Music to Your Ears

Richard Baguley

Richard Baguley is a freelance technology writer based near San Francisco. Say what you will to him: When he's wearing his headphones, he can't hear you.

Photograph by Chip Simons

You don't have to settle for less. If you replace the bundled headphones with a better set, the improvement can be staggering, restoring crisp beauty to formerly muffled music. And the new set will do an excellent job of reproducing audio from laptop or desktop PCs as well.

For this review, we examined six models that cover the ear and six units that sit in or next to the ear; these span a wide range of prices (from $8 to $400). Most over-the-ear models use a headband to hold the speakers in place (except the Koss KSC75 set, which clips over the ears). The over-the-ear units can be big and bulky, but a few fold or flatten for quick storage.

The in-the-ear models are smaller and easier to carry on a trip. They come in two types: earbud and ear-canal. Many portable music players ship with a pair of earbuds in the package; none offer the superior ear-canal type.

Personal preference generally governs the choice of headphone. Although typically you can't try in-the-ear models before buying, you can approximate the ear-canal experience using cheap foam earplugs. Try wearing them for a few hours--if you don't find them uncomfortable, you should be fine with a pair of in-the-ear headphones.

We selected a Best Buy in each of our two headset categories. Bose's TriPort was our favorite over-the-ear model, while Etymotic Research's ER-6isolator took top honors for in-the-ear headphones.

Over-the-Ear Headphones

AKG K26P

$40

Photograph by Kevin Candland

Bose QuietComfort 2

$300

Photograph by Kevin Candland

The set won't work even as normal headphones without battery power. To be fair, the batteries lasted over 30 hours in our tests, and you get a low-charge warning (a flashing LED) when you have only a few hours of battery life remaining. Be sure to pack extra batteries on a long trip, because the ability to block noise is the only really commendable thing about these headphones. They produced flat and muddy bass tones and clipped high tones. This poor sound quality may be a result of the noise cancellation, but as you can't listen to music without the feature turned on, there's no way to tell. And at $300, this set isn't cheap (although it does come with a nice carrying case and an airline headphone adapter).

Bose TriPort

$150

Photograph by Kevin Candland

A couple of minor annoyances: The ear cushions occasionally made a crinkling noise when they moved (especially on testers who wear glasses), and there was a lot of leakage (the person sitting next to you might not share your taste in music). The TriPort is also a bit large: It can't fold up, and it doesn't come with a carrying case. Nevertheless, this is a solid pair of headphones for anyone who doesn't mind the extra bulk.

Koss KSC75

$15

The KSC75 set takes a different approach to over-the-ear design: Two clips hold the headphones in place behind the ears. This can be a definite plus for people who have hairstyles that aren't headband friendly or who don't care for headbands. Also, the KSC75 stays in place reasonably well once properly seated.

Photograph by Kevin Candland

Koss KTX Pro1

$20

Photograph by Kevin Candland

But the headphones' open style keeps them from blocking ambient noise, and they leak a lot. We clearly heard the music from a couple of feet away even when it played at a low volume setting.

Like the Koss KSC75 headphones, the KTX Pro1 sounded good, with rounded, full bass. We heard some slight distortions to high-pitched sounds, though (such as high-hat cymbals), and high voices sounded a bit hissy and rough. You get no carrying case, but the headphones do come with a built-in volume control and a quarter-inch plug adapter.

Sennheiser PXC250

$130

Photograph by Kevin Candland

And the PXC250 generates pretty respectable results, producing clear, well-balanced audio. The bass sounded a little weak, but turning on the noise-reduction feature boosted the output somewhat and added warmth and extra volume to the sound.

The noise-reduction circuits are located in a cigar-shaped box on the cable, which adds bulk and the potential for tangles. But the headphones fold up for convenient storage, and Sennheiser includes a nice case as well as quarter-inch and airline adapters. A similar set of headphones, the PX200, uses the same speakers but lacks the noise-reduction capability; it costs merely $40.

