It’s funny to say that I needed to buy a pair of headphones recently, so I searched for information on the Internet and found that the content of the information on the Internet was noisy and the arguments were exaggerated, which was not enough for reference. So I slowly sorted out the information I knew, and in order to verify it, I went to the earphone shop to listen to it. I left and right. In the end, I didn’t buy the earphones but wrote such an article. Perhaps this is the sadness of engineering students!
The headset in the picture is just a legend, I do not post comments.Introduction to headset basics
There are three common types of earphones according to their appearance: in-ear, ear-hook and head-mounted. Of course, the difference in appearance also serves the function.
My personal favorite is the headset, which is the headset that covers the ear like an earmuff: the advantage is that the sound insulation effect is good, and the sound unit (speaker) of the headset is large, so theoretically the sound performance is better. The shortcomings are also obvious. It will feel stuffy if worn for a long time for sound insulation. Wearing a heavy head and wearing glasses is not convenient for listening to music. Summer is not suitable, exercise is not suitable, the library is very suitable for sitting and reading or traveling by car.
The earhook is a simplified version of the headset. Each earphone is hung on the ear separately, which solves the inconvenience problem of wearing glasses. But the earhook is prone to the problem of sound leakage. Earhooks are a compromise. As we all know, compromises are often easier to embarrass.
In-ear headphones are light, compact and easy to carry, and sound insulation is also good, so they are the most popular. However, in-ear headphones are most uncomfortable after being worn for a long time.
The following pictures are in order: in-ear, ear-hook (sports in-ear headphones will also use ear-hook), headwear
How to choose?
Comfort is the most important thing, not a joke, but comfort is not an absolute standard. Just like in fact, the reason why I like to wear headphones is that I like to sit in a daze. At this time, headphones are very comfortable. But if I am near-sighted and still wear a headgear to run, it is a crazy rhythm. Comfortable use is the first principle of choosing headphones. It is not the ethereal sound field, transparent human voice, and surging bass that others preach. There is no need to kneel and lick something.
I won’t talk about sound quality here, I will talk about it later. Sound quality is often just a gimmick. (For marketing methods, please refer to XX. XX is the king of headset marketing)
After all, the headset is also a functional product to meet the usage scenarios you want. It is like, for example, I like to listen to music quietly, so I have always preferred headphones for music. According to the function, some headphones will say that they are noise-canceling headphones, sports headphones, etc., which will make you confused. Is the sound quality of these headphones good?
You are confused by the sound quality and function of those who sell headphones.
No matter how good the active noise canceling headset is, it can’t be compared to a quiet place with slight white noise that makes people feel comfortable. Even if I use dozens of earphones, you use thousands of earphones. For example, I enjoy the morning sun under the shade of the breeze, and you enjoy noise-canceling earphones in the subway. Noise-canceling headphones just say that you can eliminate interference in noisy environments. So you like to listen to songs on the subway and buses, so it will be very helpful to you, but some functions are not necessary for you.
(I especially like this picture of Gui Lunmei)
Sports earphones are characterized by sweat-proof, lightweight, not easy to fall, and no stethoscope effect. Anyone who likes sports knows that wearing a pair of headphones during exercise is purely boring. The songs you listen to are songs with a strong sense of rhythm, with strong bass, and the singing is not as strong as your own heartbeat and breathing. Take a simpler example to illustrate that the function is to serve specific scenarios: single-ear Bluetooth headset is very practical in business: it is convenient to answer the phone, and there is also an ear that can listen to environmental sounds, even if it is driving, it is no problem, but this kind of headset Not suitable for listening to songs.
By the way, I also mention Bluetooth headsets. Why the previous HIFI rejected Bluetooth because the transmission rate is not enough, the power and battery life are not compromised, and the sound quality is very flat. But if technology advances, many things will gradually change. And Bluetooth headsets are becoming more and more popular…Some opinions are actually biased
The Bluetooth headset I bought, I won’t be criticized by name here. The stethoscope effect is too obvious, how did the designer fool himself in this design.
