10 Best Cheap Earbuds Under $50 in 2025 That Are Overlooked

This post is for you if you are looking for some of the best cheap earbuds under $50 to $10.

In the age where most of the people are running behind shiny headphones, we often fail to notice the potential that some of the cheap earbuds and headphones have.

The advertisements, celebrity endorsements, have been manipulating us to believe that pricey means quality. But that does not mean that all of the high-end headphones are crappy, except for Beats.

Let's breakthrough that.

In this post, I'll present you some of the best cheap earbuds or in-ear headphones, that is worth your every penny.

I've taken the earbuds that are of the perfect balance between price, comfort, and sound quality.

I'm also aware of the fact that less-known brands tend to produce quality headphones at a much cheap price, to spread their wings.

Things to consider while buying budget earbuds

Sound quality:

If you are not careful enough in this regard, you may end up buying earbuds that sound crappy.

You should buy a pair of earbuds that are capable of producing sounds of frequencies the human ear can hear i.e. between 20Hz – 20KHz.

The sound production should be consistent throughout the entire frequency range. This consistency is required for producing a balanced sound.

I'll be explaining this aspect for every earbud I explain in this article.

If you are looking for good cheap bass earbuds, look for the frequency emphasis on lower ranges. The low-frequency sounds – like bass, lies in the lows.

There are even some of the earbuds that have two drivers built in them. In those cases, an additional driver will be meant for producing deep bass.

Comfort:

Next, to sound quality, the next important thing is comfort. If you take me, I'm very particular about the comfort that earbuds or headphones offer.

Because I tend to wear headphones for hours altogether.

Even if you are planning to wear the earbuds for a few minutes every day, for good experience, comfort is essential.

The comfort of the earbuds does depend upon the nature of eartips used. For example, Comply Foam eartips offer the best comfort for earbuds.

The comfort comes when you choose the eartips that perfectly fit in your ears, as not all the ears are same. comes when you choose the eartips that perfectly fit in your ears, as not all the ears are same.

Noise isolation:

Noise isolation is the most important thing in the case of earbuds if you want to experience pure listening.

The capability of earbuds to isolate the noise entirely depends on the design and physical nature of the earbuds and eartips.

When it comes with noise-isolating earbuds, the first thing you need to consider is the eartips.

The eartips like Comply Foam are both comfortable and good at noise isolation. If you are looking for extreme noise isolation, you may look for tri-flange or bi-flange eartips.

Although there are some of the good active noise-canceling earbuds under $50, I tend to not prefer them. Because they are often mediocre ones, as good noise-canceling ones will be around $100.

Durability:

When people first think of cheap earbuds – broken cables and earbuds come into their picture. However, this is not true in all the case.

There are some of the great affordable earbuds that offer great durability. You may even consider them wearing while working out or for jogging.

You can avoid this by making sure that your earbuds are highly durable by looking at some of the aspects like stress relievers for cables, the metal housings for drivers, replaceable parts, easily available earbuds, etc.

The braided nylon cables are the most durable and tangle-free when compared to other thin wires.

Wired or wireless:

Thanks to AirPods. Wireless earbuds have been a buzz nowadays. However, wireless earbuds do come with serious drawbacks in case of cheap earbuds like poor battery life and sound quality.

Good wireless earbuds come with a price, due to the additional cost incurred with the Bluetooth technology.

They should come equipped with AptX technology for lossless sound compression and good battery backup.

Don't go bonkers over purchasing budget wireless earbuds without researching. Or else, you may need to compromise with other aspects like comfort and sound quality.

I would recommend you to go for wired earbuds in your budget. Consider the length of the cord and also make sure that the cable is tangle-free so that you won't end up untangling the cables more than hearing to your favorite track.

With or without a mic? This is your option. If you plan to use the earbuds for long hours with mobile devices and wish to answer your frequent calls being plugged in, you may want to consider going for earbuds that come equipped with inline mic.

Best cheap earbuds under $50

#1. Brainwavz M2

Sound quality:

Brainwavz M2 is the best earbuds you can ever get for the price. They are the cheap earbuds below $50 and made for bass lovers. The bass is deep and resonating.

These earbuds come with both rubber and Comply foam tips. If the bass is too heavy for you, you can switch to foam tips as they offer warm bass suitable for every music genre.

The sound quality is great, especially for the price. There's no compromise in quality of the sound in high volume or even in low volume.

The lows and bass are strong. The mids and treble are smooth and balanced.

