Bose-Infused Baseus Inspire XH1 Headphones Exceeded My Expectations

Budget brand Baseus has two new-for-2025 earbuds — the Inspire XP1 and Inspire XC1 — and one set of full-size headphones, the Inspire XH1 reviewed here, that all feature Sound by Bose and deliver good bang for the buck.

Read more: Best noise-canceling headphones of 2025

Known more for its affordable power banks and chargers, Baseus is somewhat new to the audio market, although it has a few headphones and earbuds that cost less than $75. The new Bose-infused models I tested are a departure for the brand as it ventures into more premium territory. For its part, Bose has collaborated with a handful of other affordable audio brands too, gradually expanding its “Sound by Bose” initiative. 

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Like both the Inspire XP1 and XC1 earbuds, the Inspire XH1, while mostly plastic, have a more elevated design than most “value” headphones. Available in a few different color options, the XH1 are not only fairly lightweight (275 grams) and comfortable to wear, but they have decent build quality, including a seemingly sturdy headband covered in faux (“vegan”) leather and a dual-hinge design that allows the headphones to both fold flat and fold up.

I had to refer to the instructions to figure out that you hold down the volume buttons to advance tracks forward and back. But overall, the controls for playback and switching between noise cancellation are good, and the Baseus companion app for iOS and Android is straightforward to use. Also, the headphones come with a hard case, which is not always a standard feature at this price. 

Strong sound quality for the price

The sound quality of budget headphones and earbuds has been steadily improving in recent years. While the Inspire XH1 fall into more of a midrange pricing classification, their sound measures up well to more expensive headphones. 

Equipped with 35mm drivers, the headphones do indeed feature Bose-like sound, which is pretty well-balanced and offers good clarity and punchy bass, along with a fairly wide soundstage. The sound lacks the more articulate refinement and depth of higher-end headphones, but the XH1 are tuned to work well with a variety of music genres and have enough warmth to keep from experiencing listening fatigue.

They have a marginally V-shaped sound profile out of the box, with slightly accentuated highs and lows and slightly recessed mids (where voices live). But the sound is less bass-heavy than Nothing’s CMF Headphone Pro, which is also a good value. Still, I prefer the Inspire XH1’s sound because it has a bit more clarity and definition. 

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You can tweak the sound profile slightly in the companion Baseus app for iOS and Android, which includes a “Sound Fit” test to create a customized sound profile tailored to your hearing. Android users have the option of using the higher-resolution LDAC audio codec (the SBC and ACC audio codecs are also supported), and there’s a low-latency mode for gaming and video watching, as well as a volume-limiting hearing protection setting.

Baseus touts the headphones’ Dolby Spatial Audio feature, but I was a little disappointed with the spatial audio mode because it didn’t seem to improve the sound quality. I should note that these headphones don’t have the more advanced spatial audio with head-tracking. Nor do they have USB-C audio, though they come with a cord for wired listening.

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Middling noise canceling…

Bose’s QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) are best-in-class for noise cancellation, right alongside Sony’s WH-1000XM6 headphones for ANC. Alas, the Inspire XH1 fall well short of offering top-tier noise canceling. You do get a good passive seal from the nicely padded memory foam earcups, but the headphones only did an OK job muffling the humming/rumbling of an HVAC unit in my apartment at their highest ANC setting. 

While they reduced some background noise when navigating the streets of New York and its subway system, the previously mentioned Bose and Sony headphones (and Apple’s AirPods Pro 3) made the XH1’s noise canceling seem about half as effective by comparison. I’d grade the noise canceling a B-.     

… but a decent transparency mode and strong voice-calling performance 

The transparency mode isn’t top-tier — it just can’t match the natural sound of Apple’s AirPods Pro 3 in their transparency mode — but it does sound pretty natural. By that, I mean when you have the headphones in transparency mode, which allows sound from the outside world to enter your ears, you’re hearing sounds fairly close to what you hear when you take the headphones off. 

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I felt better about the XH1’s voice-calling performance after testing them in some pretty harsh conditions. Equipped with five microphones and the requisite AI noise-reduction algorithms, they did a very good job at reducing background noise in the loud streets of New York. Callers said my voice sometimes sounded a little digitized and robotic, but they could hear me pretty clearly. I’d rate voice-calling performance a B+ or even an A-, and they did better than the Inspire XP1 buds for voice-calling (I rated the XP1 a B for voice-calling performance).  

Battery life is another strong point. The headphones are rated for 100 hours of battery life with noise cancellation off, and up to 50 hours with noise cancellation on at moderate volume levels. I fell a little short of 50 hours in my battery test (it was more like 48 hours), but that’s still quite good.

Baseus Inspire XH1 final thoughts

While I can’t say I was totally blown away by any facet of the Baseus Inspire XH1 headphones, they’re overall quite competent.

 Bottom line: If you’re looking for a comfortable, well-designed set of over-ear headphones that offer mostly strong performance across the board and cost a lot less than premium models from Sony, Bose and others, they certainly fit the bill.