Q&A: Why use headphones and what kind should I buy?

So, the other question that’s been coming up several times on the site over the last month or so in direct messages and a couple of the discussions and progress journals is about headphones. And I think, based on time, this will probably be our last question unless anyone has any last minute shout outs. The question… The issue that keeps coming up is particularly around harmonic hearing, so when you’re trying to hear a harmonic interval, both notes play at once, or you’re working on chord ear training and you’re trying to figure out different types of chord from one another.

It can really help to use good headphones. And that’s because once you’re hearing more than one note at once, your brain has to listen very carefully to pick apart those notes. And sometimes what you’re trying to do is separate the notes and really hear one and the other. And sometimes what you’re trying to hear is their combination, but in quite an accurate way. But, either way, if you’re listening on terrible laptop speakers, you’re really doing yourself a disservice because you just won’t be able to hear the detail you need to to recognize what you’re trying to. And that can sound funny if you’re not used to audio quality and paying attention to how good speakers are and that kind of thing. You might think, well, I can hear it’s a piano. What more do I need? Or, I can hear there’s an interval, there’s a chord. Surely I should be able to recognize it.

Actually, the ear is very subtle and the more you dig into this area, the more you realize just how much detail the ear is capable of hearing. And I often recommend musicians practice active listening, and that’s probably a topic for another day. But, just to say, spending some time really listening carefully to music can reveal a whole world of detail that you’d been oblivious to when you were just enjoying it as a song for a song’s sake. So, if you’re not used to thinking about this, you might be surprised to hear how much of a difference headphones can make, but they really do. And there’s a number of reasons for that. The first is that good headphones will just reproduce the audio much more accurately. And that means you’ll be able to hear detail in the timbre and in the various notes present that you just couldn’t if you’re listening on tinny laptop speakers or some cheap-o speakers you’ve plugged into your computer.

And the second aspect is just that earphones are either on your ear or in your year, and either way they provide a much better listing environment. So, even if it seems quiet around you, if you’re listening on speakers or you’re listening in the car, there’s a lot of noise that you may not be thinking about, but is interfering with your listening. And that can be as simple as an echoey room, or it can be children playing outside the part of your brain is having to pay attention to. But, getting rid of those distractions by using headphones instead goes a long way to letting your ear really hear what it needs to for these exercises. So, they reproduce the sound more accurately typically, and they isolate you in an idealistic environment to focus on what you’re really trying to focus on.

So then, that naturally brings up the question of what is a good set of headphones. I said a couple of times there, “If you’re listening on good headphones”. And the reality is the headphones that came free with your mobile phone are probably not good headphones. And what I mean by good there isn’t about brand. It’s not necessarily about price. What it’s really about is accurately reproducing the sound. So, for example, your average person in the street might say, “My headphones are really good. They’ve got a lot of bass to them”, or, “My headphones are really good. They make the music sound so exciting”. Actually, that’s not really what we’re looking for. Obviously it can be great if all you’re doing is enjoying music and listening for the fun of it, but for ear training and for really developing your musical ear, you actually want them to be precise, not just sound good.

And there is a difference there. So, what I mean by precise is they are giving you exactly the sound that was originally recorded. They’re not boosting the bass. They’re not adding a reverb. They’re not doing clever effects. Bose, as a company, is particularly notorious for this. They’ll make speakers that sound fantastic, but actually completely distort the sound compared with what was intended by the artist. So, you need to be a bit careful to find good headphones. And there’re a few rules of thumb I can give you for that because I know when you go into your average shop, there’re so many brands and models to choose from. You’ve got a few things to think about. The first is choose the kind of headphones you prefer. So, the three main options are you can get what are called canalphones, where they go right into your ear canal.

And that’s great for sound isolation, but some people hate having something inside their ear. So, that’s personal preference. The next level out is just in ear earphones, like the kind you get with an iPhone or a mobile phone that just sit in this part of your ear. And the third type is what musicians often call cans, the big chunky ones that sit on your ears. These days you can get some smaller ones for sure. But, with those they can be good or bad. The bad is the 1980s Walkman style headphones where they just sit very loosely on top of your ear. Those aren’t so good. What you’re looking for is the ones with a bit of cushioned padding that really create a seal around your ear because that means you still get the isolation even though they’re not inside your ear.

So those are the three main types, and it’s really personal preference, but try and find some that fit snugly wherever they fit so that you do get that isolation from background noise. The second big thing is choose a good brand. So, that doesn’t necessarily mean expensive. And it doesn’t necessarily mean a very famous brand. And in particular here, you want to steer away from the fashionable brands. So, a couple of the big ones would be Skullcandy or Beats by Dre. They’re great if you’re into fashion. They’re not so great if you’re into audio fidelity. I think there is one model of Beats by Dre that are professional grade, but for the most part they would fall into the category of headphones that are more designed for style than substance. So, you want to steer clear of the fashion brands and you actually genuinely want to steer clear of electronics brands too.

So, people like Sony or Panasonic, they make decent headphones, earphones, but they’re not the best because they’re not audio companies, they’re electronics companies. What you really want to move towards is audio brands like Shure, S H U R E, or Sennheiser. And they do produce low end, low price point models too. So, you can pick up $30 headphones for sure. It doesn’t need to break the bank. But, if you go into that audio manufacturers range, you’ll be getting generally better headphones. So, pick an audio brand and you’ll find lots of information about those online if you look. And then, look for a model that doesn’t boast about its base response, or its amazing effects, or it doesn’t make claims about how it modifies the music. Some earphones are very much sold on, ‘We will make your music sound better’.

That’s not really what you’re looking for. So, generally mid price range is fine. So, if you’re paying upwards of $30, $40, you’ll probably be getting a good model if you factor in the other things I mentioned. So, an audio brand in that price range will do you just fine. You don’t need to go beyond that. If you go up to the hundred dollar price point, you can get some really nice… Getting into the professional grade there where they’re designed for studio use and that kind of thing. And really, if you want top end, you’re talking probably $200 for a serious pair of headphones that will last you the next 10 years.

But, it doesn’t have to be that. A $30 pair by Shure or Sennheiser will do you just fine. And, if you haven’t tried it, definitely factor that into your training. A, use headphones, and B, if you can buy some good headphones because you might find actually that lets you leap over the hurdles that have been holding you back. And it seems silly, but it just makes it so much easier on your ear when it’s not hearing a blurry sound, or a distorted sound, or a sound half drowned out by the noise around you. So, give that a try for sure.

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