Compare the Best HeadphonesMarch 2020

Headphones are a crucial part of everyday life, and your choice of headphone is a deeply personal one. From tiny in-ear monitors to enormous studio-quality cans, headphones come in all shapes, sizes, weights and colours. For someone not sure what they should get - or what they want - it can be a daunting issue. Our guide will attempt to answer some of the most common questions about headphones and give you an good overall knowledge of them.

Types Of Headphones

Let’s start with the different types of headphones. There are many different designs, but they all boil down to 2 different types: in-ear and on-ear. In-ear headphones are normally smaller, cheaper and with lessened sound quality - they are good for travel and easy to shove in a pocket when not in use. On-ear headphones tend to be larger and more chunky, but have a far superior sound quality (and normally, a far higher price to match). Let’s take a look at the difference between them:

In-ear headphones: These are smaller headphones, means to be placed into your ear. They usually have no band, and are designed to hang down from your ears. They are two main sub-categories of in-ear headphone:

• earbuds (which are placed in the entrance to the ear)
• in-ear monitors (which have rubber or foam caps, and are pushed directly into the ear canal. When inserted, the the rubber expands to create a tight seal inside the ear canal, meaning outside noise is blocked out)

Earbuds are the easiest headphones to wear, though let in a lot of noise and aren’t very stable - they can easily fall out of your ears while moving (especially jogging). Monitors, on the other hand, block out a lot of noise and provide a louder overall volume - making them best for public places or loud backgrounds. However, the act of pushing the foam caps into your ears can feel awkward, and requires some trial-and-error to find the best size/shape of caps. The end result may well be worth the perseverance - monitors allow for a far better overall sound quality, with less invasive noise to ruin your music.

On-ear headphones: These types of headphones are bigger than in-ear models, and are designed with 2 speakers linked by a headband to keep them in place on your head. They are two main sub-categories of on-ear headphone:

• on-ear headphones: these headphones sit over the entrance to the ear, directing sound into your ears. They normally have limited cushioning, but are normally light, so easy to wear for long periods. These are normally the cheapest style of large headphones, but you sacrifice the noise insulation and superior quality of over-ear models.
• over-ear headphones: these types of headphones are larger, and actually encompass the entire ear - covering the whole ear so as to block out all other noise. This gives them excellent sound quality, but they are normally the most expensive type of headphone, due to their size and the amount of padding used to keep them comfortable pressing against your ears and head. Also, because they encompass the whole ear, many people find their ears can get uncomfortably hot and sweaty after wearing for a long time - meaning a break might be necessary every once in a while.

Over-ear headphones generally have the better sound quality, due to larger drivers and better noise insulation. However they are bulkier, more expensive, and may simply be more heavy-duty than many people need, especially if you’re just going to listen to music while you commute or at your desk. On ear headphones are lighter, and provide a good mid-point between the power of large cans, and the simple light ease of earbuds. Their quality isn’t the best though - they are very much the jack-of-all-trades of headphones. Which may be all you need!

Driver Units

Once you’ve decided the type of headphone you want, things get a bit more technical - next you want to think about driver unitss and power. Driver units are simply the part of the headphone that generates noise - they convert the audio signal into actual sound. Larger drivers mean the headphones are capable of generating more sound, making them louder. Crucially, this doesn’t mean the sound they generate will be a better quality, just that it’ll be louder. However it’s a good starting point for a pair of headphones - generally speaking better quality headphones will have larger drivers, so they have more volume and range to play with.

Unsurprisingly, on-ear headphones tend to have larger driver units, since they have a lot more space available to fill. In-ear phones generally don’t need particularly big driver units though - pushing the sound directly into your ear canal means a little goes a long way, and if you’re not careful a very loud volume can cause serious damage to your hearing.

