The best budget noise cancelling headphones I’ve ever tested

What are the Audio-Technica ATH-S300BT headphones?

On-the-go music uninterrupted by crying babies and traffic noise is no longer a luxury reserved for those who can afford premium wireless headphones. Active noise cancellation, or ANC, technology has now trickled down to pairs below £100, protecting more music lovers from outside interference when out and about with their tunes. But while the quantity of such pairs is increasing, quality is harder to come by.

Enter the Audio-Technica ATH-S300BT. The only wireless noise cancelling over-ears currently in the Japanese brand’s extensive headphone catalogue won Best Value awards in our best noise-cancelling headphones and best budget headphones buying guides. They didn’t get there by just by marrying noise cancelling with a low price, though. They harness 50 years of Japanese headphone heritage to produce the best budget noise cancelling headphones I’ve come across to date.

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I’ve tested hundreds of pairs of noise-cancelling headphones over the past 12 years, acquiring plenty of contextual knowledge of both the budget and premium markets along the way. I own several pairs of reference benchmark headphones across various price points, from under £100 to eight times that, so that I can compare new arrivals to those class leaders and gauge where they sit in the pecking order.

For this ATH-S300BT review, I tested their sound quality against the JLab JBuds Lux ANC (£80), Sony WH-CH520 (£45), Anker Soundcore Space One Pro (£119) and Sennheiser Momentum Wireless 4 (£199), using our familiar, genre-spanning Spotify test track playlist.

I also tested the ATH-S300BT’s noise cancelling on busy London streets and on the train. I recorded a week’s worth of usage to test the manufacturer’s battery claims, wearing them for up to four hours at a time to ensure they were comfortable for long listening sessions.

Finally, I ensured that Bluetooth Multipoint worked as advertised by jumping between laptop and phone use.

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Score: 8/10