Forget Bose or Beats this Black Friday

Most of the big-name Bluetooth noise-canceling headphones cost at least $300.

That’s a lot of money to spend.

And this wasn’t even a great year for new releases at that premium price. Bose increased the price on their new 700 model to $400, and they’re hoping that better call quality and a weird new design will force you to upgrade. Apple and Beats just dropped the Beats Solo Pro, and they expect you to pay an additional $35 for their official wired connection option. And Sony did… nothing at all to their flagship pair with active noise-cancelling (ANC), skipping the 1000X’s yearly update cycle for the first time and filling out their roster with lesser models that cut features away.

Fortunately, if you like to save money and you want a good pair of new wireless ANC headphones, Taotronics has your back in a huge way.

The newly-updated Taotronics SoundSurge 46 is the best wireless ANC headphone under $100 released this year, and it holds up even against more expensive pairs in this category.

Carrying a standard street price of just $80, and with frequent discounts through Amazon’s coupon system, the only person who will know how little you paid for these is you. I purchased mine in May for just under $70.

They have an all-metal headband and metal ear cup supports, exhibiting not one creak, squeak, or even a hint of cheap plastic. The ear pads are large, supple, and comfy for long listening sessions. A classy hard case is included free of charge.

I’ve been using my pair regularly since I reviewed them five months ago, and they still look just like they did on day one.

Bluetooth connection options aren’t as robust as other more expensive pairs, but the implementation of basic SBC (Sub-Band Coding) for audio playback on this pair is just fine. There’s no obvious distortion whether you’re listening to music or high-frequency test tones, and the small amount of latency never caused me an issue in movie playback.

The charge port is micro USB, so if you’re an “All USB-C all the time” sort of person, that might let you down.

The noise-canceling performance is also shocking for the low price.

It’s better than Sony’s cheaper options, and honestly it’s nearly in the same ballpark that I’ve come to expect from a high-end and more well-known company like Bose.

The sound quality won’t be to everyone’s tastes, but it’s still in the realm I feel comfy calling “good,” as long as you don’t mind impressive, throaty bass. These have a thunderous, movie-theater subwoofer, bass response that only darkens up the midrange a little bit. The result is a sound firmly in the “fun” category and if you turn on the ANC, the bass response becomes a little more detailed and textured.

The memory foam pads are some of the nicest on a headphone at any price, let alone in the sub-$100 category.

You’re not giving up much in exchange for the low price here.

Aside from the lack of fancier Bluetooth codecs, bass that might be too heavy for some listeners, and average voice quality for calls, the compromises aren’t dramatic.

The included 3.5mm auxiliary cable is rather basic and springy, though fortunately it’s not proprietary in any way so you could replace it with a nicer one. The charge port is micro USB, so if you’re an “all USB-C all the time” sort of person, that might let you down. You’ll have to remember to turn the ANC off when you’re not using it, as it’s a separate switch from the main power option. Otherwise, the battery will slowly drain as there’s no auto-off switch.

Battery life is rated at a maximum of 30 hours. You’ll lose some play time depending on how loud you listen (higher volumes cause the amplifier to draw more power from the battery), and whether you have ANC turned on. You can expect at least 15 hours of listening under normal use. That’s not quite in league with the heavy hitters, but still fine.

The headphones support fast charging, fortunately, getting you two hours of wireless playback from a five-minute charge.

As long as you don’t mind a little thump with your audio, and you’re not looking for the most open and detailed sound in the world, the SoundSurge 46 feels like a product that was supposed to cost $200-plus instead of $80.

It’s built better than most non-Beyerdynamic headphones on the market, and has ANC that competes with far more expensive pairs.

You should, however, run away from the SoundSurge 60. Fast.

When you type “Taotronics Headphones” into the internet, you’ll inevitably discover the SoundSurge 46’s cheaper little brother, the SoundSurge 60.

In spite of having a higher model number, the 60s are dramatically worse in just about every way and carry the distinction of being one of the worst-sounding headphones I’ve ever purchased.

The slightly cheaper 60s carry over the solid ANC system and have a mediocre design reminiscent of other style headphones. But the build is cheap and plasticky, and it feels like it might rattle apart in the hands. The included case is also less robust.

And the sound is straight-up bad. It’s muffled, muddy, unexciting, and broken-sounding. I’ve had other folks independently confirm my findings in the comments on my review, so I know it wasn’t just my pair.

If you want headphones that only look nice but don’t sound good, go ahead and buy the SoundSurge 60s.

But if you want literally everything you expect from a $300 mainstream pair of headphones in a package that costs $80, you simply can’t do better than the SoundSurge 46s, at least in my current experience. They’re a phenomenal value in the consumer headphone market and if they ever release additional colors, I’ll buy another one right away.