looking for some kind of single ear bud or ANC earbuds for a specific use case?

Spart0n · May 13

So I'm by no means an audiophile nor do I know good/bad brands on this besides not paying for beats or airpods, hence why I'm here asking for advice.

So I don't work for a call center but for a good chunk of my time at my desk is spent making/receiving calls from my office computer at work. My employer has a basic call center over both ear headset that they offer to employees if we want it but my gripe is that I want something that is open ear, bone conduction, or ANC with ambient pass through. My reasoning is that I have a lot of people in and out throughout the day in my office as well so I'd like something that only has a single ear (preferably work on either ear so I can switch it around occasionally) or a bone conduction headset that doesn't go in my ear so I can still hear everything else around me. It also has to be Bluetooth so it connects to my office desktop without cords. And last but not least I'm hoping to not break the bank with under $50 but its not required just preferred.

I've tried these recently and on paper they were exactly what I wanted and they only worked for about a day, returned and got another and it stopped working within a day, so now I'm here. I've used Samsung buds with anc and pixel buds without ANC, and Walmart brand onn neckband ear bud thingy too and none of these were really good for my use case. Advice from the experts with more experience than me? TIA

saintlouisbagels · May 13

5 hours ago, Spart0n said:

So I'm by no means an audiophile nor do I know good/bad brands on this besides not paying for beats or airpods, hence why I'm here asking for advice.

You're just repeating Apple-hater language.

AirPods are among the few options of earbuds that are not IEMs and they sound great. "Not IEM" an important distinction because do exactly what you're looking for; you still have very strong situational awareness because you're not getting a seal. I regularly have both ears covered and have full conversations with people (because they don't give me time to remove 1 lol).

I would recommend looking into Nothing's ear(stick) since they're they same form-factor.

Dedayog · May 13

56 minutes ago, saintlouisbagels said:

You're just repeating Apple-hater language.

AirPods are among the few options of earbuds that are not IEMs and they sound great. Why is "not IEM" an important distinction? They do exactly what you're looking for; you still have very strong situational awareness because you're not getting a seal. I regularly have both ears covered and have full conversations with people - mostly because people keep talking without giving anything reaction time to remove an earbud.

I would recommend looking into Nothing's ear(stick) since they're they same form-factor.

OnePlus Buds Pro 2 are pretty damn good as well.

Buy OnePlus Buds Pro 2 - OnePlus (United States)

OnePlus Buds Pro 2 Truly Wireless Review - RTINGS.com

Apple airpods are great as well, can';t be ignored. Regardless if you like Apple or not, their audio is well done but fit is an issue on the nonPro models.

Spart0n · May 13

15 hours ago, saintlouisbagels said:

You're just repeating Apple-hater language.

AirPods are among the few options of earbuds that are not IEMs and they sound great. "Not IEM" an important distinction because do exactly what you're looking for; you still have very strong situational awareness because you're not getting a seal. I regularly have both ears covered and have full conversations with people (because they don't give me time to remove 1 lol).

I would recommend looking into Nothing's ear(stick) since they're they same form-factor.

I'm not an apple hater per-se but I'm definitely not an apple user, plus I think the beats brand is way overpriced, which is why I said what I said. I probably should have clarified that I'm an android user but in the post I was asking for advice for what I could use with a windows desktop machine. But also thank you for the advice.

Spart0n · May 13

14 hours ago, Dedayog said:

OnePlus Buds Pro 2 are pretty damn good as well.

Buy OnePlus Buds Pro 2 - OnePlus (United States)

OnePlus Buds Pro 2 Truly Wireless Review - RTINGS.com

Apple airpods are great as well, can';t be ignored. Regardless if you like Apple or not, their audio is well done but fit is an issue on the nonPro models.

I'm seeing the specs and prices of the nothing ear from the other reply and the OP buds pro 2 as well and having a hard time deciding which to get.

saintlouisbagels · May 13

33 minutes ago, Spart0n said:

I'm seeing the specs and prices of the nothing ear from the other reply and the OP buds pro 2 as well and having a hard time deciding which to get.

The Nothing Earstick would be good if you want to keep both ears in since they're a outer-earbud style like the AirPods.

The OnePlus Buds Pro 2 looks good, but you're going to be relying on its ambient noise canceling since it's an IEM style.

I'm realizing both options greatly exceed your preferred sub-$50 budget though.

Alternatively, I think the best setup for you might be similarly to what I am doing at home as my permanent setup.

I think Apple's EarPods are an amazing headset and I use it for 95% of my calls because of how great the mic sounds (considering its price).

You should get a pair of the EarPods USB-C, a USB-C to USB A adapter, and a USB-A extension cable. Then route the cable in the most convenient, out-of-the-way route you can do. This should easily be within budget, you're going to have a great microphone, and you won't be entirely sound isolated if you need to have situational awareness during a call. I have the cable routed to the left of keyboard, past my monitor, and into the rear USB port on my desktop. Totally out of the way when typing.

Spart0n · May 13

1 hour ago, saintlouisbagels said:

The Nothing Earstick would be good if you want to keep both ears in since they're a outer-earbud style like the AirPods.

The OnePlus Buds Pro 2 looks good, but you're going to be relying on its ambient noise canceling since it's an IEM style.

I'm realizing both options greatly exceed your preferred sub-$50 budget though.

Alternatively, I think the best setup for you might be similarly to what I am doing at home as my permanent setup.

I think Apple's EarPods are an amazing headset and I use it for 95% of my calls because of how great the mic sounds (considering its price).

You should get a pair of the EarPods USB-C, a USB-C to USB A adapter, and a USB-A extension cable. Then route the cable in the most convenient, out-of-the-way route you can do. This should easily be within budget, you're going to have a great microphone, and you won't be entirely sound isolated if you need to have situational awareness during a call. I have the cable routed to the left of keyboard, past my monitor, and into the rear USB port on my desktop. Totally out of the way when typing.

I think I found my solution and it wasn't any that you both listed here lol

I had no idea that oneplus had neckband earbuds. I found this out while googling different comparisons on the oneplus buds pro 2 and nothing ear. The oneplus bullets z2 anc checks all the boxes including price point for right at $50. Includes ANC with transparency mode. I really didn't care about the ANC for ANC but so I could have a transparency mode to still hear the world around me and have conversations without constantly taking earbuds out of my ears. And with the neck band part when I do need to take them out they're harder to lose. I had the misfortune of losing a Samsung bud a couple years back and I felt terrible for how much I paid for them and lost it after about a month.

Either way you both were a big help narrowing this down for me.