If I had to guess, I'd say I probably have earbuds jammed in my ears a good 30 percent of waking hours. Walking the streets, sitting on the subway, grinding through the gym, working through work: These are all music and podcast-mandatory activities in my life. I'm also a big believer in the idea that the amount of money you spend on consumer products should be a direct result of how much time you expect to spend using them. So, QED: Headphones are a totally acceptable splurge purchase, right? Super, super wrong. At least for folks like myself, who are highly mobile in their audio consumption (audiophiles who prefer to listen at home while lounging in a chair can stop reading now), I always recommend getting less-expensive headphones. That's not to say $1.99 dollar store throwaways, but something well under $50? Definitely. Especially for the in-ear variety. Here's why:
Reason 1) There's A Durability Ceiling
Headphones are subject to what I call a "durability ceiling". That is, with very few exceptions, their construction provides them with a strict upper limit in how much abuse they will be able to withstand over time. After so much incidental bending, tugging, and pocket-stuffing, it almost doesn't matter what pair of headphones you buy: They will stop working. Whether your headphones cost $30 or $300, they all work the same basic way, and deliver sound through similar setups of coated wiring. If you use your headphones with any regularity (and don't coddle them to the point of perversion), that wiring will eventually fail, come loose, or otherwise stop working as it's intended to.
Will an expensive pair of headphones last longer than a cheap one? Without any sort of backup data, I'll say that this could potentially be the case. And no-name dollar store headphones are virtually guaranteed to die with remarkable speed. But a well-picked $30 pair of headphones will likely last about as long as a far more expensive set put through a similar routine of daily use.
Reason 2) There Are Only Incremental Benefits At Higher Price Points
While it's certainly possible to get an extraordinary pair of headphones for an extraordinary sum of money, it's also possible to get a very decent set for shockingly little cash. What's more, the audio benefits of very expensive headphones can be completely lost outside of a totally controlled setting. That is, while a soundproof studio may allow a trained listener to perceive all sorts of crazy highs and lows, the second you take your headphones to the street, subway, or plane, it simply doesn't matter. And if you mostly listen to audiobooks or podcasts? Well, then it really doesn't matter.
Other selling points of high-end headphones, such as superior comfort and fit, are remarkably easy to find on cheaper models. And while some luxury models tout high-end materials such as steal and leather, these won't prevent weak wiring from failing at some point.
Reason 3) It's Remarkably Easy To Figure Out Which Cheap Headphones Sound Good
There was once a time when buying cheap gadgets of any type was a total crapshoot—the bottom of the barrel is insanely crowded, and while there may have always been gems hidden down there, identifying them was near impossible. Nowadays, thanks to Amazon reviews and sites like The Wirecutter, it is incredibly easy to find good buys at low prices. A quick click showed me that The Wirecutter's review of in-ears that cost under $30 settled on a $15 pair of Panasonics. That's a price I can live with, especially if, as The Wirecutter claims, "they sounded the best. Hands down. They were everyone’s top choice in terms of sound fidelity. They have a nice overall balance with airy, mellow highs and present-but-not-dominating bass... Nothing pierces, nothing muddies: every frequency plays well with the others. And as you’ll see with other contenders later, that’s not often the case in this price range."
Of course...
Now there are exceptions to my buy-low rule. For one, this primarily applies to folks who tend to listen to music on the go and in noisy environments. If you fancy yourself the type of audiophile who regularly indulges in in-home listening and intends to coddle their purchase, spending a few bones on a cushy pair of over-ears may not be a bad idea. I'm also not against the idea of frequent fliers or open office workers investing in a nice pair of noise-canceling headphones to soothe those ambient sounds. But for the rest of us, you can easily get a a great pair of headphones for less than $50. And sometimes much less.
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Seth Porges is a writer and co-creator of Cloth for iOS. For more fun, follow Seth on Twitter at @sethporges, or subscribe to him on Facebook or Google+.
Say you want to buy a pair of over-ear noise-canceling headphones but you don’t which ones to get. You can buy a decent pair for less than $100, like the Anker’s Soundcore Life Q20 ($60), or you can go big on pair that costs $400 or more, like the Bose Headphones 700 ($400) or the even pricier Master & Dynamic MW65 ($500).
No matter which you buy, both noise-canceling headphones are going to do essentially the same thing. They’re going to wirelessly connect to your smartphone or laptop and play audio, and they’re going use noise-canceling technology to actively block out ambient sounds. So, what exactly makes expensive headphones so darn, well, expensive?
For clarity, we’re comparing wireless over-ear headphones that have dynamic drivers. There are more expensive headphones with planar magnetic or eelectrostatic drivers, which are able to deliver higher fidelity audio with less distortion, but headphones with dynamic are way more common. Also, over-ear headphones are typically going to be more expensive than on-ear headphones because they’re simply bigger (larger drivers, more material).
While high-end audiophile cans and professional-grade headphones use some exotic methods to create sound, like planar magnetic or electrostatic drivers, pretty much every pair of ANC headphones aimed at a general audience use dynamic drivers — devices which turn electric current into acoustic singles by vibrating a diaphragm with magnetic fields.
But not all dynamic drivers are alike! More expensive headphones like the Bose 700 have more sensitive (and sometimes larger) drivers that can deliver audio with a wider frequency range, meaning higher highs and deeper bass, and less distortion. This contributes to a bigger and better “soundstage” where you can more clearly hear and differentiate between various instruments and vocal tracks.
Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700Bose