Tribit makes some of the best budget Bluetooth speakers that money can buy. While I have tested many speakers from the brand, I had not gone hands on with in-ear or over-ear audio accessories from them until recently.
Priced at $49.99, the Tribit QuietPlus 81 over-ear headphones face extremely tough competition against other budget wireless headphones. Tribit tried to pack as much value as possible to compete with alternatives. But is it enough to justify this price tag? Here’s what I found out after weeks of testing.
What the Tribit QuietPlus 81 over-ear headphones bring to the table — or to your ears
Tribit released the QuietPlus 81 over-ear headphones in December 2025. There is only one color variant, Black, and it costs $49.99. If you’re lucky, you can grab these headphones at a discount during the upcoming Prime Day or during Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales later in the year.
Here are the key technical specifications of the headphones.
|
Category |
Tribit QuietPlus 81 |
|---|---|
|
Drivers |
40mm dynamic drivers |
|
ANC |
Yes, 5 mic hybrid ANC |
|
Ingress protection |
None |
|
Audio codecs |
Unknown |
|
Equalizer |
6 presets, custom EQ |
|
Battery |
110h (ANC off), 70h (ANC on) |
|
Charging |
Fast USB-C charging, 10m charge gives 5h of playback |
|
Connectivity |
Bluetooth 6.0, 3.5mm audio jack |
|
Bluetooth range |
50m |
|
Controls |
3 buttons, touchpad |
|
Dimensions |
6.3 x 3.16 x 7.67 in |
|
Weight |
238g (9.98oz) |
The Tribit QuietPlus 81 headphones have an adjustable headband, a foldable design, and soft, cushioned ear cups that can rotate. The ear cups are made of breathable protein leather and memory foam. While they are very comfy, even for someone like me with several piercings per ear, they get really hot and sweaty after a while.
Multipoint connection is available, but the headphones can only connect to two devices. A USB-C to USB-A cable and a 3.5mm audio cable are included in the box.
The battery life is impressive and the touch pad feature is handy
The specs are impressive on paper, with the crown jewel being the 110-hour battery life with ANC off, and 70-hour playback with ANC on. I was astounded at how long these headphones last. If you don’t use the Bluetooth mode and stick with the AUX cable, you’ll seemingly never run out of charge.
Fast charging puts the cherry on top, delivering five hours of playtime with a quick ten minute charge.
The Tribit app is as handy as ever. Just like with the brand’s Bluetooth speakers, the app also has an equalizer for the QuietPlus 81 Bluetooth headphones. Apart from the six presets, you can also fully customize the equalizer to your liking and save it under a name of your choosing.
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The trio of buttons are unintuitive and have a learning curve, but they can accomplish a number of tasks. What’s really cool is the transparency feature of the touch pad. You can simply touch and hold the touch pad area in the right ear cup to enable a temporary transparency mode. The ANC itself is alright; works well enough but nothing groundbreaking, and some loud noises still seep through.
If you have a feeling someone is calling your name or talking to you in real life, or maybe you want to keep on ear out for a sound for a few seconds, it’s pretty handy. There’s no need to pause your audio playback or pop the headphones off your ears.
Unfortunately, there’s not much more to love about these headphones.
The downsides pile up and drown the good parts
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As much as I love most of what Tribit creates, this one’s a miss for several reasons.
The buttons can be confusing to use. There’s no dedicated pause/play or forward/backward button. Instead, the power button is used for all these actions and it can be very confusing. Also, the power off sound comes after a really long press, to the point that I initially thought there was no audio notification when shutting off.
There’s no auto pause/play feature when you take the headphones off or put them back on. You also have to press and hold the volume button to reduce the volume, but press to increase, which is not user-friendly.
Also, the headphone jack is a little janky. When plugged into my laptop, there was a moment when only one ear cup was working. I had to twist and turn the cable until it worked. Bluetooth connection is smooth, however.
The touch pad that enables the temporary transparency mode also toggles Tribit’s signature XBass preset on and off, and triggers the voice assistant. Although the transparency feature is really useful, the touch pad itself isn’t the most accurate and does not always detect the taps correctly.
Honestly, I’d rather have physical buttons for this kind of stuff. Plus, there’s no audio notification when XBass toggles on or off, so you lose track of whether it was enabled or disabled.
Naturally, the sound produced by the 40mm dynamic drivers is a significant factor. Despite all my best efforts messing around with the equalizer, the Tribit QuietPlus 81 headphones still sounded a bit murky and flat.
XBass is designed to add a magical bass boost that brings the audio to life, and it works well on Tribit speakers. But on these over-ear headphones, the audio is overwhelmingly bass-ridden, clearly compensating for lack of detail. XBass feels like an artificial enhancer: sickeningly sweet, almost medicinal and bitter if it were a flavor.
Should you buy the Tribit QuietPlus 81 headphones for $50?
The Tribit QuietPlus 81 headphones prove that a brand could do everything right on paper, but shoddy execution could still be their downfall.
Is this the best pair of wireless headphones for $50? The short answer is: no.
Competitors like Edifier, Sony, JBL, JLab, and a few other brands all have superior offerings in this bracket. It is a highly competitive arena, after all.
The Edifier W800BT Pro cost $49.99 too, but come with hi-res audio. Sony’s WH-CH520 wireless headphones retail for $69.99 but frequently sell for half off. Even now, you can grab them for just $38 and enjoy incredibly high-quality sound on a tiny budget.
Then there’s also the JBL Tune 510BT priced at $49.95 and the JLab Go Lux ANC that’s usually $49.99, but currently on sale for $33.24.
Going off of sound quality alone, you’re better off with almost anything else within the sub-$50 price segment.
Tribit QuietPlus 81 Over-Ear Headphones
Falls short of the mark
Tribit usually does a fantastic job with audio accessories, but the QuietPlus 81 over-ear headphones are a miss. If you find them on sale for $30, I’d say they’re decent. But don’t purchase these Bluetooth headphones at full price; they’re not worth it.
