The headphone market is incredibly diverse. We have prepared this headphone buying guide for you, wandering traveller, in the hopes of helping you find your perfect pair!
Headphone preferences are very personal. A good review from one person may be met with a bad review from another because everyone’s ears are different. Therefore, maintain vigilance when reading online reviews because your experience with the headphones may be different.
Anyway, let’s start our headphone buying guide with the main types of headphones, followed by some key features of great headphones and finally some more specialised headphone types.
Headphone Buying Guide: Shapes of headphones and their benefits
There are three main shapes of headphone, each has different advantages.
Over-ear headphones
The ear cups sit around and fully encompass the ear.
Advantages:
- Sound quality: physically larger with room for larger drivers. This can allow for better bass and sound.
- Comfort: they have cushiony ear cups that fully surround the ear.
Disadvantages:
- Less portable: they are bigger and bulkier.
On-ear headphones
The ear cups sit on the ear, they are essentially smaller over-ear headphones.
Advantages:
- More portable: the cups and headband are smaller.
Disadvantages:
- Less comfortable: they push on the ears rather than sit around them. As a glasses wearer, I find them uncomfortable for longer listening sessions.
- Noise isolation: they do not form a seal around, or in, your ears, so you will hear more of the outside world, and the outside world will hear more of your music!
They allow you to be more aware of your surroundings due to the lack of noise isolation.
Earbuds
These sit inside the ear. Modern earbuds are usually wireless and come with a charging case, meaning they can be charged inside the case when they are running low on juice.
Advantages:
- Size: smaller, more portable and lower profile.
- Sound: the earbuds are inside your ear and so the sound will seem to be more “inside your head”.
- Comfort: much lighter with a free-er feeling.
Disadvantages:
- Noise isolation: they rest inside the ear and can block out less ambient noise.
That’s the main shapes covered, next let’s look at some standard features you might find.
Headphone Buying Guide: Features to look for in great headphones
A headphone buying guide would not be complete without talking about some of these key features.
Driver size – The “speakers” inside headphones are called drivers. As a general rule, the bigger the driver the better the bass and sound quality, though the quality of the driver itself is just as, if not more, important.
Bluetooth version – Most modern consumer headphones connect wirelessly via Bluetooth. Look at the specific Bluetooth version supported by the headphones, newer versions such as Bluetooth 5 provide a stronger connection to your device and have a lower power usage.
Active Noise Cancellation – More expensive models may have Active Noise Cancellation (ANC), which uses microphones to cancel outside noises for a more immersed and isolated listening experience. You get what you pay for here, more expensive cans tend to have far superior noise cancellation technology.
Battery Life – Generally, anything over 25 hours or so is decent and should allow you to use them without feeling like they need to be recharged constantly.
Microphone quality – if you use your headphones to take calls this may be a consideration, you will be best to check reviews and sound recordings on YouTube to determine the quality of the microphone.
Now that we’ve looked at some features, the last stop is to cover headphones designed for specific use cases.
Headphone Buying Guide: More specialised types of headphones
These headphones are more specialised for certain use cases.
Workout Headphones
These are ultra-portable, lightweight and typically wireless.
Look for ones with an IPX rating (e.g IPX4, IPX5), which tell you the degree to which they are resistant to water – good for protecting against sweat during exercise. The higher the last number, the more water resistant. IPX7 means they are protected against water immersion for 30 minutes at a depth of up to 1 meter.
Equally as important, you will want to look for a design that provides a secure fit, such as hooks for the ears, or a connecting band that goes behind the neck. I personally find the ear hooks to be the perfect balance between being secure on the ear and still feeling lightweight.
Examples of workout headphones include:
- Avantree E171 (£15)
- Jlab Go Air Sport (£30) Click here for our review.
- Anker soundcore Sport X10 (£90)
- Jabra Elite 7 Active (£130)
Studio Reference Headphones
Studio headphones are intended for musicians and audiophiles that want their audio to sound as accurate to the source as possible. They are great for hearing every detail in the music, as the artist intended, but may sound very flat because they provide little colouration of the sound.
Studio headphones are comfortable for long listening sessions, and wired to provide as high quality and faithful a sound as possible.
Feature-wise, studio reference headphones tend to be no-frills and instead focus on sound quality and comfort. Therefore, it’s especially important to look at reviews and forums once you have a budget in mind. r/headphoneadvice on reddit is a good place to start or you can find our reviews here.
Examples of studio headphones include:
- Audio-Technica M30x (£65)
- AKG K371 (£130)
- Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro (£200)
Open-back Headphones
Most headphones are closed-back, meaning they are sealed all around the cups to prevent sound leakage. Open-back headphones are the opposite – the ear-cups are open at the back. This allows more air in and leads to a much more “open” sound, as if listening to room speakers but more intimately.
A downside of open-back headphones is that there is no noise isolation, so you will ear a lot of outside noise and your music will be audible from the outside. This is fine if you are listening at home, less so on public transport!
These headphones are good for long-listening sessions due to their improved breathability. The absence of resonances in the ear also results in less sound colouration, and hence a sound more accurate to the source material.
A solid example are the Grado SR80x (£100).
Gaming Headsets
Gaming headsets are fairly self-explanatory. They have microphones for voice chat and often have a V-shaped sound signature – that’s lots of bass and treble!
They are often designed for specific platforms such as Xbox, PC or Playstation so make sure you look at how they connect to the sound source to make sure they are compatible.
For PC look for 3.5mm connections or sometimes USB, Xbox uses a proprietary wireless protocol, PlayStation headsets come with an adapter you plug into the console. However, both consoles also have wired options.
Examples of gaming headsets include:
- Official Xbox Wireless Headset (£70) Click here for our review.
- Playstation 5 Pulse 3D (£70)
- Turtle Beach Elite Atlas (£100)
Headphone Buying Guide: Conclusion
Hopefully this headphone buying guide has cleared up some of the confusion surrounding different types of headphones. Best of luck in your search!