A quick look at the newest wireless earphones.

| Thursday, August 4, 2011
By Gunter Fellbaum


Are you overwhelmed by the flood of regular and wireless headphones? You never heard of the terms open and closed headphones or dynamic and static transducers? This overview will help you select the perfect model.

Headphones come in many styles and designs. The smallest type of headphones are so-called in-ear headphones. These headphones are plugged inside the ear. Some models have a bracket that wraps around the ear. In-ear headphones often come with iPods or MP3 players. They are light-weight. Also, they easily can be stored in your pocket. Another type of headphones which are larger than in-ear headphones sit on the ear and have an elastic frame which either sits on the head or wraps around the neck. If you are on a tight budget then you should consider one of these headphones, some models are designed to absorb external noise.

If you are looking for better sound quality then you should take a look at medium-end headphones which have soft ear cushions that depending on the model will be located either on your ear or around your ear. The second design eliminates the pressure on the ears and is preferred by many people. Next you will have to decide whether you want to go with an open design where the audio can penetrate from the transducer to the outside or a closed design. Some people think that an open design will sound light and more natural. A closed design on the other hand will not allow the audio to escape and also block exterior noise.

Most of today's headphones are so-called dynamic headphones. Dynamic refers to the type of transducer that is used. The second more expensive type which requires special headphone amplifiers are static headphones.

Wireless headphones eliminate the headphone cord. Bluetooth headphones are another option to consider. Bluetooth headphones are a type of wireless headphones which are designed for Bluetooth-enabled devices. Such devices include cell phones. The operating range is typically only 30 ft or less. Bluetooth headphones do normally not offer audiophile sound quality.

Other wireless headphones include FM type models which normally work at 900 MHz and digital wireless headphones which work at 2.4 GHz or 5.8 GHz. FM type models are the least expensive option of wireless headphones. The main drawback of FM headphones is a noticeable hissing, audio distortion and fairly high susceptibility to interference which I caused by the transmission.

Digital wireless headphones, such as Amphony headphones, encode audio data prior to the transmission. This makes this type of headphones superior in terms of sound quality. Digital wireless headphones are also fairly robust against interference. Some digital wireless headphones work at the less crowded 5.8 GHz frequency band. This band offers less competition from other wireless devices compared to the 2.4 GHz band.




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