Isolation and comfort:

When it comes to comfort, Brainwavz has included six pairs of eartips for various sizes, including Comply foam eartips. You can find the best fit for your ears, and comfort is assured.

Due to the multiple eartips option given you can select the eartips that seal your ears completely to get rid of the external noise.

Comply foam eartips that these earbuds come with are great at offering comfort and also blocking external noise.

If you are too particular about blocking external noise, you can make use bi-flange eartips that these earbuds come with.

Build quality:

Coming to the build quality, it is excellent. Sturdy metal housings for the drivers give these earbuds good durability and premium feel.

This kind of premium feel is uncommon among the budget earbuds that are under 50 bucks.

The earbuds cable are of Silver OFC wires. Once you unbox the earbuds, you'll be amazed to see the excellent cabling quality. It feels so solid while using.

Due to the strength of the cables, you can easily get rid of microphonics while listening to your favorite music. They offer great durability.

The package comes in with obviously the earbuds, 1 set of Comply foam eartips, 6 sets of silicone earbuds, 1 set of bi-flange eartips, shirt clip, hard carrying case, manual, and 1-year warranty.

The only downside is that these earbuds won't come with a mic. So, you need to answer the call by keeping your mobile in front of your mouth. This won't be a problem, for most of them.

Mic:

It comes with no mic.

Bottomline: If you are looking for the best cheap earbuds with good bass and durability go for it.

#2. MEE audio M6 PRO

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This is probably the best affordable in-ear monitor to get for the price. Most of the studio headphones are expensive, this offers top-notch quality at a fraction of the cost under $50.

Sound quality:

These are also great suit for casual listening, as they provide good immersive soundstage experience that is pretty wide, and balanced for optimal listening experience.

If you are looking for budget earbuds that offer flat frequency response and pure audio listening experience these are the best bet. The bass response is quite good and offers deep bass.

The sound is well balanced, but the only downside that an audiophile can spot is that the mids are slightly boosted.

Comfort and isolation:

They come with 6 sets of silicone eartips and also a pair of Comply foam eartips. So, finding the right set of eartips that fit in right, would not be an issue.

It also comes with a set of Comply foam eartips that offers superior comfort and isolation.

However, if those Comply eartips won't fit you, be ready to shell $10 for another set. Once you find the best eartips, you can easily wear these on for hours.

Mic:

These come with two cables. One is a headset cable and another one has no mic. The headset cable features an inline mic and controller for using with smartphones and tablets. The input audio quality of the mic is pretty good.

Build-quality:

The build of these earbuds is solid. If you've ever tried Shure Se215s headphones, you would be surprised to notice that the build is as solid as Shure's.

The earbuds are sweat-resistant and are great for running and working out.

These earbuds come with two cables as I've said. However, cables are not completely tangle-free as advertised. They tangle a little bit and you've got to spend a little time untangling it, but it's tolerable.

Bottomline: Budget earbuds for stage performance and some studio use

#3. Yamaha EPH-20BL

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The earbuds are advertised as one of the most power-efficient earbuds. I personally have not tried these ones. According to the user reviews, yes it saves you some battery juice.

Sound quality:

They sound great on all frequencies. There is more emphasis on lows and treble than that of mids. The bass is deep and the highs are crisp.

The earbuds are decent at reducing ambient noise, which contributes a lot in enhancing the clarity of the playback.

There are no significant audio-enhancements and these are preferred for pure audio listening especially with classical music.

Comfort and fit:

The earbuds come with three eartips of various sizes. The earbuds won't easily fall out while working out in the gym or running.

The fit is excellent, which also keeps those ambient noises out. You can easily wear these for hours, without causing any pain in your ears.

Build and design:

These earbuds are built to last as they have a rugged and durable construction. Compared to other cheap earbuds of big brands in the industry like Sony, the quality is excellent. The earbuds come with 5 different colors.

Bottomline: If you are looking for listening to more classical songs, these won't disappoint you. However, lack of mic may be a serious downside for some people.

#4. Sennheiser MM30i

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These earbuds are specially designed for using with iPhone, iPads, and iPods.

Sound quality:

The sound quality is great, as like that of any other Sennheiser products. These earbuds have a punchy bass, that's great for bass-heads.

You may find the extra bass irritating if you don't love bass especially wearing the stock eartips that it comes with.

As these earbuds feature ear-canal design, they are extremely good at blocking out external noise. In order to maximize isolation, you can go for eartips that perfectly seal your ears.

Comfort:

They come with three sets of eartips (S, M, and L). Once you find the right guy, you would wish to remain plugged in all day long.

