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Choosing the right headphones

There are headphones for every purpose, and every set of ears. Nathan Taylor helps you get your head around the things that go around your head.

Ever since the birth of the Walkman in the '80s, the business of buying headphones has changed dramatically. In addition to your traditional around-the-ear cans, you now have earbuds, canal phones, wireless, behind-the-neck and clip-on designs, noise reduction and noise isolation, surround sound, supra aural headsets and more. So which is right for you?

Four basic styles

When looking at headphones, there are four styles you can look at. Each, of course, has strengths and weakness, and you need to choose which one best suits your needs.

• Circumaural

These are your traditional 'over the ear' headphones, usually with large plastic or metallic (occasionally wooden) cans that cover the entirety of the ear. The large phones offer the greatest opportunity to build in large drivers able to reproduce good bass and volume levels. They also seal out external noises well, but can be uncomfortably hot and mess with your hair or earrings. They are generally not very portable.

• Ear-pad headphones

Sometimes called supra-aural headphones, these devices sit on top of your ears. They tend to be lighter than circumaural headphones, but these lighter headsets also usually don't offer the same kind of bass performance and volume levels as heavier pairs. They also tend to leak sound, so everybody on the train around you will know when you're listening to some of the most embarrassing tracks on your iPod, and they don't seal out external sounds well (which can be advantageous if you're in traffic or other situations where it's a good idea for you to hear what's going on around you).

Many of your 'sports' or 'fashion' headphones fall into this category - a fairly broad category covering devices that are designed as much around looks as performance. Often sports headphones use a behind-the-neck or clip-on design that won't mess with your hair or fall off when jogging, and have an open back that allows you to hear what's going on around you. They also tend to be rather flimsy, however, and may put a lot of pressure on your ear.

• Earbuds or earphones

These are the small in-ear headphones that you typically get as a freebie with MP3 players and other portable devices. They just sit outside the ear canal. They tend to be the cheapest and lowest quality headphones (though there are a few models that can provide very good sound), but are ultra-compact, they don't mess with other things attached to your head (like your hair) and are generally fairly cheap.

• In-ear headphones or canal phones

These are becoming increasingly popular because of their ability to block out external noise and deliver quality audio directly to the inner ear. Canal phones sit inside the ear canal, acting as effective ear plugs while you listen to audio (which may not always be a good thing, since they detach you from external sounds that you might otherwise like to hear, like the sound of an oncoming car). The big problem with in-ear headphones is that our inner ears are all shaped differently, and using canal phones that don't fit you well can be very uncomfortable. Often they're sold with multiple detachable tips for different shaped ears, but they're definitely something you want to try before you buy.

Page 1 of 9  Next - Understanding headphone specs  

In this article

• Choosing the right headphones
• Understanding headphone specs
• Save your ears
• Sporting and portable headphones
• Wireless headphones
• Noise-cancelling headphones
• High performance headphones
• Active listening headphones
• Surround sound headphones