Sennheiser Accentum Plus

“The best bang for your buck for sound quality and features is the Sennheiser Accentum or Accentum Plus with Sound Personalization; these are ostensibly budget iterations of the more expensive Momentum 4, which itself competes with pricier headphones like the Bathys, PX8, PX7 S3, etc. ANC is very good (but not on par with the XM5, XM6, or QC Ultra), transparency is solid with very little occlusion, and the app is above average compared to other brands. Sound Personalization is effectively auto-parametric EQ, and gives you much more control over the tuning compared to typical 5-band EQs. If you need an even cheaper solution, look at the Soundcore series sets, as another user recommended. More expensive, the PX7 S3, or Focal Bathys (if you can find it used). The caveat being that Focal's ANC feature is very subpar; I sold my set shortly after launch due to the ANC/transparency not being up to snuff. The PX7 S3 is another good option, with very good ANC and sound quality. I still prefer the Momentum 4/Accentum Plus, but the PX7 S3 is the more comfortable set by a pretty wide margin. I would avoid the XM5/XM6 and QC Ultra unless ANC is your top priority. Bose's tuning is, frankly, below average. The XM6 does provide better controls for customizing the EQ, but like the rest of the XM lineup, it is dark, boomy, and congested out of the box, meaning EQ is necessary to get to a decent baseline, and takes much more effort to land on something that suits your preferences unless you prefer a warmer, darker sound headphone with a lot of bass emphasis (this is to some people's tastes, and Sony leans into this type of tuning).”