable: One thing I didn’t mention because the things I liked section was getting so long, but that I do appreciate, is that these headphones (and the Q30s) charge with a USB-C cable, which is the same one I use for my Android phone so I have a few lying around.

However, the charging cable that came with these headphones is SUPER short and doesn’t have a base so I imagine many people might do what I’m planning to do and just not use that and instead use a regular length USB-C cable I already own with its base. So this isn’t a huge deal – just a bit strange.

Conclusion

So those are thoughts on headphones from someone with a self-described “unique head and ear shape.” I’m ready with my new pair of Space Ones for when my previous COWINs finally conk out and I’m really enjoying all the upgrades these Soundcore headphones have brought into my life.

Similar to personal finance, headphone comfortability seems to be personal, so I take full advantage of money back guarantees to make sure I love something before I decide to keep it. I hope this rabbit hole I went down helps you if you’re in the market for new headphones as well.

What are your favorite headphones and why?