How many headphones or earbuds do you need

I have a question for you. How many pairs of earphones and/or headphones do you own, or more importantly, how many do you actively use? Originally I didn’t really care about headphones too much. I just used whatever I had lying around, in my case those were my iPhone earbuds. As I started working out I found the cable to be extremely annoying though. It kept getting caught in stuff, so in 2019 I finally decided to buy a wireless pair.

Beats Studio 3 Wireless

The ones I bought were the Beats Studio 3 Wireless. I can already hear the Sony squad in the background. “Why those, when X and Y are so much better?” Honestly, I liked the look better. The sound was such an insane step up from the iPhone earbuds anyway, that other options being better in comparison didn’t really push it that much further, when taking the original iPhone earbuds as a benchmark.

When I bought my Beats, the model was two and a half years old already, but in terms of design I liked the look of them better than most other options out there. They also did their job perfectly and lasted me until May of this year, that’s 2022 if you are watching this later. The over-ear design, active noise cancelling working decently well and a relatively snug fit, I didn’t really have any complaints… outside of summer and once again, working out. The pool of sweat that would collect and stream down my face thanks to those snug cushions, is a level of discomfort that was driving me absolutely insane. It’s fine during heavy lifts as your mind shifts its focus, but during rest periods in between sets and especially during cardio, it’s a disgusting feeling. The solution to that was to put them over my hoodie, which is fine, from like, September to May, but during summer, you’re now heating up your head even more. Not great. At home, using a cable to play or just connected to my laptop or TV via bluetooth, there weren’t really any issues. It was once again just my workouts that drove the desire for something that made this entire experience less dreadful.

For some time I wanted to buy either the Powerbeats Pro, Beats Fit Pro or AirPods Pro for the gym. The decision making process was accelerated however when my Beats fell down and snapped. I did actually fix them a few days later and they are still, fully functional, but I did order a new pair of headphones that very same day they broke.

AirPods Max

Insanely expensive and overpriced, of course, no one with a sound mind is going to argue that, but I have already established my thought process in the beginning and this also isn’t a product buyers guide, so let’s leave the pricing structures for another time.

So I bought them the day my Beats Studio 3 Wireless broke and from the first second onwards the AirPods Max were such an unfathomable upgrade in terms of everything, it was kind of nuts. They are more comfortable, active noise cancelling is on a completely different level and while I had tried out the transparency mode on my wife’s Beats Solo Pros, this was also an absolute game changer for me.

I did say to leave pricing out of this, but there’s one thing I have to mention. I took them to the gym the first day and just like with my Beats Studio 3 Wireless, I put them over my hoodie, which simply didn’t work as well, because of their shape and I also pick up my wife from the train station every day after she finishes work. While I am waiting there I just listen to music or watch something on my phone. Both at the gym and going out to pick up my wife with the AirPods Max on my head made me feel insanely self conscious about how much I had spent on them. It is not the money I had spent on them however, it’s more of a feeling of having put a target with a well known price tag on your head, literally. So now those are actual at-home headphones and for that, I would not want to go back to either the Beats Studio 3 Wireless or the generic iPhone earbuds ever again.

I can’t overstate how much I love this pair of headphones. I sometimes press the ANC button to switch back and forth between transparency and ANC just for fun. And I know I am not the only one, as I saw other people mention that in their videos as well. Here’s the thing though, my original problem still hadn’t been addressed. As I mentioned I had fixed my Beats and now I was using them at the gym again, which kind of put me back at square one. At this point in time, it was getting very close to summer again, which means things were just going to get worse from here on out, yet again.

Now that I had a pair of AirPods Max though, with a good grasp of how both ANC and transparency work with AirPods, plus how they magically and automatically switch between my laptop and my phone without any further inputs from my end, yeah I kind of had made my choice.

AirPods Pro

Any type of Beats product was no longer an option for me, I wanted a pair of AirPods Pro. So in July, I got them. I know, I shouldn’t have as the newer version was just around the corner, but it didn’t really matter, in a similar manner to how the 4090 didn’t really matter to me for my gaming PC either. Plus, by September I actually might have given up on life at that point. I really needed to fix this problem, as soon as possible.

