I've been writing this blog for about a year and a half now, and although I've reviewed many pairs of headphones and written up jargon filled pages to assist the average consumer, I find that I have yet to say anything about how to shop for headphones. So here I am to assist and serve.
For most people, my general methods to gathering many headphones and having the best come to the top won't work. One it's too expensive and two it's just plain silly if all you want is one good pair of headphones. I do hope that from reading this blog you realize that headphones do sound different from each other in completely objective ways. But let's get down to some details on how to shop for headphones.
Step one. Determine why you're buying new headphones. Are you just looking to replace stock Apple earbuds and don't really care about the sound? Well I have no idea why you're reading this unless you really like my writing. In that case buying whatever the hell you want, it's not gonna matter anyways. Do you want fashionable headphones that won't break the bank? Do you want to truly enjoy your music or do you want to drown the world out, maybe both?
Step two. Price. This is potentially the most important step for most
people. When you are looking for headphones, realize that the prices
you initially see are almost never what they could be. Sales inevitably
crop up as with most buyable objects. If you're passively looking for
headphones, make sure to check out websites like Lifehacker who usually
post sales for the day posts which usually have a pair of headphones or
two on sale in various places on the internet, not necessarily always the best headphones, but headphones nevertheless. If you really need to
get a new pair of headphones and are on a constrained budget, ask
yourself, what is the greatest price I could spend on a pair of
headphones? When you establish this number, your options lessen. However, it is important to note that price does not equate to performance. There are plenty of great options in the lower end of the price spectrum as much as there are plenty of not so great options in the higher end of the price spectrum. Case in point, the Noontec Zoro HD headphones rate as some of the nicest sub $100 headphones with a similar aesthetic to Beats iconic Solo HD headphones yet are half as expensive. There is no need to sacrifice sound quality and performance for aesthetics.
Step three. Figure out what type of headphones you want. See Headphone
Jargon on the side if you get lost. Questions to be asked: Do you want
to only hear your music? If yes check out in ear/closed/noise
cancelling. Do you want to be able to assess outside noise? (eg walking
or driving, please don't wear headphones while driving) If yes, check
out ear buds and open headphones. Are you a frequent traveler? If yes,
then check out in ear/noise cancelling. My personal preference for
blocking out the world is in ear headphones as they provide the best
isolation for relatively cheap and without pumping in extra sound to
negate your surroundings. If however you can't stand having headphones
in your ears, I understand and noise cancelling headphones are probably
the way to go if simple closed headphones aren't enough. If you want the best isolation and noise cancelling, Bose recently released their QuietComfort 20 headphones which are both in ear and feature active noise cancellation. From the reviews and what some of my friends with them say, they're quite good, regardless of their $279.99 price tag.
Step four. If you don't care about how headphones sound then skip this but I care so you're gonna have to read or skip this. Sound is really subjective, unfortunately. While some people love neutral sounding headphones and strive to get that perfectly natural sound, others love bass or treble. More nuanced differences exist as well like warm vs bright. This step is difficult to get around if you genuinely care about how headphones sound. Always take reviews with a grain of salt as what someone finds overly bassy you might find just right. Ideally, you would be able to try out the headphones you're looking to buy before you take the leap. Outside of that, reviews are pretty much your best bet. Just stay away from the direct website comments, they're inevitably trolls trying to bash the product or obviously over the top fanboys/planted comments trying to say they're the best headphones ever. Another thing related to trying out headphones is comfort which is hard to measure without trying out a pair of headphones.
Step five. Buying. My thoughts on this are that if it's shipped from or fulfilled by Amazon you're pretty ok. Barring Amazon though, look for reputable dealers. Places like headphone.com are useful resources and are reputable. Places like Best Buy and Guitar Center occasionally have good deals and Best Buy has a surprising amount of variety online. If you're OK with used headphones, sites like head-fi.org can serve as both a good resource for scouting for new headphones or grabbing a cheaper used pair.
I hope this helps inform you on how I view buying headphones and helps you make educated choices instead of just simply buying the first thing you see or the most 'popular' headphones you see ala Beats. Obviously there's something to be said of popular headphones but if you shop smart you can get headphones that look just as awesome or better while getting awesome sound and saving some money on the side. As a last note, many others out there have their own views on picking out your next pair of headphones and a good base reference is this post from Lifehacker. Until next time.
--CsMiREK
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