I\u2019m gonna say something a little controversial: I don\u2019t really care if my headphones have noise canceling.<\/p>\n
Sure, I might appreciate the isolation on a long plane ride, but for 95% of what I use headphones<\/a> for, noise canceling isn\u2019t a priority \u2014 or it\u2019s straight-up undesirable. Whether walking down a busy street, doing the dishes, or riding my bike through a quiet trail, I prefer music and audiobooks add<\/em> to the environmental soundscape, not replace it altogether.<\/p>\n I know I\u2019m not unique in this either; it\u2019s the reason some people prefer basic AirPods<\/a>, which generally don\u2019t form a tight seal, over the AirPods Pro.<\/p>\n Sony\u2019s new LinkBuds<\/a> are made for people like me, and at $180, they\u2019re clearly trying to capture that entry-level AirPods market too. They\u2019re simply the best headphones I\u2019ve tried when it comes to enabling full ambient awareness \u2014 a little ironic, coming from the company that might have the best noise-canceling tech<\/a> in the business.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been using the LinkBuds for a couple of weeks now, and they do a whole lot right \u2014 but there are some important caveats to keep in mind as well.<\/p>\n The alien-looking earbuds use a ring-shaped driver in order to maintain a hole in the middle that allows sounds to reach your ear with virtually no attenuation at all; you can hear the outside world as clearly as if you weren\u2019t wearing headphones at all.<\/p>\nWhat makes them so unique?<\/h3>\n