In Ear Headphones
To shut out the world and enjoy your music, nothing works better than in-ear headphones. In-ear headphones fit like earplugs and can sound just as good as large over ear headphones at similar prices.
Headphones.com sells a diverse selection of some of the best in-ear headphones known for delivering excellent sound quality and ambient noise isolation.
In ear headphones are also known as in-ear monitors (IEMs), earphones or ear canal headphones. They are essentially miniaturized headphones that fit inside the ear canal entrance and create a seal similar to earplugs. Due to their size and ambient noise isolation, in-ear headphones are extremely convenient for travel and excellent for noisy listening environments.
- SOUND QUALITY: Some in-ear headphones can sound just as good or better than traditional big headphones at the same price. At lower prices especially, in-ear headphones are known for having a wider variety of great sounding options than you may find with over-ear headphones. In-ear headphone manufacturers often utilize multiple "drivers"—essentially tiny speakers—inside a single in-ear headphone, which gives them the ability to more easily fine-tune the response than they typically could with over-ear headphones.
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ISOLATION: In-ear headphone designs vary in fit style and isolation factor, the latter largely coming down to how much air from the outside is allowed to leak into the in-ear headphone—often referred to as "venting." For the absolute most isolation, we would typically recommend something completely unvented and designed for deep-insertion into the ear canal, like the ER4 series from Etymotic. If one doesn't find deep-insertion comfortable, we like the Symphonium Meteor, which is a fully-sealed IEM but with a small, comfortable shell that still isolates very well, while fitting superbly in a variety of ear sizes and shapes. If someone wants customizable isolation, the 64 Audio U4s comes with 64 Audio's APEX modules, which allow users to choose how much isolation the earphone has. Be advised: modules with more isolation will also have more bass!
- OCCLUSION EFFECT: In-ear headphones are also occasionally prone to some potentially uncomfortable effects having to do with the ear canal being sealed. The most common is called the Occlusion effect, which is the sensation of increased loudness (especially at low frequencies) from bodily noises like talking, chewing, walking, and breathing that arises due to the ear canal being partially or fully sealed. This effect alone can make some people uncomfortable, but the pressurization of the ear canal itself when partially or fully sealed can also cause physical discomfort for some users. Many users report no problems with either of these factors, so it could very well not be an issue, but for some people it can make in-ear headphones difficult to use comfortably. Typically well-vented in-ear headphones like the Thieaudio Hype 4 will have less of these effects at play due to venting resulting in lower air pressure inside the ear canal, whereas fully sealed IEMs may exhibit more of these effects.
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FIT IS CRITICAL: Most in-ear headphones come with an array of different sizes/types of eartips. It's critically important to experiment and try out ALL the included tips, as well as any other tips you may have, to find the set that works best for your ears. To get solid, well-extended bass from any in-ear headphone, your eartip MUST seal securely with the entrance of your ear canal. Without the correct seal, the bass response will disappear and the in-ear headphone will sound thinner than intended.
- STUDIO MONITORING: In-ear headphones are commonly used by audio professionals and musicians to monitor live sound mixes or for studio recording work. In-ear monitors can minimize feedback from loud stage floor monitors and effectively isolate the artist or recordist from audience sounds or other distracting ambient noises..
BIG TIP: We DO NOT recommend in-ear headphones for any uses where situational awareness is required such as busy streets, outdoor sport activities or - gasp! - walking on the train tracks while jamming your tunes! For these uses, true wireless in-ear headphones like the Apple AirPods Pro 2 would be a better choice, since they have a Transparency mode that feeds sound from the outside into the ear canal. This both lessens the Occlusion Effect mentioned above, as well as greatly reduces the impediment to situational awareness that in-ear headphones can cause.
That being said, it may perhaps be somewhat counter-intuitive, but in ear headphones are generally better for your ears and long-term hearing safety than other headphone types. In-ear headphones block out noise so thoroughly that you often won't have to turn up the music just to overcome a loud ambient environment, which means users generally wind up listening at lower, safer volume levels using in-ear headphones!
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