How To Get THE BEST Headphone Purchase Advice

Something I've noticed is that regardless if it's a video or an article or a forum post, whenever we post any piece of content, we get a ton of people asking for purchase advice in the comments. But there's a problem. Giving purchase advice responsibly entails collecting a lot more information than people are typically giving us, say, in the comments section of a video. So today I wanted to give everyone a quick primer on all of the information they do well to convey when asking anyone else for purchase advice to make sure that they get the best recommendations possible. So let's dive in. Before I dive any deeper, I want to make sure I mention that this video and all the videos on this channel are made possible by headphones.com, who's your premier resource for buying and learning about headphones, IEMs, DACs, AMs, speakers, cables, all that good stuff. They have an unprecedented 365-day return policy, and they also have an incredible customer service division staffed by true audiophile nerds like my buddies Alan and my guy Sam here. So if you're considering making a headphone purchase and you want to support us here at the headphone show, definitely consider making that purchase at headphones.com. Giving good purchase advice or a good recommendation entails, to some extent, stepping outside of ourselves and into the shoes of the person we're recommending to. But for us to do that, we need a lot of information. But in almost all cases, the person asking for advice isn't actually giving me enough information to go on. So these are the pieces of information I tend to ask for clarification on to make sure that any advice or recommendations I give are actually going to be received well by the person who eventually buys something based on that advice. The first things I think people would do well to disclose is their use case and their priorities. Use case is one that's pretty easy to nail down and priorities can be a little bit tougher if you're new to this. So let's start with use case. Say you want a headphone for the gym. I would need to know that, so I don't recommend a wired over-ear headphone, because a wired over-ear headphone would be an absolutely bonkers recommendation for the gym. Obviously, something wireless, battery-powered, with maybe ANC and transparency features, and a fairly prominent bass response, would probably be a better recommendation than, say, an HD600, which sounds great, but is completely inappropriate for that use case. While it might sound a bit strange, knowing what the person is going to use the headphone for can almost entirely change the value proposition of an ideal headphone for that person based on what they're doing. A pair of bone conduction headphones from a brand like Shox, for example, typically won't be at the top of any recommendation list I give because they don't really sound very good. However, if the person asking for advice wants something lightweight, wireless, and with no compromise to situational awareness, and maybe they don't care quite as much about sound quality versus those things, The Shox Bone Conduction headphones might legitimately be the best product they can get to fulfill those needs. And this brings me to the other issue, which is priorities. Now, you may not immediately know what you prioritize highest between comfort, sound quality, build quality, design and looks, and maybe even the brand. But ranking those things as best as you can actually does help the person giving advice a really easy way to optimize their recommendation for exactly what you're looking for. Okay, so now we get to budget, which seems pretty simple on the face of it, but narrows down options really quickly. For example, if you say you don't want to spend more than $20 to $25, well, the first thing we're going to do is probably manage your expectations a bit, because frankly, you're not going to get incredible sound quality for that amount of money, especially for over-year headphones, where you're really not going to have many options at all in this price range. In most situations where a buyer wants something ultra inexpensive, I think most of us here at the headphone show would probably opt to recommend something from the Chai Fi IEM sphere, like a Truthier Gate or something like that. At the cheap end, IEMs just tend to do better when it comes to bass performance and consistency, such that for anyone shopping at a lower price tier, it just kind of makes sense to recommend an IEM instead. On the flip side, if someone tells us they have an unlimited budget, well yeah, that gives us a ton more room to play with, but it doesn't mean we're going to recommend the most expensive thing within that budget without knowing the rest of the other criteria. It's worth emphasizing this, it's not unlikely that the best headphone for you, for your use case and needs, isn't actually the most expensive in your price range. It's good to give us a budget so we can recommend the best option possible, but just know, that's not always going to be the most expensive option possible. So now let's move to the next one, which is experience, specifically experience listening to headphones. If you've only used gaming headsets or cheap headphones before, it's entirely likely that something any old audiophile would recommend to you would both be more comfortable and better sounding than anything you've had experience with prior. But if you've, for example, never tried an IEM before and are unfamiliar with some of the compromises inherent to that form factor, but an IEM would serve your use case, priorities, and budget the best, it can take a little bit of education to bring the person up to speed on why an IEM would actually be best for them and what they need to look out for in terms of how an IEM would differ from their past experiences with headphones. Giving us insight to