Which true wireless headphones offer the best active noise reduction? January 2022

Sony's new "premium" true wireless headphones achieve near-faultless performance. Good in everything, exceptional on the critical points of autonomy, sound reproduction quality and active noise reduction, the WF-1000XM4 set a new standard to beat in their category. Provided you are not resistant to truly in-ear headphones, they represent a completely obvious choice.

Let's be honest, we weren't expecting Apple's new headphones at this level. The AirPods Pro retain the legendary convenience of use of AirPods "just plain" (provided of course that we are already immersed in the Apple ecosystem), and add to that a very impressive noise reduction - without forgetting either make a considerable leap in the quality of sound reproduction. At the time we are carrying out this test, they are quite simply among the very best true wireless headphones available on the market, alongside the Sony WF-1000XM3.

It's an event: for the very first time, headphones without any wire manage to offer very effective noise reduction, even managing to match that offered by the very best wired noise reduction headphones. But this is not the only quality of these Sony WF-1000XM3s, which also rank among the very best in their category in terms of comfort, autonomy and, last but not least, the quality of sound reproduction. After all that, we wouldn't dare take offense at the mediocre performance of hands-free kit microphones – which don't prevent Sony's latest products from being quite simply the best true wireless in-ear headphones available on the market.

These Enco Free 2s are a good surprise. While the best references of the genre are nothing to worry about, Oppo's headphones offer a very pleasant user experience and beautiful sound reproduction, which more is at a particularly low price. This therefore makes them more than recommendable headphones, in the same way as the Freebuds 4i or the Ear (1).

The Gemini are not the slap announced by Devialet and leave some frustrations, but they are far from demerit for all that. The manufacturer's first headphones barely hit the top mark, greatly helped by their sonic prowess, as well as their very good active noise reduction. Those who want to know the best listening experience and “active” isolation possible on true wireless headphones will therefore find what they are looking for here. For certain specific needs (flawless ergonomics or comfort, multipoint connection, etc.), it will certainly be more appropriate to turn to other references on the market, some of which are also less expensive.

With its Galaxy Buds Pro, Samsung is finally raising its game in the realm of true wireless headphones. Only a few small defects in terms of audio reproduction deprive them of their 5th star. However, we have no trouble recommending them, especially to users of Samsung Galaxy smartphones, with which the Buds Pro will express their full potential from a functional point of view.