Today it is difficult to find a person who has never used headphones. They can be useful in many cases, whether it’s watching TV or working at a computer at night, in transport or on foot. For music lovers, head phones are simply an indispensable device that allows you not to part with music in various situations.
Headphones are wearable electronics for individual use. And therefore, reviews about the same model may vary. When choosing them, not only technical specifications and design matter, as is the case with stationary audio, but also the type of design, ergonomics and ease of wearing.
Types of headphones
There are several different types of designs and headphone devices, each of which has its pros and cons both in sound quality and in convenience and purpose. There are also wired and wireless versions of all varieties, both with and without a headset. More details about each of them below.
Inserts
The simplest and most affordable type of headphones. They are located in the auricle, not blocking access to sounds from the outside, which can be attributed to both pluses and minuses. Also, they can simply fall out of the ear, so you need to carefully choose a model for convenience.
In most cases, their sound quality is rather mediocre. Of course, there are representatives of this type in the Hi-Fi segment, but starting from the price tag, it would be better to look at another variety of stereo head phones.
Vacuum
Unlike the previous ones, vacuum headphones are not located in the auricle, but in the ear canal, which significantly improves sound quality and noise isolation, but for some, the pressure of the rubber nozzle from the inside can create discomfort. But often they are equipped with additional nozzles of different sizes. Also in stores you can find tips of other shapes and from other materials that can reduce the level of discomfort.
In addition to household, there is another kind of vacuum headphones - reinforcing. They are anatomically shaped and hold better in the ears. Mostly musicians use them, because during the concert they can hear music perfectly and they don’t fall out.
Overhead
This type of headphones also has several subspecies: overlapping the ear, completely covering it or monitor.
The advantages of overhead headphones are the best (unlike the two previous versions) sound quality due to the larger speaker size, ease of use. Of the minuses, poor sound insulation and a fairly large size can be distinguished.
Monitor headphones are professional devices for musicians and sound engineers, as they, like monitor speakers, produce sound without distortion and embellishment, with absolutely flat frequency response.
Soundproofing
A high level of noise reduction can be both an advantage and a disadvantage when choosing headphones. On the one hand, external noises do not interfere with listening to music, on the other hand, their complete absence can be a source of danger when using headphones on the go. The degree of noise reduction is largely dictated by the design features of the devices.
Headphones
The slots in the headphone speaker housing allow air and external sounds to pass through it almost unhindered. At the same time, the sounds of the speaker itself are partly "eaten up" by the body, but the user can hear both music and extraneous noise. This can be used by vocalists to hear their voice on headphones and music from the outside.
Headphones
Due to the solidity of their design, the noise practically does not penetrate from the outside. The degree of noise reduction also depends on the type of device. Full-size headphones will absorb much more noise than overhead headphones, but vacuum headphones will do better than anyone else because they block the entire ear canal.
Active noise reduction
In the arsenal of manufacturers there is also a technological method of dealing with excess noise. It is simply arranged: due to the built-in microphones in the headphones, the system picks up external noise and reproduces it, but in antiphase. Plus and minus add up, and the user gets silence. For some, this can cause headaches due to the fact that so many frequencies are perceived by the brain at the same time. Also, the inclusion of active noise reduction leads to increased energy consumption.
Connection
Headphones are wired, wireless and combined. In the event of a dead battery, you can connect them to the device in the classic way using the supplied wire. A wired connection can be made using one of four connectors:
- 6.3 mm - "jack". It is used mainly in studios and concert venues, rather than in consumer electronics.
- 3.5 mm - “mini-jack”. The most popular type of headphone connection found in almost all modern devices.
- USB Gaming or professional headphones with integrated audio interface.
- UCB-C (Lightning). Headphones for use with smartphones not equipped with a mini-jack.
In the connection itself, there is nothing complicated. You need to plug the plug into the connector, and the device will detect the headphones themselves.
Wireless headphones are divided into three types of connection:
- Infrared. Most modern computer mice and keyboards work on this principle.
- Radio wave. For this type of connection, a source transmitter is required.
- Bluetooth Headphones with this type of connection can be connected to any device that supports this technology.
Specifications
The range of specifications for the headphones is not the same as for stationary audio, but there are still a couple of points that you should especially pay attention to when choosing.
The frequency response describes how the reproduction frequencies are arranged. Ideally, they are all aligned, the tolerance is not more than three decibels.
Another characteristic is sensitivity. Roughly speaking, this is playback power, but with increasing power, power consumption also increases.
Conclusion
This article discusses the main varieties and characteristics of headphones. Headphones for long-term use should be chosen carefully, since the maximum pleasure from them can be obtained not only due to sound quality, but also ergonomics.