your experience level with headphones also lets us kind of understand your taste, if not your taste, then at least your familiarity with the sound signature. So for example, say you've been using a Sony WH-1000XM5 for a year and you've grown really accustomed to the sound profile of that headphone. If you come to someone asking for advice and want either the same amount of bass or even more bass than that headphone, that's going to narrow the range of options considerably, because most headphones that audiophiles recommend simply don't have that much bass. Alternatively, if you already have a pretty good headphone that would be hard to improve on sonically, but you really don't like the comfort, it's great to let the person you're asking for advice know that, because they may not even recommend a headphone. They may just recommend something like a capra strap, which will help the comfort, but keep the sound more or less the same. So definitely keep that in mind. It's best to let the person you're asking for advice know what your experience and familiarity with headphones is, because that'll help them gauge your expectations and provide you something that'll fit within those expectations or exceed them, hopefully. This kind of plays off the last one, but I want to make sure I give individual attention to form factor here. Because if you want a pair of wired headphones with an excellent mid-range for under $50, but you hate on-ear headphones, the commonly recommended options from Koss, for example, aren't going to be as good a fit for you as they would for most other people with a similar set of needs. So if you can, let the person giving advice know what form factors you're even considering to begin with, and which ones you won't even begin to consider. The next point I want to touch on is openness to EQ. While it's unlikely that most people asking for purchase advice when it comes to headphones are all that familiar with EQ, if you're open to EQ, I'm more likely to recommend a comfortable headphone because the sound quality issues can be addressed with EQ while the comfort issues obviously can't. And in general, while buying and trying headphones is a good way to get a broad strokes idea of your preferences and headphones.com is a great place to do that because of their 365 day return policy, I still always recommend people EQ anyway because it teaches you a lot about what kind of colorations you prefer, but on a more granular, precise level than just buying a bunch of headphones and trying them does. Perhaps the least important detail, but one that definitely does still matter sometimes, is your source setup. What are you plugging it into? For example, if you're going to be plugging into a laptop or PC motherboard jack directly, it's likely that if the headphone or IEM has a non-linear impedance curve, that the frequency response will change potentially dramatically just from plugging it into this source. Additionally, if you're interested in trying planar magnetic headphones, it's entirely likely that the computer jack won't have enough power to actually drive them to the volume you want to listen to. So a headphone amp might be necessary for the headphone you want. So just be aware that even if it's not always make or break, the person giving advice absolutely needs to know what kind of source setup you're using so that they know what headphones will work with that, as well as if you want a headphone and that headphone has special source requirements, they know to include that as part of the purchase advice. Another piece of information which can be helpful to the person giving advice is information about the program material or music or whatever you're planning to listen to on those headphones. Because again, that helps us gauge for the person asking for advice what their expectations are going to be when they hear their new pair of headphones. For example, if someone is 99% of the time listening to jazz music, they may not need a big bass elevation and might also be down with a little bit of extra treble that helps bring out the kind of sizzle and life of a lot of the instruments in those arrangements. Whereas someone who primarily listens to EDM is almost certainly going to index pretty highly for bass elevation and extension, and they might not care quite as much about mid-range neutrality, for example. So definitely be sure to at least include a little bit of information about what kind of program material you're planning to consume with these headphones. And finally, it's worth letting us know where you're located, because price and product availability is not the same everywhere you shop. Some things may simply be more accessible or a better value in some parts of the world than others. A great example of this is the Sennheiser HD 6XX, which has been a value benchmark in the United States for as long as I can remember, but only in the United States. Because for the entire rest of the world, the shipping, import, and tax costs that it would take to get an HD 6XX into their country and into their hands would make it essentially equivalent to the price of an HD 600, which makes the 6XX a much less obviously great value. So make sure to let the person who's giving advice know where you're going to be shopping, because what might be very easy for them to acquire through typical channels might be hard or even impossible for you to acquire. And with that, that's going to be the end of this video, so if you liked it, go ahead and hit the like button down below. If you want to see more videos like this, subscribe to The Headphone Show. And just remember, if you're asking for purchase advice from someone, make sure to give them the most complete information. That way they come back to you with the best headphone recommendation. And with that, it's been Listener from The Headphone Show. Y'all have a great rest of your day. Later.