The headphones to avoid buying

Poor-quality headphones can make even Led Zeppelin sound more like your kid brother’s garage band. 

Whether you’re enjoying your carefully curated playlists, catching up on podcasts or watching YouTube videos on the go, a decent pair of headphones can be a lifesaver. 

But a poor pair of headphones can render your favourite playlist unlistenable. And if the noise cancellation’s no good, you might not be able to hear which song is playing anyway.

This is why it’s worth doing your research, especially given how expensive some brands can be. 

Fortunately, CHOICE has done the hard work of testing them so you don’t have to. Our audio experts have reviewed the most popular products on the market from Apple, Sennheiser, Skullcandy, Sony, Beats, Bang & Olufsen, JBL, Jabra and more.

“Our sound tests always reveal some surprising results,” says CHOICE audio expert Peter Zaluzny. 

“We’ve listened to $500 headphones that rate worse than pairs half their price – sometimes from the very same brand. Paying more doesn’t guarantee a better quality product, so it pays to shop carefully.”

We’ve recently remastered our headphone testing, so our review covers all headphone types, from petite in-ear models through to noise-cancelling over-ear cans with all the features. 

You can filter by type (in-ear, over-ear), price, brand, noise cancellation options and more to find the perfect pair for you. Whichever type you’re looking for, we don’t want you to end up with a dud buy, so here are the products that scored lowest in our lab tests.

Consider becoming a CHOICE member to see the best performers.

Are noise cancelling headphones better?

This is a matter of personal preference, according to Peter.

“A good pair of noise-cancelling headphones can provide a great listening experience while you’re on the go, as they’re designed to filter out environmental sounds,” he says.

“But just because some headphones have this feature doesn’t necessarily mean they sound good. In fact, poorly implemented noise-cancelling technology can make your music sound worse, which is why we test audio quality with it turned on and off.

On-ear and over-ear headphones: What’s the difference?

On-ear headphones don’t look especially different to the over-ear variety, but they don’t completely surround your ears. Instead they sit on the outside of your ears, allowing more airflow around them. 

This generally makes them smaller and therefore easier to store and transport, but they don’t block as much ambient noise. They also press on your ears, so poorly made models can get uncomfortable pretty quickly. 

What are open-ear headphones?

These are a relatively new offshoot of wireless and truly wireless earbuds. The key difference is in how they fit into your ear.

Traditional earbuds nestle in your ear canal to stay in place and reduce or eliminate environmental noise as you go about your day. Open-ear buds sit adjacent to the canal and only slightly protrude in. This allows you to hear more of the world around you.

Clip-on earbuds have become the most common type of open-ear headphones. They loop around the back of your ear, keeping the bud in place next to the canal rather than inside it.

These may be worth looking into if you find typical earbuds uncomfortable or you don’t like the amount of environmental noise that they cut out. They’re similarly priced to truly wireless earbuds.

Earbuds/in-ear headphones to avoid

In-ear headphones tend to trade optimal sound quality for compact convenience, but that doesn’t mean they have to sound bad. These buds fall well short of the competition with some of the worst audio quality results in our test.

1. Soundcore C40i

• CHOICE Expert Rating: 37%
• Sound quality score: 26%
• Price: $110
• Type: Open-ear (true wireless)
• Active noise-cancellation: No

Headphones have one job – to play audio. The brief is simple and yet somehow, Soundcore manages to get it very wrong.

The C40i earbuds have the dual honour of being not just the worst sounding headphones in our test but also the lowest scoring pair overall. Cheap and nasty almost seems too kind.

Nothing really rises above mediocrity here. Comfort, battery life, ease of use and microphone quality (for phone calls and so on) are all very average.

The one area where these buds do themselves proud is durability, which our experts scored as excellent. So at least you can safely throw them across the room after hearing the awful audio quality.

See the full Soundcore C40i review.

2. JBL Wave Flex 2

• CHOICE Expert Rating: 45%
• Sound quality score: 32%
• Price: $100
• Type: In-ear (true wireless)
• Active noise-cancellation: No

Hundred-dollar headphones sound pretty appealing if you’re after an affordable way to enjoy music or podcasts throughout the day. There’s nothing wrong with going basic, but headphones that sound this bad are never worth it – even for $100.

Not only do they sound plain awful, they’re uncomfortable as well. Performance in those areas is almost unforgivable and a bit of a waste when they’re actually not half bad otherwise.

Battery life? Pretty good. Durability? Very good. Normally both positive points but in this case, potential drawbacks. After all, you’ll probably want these buds to break as soon as possible so you can buy a better pair.

There’s no real reason to consider the Wave Flex 2 earbuds over headphones from other brands. Even the original (albeit now discontinued) Wave Flex buds from JBL are cheaper and better overall.

See the full JBL Wave Flex 2 review.

3. JLab Epic Open Sport

• CHOICE Expert Rating: 52%
• Sound quality score: 48%
• Price: $200
• Type: Open-ear (true wireless)
• Active noise-cancellation: No

Sports headphones like these put a big emphasis on comfort, fit and durability. Unlike most earbuds that can get dislodged during vigorous movement like running, these try to hold firm with additional protection from sweat, light rain and so on.

