A good pair of headphones may seem like a simple thing to purchase, mainly if you have a fixed budget in your mind. Most often, your budget will determine what type of headphones you purchase, but in several cases, you can select the type of headphones you want. Here, we have put together a guide that will help you decipher the terminology that goes into different types of headphones. These are the few things to consider while buying headphones.
In this guide, we will go into the details on various kinds of headphone designs, driver technologies, connection styles that go into headphones that are available for the purchase. Read on. It will be easier for you to choose the right headphones.
What to Consider while Buying Headphones
Fit Style
First, we will go into the details of the various kind of fit styles. There are three fit styles in headphones. Each of them has its own benefits and disadvantages.
Over-the-ear/Circum-aural
The largest in size, these headphones cover your ears completely and provides a snug and a noise-isolating fit. Ears rest on the inner piece of the ear cup, generally with soft padding everywhere. This is the most comfortable and least intrusive fit. It has large drivers and better noise isolation too. Generally, having big drivers makes sure that these headphones are much louder and produce better sound.
There are a few disadvantages related to circum-aural fit, including the huge size of the headset and the probability of blocking out too much ambient sound and causing heat-related pain to the ears. Former requires you will probably require a special carry case and a lot of space in your backpack, whereas the latter means that you might have to take your headphones frequently so that your ears get some air. In addition, too much isolation could result in mishaps while using over-the-ear headphones in certain situations, like outdoors or when you travel.
On-the-ear/ Supra-aural
This fit style is similar to the circum-aural fit. It comes with padding and small ear cups. This means that the headphones sit over your ears instead of surrounding them. This permits for headphones to sport large drivers with a non-intrusive fit, but less noise isolation and the discomfort which is caused by the pressing of the headset on ears can also be expected.
In-the-ear/ In-canal
Among the most common fit styles, in-the-ear headphones are the easiest to carry and story due to its small size. Each earbud has a small driver. It produces loud sound because it is placed inside the ear canal and is very close to the eardrums. These headphones can also be used while lying down, which is one of the big reasons behind its growing popularity.
The in-the-ear headphones are too intrusive. Many people find the in-canal fit very uncomfortable. In addition, the small driver size generally means that sound quality is lower than on-the-ear or over-the-ear headphones.
However, if you want you can have a better driver technology on this headphone too, like planar magnetic drivers or balanced armature. Some of the popular in-the-ear headphones are Audeze iSine 10 and 1More Triple Driver.