A new pair of headphones is a great thing. They bring us endless fun and enjoyment and are really amazing inventions. They allow us to experience a level of sound quality that would take thousands of dollars to replicate with traditional speakers. Not many people know that. And only for a few hundred dollars too.

The reason?

First off, there is very little acoustic interference from the room within headphone cups, the drivers (the little speakers inside the headphones) are very close to your eardrum so there is very little lost detail through the air and lastly they don’t need fancy amps to run because they operate at a much lower sound level.

The various styles and types of headphones available have exploded over the years. There are in-ear style ear-buds, over-ear ear-buds, and open, closed, wireless, surround, noise cancelling, audiophile, DJ, mobile phone and many more types. It can be a little overwhelming so I suggest trying out a few first before you buy.

That is always good advice but it’s more challenging with ear-buds because of hygiene issues. Generally stores don’t allow people to try them out before they buy them and this makes it a little trickier to get the best ones for you. I suggest trying out your friends headphones, testing out the dedicated ear-bud stations at some stores. They normally have a few pairs dedicated just to customers trying them out (don’t forget to clean them first though).

You can also check out the reviews on Amazon too. They will usually give you a good idea of what the headphones strengths and weaknesses are. Of course the normal over the ear headphones are much easier to shop for. What you want to look out for in my opinion, and in order of most to least important is:

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