David Carnoy/CNET

The new Shure Aonic 40 noise-canceling headphones are a bit smaller and more affordable than the company’s well-received Aonic 50 headphones ($299) that were released in 2020. My quick take: They sound quite good with clean, well-balanced sound that you can tweak in the Shure companion app for iOS and Android (you can choose from preset EQ settings as well as a customizable manual EQ setting).

The active noise canceling is solid but not quite up to the level of Sony’s or Bose’s and like Aonic 50, they work well for making calls (Shure is known for its microphones) and you can connect them to your computer via USB-C. For those with AptX-enabled Android devices, the headphones support AptX HD Bluetooth streaming.  

You don’t get extra features like ear-detection sensors that automatically pause your music when you take the headphones off your head and resume playback when you put them back on. However, the headphones have a dual-hinge design so they both fold up and fold flat, allowing them to have a more compact case than the Aonic 50’s (its case is pretty huge). In other words, these are more travel friendly. Battery life is rated at 25 hours with noise canceling on.

They’re very good headphones — sturdy, too — but I didn’t find them quite as comfortable as competing models from Bose and Sony. For some people, the top of the headband may put a little pressure on the crown of your head (the headband’s padding is OK but could be better). I pushed the headband forward a bit on my head to get a more comfortable fit.