I have a lot of headphones that come through my home every year — and I mean a lot. Many of them are at the higher end of most people’s budget (and getting more expensive due to tariffs), but you don’t have to spend top dollar to get great performance. Sure, a budget pair of headphones can’t necessarily go toe-to-toe (or ear-to-ear) with flagships from Sony, Bose, or Sennheiser. Even so, there are cans for under $100 that deliver impressive performance for the price. One of those is the Soundcore Space One, which are on sale at Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart for an all-time low of $67.99 for Cyber Monday.
The Space One are a couple years old at this point, but they still hold up as a great budget option. They’re incredibly comfortable for long listening sessions, and they have the battery life — up to 40 hours with ANC enabled — that will outlast even the longest flights. Since they’re over-ear headphones, they have good passive sound isolation. Once you turn on the active noise cancellation, though, they do an excellent job blocking out lower frequencies, like airplane drones and nearby chatter. They don’t measure up to the Sony WH-1000XM6 or Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones in their ANC effect or sound quality, but they offer admirable performance for a fraction of the price of those headphones.
The high and low frequencies are a bit elevated on the Space One, so they sound a bit bassy and sizzly by default, but you can try over 20 different presets or tweak the sound yourself with an eight-band equalizer in the Anker companion app. Also included is HearID Sound tuning, which guides you through some comparative listening questions to adjust the sound to your preference. The app also has a loudness meter to let you know when what you’re listening to gets too loud and potentially dangerous to your ears.
One way Anker managed to cut costs on the headphones is by including a cloth carrying bag instead of a traditional carrying case, so you may not want to be as carefree about throwing them into your backpack. But beyond the case, there’s a lot to like about the Soundcore Space One. With great ANC and sound, a comfortable fit, and long battery life, getting the Soundcore Space One is a good way to spend $68.
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