Best Sony earbuds 2024: 5 top options for every budget tried and tested

If you’re looking for a new pair of wireless earbuds and have read any of What Hi-Fi?’s recent reviews, there’s a strong chance you are thinking about buying one of Sony’s sets.

There’s a good reason for that. Sony has been on something of a hot streak with its wireless earbuds constantly performing well when our team of audio experts get them in for testing. It also has a solid library of options covering multiple price points and types of music fan.

But be warned, having Sony branding is no guarantee a pair of wireless earbuds are any good. That’s why we always properly review the earbuds we recommend in this list, putting them through a series of real world and comparative listening checks to make sure they are worth your hard earned cash and deliver in the areas music fans care about.

You can get more detail on how we test Sony earbuds at the bottom of the page but the short version is we look at audio quality first and foremost, then gauge things including ANC performance, fit and battery life – so you can trust our buying advice. If you want a wider choice, have a look at our wider best Sony headphones guide.

The quick list

Andy Madden

I’ve been reviewing Sony earbuds since the first generation 1000XMs. This gives me a holistic knowledge of the brand’s entire line and understanding how Sony earbuds have developed over time. As I also review numerous earbuds from other audio brands, I also know how they compare to the competition – which is why I also look after our general best wireless earbuds buying guide.

Best overall

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If you want the best Sony wireless earbuds possible then the WF-1000XM5 are the set we’d recommend. 

The set offers the best wireless earbud experience holistically, with the XM5 having no serious weaknesses when we reviewed them and offering a true step forward from their predecessor.

The buds have been redesigned to be as thin and light as possible. Under the hood they’ve also been given an upgrade to feature Sony’s latest Dynamic Driver X, which is significantly larger than the unit used in past Sony earbuds.

Putting them to the test we found that, while the new plastic finish can make getting them in and out with wet hands a little tricky, they deliver a comfortable fit and have enough tip options for most sizes of ears. 

What really makes them impressive is their stellar sound quality. Whether it was thumping 12-bar blues, complex classic arrangements or the latest pop bangers, the buds produced class-leading levels of detail and clarity alongside wonderful rhythmic precision.

This is a key reason they won a What Hi-Fi? Award and earned such high praise from our reviewers, who concluded: 

“If you’re looking for the clearest and most detailed sonic performance on the market right now, then the WF-1000XM5 produce it, and by quite some distance.”

This, plus the eight-hour listening time we eked out of them, reliable mic quality and reliable, albeit not best in class, ANC, makes them an easy recommendation and the best choice for most music fans.

Read our Sony WF-1000XM5 review

Best budget earbuds

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The Sony WF-C510 are the firm’s latest entry-level wireless earbuds. Based on our testing they’re not only the best affordable option from Sony, they’re among the best cheap wireless earbuds holistically.

The buds build on the legacy set by the Sony WF-C500, which prior to the C510’s arrival were a staple sight in this list. These include a new lighter design that, while a little more plasticky than we’d like, is solidly built and provides enough tip sizes for most people to get a solid fit and seal.

Battery life has also been extended with Sony upgrading them to offer 11 hours listening, rather than the C500’s 10 and carry an extra 22 hours of charge in their case.

The only slight omission is that they still don’t have active noise cancellation (ANC) or support for hi-res codecs – but at this price that is very standard. Thankfully, that aside after putting them through their paces we can safely confirm they are among the best earbuds you’ll find at this price for audio quality. Whether it was Beyonce’s Baby Boy or Benson Boone’s Slow It Down the buds deliver a solid, musical sound.

Hence their perfect score, What Hi-Fi? Award and our reviewers’ conclusion:

“At this level, it’s hard to pile on too much expectation, but Sony’s previous track record has us doing just that. And the WF-C510 don’t disappoint. They might look and feel cheaper than what has gone before them but we can’t really argue with the comfort, sense of fun and musicality that they convey. They’re brilliant buds with a bargain price tag.”

Read our Sony WF-C510 review

Best budget ANC earbuds

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The WF-C700N cost a little more than the C500, but for the extra cash you get the added perk of active noise cancellation. This is a huge boon if you plan to use them at work, or during the morning and evening commute and want to block out background noise.

Interestingly, ANC isn’t the only difference between the C700N and C500. For starters they’re much smaller, which was a key perk for many of our reviewers with tiny ears. Inside they also use a smaller, Sony-made 5mm driver. The C500 has a larger 5.8mm driver, by comparison.

This gives them a slightly different sonic character with the C700N offering more bass than their cheaper siblings. This plus their great-for-the-money dynamics and detail made everything from booming acid jazz to classical music sound great.

ANC performance is also good for the money, but a far cry from what you’ll get on more expensive options like Sony’s XM5 or Bose’s offerings – though what do you expect at this price? This is why they’re an easy recommendation, with our reviewers reporting:

“The WF-C700N offer a jump in quality compared to the WF-C500 and a taste of the performance of the WF-1000XM4 in a cheaper package. This puts them in a very strong position and makes them an easy recommendation.”

Read our Sony WF-C700N review

Best open

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Open design earbuds are rapidly becoming a vogue category. If you want that form factor, though we had some issues with their call and audio quality, the Linkbuds are a good option.

