If you’re not into music, headphones have probably never crossed your mind. Even if you’re into music, you can probably count the few times you’ve actually considered headphones on one hand. Yet headphones have become increasingly indicative of one’s style and fashion, and with headphones available at prices well above 1000 dollars, they seem to have gained a cultish importance for many. Even if you don’t plan on becoming a headphone aficionado, it’s good to know what kind of headphones suits your music listening needs best.
Buds
Introduced during the portable music age, buds are the most popular of all the headphone designs. Usually sold with MP3 players, they have a reputation for being cheap and having terrible sound quality, but if you’re willing to shell out big bucks, higher quality buds can satisfy the audiophile in you. All buds are compact, which makes it easy to carry them. Since they’re so small, however, the speakers in them are small as well, resulting in poorer sound quality than that of full size headphones.
Buds come in two basic varieties: iPod style (the bland white headphones that most people wear) and the ever more popular noise-isolating. The noise-isolating buds are a much wiser purchase since these headphones come with fittings that block out external noises. Some brands like Etymotic take the isolating issue more seriously, offering listeners a sound-proof “brain probe” that is certainly uncomfortable, but blocks out just about all outside noise.
Sound quality varies by how much you’re willing to pay and what type of music you listen to. The V-Moda Bass Freq headphones ($39.99) are bass-heavy while the Etymotic ER-6i headphones ($89.99) are more suited for music centered in the middle or high ranges.
Sport
Straight from the Richard Simmons exercising age, the sport style headphones shouldn’t be the first choice on most music listeners’ lists. Originally sold with the now passé Walkman music players, these headphones usually come in repulsively bright green or yellow. As the name implies, though, these lightweight and portable headphones are perfect for exercising.
Sport headphones are worn outside your ears and come with two unstylish ear pads. They offer better sound quality than typical buds, but these rather deficient headphones don’t provide any prevention against outside noise.
Full Size
With far superior sound quality, full size headphones are an increasingly trendy alternative that shouldn’t escape your attention. The design is comfortable and its characteristic clumsiness gives it an attractive old school touch. Known by many as “cans,” these headphones could best be described as fashionably inelegant.
Cans come in three designs: open-backed, standard and noise-canceling. Open-backed cans are so named for their air holes on the sides, which make them comfortable to wear for hours. However, the open-backed cans often allow outside noise to flood in (and your music to flood out), making them less preferable if you’re an “on-the-go” listener. Standard cans are the best choice for commuters who don’t want their meditative listening sessions disturbed by the arrival of their trains.
Noise-canceling cans are the most innovative cans and consequently, the most expensive. Using an external power source (either a battery or your MP3 player), these cans electronically bar outside noise by emitting certain frequencies. Sold with the largest pads of any of the headphones, they are by far the most comfortable headphones, but they are also the clumsiest.
Recommended Choices
Buds
•Budget: Skull Candy ($24.95) or JBuds Hi-Fi Ear Buds ($20.00)
•Moderate: Sony MDR-EX71SLA ($35.00) or V-Moda Bass Freq ($39.99)
•Audiophile: Etymotic ER-6i ($89.99), Bose In-Ear ($99.95) or Shure SE110K ($99.99)
Sport
•Budget: Sony MDRG54LP $16.99
•Moderate: Sennheiser PMX 100 $39.99
•Audiophile: Gµrado i Headphones $49.99
Full-Size
•Budget: Sennheiser HD 202 $24.99 (Standard)
•Moderate: Grado SR60 $69.99 (Open) or Grado SR80 $95.00 (Open)
•Audiophile: Bose QuietComfort 2 $299.99 (Noise-Canceling)
•Extreme Audiophile: Ultrasone Edition 9s $1500.00 (Standard)