You can buy a pair of Comply Foam eartips along with these earbuds to ensure that they never fall out and offer superior comfort and added isolation.

Build quality:

It is nicely built with high-quality plastic and rubber. The build quality could be much better for the price, especially when compared to other less-known brands in the price range of under $50.

The wires are somewhat thin and tend to tangle. It would require you to handle it gently.

Mic:

They do come with an inline mic as you can see in the image. The sound quality while in a call is great. There is a mic controller to control the volume and answer the call.

As like that of any other mic with cheap earbuds, the mic tends to pick up everything and does not cancel out any background sound as like that of your iPhone's mic. However, that may not be an issue for you, unless you answer your calls every time with earbuds on.

Bottomline: Best Sennheiser earbuds with excellent noise isolation with ear-canal design, great bass, and sound quality.

#5. Phiaton MS 100 BA

The specialty about these earbuds is that unlike other budget earbuds, they feature the balanced armature drivers instead of dynamic drivers you see typically on low-end earbuds.

If you are interested in knowing more about balanced armature drivers refer to this article by Brian.

Sound quality:

The advantages of having a balanced armature design are that they offer exceptional voice clarity and highlight the details of the playback very well.

For ensuring good clarity, more emphasis is given to trebles.

The bass response is slightly low and is obvious as it comes with balanced armature drivers. If you are a bass-head don't look for it.

The background noise filters out exceptionally well to ensure the clarity of the sound you are hearing. It's a perfect balance between price and performance.

Comfort:

They come with four sets of eartips and should be comfortable to every human ear. But if you are planning to run with these earbuds on, I would recommend not to choose them, as they tend to fall out of your ears sometimes.

Build:

It comes with the armored aluminum body, as with any other Phiaton earbuds. This aluminum finish gives the earbuds a great look. The cable is thick and is textured to ensure that it is tangle-free.

Mic:

The earbuds can also be used for calling purposes as they come with an inline mic and the controller. But the only thing that's lacking here is the lack of inline volume control. You need to control the volume on your smartphone.

Bottomline: If you don't like too much bass and clarity is the most important thing for you, you love these earbuds.

Best cheap earbuds under $30

#1. Symphonized XTC

Believe it or not, wooden earbuds are trendy nowadays. The earbuds by Symphonized are all made with real wood and crafted with care. The artistic look of the earbuds is great.

Sound quality:

The sound quality is crisp clear. The excellent noise isolation technology that these earbuds come with also enables it to produce deep bass. The sound is loud because of low sensitivity.

Half the volume level is more than enough for you to witness great listening experience. The treble is where these earbuds shine, they have a great capacity to even produce high-frequency octave waves without any cracks.

Comfort and fit:

They come with 3 multiple sized eartips. Depending upon your ear size, you get a comfort fit among those three. You could easily wear these earbuds for over 10 hours, with no hassles.

The silicone eartips are of premium quality and offers comfort nearer to Comply foam.

Build:

It is built with real wood, that's durable. The cable is of braided nylon that is highly durable and seldom tangles. The connectors are gold plated.

The earbuds come with a carry pouch that's eco-friendly and perfectly complement your earbuds.

Mic:

It also comes with an inline mic, that comes to your rescue when answering and making calls on the go. The quality of the mic voice is great.

Bottomline: If you are looking for good earbuds under $30, these delight you.

Best cheap earbuds under $20

#1. Creative EP-630 Noise-Isolating In-Ear Headphones

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Sound quality:

The sound quality of these earbuds is great. Great bass that is deep and crystal clear highs and lows. If you've ever used the Sennheiser CX-300 that's under $30, you could easily compare it's sound quality to these ones.

The sound isolation is great and they can be easily used in Airplanes to get rid of background noise. Once you find the right eartips they isolate completely. As long as the sound source is good, the quality of the playback is warm and high-quality.

Comfort:

These earbuds come with 3 sizes of earbuds. It's just a matter of finding the right silicone eartips that fit perfectly to your ears.

You can easily wear these earbuds to the gym or while running, they won't easily fall out. The weight of these earbuds is very light and very comfortable to wear.

You can easily wear these on for 4-5 hours without any hassles. Without costing the price of noise-cancellation technology, these earbuds offer you the best noise isolation in its range.

Build and durability:

The base of the earbuds is made of black flexible rubber, instead of plastic. This helps greatly in increasing the longevity of the earbuds.

Apart from these, the cable of the earbuds is tangle-free, just one pull it will be back to form. As I told you earlier you can easily wear it during working out without tearing them apart.

