The world of headphones is a deep rabbit hole. With thousands of options and endless technical jargon, it’s hard to know which factors really matter, and which ones are just marketing gimmicks. In this episode, we cut through all of the gobbledygook, and break down the ins and outs of headphones to help you find your perfect pair. Featuring Wirecutter’s resident headphone expert Lauren Dragan.

MUSIC FEATURED IN THIS EPISODE

Original music by Breakmaster Cylinder
Breathe In, Breathe Out by Mattias Tell
My Regular Life by Johan Glossner
Tulum by Vendla
This Ain’t My First Rodeo by Bo the Drifter

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View Transcript ▶︎

You're listening to Twenty Thousand Hertz.

[music in]

I wear headphones all the time. I use them for work, at the gym, playing video games, watching movies, and of course, recording this very podcast.

But despite how much I use headphones, I actually don't know that much about them. Sure, I have a few pairs that I really like, because they sound good, and they work well for the things that I use them for.

But what actually makes a pair of headphones good? When I get a new pair, what should I be listening for? Which features really matter, and which ones are just marketing gimmicks?

I decided that it was time to educate myself, and bring you along with me. You can think of this episode like a headphone handbook that you can refer back to anytime.

[music out]

Now when I’m in the market for a new pair of headphones, there’s one place that I always look, and that’s the Wirecutter section of the New York Times. And in those articles, there’s a particular writer whose name I see all the time.

[music in]

Lauren Dragan: I'm Lauren Dragan. I am Wirecutter's, I guess you’d call me Headphone Expert, Senior Staff Writer technically, and I work with audio, but primarily I do headphones and hearing aids. If you stick it on your head and listen to it, that's what I do.

I love the hesitation on “expert,” because it's like, there is no doubt that you are the foremost expert, or very up there, ’cause I don't know who else is, so…

Lauren Dragan: Well, I mean, the New York Times technically claims that I've tested more headphones than anyone else in the world.

At Wirecutter, Lauren has personally tested almost two thousand pairs of headphones.

Lauren Dragan: And in fact, at one point, somebody in the promo department was like, "We should just do it." They were gonna get me, like, into the Guinness record.

[music out]

For every pair of headphones that Lauren reviews, there's one question she's trying to answer.

Lauren Dragan: If I bought this for the amount of money that it costs, would I be happy? Once I hit a no, I'm done testing.

[music in]

When a new pair of headphones shows up in the mail, the first thing Lauren does is charge them up, and install any apps or firmware updates.

Lauren Dragan: The second thing that I do is then I do my own listening session. So I have this set playlist of stuff that I listen to to test, and everything in there is very specifically chosen for different sonic elements, but also they're songs that I don't hate, so I can listen to them over and over again and not get sick of it, but also that I don't absolutely love because I didn't want them ruined for me.

[music out]

Lauren keeps her real testing playlist a secret. But why?

Lauren Dragan: 'Cause it's a secret. It's my secret and I won't tell you, I'm sorry.

But she did give examples of the kinds of songs that work well for this. First and foremost, it should be music that you know really well.

Lauren Dragan: You want to use music that you are intimately familiar with. You want to have heard it so many times that you know every breath sound…

[clip: song with breathing]

Lauren Dragan: Every fret noise…

[sfx: fret noise]

Lauren Dragan: The amount of reverb on the bass…

[clip: song with lots of bass]

Lauren Dragan: Because otherwise you don't really know what you're listening for.

So let's dive into our hypothetical headphone testing playlist. If you're wearing headphones right now, listen closely and see how they respond to this music.

[music in]

To start off, Lauren recommends a simple, intimate acoustic track.

Lauren Dragan: I usually choose acoustic guitar and voice. Because this is an instrument you'll probably have heard in person before. I know I have. So it's a great place to start to notice if there's any inauthenticity to the sound. So are the fret noises too loud, which usually means there's like a peak in the highs?

Lauren Dragan: Does the body of the instrument kind of overwhelm or sound reverb-y, which oftentimes means you've got too much low frequency cue?

