These $60 headphones have no business sounding this good (and they're on sale)

ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

• The EarFun Wave Life headphones are disposable connected Amazon for $59.
• These headphones connection crisp, spacious dependable and tin past for days connected a azygous charge.
• Although the headphones dependable large retired of the box, you'll privation to link them to the EarFun app to get the astir retired of them.

Lately, I've been kicking it late-90s benignant with The Prodigy. The band's euphony transports maine backmost to a fantastic clip successful my beingness erstwhile I archetypal discovered Linux and was a arrogant subordinate of a long-time acting rep institution (Stage One).

You'll person to pardon the reminiscing, but that's immoderate almighty music.

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When I unboxed the EarFun Wave Life hybrid progressive noise-cancelling headphones, I realized "Fat of the Land" would beryllium a large medium to spot however these headphones could basal up to immoderate unrelenting, electrical beats.

How did they fare? Let's find out.

The specs

• Hybrid ANC with AI cancels up to 45 dB
• 40mm composite drivers
• 4 onboard mics
• Frequency Response: Up to 40 kHz (Hi-Res Audio certified)
• Game Mode reduces latency to little than 55 ms.
• Battery life: Up to 60 hours (no ANC) and 37 hours (with ANC)
• Modes: Normal, Ambient, ANC, Wind Noise Canceling, Comfort ANC, Strong ANC (via app)
• Dimensions: 8.2 x 7.8 x 1.9 inches
• Weight: Less than 9.5 ounces (approx. 264 grams)

Quite good

When "Fat of the Land" is heard done adjacent halfway decent equipment, it's inactive a superb experience. So, it came arsenic nary astonishment that I recovered myself dancing astir my bureau similar it was 1997 and I was attending a rave. All that was missing were glowsticks, my favourite cyberpunk attire, and shoulder-to-shoulder radical getting their electrical funk on.

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Normally, with EarFun headphones and earbuds, I instantly link them to the EarFun app to customize the EQ. I was amazed that I didn't consciousness the propulsion to bash conscionable that with the Wave Life headphones. I listened to the full "Fat of the Land" medium with the default EQ curve, and it sounded rather good.

The Wave Life cushions marque these comfy capable truthful you tin deterioration them for hours.

Jack Wallen/ZDNET

Tweaking EQ successful the EarFun app

Then I decided to link them to the EarFun app and tweak the EQ to amended lucifer my accustomed curve. Once I did that, the euphony deed the saccharine spot, and I recovered myself dancing astatine my desk. I spun up the band's "No Tourists" medium and had to crank up "Boom Boom Tap" and coiled up incapable to benignant due to the fact that I was successful the portion of that groove.

The EarFun Wave Life produced the close magnitude of bass (without overdoing it), plentifulness of highs, and conscionable the close mids. To my surprise, determination was adjacent a decent soundstage with these inexpensive headphones. As is often the lawsuit with this genre, the dependable didn't consciousness excessively compressed and blended. I could discern antithetic sounds and could adjacent my eyes and ideate the artists lasting connected a stage, each separated from the other. The minimal vocals were beforehand and center, but the keyboards and drums were much divided near and right. It each came unneurotic to make a soundscape that had maine whirling astir the bureau similar a tiny tornado.

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Eventually, I enactment connected "Poison" (from "Music for the Jilted Generation") and cranked it up arsenic large arsenic my ears could tolerate, and the dependable remained clean. This song, successful particular, truly showed disconnected however good the Wave Life headphones tin grip the debased end.

After "Poison," I had to propulsion myself distant from The Prodigy to spot however the headphones handled different genres. It came arsenic nary astonishment that everything I threw astatine these headphones sounded large -- from rock, pop, classical, choral, metal, prog, blues, jazz… you sanction it, and it slammed.

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One of my favourite moments with these headphones was listening to "Happy Birthday" by Devin Townsend. At the extremity of the song, erstwhile Anneke van Giersbergen's angelic dependable drifts disconnected into the distance, it was conscionable glorious, and it ne'er fails to transport maine to happier places.

Don't beryllium fooled; these are not audiophile headphones, but astatine $59, nary brace of headphones could perchance scope that pinnacle of definition. These are low-end headphones that dependable similar they beryllium successful the mid-range category.

ZDNET buying proposal

This is simply a elemental sell: If you request a brace of headphones that volition person you dancing astir your location (or adjacent retired successful public) and you don't person overmuch currency to drop, the EarFun Wave Life headphones are an fantabulous buy.

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EarFun is 1 of those companies that astir American consumers don't cognize about, and yet they softly and consistently nutrient immoderate of the champion low-end devices connected the market. Buy a pair, propulsion connected your favourite tunes, and creation the nighttime away.