Best headphones with a mic 2025: great options for audio and call quality tried and tested
Headphones that deliver excellent audio for phone and video calls

Serious music fan looking for a set of earbuds that can deliver stellar audio and mic quality? Then it’s understandable why you’ve found your way to this guide.
Traditionally headphones focussed on audio quality tend to not bother paying that much attention to mic quality. Which is why many people who want to have a pair that can do it all, and offer excellent audio for music and powerful mic performance during calls, have struggled to find a decent option.
Thankfully, having put every pair of headphones with a mic we’ve tested through their paces, we can confirm that there are a few diamonds in the rough that can do both, if you shop carefully. Here to help any music fan quickly find the right set for their tastes and budget, we’ve detailed our audio experts' current recommendations.
Like all our buying advice, we only recommend products we’ve fully reviewed and tested. You can see a full breakdown of how we test headphones with a mic below, but the short version is that we use them to take work video calls in our offices and listening rooms as well as real-world phone calls, where we gauge how they perform in difficult conditions, such as windy and noisy environments.
After all that, if they manage to deliver excellent audio, solid call quality and great value for money, we then consider them for this list, where we rate the best headphones with a mic for music fans.
If you're after a more general and wider list of options, check out our main best headphones and best wireless earbuds guides.
The quick list
The best over-ears
The WH-1000XM5 aren’t just the best over-ear headphones with a mic for making calls, they’re also brilliant all round performers. As well as crystal clear call quality they offer a comfortable fit, wonderfully detailed audio, reliable ANC and lengthy battery life.
Best earbuds
The WF-1000XM5 are the best wireless earbuds we currently recommend to most people. As well as excellent mic quality, they deliver great audio and reliable ANC making them a great choice for any buyer with cash to burn.
The best cheap
Based on our testing, the Sony WF-C700N are the earbuds to get if you're short on cash and want a great all-round set of earbuds that work for taking and making calls and listening to music. Though they don't match the performance of the more expensive options on this list, for the money you won't do better.
The best wired
If you're old school and want a wired pair of headphones with a decent mic, then the Shure Aonic 3 are the ones to get, based on our checks. In our tests, they deliver a reliable call-ready seal as well as excellent mic and audio quality.
The best Apple earbuds
If you have an iPhone and want an in-ear set of wireless earbuds with a decent mic then the Airpods Pro 2 is the set to get. During our checks, they provided great call quality, which coupled with their excellent ANC made them great for any buyer after a pair of true-wireless for chatting and listening to music on the go.
Best for Samsung phone owners
The Galaxy Buds 3 Pro are the best earbuds for Samsung phone owners. They feature a wealth of custom features, including access to a hi-res, Samsung-exclusive wireless codec, solid audio quality and reliable ANC. But most importantly for this list, they are also great for taking and making calls on.
Best for ANC
If powerful active noise cancellation and stellar call quality are top of your wish list these are the best option we've tested.
I’ve been a tech journalist covering the headphones beat for 17 years. As the guiding hand overseeing this best headphones with a mic list, I liaise with our team of reviewers to help identify the best options we’ve tried and tested. Every set on this list has had its call quality checked by multiple people to ensure it is the best of the best.
Recent updates
27th November 2024: Updated the list with new entries, including the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro for Android users, and checked all information is up to date. All winners of the 2024 What Hi-Fi? Awards are labelled.
The best headphones with a mic we recommend in 2024
Why you can trust What Hi-Fi?
Best over-ears
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
The Sony WH-1000XM5 is currently the best over-ear option if you want solid mic quality as well as excellent audio.
The key selling point if mic performance is a key item on your headphone wishlist is the inclusion of the brand's Precise Voice Pickup technology. This uses four beamforming mics and AI-powered noise-reduction, plus wind-noise reduction to help your calls sound as clear as possible.
Testing the headphones over calls being made both in our dedicated listening rooms and outdoor windy conditions we were impressed how well the XM5’s mics performed. During our checks the XM5 successfully cancelling out a surprising amount of wind noise, ensuring people could still hear us even in very challenging conditions. This is a key achievement most headphones struggle with and reason our testers concluded in our XM5 review:
“The combination of all these technologies means your voice comes through the WH-1000XM5 clearly and without distortion. When we use the WH-1000XM5 for a call, the Sony's do a great job of suppressing general noise and gusts of wind that can threaten to drown you out when using lesser headphones. One of the best headphones with a mic we've tested.”
As an added perk the XM5 can also seamlessly switch between up to two connected devices. This means you can happily listen to music with them connected to a portable music player, and then automatically switch the source to your phone when you need to take an incoming call.
The only minor caveat we have recommending them, is that rumblings suggest Sony may release the next generation Sony WH-1000XM6 in 2025, which are expected to be a big upgrade.
If that doesn’t put you off and you need a pair of wireless over headphones to take calls on as well as listening to music now, then look no further.
Read the full Sony WH-1000XM5 review
Best earbuds
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
The Sony WF-1000XM5 are currently the top option and overall recommendation in our general best wireless earbuds guide. Thankfully, as well as sounding great delivering class-leading levels of detail and clarity in our checks, they are also very good for taking and making calls.
Using them in the office, windy outdoor conditions and busy signal areas, the mics consistently delivered reliable audio, with our test subject on the other end of the line reporting clear audio during all our checks.
We were particularly impressed with how well the mics dealt with wind noise, a factor aided by their new noise reduction structure, which is designed to help them work in difficult outdoor environments. The inclusion of a new bone conductor sensor, which uses AI wizardry to help the earbuds know when you’re talking also made them feel more responsive than most rivals when taking calls.
