The best headphone mic we've ever tested

June 17, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

The best headphone mic we've ever tested

David Pierce starts the episode with a confession: he has long believed headphone microphones are "a severely underrated bit of technology." Most headphone reviews obsess over sound quality, noise cancellation, and interface, then toss in a single line like "microphone does calls." But Pierce argues the microphone matters more than most people realize — not just for being a considerate caller, but because "there is lots of evidence, scientific evidence that shows if you sound good, people take you more seriously." And as voice interactions with AI systems become central to daily life, the difference between a good mic and a bad one becomes the difference between a good AI experience and a frustrating one.

To test this, senior reviewer John Higgins joins from a coffee shop on Ventura Boulevard in Los Angeles — a deliberately brutal environment with traffic, people on phone calls, and even a hawk fight overhead. They run through several pairs of headphones, blind-testing microphone quality in a real-world setting that most people actually take calls in.

The baseline: wired EarPods and AirPods Pro 3

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What you'll learn

1 (05:01) **Why This Test Matters** - David introduces the recurring headphone mic test, explaining that microphone quality is increasingly critical for voice AI and how you sound to others, not just for music.
2 (05:31) **Setting Up the Test** - John Higgins joins from a noisy coffee shop on Ventura Boulevard, creating a brutally realistic real-world environment for the mic shootout.
3 (06:34) **Baseline: Wired Apple Earpods** - The $20 wired earpods serve as the control. David notes John sounds great, but the mic picks up every bit of background noise with zero suppression.
4 (08:46) **Test 1: AirPods Pro 3** - The mainstream benchmark. David hears a mix: John's voice is less rich than the Earpods, but background noise is reduced, not eliminated.
5 (11:47) **Blind Test: Earfun Air Pro 4 Plus** - John switches without telling David which pair. David hears almost no background noise but says John sounds "terrible" and "in a tin can" due to heavy compression.
6 (15:48) **Oracast Explained** - John briefly explains OraCast, a Bluetooth standard found in hearing aids that allows broadcasting audio to multiple listeners, which he hopes will become ubiquitous in airports and lecture halls.
7 (20:19) **Winner: Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro** - David is immediately blown away. He hears no background noise at all and John's voice is only slightly compressed.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Guests on this episode

David Pierce John Higgins

Show Notes

Your headphones' microphone matters. A lot. And yet we never know how we sound to others, or whether we're clear to our AI assistants! So from time to time, we like to grab a bunch of headphones and put their microphones through some tough real-world tests. This time, with the help of The Verge's John Higgins, we discover the best-sounding mic we've ever tested. And no, it's not on a pair of AirPods. Not even close.