My favorite affordable earbuds make reading in a noisy house possible and enjoyable

I love reading books on my Kindle, and my favorite place to do that is in my bed or stretched out on a comfy couch in the living room. I love my family too, but they can get quite loud even through a closed door, making it difficult for me to concentrate.

Since I don’t really want to yell at the kids (again) to keep it quiet 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 thunder sounds with shuffle – in combination with the option of noise reduction.

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While I love my over-ear Sony headphones, they are bulky, so I went looking for an affordable pair of earbuds that offer good noise cancellation. That’s why I bought the Earfun Air Pro 4s, CNET’s 2024 Editors’ Choice for affordable in-ear headphones. In short, they are great.

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How these earplugs dampen the noise around you

I prefer in-ear headphones because they offer active, electronic and passive noise cancellation. Passive noise cancellation basically involves plugging your ears with the rubbery eartips that come with the earbuds. The Earfuns fit me well when I use the second largest of the five interchangeable eartips, and they stay sealed and comfortable for hours. Sometimes I have to reseat one after yawning or something, but that’s the case with other in-ear headphones too.

For reading, I prefer Earfun’s “Strong ANC” noise cancellation mode, which makes a big difference in blocking out the noise around you, but there are a lot of other noise cancellation options too. The Ambient Sound function is useful 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 noise.

The Earfun app also includes a white noise section in the app. Normally I 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. It includes birdsong, waves and rainfall, all short clips that repeat automatically.

Why these earplugs 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 controls on the earbuds. Plus, the battery life has been more than adequate for me even after a marathon reading session, which makes them a success ideal gift for yourself or someone in your life who may need a few hours of rest every day.

There’s also a search function in case you lose either earbud (unlike Apple FindMy, however, they must be connected and within Bluetooth range). And for real music and voice quality, they sound fine, albeit not as good as my big Sonys.

I have an iPhone and briefly considered getting Apple AirPods, but I didn’t want to spend the money. The new AirPods 4 with noise cancellation 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 fantastic, but I didn’t want to spend $250 on secondary headphones.

Yes, I could probably save some money on an even cheaper pair of in-ear noise-cancelling headphones, but I’m not sure I’d be as happy with their fit, long-lasting comfort, battery life, and noise-cancelling performance. The Earfun Pro 4 buttons help me relax and focus on my book, and for me that is invaluable.

For more gift ideas, here are 31 of the best tech gifts under $100 and 50 unique gifts for people who have everything.