Closed Ear vs. Open Ear

One important nuance of on-ear headphones is the choice between closed ear and open ear designs. This refers to how the cups of the headphones are designed, and how much noise insulation they give, as well as how they effect the sound of your music. Here is the main difference between the two;

Noise Cancelling

Noise cancelling technology is an important addition of on-ear headphones, and one that has improved drastically in recent years. First off, it’s important to note the difference between active noise cancelling, and passive noise insulation. Closed-cup on-ear headphones and well-fitting monitors provide noise insulation - i.e. they block external noise from reaching your ears and disturbing your music. This is passive, and depends largely on the fit of your headphones.

Active noise cancelling is far more interesting and complicated, but here’s a brief rundown. At it’s most basic, sound is a pressure wave with peaks and troughs - the exact makeup of this wave denotes both the sound and the loudness of the noise. Noise cancelling headphones use a tech known as ‘active noise control’ - they monitor the external noise coming into the headphones, and generate a pressure wave with exactly the same volume, but completely opposite peaks and troughs (known as ‘antiphase’). When these two waves combine, they effectively cancel each other out, leading to silence - a process called interference. This allows noise cancelling headphones to entirely block out all external noise, leaving you to enjoy music free of absolutely all external distractions.

While an excellent addition, there are a couple of caveats to noise cancelling headphones. First off - because of the microphones and extra tech required, it is only found in larger on-ear headphones, not earbuds or in-ear monitors. Secondly, the tech requires a sizeable power draw, meaning that noise-cancelling headphones normally require batteries (or a recharging internal battery) to function. Finally, the tech is still relatively new, and thus confined to the top-tier headphones, meaning you’re going to be paying a premium for it. However if you frequently struggle to listen to music in high-noise areas (such as the Tube or on planes), this expenditure may well be worth it to be able to hear your music again!

Wired vs. Wireless

A quick note on wired and wireless headphones. Traditionally headphones have been entirely wired - meaning the audio signal was sent from the music source to the headphones via a wire. However in recent years the rise of bluetooth and improvements in battery technology have meant wireless headphones are becoming more and more common. These headphones have an internal rechargeable battery (some still use AAs, but these are blessedly rare) and connect to the music source via bluetooth. This allows them to stream music from a phone, computer or hifi without the need for wires - meaning no getting tangled up in cables, no trapping/breaking cables and the freedom to roam away from your computer when listening to music!

There are some negatives to wireless headphones - first off, they usually come at a premium price when compared to standard wired headphones. Moreover, they need power to function - most use a rechargeable battery - which means that if the battery runs dry, you will either have to plug in a wire, or use a different pair of headphones. Battery life varies massively with wireless headphones - some will only get 5-6 hours of life before needing a recharge, while others boast a full 24 hours of use before they die. Pay close attention to the battery life, especially if you use your headphones for long journeys. Finally, wireless headphones can experience some latency - the lag between the signal being sent to the headphones, and it being heard by your ears. When listening to music, this isn’t a massive issue - a few milliseconds of lag isn’t noticeable at all. However if you are watching a movie or playing a video game, larger amounts of latency may cause the audio in your headphones to run out of sync with the video, leading to a sub-par experience. Generally though, the tech for wireless headphones has progressed enough that a good £150-200 pair of wireless headphones will serve you very well indeed!

Extra Features

Headphones come in many different shapes and sizes, and with a lot of different extra bells and whistles. Here are some of the more common additions:

Headphones Prices

The price range of headphones is from $4 to $3,995 and in total we found prices for 621 headphones. A new headphones costs on average $119 and 80% of headphones are priced between $10 and $208. The cheapest headphones that we found is the JVC HAFX5D at only $5, and the most expensive is the Audeze LCD4 at $3,995.

Earphone Brands - Price Range

HiFiMAN headphones range in price from $2,690 to $2,690, and the highest average headphones price out of all brands is HiFiMAN headphones with an average price of $2,690.

Quad headphones range in price from $1,726 to $1,726, and the average price of Quad headphones is $1,726 which is the second highest average price of all earphone brands.

Audeze earphones start at $260 and their most expensive earphone costs $3,995. The average price of Audeze earphones is $1,276 which is the third highest average price of all earphone brands.

