Ailihen C90

The Ailihen C90 is a cheap wired headphone with standout comfort and solid passive isolation. It's lightweight, foldable, and works with anything that has a 3.5mm jack. The sound is a bit above average, but the mic and call quality are weak. Buy it for music and movies on a budget, not for meetings or voice calls.

The 40mm dynamic driver does a decent job for the price. The sound quality score lands in the 69th percentile, which translates to a small step above the middle of the pack. You're getting a balanced-ish signature with reasonable lows and highs, though the mids are where it feels most natural. Vocals and acoustic stuff come through cleanly, which matters for the classroom and meeting use case this headphone is aimed at. The 117Ω impedance is notable because it's higher than the typical 32Ω you see on most portable wired headphones. That means it'll want a bit more juice from your source. Most modern laptops and phones handle it fine, but if you're plugging into a weak tablet or older MP3 player, you might notice the volume ceiling is lower than you'd like.

The passive isolation is the performance highlight. Blocking over 90% of ambient noise without any active circuitry is a solid engineering choice for this category, and our ANC score puts it well above average among similar products. It won't cancel airplane engine roar like a real ANC pair, but for a library, dorm room, or office with normal chatter, it does the job. The mic, on the other hand, is the weak link. It lands in the 47th percentile, which is roughly average but not great for calls. And the overall calls score is just 30.8 out of 100. That's a real letdown for a headphone that bills itself as having an HD microphone. If your primary use is voice calls or video meetings, this is the spec to pay attention to before you buy.

Put this next to the TOZO HT3 and the differences get obvious fast. The HT3 is wireless with ANC, which makes it more flexible for commuting and phone calls, but it costs more and doesn't have the same sheer comfort score. The C90 wins on price and pure wearability, but loses on features and mic quality. The Bose Bass BH1 NC is a more direct competitor on the wired front, with active noise cancelling and a brand name behind it. The Bose sounds better on the low end and cancels more noise, but you're paying extra for the logo and the battery. The C90 undercuts it hard while staying surprisingly close on passive isolation.

The TALIX H30 and SoundPEATS Cove Pro sit in the same budget space, but they're wireless and aimed at a slightly different buyer. If you hate cables, those are the ones to look at. But if you're tired of charging yet another device and just want something comfortable for a laptop, the C90's simplicity is a feature, not a bug. It's not the best-sounding option in this group, and it's definitely not the one you buy for work calls. It's the one you buy when comfort matters most and your budget is tight.

This headphone lives and dies by price, and there's decent spread depending on where you buy. The US listing sits at $27, which is squarely in impulse-buy territory. In Europe, the price swings from €22 to €37 across four listings in Germany, Spain, France, and Italy. That €15 gap matters when the product is this cheap. If you're in Europe, it pays to check which store shows the lower end of that range before you click buy. The CAD 54 listing in Canada feels noticeably steeper relative to the US price, so Canadian buyers should think harder about whether the comfort alone justifies the premium.

For the money, you're getting best-in-class comfort and genuinely useful passive isolation, with sound quality that lands slightly above average. The trade-off is call quality and the wired-only connectivity, which caps what this thing can do. If you only need a wired headphone for music and movies in a shared space, the value is strong. If you need a headset for meetings, you're paying for comfort while the mic lets you down.

The Ailihen C90 is a wired over-ear headphone that goes after a very specific niche: people who need something cheap, comfortable, and compatible with just about anything that still has a 3.5mm jack. No Bluetooth pairing headaches, no battery to charge, just plug in and go. And at 198g with plush ear cushions, it's clearly built to be worn for long stretches. The comfort score lands in the 98th percentile of our database, which is frankly wild for a headphone at this end of the price spectrum. That's the kind of ranking we usually see on headphones costing five or six times as much.

This is a headphone for Chromebook users, students, and anyone who wants a simple wired option for calls, music, and casual gaming. The built-in mic and inline volume controls make it a practical pickup for online classes or work meetings, though there's a catch we'll get to with the controls. The red color option is loud and playful, which fits the teen and young adult market Ailihen is clearly aiming at. It's not trying to be a premium audio device, and that honesty is kind of refreshing.

The passive noise isolation is a real talking point here. Ailihen claims the 360-degree acoustic isolation blocks over 90% of ambient noise, and the ANC score sits at the 67th percentile. For a passive, non-powered design, that's actually respectable. Combined with the strong comfort score, the C90 positions itself as a budget pair you can wear for hours without your ears screaming at you. Whether the sound lives up to the comfort is another question entirely, and that's where things get interesting.

If you're buying headphones primarily for phone calls, video meetings, or gaming voice chat, skip the C90. The mic is the weakest link by far, and the calls score of 30.8 out of 100 means you'll be frustrated every time you try to have a conversation. Look at a dedicated headset with a boom mic or spend extra on wireless over-ears with better microphone arrays.

Also skip these if you need wireless or USB-C connectivity. The 22nd percentile connectivity score reflects the fact that this is a wired-only 3.5mm product with no modern port support. If your daily driver uses USB-C or Lightning only, you'll be buying adapters and dealing with control compatibility issues. For wireless options in the same budget range, the TALIX H30 or SoundPEATS Cove Pro make more sense, and if you want better call quality with active noise cancelling, the TOZO HT3 is worth the extra money.

For students and Chromebook users who need a comfortable, cheap wired headphone for music and video, the Ailihen C90 is an easy recommendation. The comfort is genuinely exceptional, and the passive isolation punches above its price. You can wear this thing all day without sore ears, which is more than we can say for most budget pairs. The sound is fine, not thrilling, but fine. It handles vocals and midrange content well, and the 3.5mm jack means it works with basically anything that isn't a modern phone without a headphone port.

But if you're buying this for calls, meetings, or gaming voice chat, stop. The mic is mediocre and the overall calls score of 30.8 out of 100 tells the real story. You'll be comfortable while people complain they can't hear you clearly, and that's the worst trade. For that use case, spend a bit more on something with a better mic, even if the cushions aren't as plush. Comfort doesn't matter much if the other person keeps asking you to repeat yourself.