[music out]

Next, she looks for something that's really sonically dense, but still has some delicate sounds in it. Maybe a track like “Teardrop” by Massive Attack, which you might recognize as the theme song from House.

[music in]

Lauren Dragan: I like that there are the cracks and pops of the recording static with sustained bass notes.

Lauren Dragan: And that gives me an idea of how nimble the headphones are. Can they handle intense sounds and delicate sounds simultaneously? You would be surprised how many pairs of headphones fall apart by this stage.

[music out]

Lauren Dragan: Then I throw some serious bass notes at it. So think Kanye, Ye, Yeezus, I don't actually know what he calls himself now, but you know, the artist formerly known as Kanye.

[music in]

Lauren Dragan: So is the bass note a pitch, or is it just a whomp?

Lauren Dragan: Are the notes defined? Are they kind of mushy sounding?

Can the speakers inside the headphones, which are called drivers, even handle that much bass?

Lauren Dragan: Sometimes you'll get stuff that it just distorts. So you'll hear like a fluttering sound [sfx: flutter] or like a clicky sound [sfx: clicking]

Lauren Dragan: Then I go into something on the complete other end of the spectrum. So something with high end punch. Think lots of hi hat, tambourines, synth pitches.

[music in]

Lauren Dragan: “Bulletproof” by La Roux has those kind of like steam puff synthy sounds that can kind of sound biting or fatiguing if you have too much high end energy.

Lauren Dragan: Also the F on proof. I don't know if you've ever noticed that. or maybe it's just me.

[music out]

Lauren Dragan: So by this point, I'm usually pretty sure I've got a good feeling for the headphones. And if they've made it this far and I'm still exploring, that's a very good sign for them. ‘Cause now is when I start to get into nuances. So things that you get some depth, that are also realistic sounding and in a smaller space.

Lauren Dragan: So, I like pianos that are miked inside the body. So, the piano and vocal version of “I Ain't Got You” by Alicia Keys...

[clip: Alicia Keys]

Lauren Dragan: “The Luckiest” by Ben Folds also works.

[clip: Ben Folds]

Lauren Dragan: You can hear the body of the piano in these songs, which can have depth or can fall flat. Or sound dull, or sound compressed.

During her listening test, Lauren might notice some kind of quirk with how the headphones sound. Maybe there's a certain frequency that seems to stick out, or something seems off with the stereo field.

Lauren Dragan: And then I do some detective work to narrow down and explain what I'm hearing.

[sfx: frequency sweep]

Lauren Dragan: I may listen to a slow frequency sweep from 20 Hertz to 20,000 Hertz and listen to what stands out.

She's also a big fan of an album called…

[sfx: magical harp]

Lauren Dragan: Dr. Chesky's Ultimate Headphone Demonstration Disc.

It has a variety of recordings that are there to illustrate your headphone's strengths and weaknesses.

Lauren Dragan: It's great. It has like shakers that move around a microphone.

[clip: Dr. Chesky]

The disc also includes a set of live binaural recordings. Binaural is when you record something with two microphones attached to the head of a mannequin. You put the mics where the mannequin's ears are, facing outwards. The idea is to capture what it sounds like to be in that space as accurately as possible. Here’s a clip from a live Rolling Stones album that was recorded in binaural.

[clip: The Rolling Stones]

Recordings like that can give you a sense of how well a pair of headphones can recreate a physical space. Another thing that works well for this is a sonically dense movie scene.

Lauren Dragan: Like the Battle of Pelennor Fields in Lord of the Rings.

[clip: Return of the King]

That's the scene from the third movie where the Riders of Rohan charge into the army of orcs.

Lauren Dragan: It has great left and right balance, has some, like, close things that happen and things that are far away that are happening.

Bluetooth headphones can often have latency problems. That’s when the audio lags behind the video. So to test this, she’ll watch dialogue scenes and look for any delay.

[clip: The Princess Bride]

Lauren Dragan: Weirdly enough, really well done ASMR videos work great for this because they're very close to the camera, the microphone is very closely miked, so I can actually see their tongue and see like the T's and the P's and the B's when their lips go together and see how well it lines up.

