The Audio Archive
Explore our complete collection of curated insights, technical reviews, and buying guides.
EarFun Air Pro 4 Review: Battery Modes and Codec Limits
The original Air Pro 4 offers ANC, multipoint and several codecs, but not every feature works together. Compare the four battery modes, check your source device and choose between LDAC and dual-device use before buying.
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JBL Tune Buds Review: Big-Brand ANC on a Budget
The JBL Tune Buds are the cheapest noise-cancelling earbuds from a brand most people already know, and they are frequently discounted well below their list price. They do the expected things — cancelling, an ambient mode, an app, a long battery — without a standout feature. The question this review answers is whether the JBL name and a sale price are enough when Soundcore, EarFun and others sell similar specifications for similar money.
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Beats Solo Buds Review: The Case Has No Battery
The Beats Solo Buds are Apple's cheapest route into Beats earbuds, and they get there by leaving things out. There is no noise cancelling, no transparency mode, and — the part most buyers do not notice until the box is open — no battery in the charging case. What they keep is a long battery in the earbuds themselves, one-touch pairing on both iPhone and Android, and a very small case. This review is about whether that trade makes sense at around $70.
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Best Gaming Headset Under $30 (2026)
Thirty dollars is where cheap gaming headsets stop being a gamble. Below it you are mostly buying from labels with no track record; at this price you can get a headset from Turtle Beach or HyperX, or a wireless one with a proper 2.4GHz dongle. These five are ranked on owner track record first, then on what each does for the money — and on being honest about which console each one actually works with.
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Best Noise Cancelling Earbuds Under $30 (2026)
Thirty dollars is roughly the floor for earbuds with genuine active noise cancelling — below it, most listings advertising 'noise cancelling' mean a microphone that cleans up your voice on calls, not earbuds that quiet the room. These four do the real thing, and they are ranked on how strongly they cancel, how long they last with cancelling switched on, and how well owners rate them.
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Soundcore P31i Review: Is the Upgrade Over P30i Worth It?
Anker's cheap earbuds have become the default answer to 'what should I buy for under $50', and the P31i is the newest step in that line. It sits above the P30i in the range and adds three things on paper: cancelling that adjusts itself, LDAC hi-res audio, and real-time translation. This review is about which of those justify the extra money, and for whom — because for a lot of buyers, the cheaper pair is still the right one.
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Movssou E7 Review: Budget Noise Cancelling Tradeoffs
You will find this headphone listed as the Million Sold Classic E7, which sounds like a sales figure and is actually part of the product name. The brand is Movssou, and what it sells is one of the cheapest over-ears with genuine active noise cancelling — at a budget price. This review is about what that cancelling can realistically do at this price, where the money was saved, and why you should compare the current offers for each colour.
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ATH-M20x vs OneOdio Pro-10: Studio or Fun?
These two get cross-shopped constantly, because both are cheap wired headphones sold under the words studio monitor, and one costs half what the other does. That framing hides the actual decision. Only one of them is tuned the way a monitoring headphone needs to be tuned, and the other has features it does not — so the right answer depends entirely on whether you are judging sound or enjoying it.
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Sony MDR-ZX110 Review: The Cheap Sony That Still Works
Almost nothing in audio has been sold this many times. The MDR-ZX110 is Sony's cheapest wired on-ear, it has been on sale for over a decade, and at well under $20 it outlives most of what it competes with. This review is about why a headphone this basic keeps winning, what it genuinely gives up, and a trap on the listing page that can double what you pay for the same thing.
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OneOdio Pro-10 Review: Budget Headphones for DJ Use
Very few headphones sell in the quantities the OneOdio Pro-10 does, and its budget positioning makes the appeal easy to understand: 50mm drivers, swivelling cups built for single-ear monitoring, and a second headphone port so someone else can listen without a splitter. It is also sold as a studio monitor, and that is the one part of the description worth arguing with before you buy.
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