In-the-Ear Headphones

Etymotic ER-4 MicroPro

$220

Photograph by Kevin Candland

On our test track of a Ry Cooder guitar solo, the sound of the guitar pick sliding across the bass strings was so clear it seemed as if Ry were sitting right next to us. The ER-4 also provided the best sound isolation of any headphone set in this review: We could barely hear the loud rumble of a nearby ferry engine while wearing it. But for best results you must place the pieces pretty deep and tightly in the ears, a position that many users may find uncomfortable. Still, if you can tolerate foam earplugs, you'll like these headphones a lot.

Etymotic ER-6isolator

$120

Photograph by Kevin Candland

The two Etymotic models have slightly different characteristics: The 6isolator is a little less apt to impede the flow of sound signals, making the set easier for a portable player to drive. It also had a slightly better bass response, with the music sounding a bit fuller in our informal tests.

We have a few gripes with this model, but not about the sound quality. First, Etymotic supplies only two pairs of tips with each set: one soft rubber and the other foam, which may not suit everyone. Other makers of ear-canal headphones ship their products with a much larger variety of tips for different ear sizes. We also thought the cable leading to each earphone looked a little thin and fragile. Despite those reservations, however, this is a terrific set of headphones that produces good sound. And at $120, it's a great value for the money.

Koss KSC9

$15

Photograph by Kevin Candland

Unfortunately, the headphones' sound quality gave us less to cheer about: We found weak bass and a general lack of presence. Compared with the performance we got out of the other in-the-ear models, the KSC9's music sounded as if it were being played behind a curtain. Go for a well-fitting set of earbud headphones instead.

Sennheiser MX300

$8

Photograph by Kevin Candland

Each earbud fit well, with or without the foam cover. Even testers who had problems with other earbud-style headphones discovered that the Sennheiser pieces sat comfortably and stayed in place. The MX300 pair seems well suited to situations where you want to retain some ability to hear ambient sounds, such as when you work in the garden.

Shure E4c

$300

Photograph by Kevin Candland

The E4c earpieces fit comfortably and come with a variety of tip sizes. One interesting touch: Shure designs its earphones so that you can wear them either with the cables looped over the top of the ears or in more conventional fashion with the cables dangling down.

No matter which way we wore them, the E4c earpieces were easy to fit into the ear canal, and when properly inserted blocked most ambient noise, producing a quieter environment than either of the noise-cancelling over-the-ear headphones we evaluated.

Shure E5c

$400

Photograph by Kevin Candland

But these pieces are a hassle to fit: Several of our testers had problems trying to seat them properly inside the ear canal, even though Shure supplies several different-size tips (including foam and flanged-rubber ones) and even gave us some additional tips.

Once you loop the cables over your ears, though, the pieces aren't going anywhere. It's a pain to put them on, but once they're on, they stay in place. Another nice design touch: The headphones sit flat against your ears and don't stick out, so you can lie down while you listen without fear of damaging the pieces.

One note of caution: Some portable music players may not be powerful enough to drive these headphones. We tested them with a variety of hard-drive audio players, however, and experienced no difficulties. If you run into any problems, you (or your personal assistant) can locate several models of portable amplifiers that will boost the signal.

Noise Cancellation 101

Few things annoy people more than the din inside an aircraft--except, perhaps, being stuck on a noisy plane between a snoring executive and an unhappy child. That's precisely why the makers of headphones tend to advertise in in-flight magazines; they know that, after a couple of hours, you'll be desperate for a little peace and quiet.

Headphones that promise to block outside noise do so in one of two ways: passively or actively. Passive headphones rely on the fact that sticking things in your ears makes it harder for noises from the outside to penetrate. In-the-ear headphones such as the Shure E4c and the Etymotic ER-6isolator fit like earplugs, sealing the ear canal tight so sounds can't get in.

Active noise-cancelling headphones go a step further: They "listen" to the environment and create an inverse sound that (in theory) cancels background noise. The air pressure waves that make up sound, like waves in water, have peaks and troughs; an inverse sound has peaks where the ambient sound has troughs, and vice versa.

We received mixed results with both of the active noise-cancelling headphones in our test group, the Bose QuietComfort 2 and the Sennheiser PXC250. Although each set blocked at least some ambient noise, neither blocked all of it. Low-frequency noises (such as those of jet and bus engines) decreased significantly, but high-frequency noises persisted. And neither of these models was as effective as the ear-canal headphones, which, when properly fitted, blocked all outside noise equally well.