I recently dropped the right earbud of my QCY HT05 ANC into the kitchen sink, ending a year and a half of daily use. I bought them as a short-term replacement for my AirPods Pro, €250 worth of Apple-branded plastic that lasted barely past the warranty.

The QCY HT05 ANC cost me €16.55, including shipping from China. I bought them for the price, and for the surprisingly good ANC.

Were the QCY as good as my AirPods? No, of course not. They sound so-so, fine for podcasts, but music sounds lifeless and dull and is only really bearable with ANC enabled all the time. The QCY app is also complete horseshit. But none of that matters when I can buy 15 QCY for the price of one pair of AirPods. They’re insane value for the money, and they changed what I expect to get for my cash when it comes to earbuds.

In another thread, I asked for recommendations for new earphones and, after some investigation, ordered the EarFun Air Pro 4. I found them on sale for €52.79 including shipping, just over three times what I paid for the QCY HT05 ANC. So are they worth it?

Packaging

The EarFun Air Pro 4 arrived in a cardboard box wrapped in plastic. The box felt heavy and well-made.

Inside: a user manual, a quick-start guide, a junk slip of paper with the EarFun logo, a USB-A to USB-C charging cable, five sets of tips, a single plastic-wrapped Q-tip (for cleaning apparently, wtf?), and the plastic-wrapped case with the earbuds inside. That’s a fair bit of junk and unnecessary plastic, but not excessive considering how much waste other Chinese manufacturers ship with their products.

The case feels nice and heavy. The magnets that hold the earbuds in place are snappy, and the whole thing feels sturdy. Way sturdier than the QCY case, which feels a bit flimsy, especially the lid, which is too light.

Fit

I was worried about the fit because I struggled to find good eartips for my 7Hz Zero 2. My ear canals are on the larger side, and the right one is slightly larger than the left. The included tips are excellent: the largest ones fit perfectly and create a seal. They sit comfortably, and I can imagine wearing these for multiple hours without a problem.

ANC and transparency mode

EarFun’s ANC isn’t better than the QCY’s. They’re about equal. If you forced me to pick a winner, I’d say the QCY is a smidgen better. Both are fine, honestly. Walking alongside a three-lane inner-city street, they block traffic noise well enough. They also cut down nearby conversations, exactly what I want ANC to do.

Transparency mode on the EarFun is quite good, probably comparable to the AirPods Pro 2 I used to own. With it turned on low, I can hold a conversation while listening to music in the background. The QCY transparency mode, on the other hand, is a joke and indistinguishable from normal mode. Again, the QCY only makes sense to me if ANC runs all the time.

Sound

The EarFun sounds really good. They’re bass-heavy, but they also work well for death metal without any EQ tweaks. The app is decent and lets you configure EQ settings.

As mentioned, the QCY sounds clearly worse: less bass, dull highs, and no real stereo space. With the EarFun, the soundstage is obvious. I can tell where the producer put each instrument. They make music fun to listen to.

My takeaway

Quality-wise, the EarFun Air Pro 4s are the winner for me. They sound better, transparency mode actually works, and the app is fine. They feel on par with the AirPods Pro 2 I owned a couple of years ago, for a fraction of the price. I would buy them again, they feel like a nice upgrade from the QCY.

And still: if you can get the QCY HT05 ANC for ~€20, that’s the winner on value for money.