All headphones essentially serve the same purpose. Letting you listen to sound privately at a higher quality. The differences between headphone styles are ultimately going to come down to how they sit on your head, how portable they are, and how comfortable they are.
At the same time, all of those factors could be entirely subjective! What’s comfortable for one person might be very uncomfortable for another. What’s conveniently portable for one person, might be rather annoying to carry around for another person.
Much like what game you want to play on your Jackpot Casino login, it is going to come down to what every individual’s needs and wants are. One person might lilke blackjack, another could despise blackjack to their very core!
They want only poker and if you bring them anything else they will throw a fit and flip the table over. Similarly, one person might be a huge snob for over ear headphones. Bring them anything else and it is literal trash to them.
“What are these? On ear headphones? Pathetic!” The next person could pull a complete 180 and say “Eww, what are these? Over ear headphones? Bulky! IEMs or nothing baby!” Completely opposite opinions, but both entirely valid to the person saying them.
Now, let’s say for some strange reason you aren’t a complete audio snob. Perhaps you are just, you know, a normal person happily not spending 500 dollars a month on audio equipment to brag to their friends that they can hear the drummer breathing.
Perhaps a bit of a wild assumption, but just bear with me on this. You might be thinking, “Now what in the heck even is the difference between all of those things? First, why should I care, and second what are IEMs??”
And to that, my sharp friend, I will say that you have some excellent questions to ask. Which I will hopefully thoroughly answer in the coming words in this article!
Over Ear Headphones
To begin with we have probably one of the most common forms of headphones. Simple over ear headphones. So named because the earcups for the headphones sit over your ears and not on them or in them.
This has a couple of big advantages over other headphone styles. One main one is comfort. Over ear headphones are just simply the most comfortable style of headphones you can buy hands down. In my opinion that is…
This is because they don’t put unwanted pressure on your ears. The cups sit comfortably around your ears and press on your skull to keep tension and a seal rather than on your earlobes themselves, or in your ear canal.
Of course, comfort is also heavily dependent on the quality of headphones you buy, but for the money, you cannot beat a decent set of over ear headphones when it comes to comfort.
Another big advantage is sound quality. Sure, on ear and in ear headphones can sound great! I would never dispute that. It’s just that since the headphones are over your ears, they have the advantage of being able to sound wider.
The headphones can mimic surround sounds better, and they can make you feel like sounds are happening around you better than in ear or on ear headphones could. Again, this is all based on my knowledge and experience. Your mileage may vary as they say.
On Ear Headphones
The next type of headphones worth mentioning is on ear headphones. On ear headphones are like a middle man between over ear and in ear headphones. They are smaller thant on ear headphones but bigger than in ear headphones.
This means they can sort of be somewhat of a wild card. For one perons they could be more comfortable than in ear headphones, so they are more convenient for trips as they are smaller and easier to carry around than on ear headphones.
On the other hand, someone (such as myself) might find on ear headphones to be uncomfortable and prefer in ear headphones. So, that would mean they lose their advantage of comfort and portability. In ear headphones are smaller after all.
But, someone might just also not want to have to deal with in ear headphones getting tangled up or dirty from your ears or something. So, there could still be reasons why someone would choose one over the other.
When it comes to sound quality, I’m not sure if there is much advantage over in ear headphones. Perhaps a slightly wider sound depending on the headphones, but probably not much.
They won’t sound as nice as over ear headphones, however, and they won’t be as noise canceling. They don’t make a seal like in ear headphones do, and they don’t cover your ears completely like over ear headphones do.
In Ear Headphones
In ear headphones, also know as earbuds, or IEMs are the final type of headphones. They are by far the most portable in my opinion being able to literally fit in your pocket.
Especially with the newest Bluetooth technology, in ear headphones are becoming more and more popular. They are just incredibly convenient, the ANC (Active Noise Canceling) is getting better and better, and they sound good!
They might have some pretty big advantages, but there are also some health risks to consider with earbuds. Earbuds may lead to an increased chance of ear damage and infection. Makes sense, you’re sticking something in your ear.
Look, I’m gonna be frank with you. When I talked about one set of headphones sounding better than another in this article, I was exaggerating a bit. To be honest, you probably won’t notice much of a difference until you start spending over 100 dollars (or more) on headphones.
So, needless to say, to the average person, a set of decent headphones of any kind are going to sound great compared to the free headphones that came with their phone.
So, unless you want to start getting into being an audiophile, then it is probably not worth spending too much on audio equipment. However, just knowing the basic differences between headphone styles can help you make informed purchases.