In this regard, The Epic Open Sport earbuds are OK. Comfort and ease of use aren’t bad and the IP55 weather sealing protects them from light water pressure (e.g. from a hose jet) and other fluids, as well as dust and dirt.

But they fail to deliver where it counts. Sound quality is barely better than poor and battery life is bad by current standards at just over four hours. While this is probably suitable for most workouts, that’s nowhere near enough charge for a whole day.

If only JLab had put a bit more effort into honing the sound quality and extending the battery life, these buds wouldn’t be on this list.

See the full JLab Epic Open Sport review.

On-ear/over-ear headphones to avoid

Old school over-ear headphones can be pretty cumbersome compared to earbuds, but they have the space for larger speakers and bigger batteries. This means better sound quality and longer battery life – in theory.

But the biggest issue with these headphones to avoid is durability. All those extra moving parts are susceptible to wear and tear and many of these models just aren’t built to last.

1. Shokz OpenMove

• CHOICE Expert Rating: 48%
• Sound quality score: 34%
• Price: $129
• Type: Bone conduction
• Active noise-cancellation: No

Bone conduction you say? Well that sounds funky and futuristic! Well, kind of, but all the cool tech in the world can’t save an audio device that doesn’t sound good.

We say ‘audio device’ because these aren’t headphones in the traditional sense. Instead, they basically sit adjacent to your ears and transmit audio by stimulating the bones in your ear canal.

Does it work? Yes, but at the expense of sound quality in this case. They earned poor results in our audio quality test and ease of use is not much better.

According to Shokz, these bone conduction headphones are designed for sports and everyday use. This kind of makes sense as the wrap-around design isn’t at risk of falling out of your ears. But at the end of the day, you still want your headphones to sound decent and these simply don’t deliver.

See the full Shokz OpenMove review.

2. Audeze MM-100

• CHOICE Expert Rating: 53%
• Sound quality score: 79%
• Price: $679
• Type: Over-ear
• Active noise-cancellation: No

Expensive headphones like these veer away from the consumer market towards audiophile territory. Rightly so, because not only do these studio grade cans sound good, they don’t offer wireless connectivity at all.

As far as sound quality goes, the MM-100 cans are aiming for the higher-end of the market. Everything runs through an old-school cable, removing the risk of audio compression that can come with Bluetooth. This also reduces latency (lag) when watching videos or playing games.

All sounds pretty good, right? Unfortunately, these headphones are about as durable as a wet paper bag, earning poor results (28%) in this part of the test. You’d think $680 would get you something at least a little more robust.

Meanwhile, the included carry case is just a fabric bag which isn’t enough to protect these fragile headphones against anything more than a scratch. It’s probably best to just keep these headphones at home – in fact that might be the intention.

But if that’s the case, then don’t expect to spend hour after hour kicking back with some tunes on the couch. The MM-100s are not very comfortable to wear with a borderline score of 53%.

Credit where credit is due, Audeze did a good job with the sound quality. It’s just a pity that the MM-100s fall short in all other respects.

See the full Audeze MM-100 review.

3. JBL Live 670NC

• CHOICE Expert Rating: 53%
• Sound quality score: 67%
• Price: $200
• Type: On-ear
• Active noise-cancellation: Yes

These on-ear headphones from JBL have pretty decent audio quality and they’re among the most affordable cans with good (70%) noise-cancellation around. So what’s the problem? Durability.

JBL’s headphones earned a measly 22% in this part of the test. In other words, they can feel wobbly, they’re easily damaged and seem poorly made overall. Your brand-new headphones may just break before you know it.

For $200, you could forgive a few cut corners here and there, maybe some missing features and even slightly lower sound quality. But the very poor build quality goes well beyond what’s acceptable for budget headphones. Despite the name, they’re unlikely to be alive for very long.

See the full JBL Live 670NC review.

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Alice Richard

Alice Richard is a Content creator and marketer. Alice writes on a range of topics, from health insurance to heaters and BBQs to bargain-hunting, always with the aim to help consumers find the best products to buy, and which to avoid. Alice can take vast amounts of data from CHOICE product tests and turn it into content that is easily digestible and fun for readers.  Alice has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Queensland.

Alice Richard is a Content creator and marketer. Alice writes on a range of topics, from health insurance to heaters and BBQs to bargain-hunting, always with the aim to help consumers find the best products to buy, and which to avoid. Alice can take vast amounts of data from CHOICE product tests and turn it into content that is easily digestible and fun for readers.  Alice has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Queensland.

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Peter Zaluzny

Peter Zaluzny is a Content producer in the Digital home team. He covers everything from home entertainment and personal safety devices to tech for your car and mattresses. Peter enjoys cutting through the nonsense to help people understand the products they’re considering to buy. He helps consumers make educated, informed decisions. Peter has a Bachelor's degree in Journalism and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Wollongong.

Peter Zaluzny is a Content producer in the Digital home team. He covers everything from home entertainment and personal safety devices to tech for your car and mattresses. Peter enjoys cutting through the nonsense to help people understand the products they’re considering to buy. He helps consumers make educated, informed decisions. Peter has a Bachelor's degree in Journalism and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Wollongong.