These budget ANC headphones deliver great sound - and they're 20% off for October Prime Day

I'm not a big fan of devices requiring an app to get the most out of a product's features. With every app required, yet another account must be created, which can invite a deluge of spam from manufacturers and more.

On top of that, devices like headphones should seriously deliver out of the box. Unfortunately, that's not the world we live in now and apps for tweaking, customizing, and even registering devices have become the norm.

Such is the case with the Baseus Bowie Active Noise Canceling headphones. When I first connected them to my Pixel 9 Pro, the sound was bad. Even Rush's brilliant "Analog Kid" sounded tinny and hollow.

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That's so not my jam.

I had already installed the Baseus app from a previous review, so I opened it, connected it to the Bowie headphones, and set out to customize the sound. Within two minutes, I had these headphones sounding less like a $39 pair and more like a $139 pair. 

That's my jam.

View at Amazon

The specs

Drivers - 50 mmBISA head tracking
Noise-canceling to -45dB
Bluetooth 5.3
LHDC codec for high-resolution and low-latency
3D spatial audio
600mAh lithium-ion battery for up to 100 hours of playback and 2 hours of fast charging
0.038s low-latency ENC mic
Price - $39 on Amazon

My experience

To reiterate: Out of the box, these headphones would not have deserved cursory consideration. But once I had them dialed in for my particular hearing and taste, I found the Baseus Bowies to be an exceptional value. This greatly improved sound comes by way of an 8-band equalizer and some interesting ANC customizations. 

With the ANC feature, you can select from normal, noise reduction, and transparency modes. When you select noise reduction, you can then choose from community, indoor, outdoor, or custom. The custom option allows you to control the noise reduction depth. There's also a bass boost and low latency mode you can enable or disable. 

I did my usual custom EQ curve, enabled bass boost, set ANC to noise reduction, and moved the custom slider all the way to 10. With those settings in place, I found the Bowies to be quite capable. I ran through the usual litany of test music (prog, classical, rock, soundtracks, 80s pop, and more) and found those settings were quite good at presenting every genre.

 Even Devin Townsend's new single, "Jainism" (which can overpower a lot of cheap headphones) was a real banger when heard through the Bowies (with my custom settings). There was deep, resonant bass, crisp highs, and subtle mids. One song that really came to life was "She's a Beauty" by The Tubes. (I do have a soft spot in my heart and soul for that band.) 

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During my testing, I would switch back and forth between my custom settings to some of the presets and found my tweaks produced a sound that was exponentially better than what Basues offered out of the box. Of course, sound is subjective, so you might find one of the presets to be just fine. 

The important thing is that you can customize these headphones to best match your taste. At $39, that's a steal. Most headphones at this price include apps that offer a 5-band EQ and some fairly generic ANC settings. This is where the Baseus Bowies shine.

ZDNET's buying advice

This one's a no-brainer. If you're looking for a pair of headphones that won't break the bank but can be customized to meet your discerning taste, you could do a lot worse than the Baseus Bowie headphones. They aren't audiophile grade (by a long shot) but, with the help of the Baseus app (Android/iOS), these headphones can kick out the jams with any headphone at this price -- and up to three times the price. 

In other words, these headphones are a real bargain. With the holidays coming up, you should give them a look for those on your shopping list who like to tweak their sound to best fit their taste.