Best On Ear Noise Cancelling Bluetooth Headphones

By Tinh Lee, November 26, 2022

Effective noise cancelling On Ear Bluetooth Headphones

On ear (a.k.a on-the-ear or supra aural) headphones sit directly on your ears and don't (or barely) touch the sides of your head itself and they are less common and not anually upgraded (even discontinued) to the next gen as TWS or over ear headphones.

The Libratone Q, for example, was released in 2017 and now in 2022 their next gen with new Bluetooth SoC and more advanced NC algorithm or adaptive noise cancellation has not been introduced yet. Beats also discontinued Beats Solo Pro for good. However, on ear design is more portable since their ear-cups are smaller and if you're in the market for some comfortable on-ear headphones, check out some of our favorite picks for 2023.

How we picked?

Active Noise Cancelling Performance

On ear noise cancelling Bluetooth headphones's ANC peformance won't be as effective as full-size cans. And because the ear-cups just sit on your ears, they don't have a good noise isolation.

Noise cancelling levels and adaptive noise cancelling

Headphones with adaptive noise cancellation have microphones that constantly listen and analyze the noise surrounding you, the music track being playing, and the fit (that will define the sound leakage, and noise isolation), then automatically adjust the noise cancelling level accordingly. You also have an option to adjust the noise cancellation manually.

Voice call quality

Taking phone calls with on-ear headphones may be more natural than over ear because you can hear your own voice. An integrated boom mic can be a plus since it captures your voice better, thereby bettery voice call.

Sound quality

On ear headphones also have sound signature that over-ear can do such as balanced sound or bass-centric, mid-centric. However they have less bass because of smaller earcups and sound leakage.

Battery life

This would be minor, since most on ear Bluetooth headphones's battery is able to top over 20 hours.

Touch, button and voice controls

These features may be less important, but interacting with your headphones intuitively is nice no matters physical button or touch control.

Fit & Comfort

On-ear headphones may not sit on your head properly.