Here’s an example. And I know some of you out there absolutely hate ASMR sounds, so I’ll keep it short.

ASMR Voice: The frequency response on my headphones is so wide that when I listen to music, I can practically hear the recording engineer’s heartbeat.

If the headphones make it through Lauren's listening test, the next thing she’ll do is start pushing them to their absolute limits.

Lauren Dragan: So, for example, I will test the microphones and how good do they sound, and how do they sound in a noisy environment versus a quiet environment? How does wind affect it?

Lauren Dragan: If they are water resistant, I will test the water resistance. If they're made for working out, I will take them out and do a workout in them to make sure that they don't fall out, that they don't rub uncomfortably or do other weird things.

To test the sweat resistance, she has a saline spray that's the same chemical composition as human sweat.

Lauren Dragan: And I spray it on those, and I do that for a couple of hours, essentially, where I'll, like, spray and press the buttons a bunch of times and then leave it, and make sure that it doesn't die.

For noise canceling headphones, she'll put on loud airplane noise or café noise to see how much sound they cancel out.

Lauren Dragan: If it's kid headphones, I like tug on stuff. I step on them in my, uh, Doc Martens, to make sure that they don't just immediately crack if somebody steps on them, because that's what kids do.

She tries them plugged in, over Bluetooth, on full battery, and on low battery... She tries every preset and pushes every button...

Lauren Dragan: Much to the chagrin of the manufacturers, I look at every option and I ask them a lot of questions. I'm like, "Why does this do this? And I couldn't get this to work." And they're like, "What sub menu are you in?"

And if the headphones pass every test that Lauren can throw at them...

Lauren Dragan: Then I just, I use them for like a week, to make sure that nothing weird comes up. So it's a very long and extensive process but that's why it's a full time job.

[music in]

With so many factors to consider, it’s easy to get paralyzed by all of the options out there. Like, what’s the difference between over ear, on ear, and in ear headphones, and how does that affect the sound quality? Do you actually need noise canceling? And what the heck does impedance mean?

Fortunately, Lauren is here to cut through all of the gobbledygook, and help you pick the right pair of headphones.

That's coming up, after the break.

[music out]

MIDROLL

[music in]

If someone got to this point and they were having decision paralysis over all of these parameters to think about with something like headphones, how would you even guide them to start?

Lauren Dragan: So the first thing I say is, “Do you know the form factor that's most comfortable for you? Do you want over ear headphones, on ear headphones, in ear headphones?”

Over-ear are the big, classic headphones that you imagine when you think of an audio technician or a sound designer. They have big foam pads that completely surround your ear, and the earcups are connected by a thick headband.

Lauren Dragan: Generally speaking, they tend to have bigger drivers, which means you can often have a little bit of better sound quality for less money.

They also tend to be more comfortable to wear for long periods of time. So if you sit at a desk for eight hours a day with headphones on, then over-ear is probably a good option.

Lauren Dragan: Then you've got your on-ear, which essentially is just imagine that sort of padding shrunk down a little smaller and it sits on top of the outer part of your ear. People who have glasses like them because they can allow them to put their glasses bands in a little bit easier and not have an issue with the seal.

Finally, there are in-ear headphones, also known as earbuds. The main benefit of earbuds is portability.

Lauren Dragan: I have my earbuds that I wear 90% of the time quite frankly ‘cause I'm a mom and I have places to be, and so I'm packing lunch and cleaning up and doing other things while I'm listening to something.

But earbuds can get uncomfortable if you wear them for hours on end.

Lauren Dragan: A lot of people don't like the feel of something inside their ear and they find it kind of fatiguing after a certain amount of time.

And since the drivers inside the earbuds are so small, it usually means that you sacrifice some sound quality.

Would it be fair to say that in that order is gonna be sound quality? So peak would be over, and then down into the concessions that have to be made for in-ear?

Lauren Dragan: If you are saying at the same price point, yes. Terms of capabilities, no. I think you can have things that sound excellent in all of those categories.

[music out]

Of course, there are variations on all of these, like open back and closed back.

Basically, open back headphones allow air to pass through them, which gives them a more natural sound. They can be great for listening to high-quality music in a controlled environment.

But that open design also means that they don't block much noise from the outside. On top of that, they also leak out a lot of sound. So if you don't want your whole office to know how much you love Meatloaf, you'll wanna go with closed back headphones.

[clip: Meatloaf office scene]

[music in]

For Lauren, the biggest thing to think about when choosing a pair of headphones is your specific lifestyle. In other words...

Lauren Dragan: What you're doing when you're wearing the headphones. Are you going to be wearing them to the gym after you're finished with your day of work? You know, if you're an avid biker and it's going to rain, then you probably want water resistance or sweat resistance.

Another thing to consider is how many calls you're going to be taking on these headphones. Because if you wanna sound professional in a Zoom meeting, [clip: bad mic filter] you probably don't want your voice to sound like this. So if voice quality is important to you...

Lauren Dragan: Then you might want to invest in something that has multiple microphones and some sort of software based noise reduction, or a boom mic.

That's the little microphone that sticks out in front of your mouth. These are really common in gaming headphones.

Now, If you're a frequent flier, or just sensitive to noisy environments, then you might want noise cancellation. In general, noise canceling does an excellent job of covering up persistent sounds, like a plane engine [sfx: plane] or an air conditioner. [sfx: air con] But with random sounds like barking dogs [sfx: barking] or crying babies [sfx: crying], it doesn't reduce those sounds quite as much.

Lauren Dragan: At this point where the technology is, it's very hard to be able to respond quick enough to quick high pitched sounds.

Noise canceling can also subtly change the characteristics of the audio. So if you’re a musician or a sound professional, it’s probably not the right choice for you.

And to be absolutely clear, when you’re riding a bike, or walking around a city, or crossing at a crosswalk, really just anytime you need situational awareness, noise canceling can be a safety hazard. So be safe, and please keep that in mind.

[music out]

But there is another thing to think about with noise cancellation. For some people, it can feel a bit uncomfortable. Lauren and her colleagues have a term for this.

Lauren Dragan: We call it eardrum suck, which is the phenomenon that happens when you put on noise canceling headphones and it feels like you need to pop your ears. And for some people, the effect is even more pronounced. Fun fact about me, I start to get a headache and then after a while I start to get nauseous if I wear noise canceling headphones for too, too long.

In Lauren's experience, about 40% of people seem to be sensitive to this. Personally, I love my noise canceling headphones, and I take them on every single trip. But I do notice this icky feeling if I wear them for too long without a break.

[music in]

But while these things can all make a difference in your listening experience, some other things you'll see advertised just aren't as important.

This is one that I've always loved because I don't think I have a handle on this at all, what is impedance?

Lauren Dragan: Ha ha ha ha. Okay. So, generally speaking, impedance is how the driver of the headphones, the little speaker in there, reacts to the energy coming through the cable. So, you talk about low impedance, high impedance. Very few headphones that anyone buys now are high impedance. It used to be a lot more common in studio headphones because if you were in a studio and you have a very, very powerful mixer and you leave the volume up and you plug your headphones in [sfx: plug in] and too much sound comes through and there's very low impedance, you're going to blow your headphones out.

[sfx: blown out]

Lauren Dragan: So they would have higher impedance, which is to say, like, think of it as like a resistance so that essentially it would prevent that from happening. But it also meant that you needed to have a more powerful amp to be able to drive them.

[music resumes]

Basically, you only want high impedance if you're connecting headphones to a really high powered sound source, like an old school stereo system with an amplifier. But nowadays, that's not that common.

Lauren Dragan: You know, you're not pluggin' into your hi-fi as much as people used to in ye olden times. You know, it's your phone driving it, which doesn't have as much power behind it ‘cause it's a tiny little phone.

[music out]

When it comes to headphone cables, another term you'll hear about is shielding.

[music in]

In today’s world, we're almost always surrounded by electromagnetic signals [sfx: signals] and radio waves... [sfx: radio waves] And sometimes, audio equipment can pick up these signals by mistake. This is called interference.

You might have experienced this if you work remotely. Once and a while, you'll be on a video chat with your headphones plugged in. Then, your cell phone rings.