Headphones Brands - Average Ratings

We have evaluated 6,764 expert reviews and 23,305 user reviews for headphones and used these reviews to evaluate the average rating for each brand of headphones. The top three headphones brands are Audio-Technica, Sony and Sennheiser. Audio-Technica has an average rating of 89%, Sony has an average rating of 88% and Sennheiser has an average rating of 83%.

Biggest Earphone Retailers

We found 940 current offers for headphones from eBay making it the biggest earphone retailer. That is over 4 times bigger than the second biggest retailer, Adorama for whom we found 230 current offers for headphones. The third biggest retailer is Target with 100 current earphone offers.

When Are Most New Headphones Released?

We looked at the release dates for new headphones over the last 3 years, but couldn't see any noticeable trend. In February 2019, 29 new earphones were released making it the biggest month that year for new headphones releases. 95 new earphones were released in July 2018 making it the biggest month that year for new headphones releases. May was the biggest month in 2017 for new earphones, with 166 new earphones released that month.

How Fast Do Earphone Prices Drop After Release?

On average earphones drop in price by 3% in the first 6 months after release.

If you are prepared to wait then you could save an average of $3 on a typical $119 new headphones by waiting 6 months before buying.

Weights

'Weight' denotes how heavy the headphones are, measured in grams (g).

The weights of headphones range from 0.012g to 13.6kg. The weights of the majority of headphones range from 0g to 60g. The Bose 700, which is available at $260.00, has the heaviest weight and is a 13.6kg headphones. The Philips SHE3905, which sells for $7.64, has the lightest weight and is a 0.012g earphone.

Driver Sizes

The driver unit is the part of the headphone that converts the audio signal into actual sound. This attribute denotes the physical size of this driver unit, measured in millimetres.

Comparing all headphones, the driver sizes range from 4mm to 106mm. The driver sizes of most earphones range from 38mm to 44mm. The Audeze LCD3, which can be purchased for $1,200.00, has the biggest driver size and is a 106mm driver earphone. The Jabra Elite Sport, which currently retails for $55.95, has the smallest driver size and is a 5.1mm driver headphones.

Bluetooth

The denotes whether the headphones support wireless Bluetooth communication or not.

Most new headphones are earphones which do not support Bluetooth. 789 headphones out of 1,365 on Kagoo are earphones which do not support Bluetooth and 573 headphones out of 1,365 are headphones which support Bluetooth.

Style

The way in which the device is worn.

Head-band is the most common style amongst new headphones. We found 711 headphones that are earphones that have a head-band style. In-ear is the second most popular style amongst new headphones. We found 415 headphones that are headphones that have an in-ear style.

Type

Ear coupling describes the way in which headphones or earphones stay attached to, or inside, the ear. There are three common types of ear coupling: circumaural, supra-aural and intra-aural. Circumaural headphones enclose your ears with large pads that suppress external noise. Supra-aural headphones are typically more lightweight and sit on top of the ears with small pads. Intra-aural headphones come in two basic designs and neither style sits on the head itself. The first are ear buds, which sit just outside of the ear canal, on top of your ear lobes. The second type is actually inserted directly into the ear canal and offers some external noise suppression.

We found 621 headphones that are in-ear headphones, which makes this the most frequently found type amongst new headphones. We found 410 earphones that are over-ear earphones, making over-ear the second most common type amongst new earphones.

Which Are the Cheapest Retailers for Earphones?

The chart below helps you decide which retailer is normally cheapest for buying earphones. For each retailer it shows the total number of earphones where they currently have a market leading price. The chart below helps you decide which retailer is normally cheapest for buying earphones. For each retailer we took all of their prices and looked at what proportion of those prices where the cheapest on the market. The cheapest retailer that we found was eBay. 869 of their earphone prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.

Proportion of Headphones for Which Each Retailer is Cheapest?

Assessing how cheap each retailer is for headphones by counting the number of cheapest prices for that retailer, makes the retailers that offer the greatest number of headphones prices more likely to offer the greatest number of cheapest prices. The chart below considers the proportion of each retailer's headphones prices that are the cheapest compared to other retailers. The cheapest retailer that we found using this approach was eBay. 92.4% of their earphone prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.