As much as the ads would like us to believe othewise, most headphones have terrible bass response.  It’s a physics problem. Most headphones are too small to do justice to the lowest notes.

Despite their claims, super bass headphones  get lukewarm bass at best. They just don’t live up to their hype.  Those of us who love bass want headphones that can vibrate your face when playing. Do any headphones even do that?

Many headsets  designed for professional disc jockeys  have great bass. As we all know, DJ’s want serious bass just like they get from regular speaker systems.

When it comes to headphones, there are two ways to serious bass, go large or go tiny. Surprisingly, tiny earbud headphones can have terrific bass. The weird thing about them is that nobody hears a thing and to you, the bass is rattling your brain.

Really tiny earbud bass headphones work by doing two things. First they  isolate external noises.  The part that fits into your ear canal is made of a special cellular foam which is very sound absorbent as well as springy so it molds precisely to the inside of your ear. This airtight seal  insures the tiny vibrations produced by these earbuds is heard by your ears as very loud sound. Because of the geometry and their proximity to your ear, not much movement is needed from the diaphragm of the drivers to produce this loud volume. As a result, the sound is not distorted as it might be with traditional speakers.  Since you also won’t be able to hear yourself speaking with these, you will most definitely be yelling if someone asks you a question.

On the other side of the spectrum are the very large bass headphones.  Typically, they are over the ear headphones and seal out noise by covering and isolating the entire ear. The diaphragms of these headsets are very large. They produce heavy bass relatively easily.

The downside is they are not very subtle. Wearing them to work can be a problem if you are trying to not be noticed.   They stick out like a sore thumb.  They are also heavy so your ears might get a little tired after a while because of the cups pressing on the side of your head all day long. Wearing them while you exercise isn’t easy either unless your excersise routine consists of sitting down and staying put.