This is why our testers reported:
“The design and tech changes seem to have done the job. Wind noise is largely subdued, even in the blustery conditions in which we found ourselves during testing. Our voice sounded detailed, clear and easy to follow, which isn’t always the case with wireless earbuds.”
The combination of factors means the WF-1000XM5 are the best headphones with a mic for most people at the moment.
Read our full Sony WF-1000XM5 review
Sony has a great track record when it comes to delivering decent mic, as well as audio quality. This is because it is constantly rolling out new features and designs focused on doing just that. The WF-1000XM5 are the culmination of that effort and the earbuds we recommend to most buyers. We'd strongly recommend considering them if you want the best overall experience, as they offer great audio as well as mic quality.
Best cheap
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
These are the middle children in Sony's earbuds range, sitting neatly between the budget WF-C510 and WF-1000XM5.
And they're a brilliant option that more than justify their price tag. The buds are impressively small, and their lightweight design helps make them even more comfortable than Sony's new flagship WF-1000XM5, while battery life is competitive at seven and a half hours.
Calls are a joy thanks to Sony's Wind Noise Reduction Structure blocking out background sound. This helps voices sound natural and clear. Even large gusts of wind didn’t affect the clarity of our conversations. Compared to something like the JBL Live Pro 2 TWS, our voices sound more refined and dynamic.
They lack aptX HD and LDAC but do feature noise-cancelling tech, which the cheaper WF-C510 lack. Adaptive Sound Control automatically switches listening modes depending on your location, and Sony's DSEE (Digital Sound Enhancement Engine) upscales low-res digital audio files to higher quality. A software update has seen Bluetooth Multipoint also added so you can be connected to two devices simultaneously.
The sound quality is superbly balanced too, with deep, detailed bass, expressive mids and engaging highs. They're a very musical listen for the money, and utterly worthy of their current What Hi-Fi? Awards as part of Sony's dominance of the wireless headphone market.
Downsides? The lack of support for aptX HD and LDAC is disappointing, and, the charging case only provides one extra charge which seems a little mean. But the superb sound and great feature set make these easy to recommend as some of the best Sony headphones available.
Read the full Sony WF-C700N review
Best wired
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
With a noise-isolating design (no noise cancellation tech), wired connection and 3.5mm headphone jack, you might think these Shures are a little out of step with most modern headphones. And that price! They'll have to do something pretty spectacular to convince us they're worth considering.
Thankfully, they do and they are – having now won four consecutive What Hi-Fi? Awards in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024. They time nigh-on perfectly, able to separate strands and knit them together in one glorious musical tapestry. The sense of rhythm and timing needs to be heard to be believed.
The same can be said of their dynamic ability. In the nicest possible way, they're the kind of headphones you can put on and just forget about. There isn’t a single element that sticks out – bass notes don’t protrude and highs don’t cut too deep. They're honest, transparent and true to the original recording. There’s detail and analysis, but never at the expense of the music's life and emotion.
They're comfortable and lightweight, too, and with nine different pairs of eartips, you're guaranteed a good fit. An in-line mic seals the deal, serving to make calls clearer than many rivals.
Read the full Shure Aonic 3 review
Best Apple earbuds
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
Apple's in-ear AirPods have always been decent, but unremarkable – something their string of four-star reviews attests to. But with the AirPods Pro 2, Apple has made a pair of true wireless buds capable of cracking that fifth star.
How? Better noise-cancelling, better battery life, new features and, more importantly, better audio performance. They also cost the same as their predecessors at launch, which helps.
For calls, they're still decent, just like the first-generation Pro. But throw in all these other improvements, and they're a real step up.
A new XS size of eartips should help with fit, and thanks to their vents, they feel a lot less intrusive than some in-ears. Apple has finally added on-bud volume controls, which is a lot more intuitive than digging out your phone or barking commands at Siri.
The noise-cancelling blocks out twice as much background sound as their predecessors, while Adaptive Transparency muffles loud noises when letting in ambient sounds. And the sound quality? With added weight, greater detail and even greater dynamic subtlety than the original Pro, they really are a class act.
Read the full Apple AirPods Pro 2 review
Best Samsung earbuds
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
The Galaxy Buds 3 Pro are Samsung’s direct answer to the Apple AirPods Pro, and in many ways they follow the same formula. They include everything from Samsung’s take on Spatial Audio and head tracking to new advanced active noise cancellation. The in-ear, tipped earbuds even look similar from a distance.
The unique selling point that earns them a place in this list, is their excellent call quality. Samsung has put a lot of effort designing the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro to offer brilliant call as well as audio quality. Key measures include 15kHz of bandwidth specifically for calls as well as advanced voice-tracking AI algorithms designed to help improve call audio, even in difficult conditions.
Testing them in our viewing rooms with varying levels of ambient noise and the real world, we found the buds uniformly delivered excellent results. Hence why our reviewers’ reported: “the new buds sound solid, clear, natural and with pleasing levels of vocal depth during a team Zoom meeting.”
For Samsung fans they’re a particularly great choice as on top of reliable audio quality, they also include support for Samsung's proprietary SSC UHQ hi-res codec. This allows for transmission of up to 24-bit/96kHz music files over Bluetooth when the buds are paired with a modern Galaxy Phone as their source.
The only downside is that, like the AirPods you need a Samsung phone to unlock all their best features. This, plus their high price is the main reason we only recommend them to Samsung fans/owners in this list.
Read our full Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro review