I used to listen to classical music when I worked in a cubicle in an office. Except for the occasional inane and interminable meeting, we were left to our own devices. As long we did what we were supposed to do, we could do pretty much anything else we wanted. My music relaxed me and helped keep the boredom at bay.

My headphones reduced noise through passive noise reduction. They used sound absorbing materials to dampen outside noise. There are no electronics involved. This means no extra batteries. It also means I look like a member of the space patrol. Yes, I mean that there are two giant black cups on my ears. Not an easy look to carry off, I assure you. Women don’t flock to guys wearing giant black headphones on their heads, at least not th ewomen you’d like to have flock to you. 

Another great thing about them is I got what I like to call sweaty ear. Yep, those leather lined cups made my ears sweat after an hour or so. You also need to take a break because the fit is a little tight. When I say tight, I mean the cups pressed firmly against your head to maintain a good acoustic seal. This can give you a headache after a while. All these drawbacks aside, I loved those giant headphones because the sound was incredible, the bass astounding, and most of the outside noise was dampened. The noise dampening allowed me to keep the music volume fairly low which probably saved my hearing.

Noise reducing headphones also come in much smaller sizes. I found earbuds that have fairly large cushions. These earbuds are especially designed to mute external sound. They are small, sound great, and are very subtle. The drawback is they are really picky about placement in the ear for best sound and noise reduction.

Whether you choose the larger headphones or the smaller ear buds, noise reducing headphones can make your days go faster and your work seem less mind deadening.

Sound proof headphones  come in two major styles, active noise cancellation units and passive units. The active noise cancellation headphones use noise canceling technology which requires its own power supply, usually one or two AA batteries. They have a microphone on the outside of the headphones which monitors the noise. This noise is fed to a small amplifier and it creates the exact opposite noise to what is going on outside. This “opposite” noise is fed into the headphones and the net effect is silence. The silence comes because the two sources of noise cancel each other out when they reach your ears.

These type of headphones have two major disadvantages, the first being price and the second is the requirement for batteries to power the noise canceling circuitry. Some of them also don’t work all that well. You should try the headphones at the store before buying. Hopefully it will be a pretty noisy store.

The passive type of sound proof headphones uses sound absorbing technology. This comes in the form of various sound dampening materials to isolate your ears from the outside. The ear cups typically fit all around the ear, surrounding it completely. This method can be very effective.

The first disadvantages of this approach is the headphones tend to be heavy. Second, the rubber surround on the ear cups has to fit well, so pressure needs to be applied. This can cause ear fatigue. Another potential problem is that you tend to sweat on the rubber surround. Last, but not least, these headphones are anything but inconspicuous, so if you are a commuter, prepare for some odd looks here and there. If you wear glasses, the pressure on and around your ear can make your glasses dig into the side of your head.

Be sure to try on your headphones before you buy them.  They are like pants; you need to know they fit before you commit to them.

Some models have discrete drivers for all the components of a full surround system. There’s a  center speaker for dialog.  You have front speakers which output the normal stereo sound we are accustomed to hearing. Then you have two rear speakers for the surround sound. Finally, you have a dedicated subwoofer for the lowest bass sounds.

In some newer model headphones, all those speakers are actually present inside those large ear cups. If you take the cover off the headphones, you will see a center driver, a front driver, a surround driver and a sub driver. All these drivers are spaced apart so you get enough of a separation of sound to mimic the sound coming from a home theater loudspeaker system.

Do these surround sound headphones actually work? Yes, according to reviews. They are very popular because they actually work very well. A downside is that they are pretty heavy, though.

To round out the package, most headphones come with a multi-channel usb audio adapter. This adapter plugs into your usb port and drives all the channels of the surround headset.

If you do any gaming on your PC, surround sound headphones are a worthy investment.    Most gamers make do with a two speaker rig.  If you have a good set of headphones that have surround sound, your enemy is in real trouble. You will be able to hear them coming from a mile away and you’ll know exactly where they are coming from.

These headphones are not for everybody as they can be a bit bulky and heavy, especially the ones with all the electronics in the headsets themselves. The effect is so uncanny, don’t be surprised if the other players accuse you of cheating. Is it cheating to be using every available technology advance to our advantage? I certainly don’t think so and neither should you.

Noise cancellation headphones are perfect to address our ever increasingly noisy world. Now all you have to do is flick a switch on the headphones and suddenly all goes quiet. Now you can listen to your favorite music unaffected by extraneous noises.

That is the theory, the real world does not always follow suit. There are good and not so good noise cancellation headphones. The not so good ones sound terrible and only mute the outside noise a little and eat up batteries. To be successful at canceling noise, everything must be in order. The lower the quality on any one component, the less effective the noise reduction will be.

The headset has a small circuit inside which samples outside noise. It then creates the exact opposite noise and plays it through the headphones along with the music. The noise from the outside plus the sound injected from the noise canceling circuit will cancel each other out at your ear resulting in music without the noise.  How successful this is in practice varies wildly with different headsets.

Another point worth mentioning is that high price doesn’t always mean better performance. Some very high priced headphones are simply terrible at noise reduction. You really have to put a set on and try them out before buying. This task is best done in a store, not trying out and sending back every headset in a catalog online.

When evaluating noise cancellation headphones, note the estimated battery life. If you are getting less than 20 hours or so on a single set of batteries, you are going to need a lot of batteries. If the headphones you prefer are a battery eater,  rechargeable batteries are a good investment.

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.

One of the wonderful benefits of  wireless headsets is the absence of wires and the freedom to roam your house and take your music with you.  A small trade-off here is that you need batteries to power the headphones. Get yourself two sets of rechargeables  and you won’t have to think about this issue ever again.

Wireless headphones use a few different technologies.  Some versions  use light to transmit the sound. These are called IR headphones, the IR stands for infrared light. The problem with these is that they only work where the light from the transmitter is in the line of sight of the headphones. That means they only work  in that one room.  For total freedom, you need to use radio waves.

 Some RF headphones are bluetooth compatible. If your laptop or notebook has a bluetooth wireless adapter in it, you will be able to connect to your computer and listen to music with your wireless headphones. Usually you find bluetooth compatibility in cellular phones. Your telephone headset is usually powered by bluetooth. This does not mean the technology can’t be used for music. The range is certainly sufficient.

For freedom of range and motion, nothing beats a good set of RF headphones. You can take them outside  and listen to your favorite music outside while enjoying the sun or working in the yard. You can use them outside while gardening or simply relaxing on your favorite chair. You want to exercise outside and listen to music? No problem. Once you get used to the freedom of walking and doing things in and around your house without wires, you’ll think of tons of activities you can do better with music.