I used dozens of earbuds this year, and most of them have been great. But the one that stood out the most is Status Audio's Between 3ANC. The brand may not be familiar to most, but with the Between 3ANC, it managed to create one of the best-sounding wireless earbuds in the market today.
The Between 3ANC debuted for $249 earlier in the year, but for Black Friday, they're down to just $139, making them a terrific value. The sound quality is more detailed than the likes of the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro and other earbuds from major brands, so if you're in the market for new earbuds, you should give these a go.
Status Audio nailed the design of these earbuds, and the Between 3ANC manage to look stylish without going overboard — like the Nothing Ear (2). The rectangular design for the stalk combined with the chrome accents give the earbuds a lot of character, and they're pretty comfortable as well. The sound drivers are angled, so they don't exert much pressure on your inner ear canal, allowing for extended usage without any fatigue whatsoever.
As the name suggests, you get ANC here, and it is terrific — it did a great job tuning out the ambient noises in my home office, and it held up admirably well while traveling as well. You get multi-device pairing as well, so you can connect these earbuds to two devices at once, and there's IPX5 ingress protection.
The main reason for buying these earbuds is the sound quality. They use a hybrid driver system that sounds terrific, and you get energetic bass combined with clear mids and detailed highs. The sound is easily customized via an 8-band EQ, and there are three sound profiles available as well.
The only downside is that you miss out on AptX codecs, but that isn't a huge omission. These earbuds do a great job with the likes of Spotify, and what they lack in advanced codecs they make up for in tuning. A distinct upside is the battery life — these earbuds last 7.5 hours between charges, and that's more than most earbuds I've used this year.
There's no shortage of wireless earbuds, and the Between 3ANC were the best-sounding that I came across in 2023. So if you're browsing for earbuds and need something that sounds great across a variety of genres, you should try these out — they're a real bargain at $139.
