Headphones

Headphones are essential for portable listening, but can also be used at home when you don't want to disturb family members. Headphones vary not only in sound quality, but in comfort; it's a mistake to buy headphones that you want to take off after just a short time. If you plan on listening in a noisy environment, choose closed-ear headphones over the open-ear variety. In addition to keeping sounds out, closed-ear phones keep your music in, and are less likely to disturb others. Just with loudspeakers, less expensive models often outperform more costly units. Most headphones use tiny dynamic drivers, which operate on the same principle as dynamic drivers in loudspeakers. Electrostatic headphones, are very expensive but offer state-of-the-art performance, operating on the same principle as electrostatic loudspeakers.