Want tiny earbuds that positively purr 'I like expensive things'? You've just found them.

There’s ‘AirPods clones’, and then there’s the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro… but what they lack in originality, they make up for in top features and stellar ANC.

The Nothing Ear (open) shows British audio company Nothing venture into the open ear headphone space, but this feels like a first-draft gadget that needs to be returned to the drawing board.

The re-released Master & Dynamic ME05 are an outstanding pair of wired earbuds with style to match their super sound quality.

The year of the open-ears continues with the OneOdio OpenRock S2, from one of the original open earbud makers.

The FiiO FW3 miss a few features that are commonplace in earbuds, and even among similarly cheap rivals.

With its latest premium true wireless in-ear headphones, Technics is attempting to make the jump from ‘really good’ to ‘truly great’ – and the EAH-AZ100 achieves this.

There's no question that B&W's 'entry level' earbuds have great audio, but occasional connectivity dropouts and a few missing features mean they aren't yet rivalling class-leaders at this level.

The Sennheiser Accentum True Wireless want put the cat among the midrange big-brand pigeons, but there are more dynamic options for less money readily available.

The Honor Earbuds Open aren’t just good open-ears, but they’re good earbuds period.

The Anker Soundcore AeroClip supply adept audio, a secure fit and neat call quality, all at a more than reasonable price.

The Final Audio ZE3000 SV are a set of Final true wireless earbuds that don’t want to cause a fuss, which they achieve through a disappointingly meager sound.

The Baseus XC1 are clip-on open earbuds with a few rough edges, but they're a valid alternative to pricier rivals.

The Sony WF-1000XM4 swipe the title of the best true wireless earbuds you can buy today from their predecessors.

The JLab Go Pop ANC pack in a huge amount of quality at a mouth-wateringly low price.

The Status Audio Pro X cost a little more than the AirPods Pro 3, but take on Apple's heavyweights with a more refined audio set-up.

The Anker Soundcore C40i sound pretty good, but they aren’t the most comfortable or feature-rich pair around.

The Shokz OpenDots One offer a comfortable and reliable fit, decent sound quality and a price tag that won't break the bank.

The OnePlus Buds Pro 3 expand on the already-expansive feature set of their predecessors, with better compatibility and massively reworked sound that surpasses expectations.

Marshall's second generation Motif earbuds have some small let downs but rock the brand's classic, rugged aesthetic.

Jabra’s Elite 10 is a premium alternative to its sporty lineup of true wireless earbuds, with spatial audio, advanced ANC, long-lasting battery life and more.

Bose’s helping hand pays off in the Skullcandy Method 360, great-sounding mid-range earbuds.

The Huawei FreeArcs are the first great example of open-ear headphones: they sound great, fit well and don’t break the bank.

The Skullcandy Crusher 540 Active are designed especially for working out and have some neat features, but they are hampered by a poor fit.

The AONIC 3 make a statement with sharp separation and nifty passive noise isolation.

They're good, others do better

Top-tier cans that go some way to justifying the price

These wireless neckband earbuds are certainly cheap – but do they live up to their wired siblings?

Shokz OpenSwim Pro promises versatile, good-value audio, and it delivers with aplomb.

If you don’t want to spend a lot on great-sounding buds, these these are the ones you should buy.