The earbuds are available in different colors like black, pink, blue and green, with a logo of Creative Labs at back of the earbuds.

Mic:

No. These earbuds are only for pure music listening.

Bottomline: Overall, these earbuds are the best bargain for the price, with premium sound quality and build. But the only major downside is that it don't have a mic for calling purposes.

#2. MEE audio Sport-Fi M6

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Sound quality:

You can't think that these earbuds don't deliver quality sound due to the low money you spend on it. If you've ever used the M9 version of these earbuds you'll find the bass of these earbuds similar to them. They offer good bass that is deep, and won't definitely disappoint bass.

Apart from bass, the treble is the thing where these earbuds really shine due to neutrality and being not harsh. The sound quality is really good when you find the right fit.

The earbuds design is also noise isolating and offers good isolation from the external noise and enables you to focus on your playback.

Comfort:

These earbuds feature an over-the-ear fit that makes sure the earbuds never fall out and are extremely comfortable.

The ergonomic earbud design and the 6 tips that come with these earbuds ensure that the earbuds offer superior comfort when working out.

Durability:

These earbuds are rated IPX5 and are water and sweat resistant. That means this feature combined with the over-the-ear fit enables you to wear these earbuds for working out and running. The earbuds are made for day-to-day use.

Mic:

These earbuds have an in-line mic, but the clarity is above par. They tend to pick up the background noise and result in static noise. They are good for decent calling and Skyping purposes.

Bottomline: If you are looking for earbuds below $20 that are well suited for working out and running, go for it.

#3. Philips SHE3590

​Sound quality:

These earbuds are great for experiencing great bass. If you are a bass-head and looking for the best earbuds under $15, this should be your choice.

The frequency response is between 12 Hz – 23,500 Hz. It's exceptional at low frequencies and great at producing deep bass.

The impedance is 16 ohms and is easily driven by low powered devices, and the volume of the sound is maxed.

The vocals are crisp clear and the highs are lacking a bit, which may be needed if you want to listen to high pitch waves for example sounds similar to octave waves.

Comfort:

The drivers of these Philips earbuds are super-small, that means they can comfortably fit deep into your ears.

The earbuds come with 3 various sizes of eartips that offer a snug fit and it ensures high noise isolation. You barely can hear the background noise when wearing these earbuds.

Durability:

They seem like they are indestructible.

The earbuds appear to withstand a good amount of abuse and drops. However, the earbuds tend to fall out for some people, but finding a good pair of eartips does the job. The cable is 1.2m long and is rubberized for durability.

Mic:

Many of the people confuse between the two models of Philips SHE3590 one with mic and another without. This model comes with an inline mic and controller to make it ideal for use in calling.

Bottomline: Overall, these are the best earbuds under $20 for the price. These are loved by the bass lovers stipulated by a budget.

Best cheap earbuds under $10

#1. JVC HAFX1X Headphone Xtreme-Xplosivs

Sound quality:

These are the earbuds made especially for bass. The bass is explosive, but pleasant too. The frequency response is staggering at 5 – 23,000 Hz.

This kind of wide frequency is uncommon in the case of earbuds that too among cheap earbuds under $10. Seeing the lower frequency range you can determine what type of bass these earbuds can produce.

They have dedicated deep bass ports and also the earbuds are equipped with large 10mm Neodymium drivers that produce serious deep bass. The sound is of great quality and has a rich sound presence.

Right after the box, the treble is quite harsh. However, this will be settled after the burn-in period of 50 hours of playback. The sound at low and mid-range frequencies is great.

Comfort:

The comfort is above average. The earbuds are lightweight and they fit nicely into your ears without much pressure.

They offer good noise isolation and thus will perfectly complement your Airplane journey.

You can easily wear these on for around 4-5 hours. You can easily wear them to the Gym or while running, they won't easily fall off.

Durability:

They are sturdy and quite well built with big bass. The cable is quite long and thick, which do not tend to tangle. Overall, they are quite durable earbuds with a throw-away price.

Mic:

None.

Bottomline: If you are a bass-head and a budget head, hungry for thumping bass in every song you hear, go for these. They don't come with a mic, as they are designed for pure listening purposes.

Wrapping up

These are some of the best cheap earbuds that are worthwhile to mention. Again, it all depends on personal preferences.

Most of the times, in the case of cheap earbuds, for gaining one benefit you need to compromise with other benefits. There's no perfect all-rounder.

I hope this exhaustive guide helps you choose the best budget earbuds.