I enjoy reading books on my Kindle stretched out on a couch in my living room. But like most busy households, that’s probably the loudest place in my home. And since I don’t really want to yell at everyone to keep it down so Daddy can enjoy his stories, the best solution I’ve found is to wear noise-canceling earbuds while reading. I’ll wear them in combination with playing white noise or nature sounds — my current favorite playlist is 10 hours of Thunderstorm Sounds on shuffle — to maximize the effect.

I like using my over-ear Sony headphones for work, but they’re bulky, so I started looking for an affordable pair of earbuds that offer decent noise cancellation for at-home use. That’s how I ended up buying the Earfun Air Pro 4s, CNET’s 2024 Editors’ Choice for affordable in-ear headphones.

In short, they’re great, and the black ones are currently available on Amazon for just $53. To grab the full discount, make sure to use the promo code EAP4CNET at checkout. With the promo code, the black earbuds are $1 less than their previously recorded lowest-ever price ahead of October Prime Day. Most of the other colors are also on sale; the glossy white and royal blue are both $66 with the code.

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How these earbuds silence the noise around you

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

For reading, I prefer Earfun’s «Strong ANC» noise-canceling mode, which makes a big difference when blocking out the noise around you, but there are a bunch of other noise-cancellation options. The Ambient Sound function 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. Normally I prefer Spotify for white noise (and I 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 of which are short clips that repeat automatically.

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Why I chose these earbuds over AirPods

These headphones have every other feature I’d expect, including the ability to connect to two devices simultaneously and programmable touch-sensitive controls on the buds. Plus, battery life has been more than ample for me, even after a marathon reading session.

There’s also a finder function if you misplace either earbud (unlike Apple FindMy, however, they have to be connected and in Bluetooth range). For actual music and voice calling quality, they sound fine, albeit not as good as my big Sonys.

I have an iPhone and briefly thought about buying Apple AirPods, but I didn’t want to spend the money. The AirPods 4 with noise cancellation cost $115 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 superb, but I didn’t want to spend $250 on a pair of secondary headphones.

Yes, I could probably save some 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 noise-cancellation performance. The Earfun Pro 4 buds help me relax and concentrate on my book, and for me that’s priceless.

For more savings, check out our roundup of all the best deals on headphones we’ve found to compare if these Earfun Pro 4 buds are the best fit for you.