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Both the Amazon Echo Buds, left, and the Soundcore by Anker Liberty Pro 3 earbuds come with multiple ear tips and other accessories to ensure a good fit.

You don’t have to spend a fortune to get decent sound a innovative features in wireless earbuds. Shown are the second-generation Amazon Echo Buds, left, and the Soundcore by Anker Liberty Pro 3 earbuds.

My daughter recently needed to replace her Apple AirPods, but she didn’t want to pay AirPods prices. She settled on a $25 model from a company called Tozo. They do exactly what she needs — audio for Zoom sessions and phone calls, music while she works out — without frills, with comfort and good-enough sound quality.

It’s been a while since I explored wireless earbuds, and her experience piqued my curiosity. The last pair I bought was Apple’s AirPods Pro (yay for Amazon gift cards!) back in 2019. Audio quality, noise cancellation, comfort and reliability have improved over the past few years, while prices have dropped.

You can still pay hundreds of dollars for state-of-the-art wireless earbuds, but most people don’t need to. The wide sweet spot for pricing and features seems to be between $50 and $200. Though as my offspring will attest, you can do pretty well for even less.

I took a look at three different wireless earbuds — from Amazon, Anker’s Soundcore and OnePlus. This week, I’ll review the first two; next week I’ll explore the OnePlus buds, the least expensive of the three, along with the company’s new flagship Android phone, the 10 Pro.

Amazon, $120, or $140 with wireless charging case

Amazon’s sophomore shot at wireless earbuds are a marked improvement over the initial version. They come in black or white, and there’s a wireless-charging case option. The everyday pricing is a little high, but they’re frequently discounted to well under $100, and occasionally are discounted to as low as $50.

Sound quality: When you first fire up the Echo Buds, the audio won’t impress you. But spend time in the Amazon Alexa app, which lets you configure sound and features, and after playing with settings, you can make them sound remarkably good. By boosting bass and treble in the app’s minimalist equalizer, and giving only a slight nudge to the midrange, I got lows that were assertive but not overpowering, highs that sparkled and a respectable middle that wasn’t muddy.

Phone call quality was excellent, and those I spoke with via my iPhone 13 Pro Max said my voice was clear. The Echo Buds have a feature called Sidetone that let you hear your own voice during a call, and I recommend you turn it on.

Comfort: The Echo Buds come with four sets of ear tips, and four silicone clips that can be used to customize the fit for your ear. I didn’t need the clips; the body of the buds, which look like small marshmallows, fit well in my ears. The Echo Buds have a vent to prevent “ear suck,” in which some people feel eardrum pressure when noise cancellation is on. I was able to wear them for several hours at a time without discomfort. The earbuds stayed in place, and never popped out, even with a light workout.

Noise cancellation: As do the AirPods Pro, the Echo Buds have an Ear Tip Fit Test, found in the Alexa app. Once you’ve got the most comfortable tip and clip in place, fire up the test. You’ll get a grade on each ear, and if one side is more sealed than the other, a suggestion to try a different tip size in that ear.

Then, turn on noise cancellation. I found this feature to be hit or miss. It worked great filtering out noise such as a loud central AC fan and a vacuum cleaner. But clinking sounds from kitchen activity and voices still came through.

Features: If you rely on the Amazon Echo smart speaker and its Alexa assistant, the Echo Buds’ Alexa integration will be a big draw. You can use many Alexa voice commands, including playing music, podcasts, controlling smart home devices and doing web searches. But Alexa’s responses can be sluggish, and there are chimes and spoken confirmations that bog things down.

Tap-based controls on the outside of the buds are configurable but also slow to respond, and can be too easily triggered when inserting the buds in your ears. Battery life is good, about five hours, with another 10 hours in the case. It has IPX 4 water resistance.

I’ve long been a fan of Soundcore’s over-ear headphones; I use the Life Q20 cans with my TV. They’ve got great sound for the money, and the same holds true for the Liberty Pro 3 - I’m blown away by the audio. They come in a variety of colors, and the oval charging case works with wireless charging pads. The earbuds are often on sale; right now Amazon has them for $130, an excellent deal.

Sound quality: I’m sure there are better-sounding wireless earbuds out there, but you’ll likely have to pay a lot more for them. The Liberty Pro 3 sound great out of the box, with a bass emphasis, but the many tweaks you can make using the Soundcore app - including 20 pre-set equalizer configurations from a dozen top music producers - make them sound even better. Using a feature called HearID, you can configure the audio based on your hearing, but my favorite settings is Soundcore’s own 3D Surround Sound. While not as slick as Apple’s Spatial Audio feature (a rebranded Dolby Atmos), when combined with the muscular bass and clear, crisp highs of the Liberty Pro 3, this is a better experience.

Phone call quality was not great. On my end, callers’ voices were flat. And several complained of an echo or a “distant” voice from me. This may be fixable with tweaking, but I haven’t found a solution yet.

Comfort: As do the Amazon earbuds, the Liberty Pro 3 come with a collection of different-sized tips and wings to customize the fit. It also has a fit test, and I was able to get a good seal on my first tip selection. Initially, I couldn’t find a wing that didn’t press against my ear. After about an hour of wearing, I was more than ready to remove them. But after a few days I found that rotating the earbuds provided relief. You may not have this problem - all ears are different - but for me it took some work. I had no problems with the earbuds staying put, even in a light workout.

Noise cancellation: Soundcore’s HearID audio customization feature also applies to noise canceling, making it superior to both the Echo Buds and the AirPods Pro. You can easily switch between standard cancellation, HearID or drop into transparency mode, where you can hear what’s doing on around you. Or, you can manually adjust cancellation to suit your current environment.

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Dwight Silverman worked for the Houston Chronicle in a variety of roles for more than 30 years, serving as a technology reporter and columnist; manager of HoustonChronicle.com; social media manager; online news editor; and assistant State Desk Editor. 

He has returned as a freelancer to continue his long-running technology column. You can email him at dsilverman@outlook.com and follow him on Twitter twitter.com/dsilverman.

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