So I’m back to the topic, I’m sorry I have always talked a lot about off-topic, and I talked about music headphones or HiFi.
Ten years ago it was a luxury to buy a headset for much more money, but it is not a difficult thing to put it now, but I feel that a suitable headset is really not a hard indicator with the price, there is no need to say that it is expensive. Let’s talk about a consumption concept. No matter how good the sound quality is, the earphone is a closed sound field, which means you can feel the sound of the earphone alone. The concert scene and the music festival scene are not good in terms of sound quality. There are noisy sounds everywhere, but the atmosphere and sound field will make you feel good. These headphones can’t express it. If you spend tens of thousands to listen to pop music, it is better to spend a few hundred to attend a music festival or a concert, jokingly: Can high-fidelity be more real than real.
Not to mention how complicated the design of a concert hall is
Some headphone marketing articles will say that as if at a concert, the person is standing in front of me as if I am somewhere and the world is right in my ears. Psychologically, I said that the real reason is that your hearing and imagination are very good (not derogatory), or other people’s words give you psychological hints.
But I have to say that the charm of headphones is still there, especially in the performance of musical instruments and vocals. Especially the first time you listen to those slightly more expensive headphones, you will find it amazing. The songs I used to listen to, will have a few more notes from time to time, and you will feel as if you have discovered a new world. But after getting used to it, it becomes less novel.
To put it simply, the reasons are as follows. Several points affect the sound you hear in digital music: the sound source, equipment, sound effects, and a sense of hearing.
The sound source and equipment are well understood. The audio source is the sound file, and there are different standards just like the 1080P, 720P, 420P of the video you watch. Lossless audio quality, like the 1080P video, is now more popular. But losslessness is definitely not the end of the development of audio.
The headset is like a monitor. But audio equipment is not only that, HIFI also includes decoders and amplifiers. These can be understood as the restoration of the sound source file with the best effect of the headset.
If your sound source is good and the equipment is good, you will naturally get better results. The extra sounds are already there.
Sound effects are generally not added in HIFI, but the software and hardware methods are used to make the sound better. That is to polish it up, just like the monitor tends to adjust the saturation, it looks good but it is actually color cast. But many heavy bass effects are achieved by sound effects, so many headphone manufacturers will use heavy bass discs to test the sound or play software to increase the bass sound effects, and then you have a listen: this hang.
The sense of hearing is a person’s sensitivity and preference for sound. The deviation of the sense of sound is greater, so audio is more difficult to have a standard than video. Headphones are actually just one part of the link. The sound is so elusive, so from a marketing perspective, those manufacturers will only market from some angles that you don’t understand: for example, moving iron, moving coil, diaphragm, sound field, and Tri-band…
In fact, as long as you listen, gimmicks are useless.
Talk about common misunderstandings:
High-end headphones are generally not prepared for portable digital products. There is a word in the headphones called thrust. It can be understood that the general mobile phone thrust is not good, so there is not enough expressive power. Some high-impedance headphones have problems with sound. It’s not that mobile phones can’t play music. The most commonly used digital products are 32Ω16Ω headphones.
The truth about a good horse with a good saddle
Bass does not mean good headphones. When I was listening in the earphone shop, there were a few people on the other side who were listening with their mobile phones, and there was always only one sentence with good bass. The bass vibration is the strongest (in fact, the volume at this time is also very high), so it will feel very strong, and the bass is too strong to hurt the ears. The high pitch will make people feel crisp, and the midrange is mostly the vocal part. You have to distinguish tri-band, you can listen to more instruments or some songs that are close to a cappella. Symphony can feel different frequencies and sense of space, and the human voice can feel whether the sound is pure or not. Some test discs can also see if there is any broken sound and if the low frequency is magnetic.
In order to prevent pretense, the brand and model are not mentioned throughout the article, and the terminology is rarely used (in fact, I don’t know it at all). In the end, I want to comfort myself: Whatever consumption power is consumed, don’t be envious, those are GOUSHI