Though we gave them four stars, they’re the only option available with an open form factor. The donut shaped buds have a 12mm ring driver that sits at the bottom part of your ear, blasting out sound.

Given their open design, there’s no passive, let alone active, noise cancellation. But during testing we found they are still sonically quite capable. Throwing test tracks from a variety of genres at them, the buds produced a balanced, natural sound.

The only downside is that the five hours’ listening time we experienced is a little short, and for the same money you can get better sounding in-ear wireless earbuds. This is why our testers concluded:

“Their design is an interesting one that gets around a lot of the problems that conventional in-ears can present. They’re not perfect from a sound quality point of view, but overall there’s still a lot to like and we’re really excited to see where Sony takes the idea in the future.”

Read our Sony LinkBuds review

Best sporty earbuds

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The Sony LinkBuds Fit are, as you’d expect from their name, aimed squarely at sporty runners or gym goers who also care about audio quality.

For their target market they come with a number of perks. Interestingly, unlike previous LinkBuds branded earbuds, they don’t have an open design. Instead you’ll get traditional tips. The only differentiator is that the tips come with wing/in-ear hooks which aim to provide a firmer fit. During testing one of our more active reviewers found the design worked a treat with the buds staying seated even during heated runs and workouts.

They also feature ambient and ANC modes which worked great during testing letting our reviewer use the ambient mode to effectively stay apprised of his surroundings when running outside, but block out distractions with their ANC in the gym. The inclusion of LDAC codec support is another differentiator between them and Sony’s other cheaper earbuds.

Thankfully on top of all this they also are generally quite good for audio quality, delivering a robust, powerful sound with solid levels of detail during our checks. The only reason they didn’t nip the competing non-sport buds is that, while good for a gym set, the audio could be a little heavy handed with its bass – making the other models in this list better for non-sport music fans.

We said as much in our LinkBuds Fit review, where our testers concluded:

“While their sound lacks the subtlety and refinement of the best Sony efforts, there’s enough muscularity and punch here to keep you firmly on track. For aspiring athletes and seasoned Strava hounds, they make a great deal of sense.”

Read our Sony LinkBuds Fit review

Also consider

• Sony WF-1000XM4: They may be the previous generation, but with some stock available at heavily discounted prices, Sony’s previous generation flagship earbuds are a great alternative if you can’t quite afford the newer XM5.

Recent updates

• 19/11/24: C510 replace C500 as best entry level, and LinkBuds Fit added as best sporty.
• 18/06/24: We completely rewrote this best buy to reflect our latest reviews and how Sony's earbuds compare to newer rivals.

How we choose

When recommending Sony earbuds we want to make sure they deliver the goods in a few key areas.

First, they need to be made by Sony if they’re going to make it onto this list. Second, we look at value for money. This is a key metric we always consider in our reviews – if something is radically overpriced we won’t recommend it, even if it performs well. Equally, if a product is outright terrible we won’t recommend it no matter how cheap it is.

We also factor in the Sony earbuds’ features and connectivity. Does the model have ANC? If so, how good is it compared to rivals? On average how long does its battery last with regular listening? For more expensive sets we also factor in what wireless codecs it supports, and whether it’s capable of hi-res streaming. 

Then there’s fit and comfort. With earbuds we expect the set to come with enough earbud tip sizes to provide a secure fit for multiple ear sizes. We also expect them to be comfortable enough to wear without issue for multiple hours.

Finally, and most importantly, we make sure to only recommend Sony earbuds that can deliver good audio quality. The What Hi-Fi? team are all massive music fans and do what we do because we believe good music deserves to be played on hardware that does it justice. As a result, we’ll never recommend any product, Sony earbuds included, unless it sounds good. 

How we test

We test Sony headphones the same way we do any other brand’s. This sees our team of testers run a series of checks both in our listening rooms and in the wild, to gauge their performance in the above areas. Key parts of the process include the steps detailed below.

Comparative testing: Whenever we test headphones we have multiple members of the team use them. During the checks they will listen to a variety of tracks in our listening rooms paired with reference systems/sources we feel are appropriate to their price. We will also directly compare them to rival products we think the buyer would also be considering. Any performance comparison we make will be based on our direct experience testing both, and we will never compare products based on memory. 

Test tracks at varying quality from multiple genres: We use a variety of test tracks, varying in quality from hi-res to vinyl, CD and bottom-tier Spotfiy when testing Sony headphones. The test tracks we use cover multiple genres and aim to gauge everything from their rhythmic precision, detail and accuracy to their dynamism and general ability to deliver a “fun” listening experience.

Multiple testers: We never base our reviews on one person’s experience using the product. When we test Sony headphones at least two members of the team will have listened to the set and compared them to rivals. The reviewers will then compare their experience and if needed, more testers will be called in to help.

Real-world checks: On top of the above we will also use real-world tests to check key metrics, like battery life, ANC performance, connection stability and mic quality. For example, to test ANC performance we will use the headphones in environments with varying levels of background noise, ranging from office environments to rumbling commuter trains. For battery life, we’ll track how many hours of listening we got with ANC on and off on average throughout testing.

You can get a more in-depth look at our methodology and listening room set-up in our main “how we test” page.

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