Lauren Dragan: And your phone is on silent, but it rings and you get that [sfx: interference] sound, that's interference. Your phone is sending out waves and it's getting into the cable and essentially the cable is sending that impulse up to your headphones and you're hearing it.

Shielding is what prevents this from happening.

Lauren Dragan: Shielding essentially is keeping any sort of electromagnetic energy from interfering with the wire inside.

Now, certain materials have better shielding than others, and gold is one of the best. That's why a lot of audio cables are gold tipped. But some companies go even farther, and sell entire gold plated cables for thousands of dollars. The idea is that all of that shielding will give you perfect, pristine sound.

So do gold cables matter?

Lauren Dragan: No. In fact, they do not. Well, okay, can you measure an actual measurable difference in interference on cables that are shielded, that are gold plated? Yes. Could you hear that difference? No. The only time that would happen, is I'm talking, you have the most lazy studio tech that has like a thousand yards of cable piled [sfx: electrical sounds] in the corner next to some electronic thing and you live near a power transformer outside.

Lauren Dragan: That is the only time when you're going to be like, “Okay, I really need to worry about shielding” is like stage setup stuff. But for you and me, and the vast majority of people that are just plugging into one thing, it is honestly just not worth it. It's not perceptible.

I remember when I first moved into my new studio, for about a week, I could hear truck drivers occasionally pop through my speakers.

[music in]

And I couldn't talk back, which is unfortunate. And I just searched every—maybe I did change out the cables because everything is shielded. And I was just like, "Where is this coming from?" I'd just be sitting here working and then a trucker out of my left speaker. [sfx: trucker voice] And I'm just like, that is so bizarre.

[country music out]

Since Lauren started in this industry, she's seen headphones evolve quite a bit. So I asked her to imagine it was 2030, and she had infinite money to design the perfect headphones for her. What would that be like?

[music in]

Lauren Dragan: It would be 3d printed earbuds. It would involve a custom scan of my ear. So like a laser scan or a mold, so that it would be bespoke to my ear.

Lauren Dragan: And it would have multiple drivers with a couple crossovers.

A crossover splits the audio into two, so that each one can go to a dedicated driver. So you might have one speaker for treble, and the other one for bass.

Lauren Dragan: It would have a pretty large processor on it so that I can run programs on it, things like navigation, noise cancellation, translation... Like, instead of Google Translate looking on your phone and reading it, you could have it in your ears, live, as you're talking to someone.

[live translation]

Lauren Dragan: And it will be super water and sweat resistant so I could swim with it if I need to, I can shower with it, It won't be affected by it. Depending on the age I am down the line, maybe I'll need some sort of hearing enhancement. And it will transmit lossless, so I can listen to higher resolution music.

These developments are already in the works. Eventually, we might be wearing high tech hearables that do all of that and more. But until then, you'll just have to think about which features make the most sense for your individual lifestyle.

Lauren Dragan: At the end of the day, the headphones that you can wear comfortably and that work with what you do in your life are the best ones for you.

So, maybe if you already have a good set of headphones, and you're not thinking about them, and you're fully immersed in the emotion of whatever you're listening to, maybe you already have the headphones that you need.

Lauren Dragan: Yeah. I tell people that all the time. Like, people will come oftentimes and argue with me and be like, ”You're wrong! These other headphones are amazing, and I love them, and this is why I love them.” And I'm always like, “Awesome!” Like, “I'm not mad at you for that. Like if I don't, what is the problem here? You are happy. Like, why, you don't need my validation to tell you that you're happy. You're happy!”

[laughter]

[music out into music in]

Twenty Thousand Hertz is produced out of the sound design studios of Defacto Sound.

This episode was written and produced by Casey Emmerling, with help from Grace East. It was sound designed and mixed by Brandon Pratt and Justin Hollis. With original music by the Mysterious Breakmaster Cylinder.

Thanks to our guest, Lauren Dragan. To find Lauren's picks for the best headphones in all kinds of categories, head to Wirecutter dot com, or follow the link in the show notes.

I'm Dallas Taylor. Thanks for listening.

[music out]