Everyone enjoys listening to music every once in a while. One of the most used ways to experience it is through headphones. There are plenty of people who want to search for the very best sound, with no compromises; these people are called audiophiles, you can tell them apart from regular people by their dislike of hugely marketed audio companies (e.g Beats, etc…), they can tell apart regular mp3 files with high quality lossless files, and their insatiable thirst to basically find “the one” pair of headphones. Most people are content with listening to low quality mp3s on stock earbuds or laptop speakers, while audiophiles dream of having a high-end rig of headphones, DAC/amp, and libraries of high quality music files.

Now, the world of finding the best audio experience is very wide and confusing sometimes, with audiophiles everywhere defending their favorite ‘cans’ with passion. This happens because everyone’s ears and tastes are different, what sounds good for you might not for someone else, and vice versa. This makes the journey a long one, and one problem with having heard high quality audio, is that nothing can ever satisfy you.

There are many types of headphones, the most distinguishing types are Closed-back and Open-backed headphones. Open back headphones have no barrier in the outside earphone cup, making the driver exposed to the outside world, allowing the soundstage (where sounds seem to come from beyond the headphone) wider and making the experience more spacious. The downside to this is that you can hear outside noise quite clearly, and someone sitting next to you will definitely know what you’re listening to, so this type of headphone is not for traveling, mostly suited to a quiet listening environment. Most headphones are closed back, which means that the outer shell of the headphones is completely closed, providing good sound isolation (you can't hear outside sounds and they can't hear you) also allowing more detailed sound. The downside to this is the music you’re listening to sounds more confined in your head. narrowing the soundstage.

Other important aspects are comfort, design, impedance (how hard the headphones are to power), and of course, cost. Headphones can range from really cheap to ridiculously expensive, you can find gems on the cheaper side, and terrible ones even on pricier pairs. So price definitely does not determine performance.

There are on-ear and over-ear headphones. On-ears are smaller, and sit on your ears, while over-ears are bigger and cover all of your ear, touching your head.

To describe the sound of the headphones, usually the terms used are ‘bass, mids and highs’

Bass: Describes the lower frequencies (20-350 Hz), headphones with an emphasis on bass are described as ‘dark’ if there is so much bass that it overpowers the mids and highs, the headphones are considered ‘muddy’ examples of bass: drums, bass, baritone.

Mids: Describes the middle frequencies (350-4000Hz), e.g: most vocals, viola, tenor, alto, etc…

Highs: Describes the high frequencies/treble (4000-20000Hz), headphones with an emphasis on highs are described as ‘bright’, if the highs are shrilly, the headphones are considered ‘sibilant’ examples of highs: soprano, violin, cymbals.

Everyone has different preferences, the ones that like hard-hitting, punchy bass, the ones that prefer less bass and more mids and highs, or want a completely balanced, neutral, and true sound. Another important thing to consider is, no matter how good the headphones are, the audio files are important too! Low quality recordings may not sound so different when comparing higher end headphones to stock earbuds, but FLAC lossless audio files on a good pair of headphones are eye-opening.

There are many audio companies that make headphones, some of them are well-loved (Sennheiser, Audio-Technica, Grado), some of them are hated (Beats, Bose, Skullcandy, etc…), but most of them are hit-or-miss, some products are good value, some are not. Of course, there are alternatives to headphones, like earphones or speakers, which can be great too. There’s so much more to discover here, and putting on the right headphones is always a revelation.