As soon as I tried them out, I immediately had two surface level complaints. For one, active noise cancelling is nowhere near as good as it is on my AirPods Max and there is no way to adjust the volume on the AirPods themselves. Two issues that were actually addressed with version 2, but I haven’t tried them yet, so whatever. These complaints however really are just surface level and nothing else, because, while ANC isn’t AS good as it is on the Max, it is great and drowns out just about everything at the gym. They stay in my ears during barbell squats, deadlifts, pull-up negatives and even on the elliptical. The elliptical in particular was something I worried about, as with the standard earbuds back then, they would keep falling out of my ears due to the constant up and down movements.

For going on my daily walks, transparency mode is great too. I actually don’t go on walks too frequently right now, as I am doing a lot more cardio these days and I am also on my feet most of the day during the weekend, when I am working at the café. When I am outside though, I have transparency mode enabled, as I don’t want to get run over by either a bicycle, e-scooter or a car. Transparency mode in particular actually showed me how comfortable the AirPods Pro are to wear, as after a while I sometimes seem to forget that I even have them in and send them flying when I take off my jumper. They are mainly an outside kind of thing for me though. I will occasionally use them when I am sitting on the balcony and scroll through TikTok, well, not now, but you know, when I am just wasting my life away, as most millennials do. At home I am almost exclusively using my AirPods Max though. The main reason for that is, that there is of course no option to tether up your AirPods Pros and let’s face it, that’s not something anyone is looking for when you are seeking out a set of wireless earbuds.

Video games and latency

When it comes to video games and latency, I need to preface this by saying that this will only be a sticking point for some people, I am one of those people however. If you’re playing fighting games, rhythm games, or anything else that might require some type of input in tandem with audio cues, bluetooth headphones will never be the way to go. Luckily my Beats Studio 3 Wireless, AirPods Max, as well as my wife’s Beats Solo Pro all allow for a wired connection, however…

Battery

None of these can be used without a charge. In the case of the Solo Pros and the AirPods Max, you cannot even use them tethered up whilst they are charging, as they only have that one dreaded lightning connector and that’s it. I haven’t actually run into any issues myself just yet, as I am quite good at keeping all my current devices charged. I can however see this being an issue for some people, where the battery might just run out and now you are without a pair of headphones again. Most of them only need just a very small amount of charge to last a few hours again, but it’s still something to take into account.

How many?

So when the question is, how many pairs of earbuds and/or headphones do you need? I’d say it varies. If you don’t want to spend a lot of money, just one, right? Just take your pick and make sure that it’s going to work with everything that you want to be using it for. In my case, I definitely needed two pairs. One pair of Headphones for productivity and playing video games at home, which are the AirPods Max and the AirPods Pro for exercise and general out of home activities.

Apple

My household is deeply entrenched within the Apple ecosystem and has been for years, which is why in terms of convenience and quality the AirPods lineup makes sense to me. Pricing again, different topic for a different day, but yes, also again, the products are way too expensive. Regardless of what your setup looks like, I do not believe that AirPods can be recommended to just anyone. Beyond the price there’s also the matter of how comfortable a pair of head- or earphones are for you. Do you want on-ear, over-ear or in-ear? I for one can’t deal with on-ear types, which is why I never really used my wife’s Solo Pros for more than a few minutes. So if you prefer Sony, Samsung, or whatever other Brand is out there that fits your criteria, that’s the one you should go with.

As long as it fits within your budget and you are happy with the sound quality, your criteria should be focused around if you are going to get two different pairs or just one. This is not really a decision making process that an audiophile would go through, as they would probably need a lot more pairs for a lot more money each, but for us mere mortals with peasant ears, the next most important part is just how comfortable it is. How long are you going to be wearing these uninterrupted? Long flights or train rides? Just your average daily commute to work? Exercise? Do you even use ear- or headphones at home? Especially if that last one is a no and you are comfortable with in-ear options, wireless earbuds are most likely the best option to go with. Do keep in mind though that when you connect them directly to your Switch for example, that there is noticeable latency between the on-screen action and the audio coming through.

Just try to imagine every possible scenario that comes up in your daily life and see if your choice would still get the job done. There are always instances in life that you cannot account for and that’s fine, they’re not daily occurrences and nothing to worry about. Everything that is constant though, make sure that the pair you acquire can handle it. No matter what brand you are going to go with, it’s still going to cost you enough to regret having made a bad purchase. What about you? What’s your daily driver, how many different pairs do you use? Do you use ear- or headphones at all? See you next time.