Going on a trip in the near future with a couple of long flights, and want it to be more enjoyable through listening. Music, movies, podcasts, audiobooks, etc.

In the past though, I've found my ears get very fatigued after a couple hours. I think mainly because of my cheap earbuds competing with ambient plane noise.

So I'm looking for something that meets these criteria:

• Noise cancelling (active?)
• Wired
• Comfortable for long stretches
• Small and easily portable?
• Affordable?

Not sure how real my options are for the full intersection of those. But I wanted to reach out to the community first, to get ideas that may help me know where to start.

The issue you’ll run into I think is fatigue vs price. The more expensive ones tend to do noise canceling a lot gentler. Also, over-ear will be way better than the earbud-style design for both noise canceling and comfort (therefore, not so small).

I’ve had a great experience with the Bose QCs — Costco has them, so you can save a little money there. Case is about the size of a Kindle if it was 3” thick, and it comes with a wired option.

Sony XM and Bose QC are kinda the gold standards here. You can get an older gen of the XM for cheaper without missing out on much

I find I don't use my XMs enough on trips to want to carry around bigish headphones, so I picked up the technics eahaz100 recently and I've been super happy with them. Something else to consider if you're open to earbuds still

I used my Sennheiser True Momentum 4s on a 14+ hour flight, they were very comfortable and the noise cancelling was excellent. Battery lasted for about 8-9 hours.

Seconding Bose, excellent and comfortable.

I've had the Sony XM2 and have XM5 both were very comfy.

Especially as I wear glasses and neither become uncomfortable pressing my ears into my frames.

The XM5 are much lighter weight too.

https://www.anker.com/ca/products/q20i-a3004z11 This one is BT but has a wired option, I think the ANC works in wired as well. They're very highly reviewed in the budget ANC category for both noise cancelling and sound quality. I bought a set for my wife and kids (I already had a set of Audio-Technicas, so I passed for myself) and they all like them quite a lot.