Buyers Guides > Audio

How to Choose and Use Headphones

If you've never used headphones, or been forced into using them by domestic circumstances, the chances are you view them like Diet Coke, 'light' crisps and low-alcohol lager: worthy, but frankly not a patch on the real thing.

But listening to music on good headphones can give you a close-up view of a recording only the very best speakers can achieve, and striking levels of detail. Yet as most headphones are a distress purchase ('will you stop playing that music, I'm trying to watch EastEnders/do my homework/ balance the bills') the tendency is to buy the cheapest pair you can find from a name you recognise.

Spend a bit more than, say, £30 to £40 on budget 'phones and you'll get something better-built and, above all, better-sounding. Listen to alternatives, considering whether you want closed-back designs with a solid casing for the earpieces (good bass, and better able to keep ambient noise out) or open-back ones with a ventilated casing (a more spacious, airy sound, and lighter and less warm in use). But, above all, choose a pair you can live with: a design that pinches, squeezes or falls off your head will not be suitable..

Furthermore, while the quality of the headphone output of some CD players and most amps is OK, a dedicated headphone amp makes all the difference. Our favourites include models from sennheiser, some of which have there own volume knob, dedicated amplifier stage and performance capable of making you view headphones in a whole new light.

In fact, the combination of quality headphones and a good CD player could make you wonder why you ever bothered with a pair of big speakers in your front room.

Cordless headphones? They're convenient, but we're yet to find a pair that sounded anything as good as cabled 'phones of half the price, and they all seem plagued with noise, whether they transmit the music using infrared or radio.

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