I love to read books on my Kindle and my favorite place to do it is in my bed or lying on a comfortable sofa in the living room. I also love my family, but they can be quite loud even through a closed door, which makes it hard for me to concentrate.
Since I don’t want to yell (again) at the kids to keep it down so dad 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 storm sounds on shuffle — in combination with noise canceling capability.
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Although I love mine Sony over-ear headphonesthey are bulky, so I started looking for an affordable pair of headphones that offer good noise cancellation. That’s why I bought the Earfun Air Pro 4sCNET Editors’ Choice 2024 for affordable in-ear headphones. In short, they are great and they are 20% off right now on Amazon when you use the coupon on the page, bringing them down to $72.
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How these headphones silence the noise around you
I prefer in-ear headphones because they offer active, electronic, and passive noise cancellation. Passive noise cancellation basically involves covering your ears with the rubber tips included with the headphones. The Earfuns fit me well when I use the second largest of the five interchangeable eartip sizes, and stay sealed and comfortable for hours. Sometimes I have to reseal one after yawning or something, but it happens with other in-ears as well.
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For reading, I prefer Earfun’s “Strong ANC” noise cancellation mode, which makes a huge difference in blocking out the noise around you, but there are plenty of other cancellation options of noise The ambient sound feature 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. I usually prefer Spotify for white noise (and download my favorite playlists for offline listening), but this feature is useful for people who don’t have another music service. Includes birdsong, waves and rain, all short clips that repeat automatically.
Here’s how the noise cancellation options for headphones appear on an iPhone.
Why these headphones make a great gift
These headphones have all the other features I’d expect, including the ability to connect to two devices simultaneously and programmable touch-sensitive controls on the buttons. Plus, the battery life has been more than ample for me even after a marathon reading session, making them a ideal gift for yourself or anyone in your life who may need a few hours of peace each day.
There’s also a find function if either earbud is lost (unlike Apple’s FindMy, though, they need to be connected and within Bluetooth range). For actual music and voice call quality, they sound good, though not as good as my older Sonys.
I have an iPhone and briefly considered buying Apple AirPods, but didn’t want to spend the money. The new noise-cancelling AirPods 4 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 great, but I didn’t want to spend $250 on a second pair of headphones.
Yes, I could probably save 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 cancellation of noise performance Earfun Pro 4 buds help me relax and focus on my book, and for me that is priceless.
For more gift ideas, here 31 of the best tech gifts under $100 i 39 unique gifts for people who have everything.
