Alright lets first state that I was buying these headphones for my nephew that was going to be attending college and I agreed if he got into a good school I would get him a pair of top quality headphone for him to use. Now lets be absolutely clear I was not expecting win the bet but a deal is a deal. He gave me a list of headphones he wanted to get and I immediately saw a problem with his list he had NOT listed to or tried any of the head hones on his list. He simply went by what his friends (same age 18) were saying or by some one else reviews. I looked at his list and asked the question - What is a college kid doing with headphones that cost more than his laptop? I told him I would pick out the headphones and they would be everything he needed and more!

Good Headphone Characteristics:

The 5 most important characteristics of a pair of great headphones has to do with 2 important things in my opinion. Thge first veing volume! I have purchased headphone in the past based on just the looks and the brand to be deeply disapointed with the Max Volume coming from the phones. The next equally important is qualioty of the sound, specifically I means as the volume increases does the sound quality drop and you began hearing hissing and other noises. Let us now look at the 5 main charteristics of great headphones.

Top 5 Characteristics

• Drivers/Magnet Size: This is a very important aspect, if not one of the most important, when choosing a headset. Earphone drivers are usually 8mm – 15mm in diameter while headphone drivers are typically 20mm – 50mm. A larger driver produces stronger sound waves (particularly in the bass/sub-bass) but this doesn't mean they sound better. Sound quality can also be improved by the performance of the permanent magnet in the magnetic circuit. These magnets are often made of ferrite or cobalt, although sometimes more exotic material is used for stronger magnets. Mostly all earphones have Neodymium Magnets inside. They are aptly sensitive and reproduce more accurate sound. So generally go with them.
• Sensitivity: Essentially, sensitivity is a measure of how loud a pair of headphones will play at a given power level. If headphone A has a higher sensitivity you get better performance without using more power. In essence your getting more volume using less power at a specific frequency. Generally very good headphone sensitivity is around 105 dB/mW. It ranges from 90 dB/mW to 115 dB/mW. It is better to stay around 105 dB/mW.
• Impedance (Electrical Resistance): Most of your phones have an impedance of around 15-20 ohms, laptops are gonna have an impedance of 32 ohms, jacked up desktop can go from 30-80 depending on the speaker, sub woofers and other extras. If you purchase headphone that have say an impedance close to or right around the device your using they are either gonna fail at first usage or will fail within a short period of time because the drivers you have chosen can't handle the power being delivered to them. If you purchase headphones that have higher impedance than say 50 ohms your not going to damage your headphones on your portable devices. If your headphones have as impedance of say 100 ohms you not going to get the out of them on your laptop and smaller devices because the impedance is so low. There is just not enough power. Hook these same headphones to say you stereo jack which would have a much higher impedance of say around 70-80 ohms coming out of your desktop, your gonna get a much higher quality of sound out of your headphones. Simply put - Select your headphone with the highest impedance you NEED, because as we just illustrated it will give you a broader range of devices you can use without damaging your headphones.
• Frequency Response: The human ear has a frequency range of about 20hz to 20kHz. This range includes extreme bass frequencies in songs that are around 40-100 Hz, and harmonics go down and up to 15-20 Hz. So wider the frequency range of the earphones, the better it is. Most Earphones will offer 20-20kHz. But I generally prefer to go with around 15Hz-20kHz.
• Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) / Noise: When driving headphones at high volumes, it is possible for the diaphragm (the 'speaker' inside the headphones) to be unable to move fast enough. This leads to distortion, manifesting itself as crackling, popping or the alteration of musical notes. This is what most engineers call noise, or total harmonic distortion. I try to look for headphones that have a THD of less than 1%, at that level the noise is completely undetectable to the human ear!

Built to Last a School Year:

Beyond all the concerns of finding the right phones technically was will these things last a school year with a freshman student running around on campus from class to class. So I wasn't going to get something that when dropped would crumbs it pieces. These headphones had to be able to take some abuse but also function within all 5 characteristics of GOOD sound performance. Fortunately through some hard looking we found a set of really good headphones.

Affordability - The ability to Replace

Now we come to the biggest mark for most people looking for anything - THE PRICE! I told the kid there was NO WAY he was getting any headphone $200 or more. He told me about some phone one of his friends dad bought for his friend at around $180. My reply to him was can your reproduce or you afford to rep[lace them if they broke. His reply was really slow in coming. This is when I gave him a little advice about big purchases. You never buy something YOU can't AFFORD TO REPLACE or MAINTAIN! This include all major purchases you may make. Over extending yourself in times are good almost always leads to financial problems down the road. He agreed and said he understood and I showed him to 2 I had selected each slightly over $100. An amount he could afford to replace or save for in short order.

Conclusion - The headphones we settled on were "Beats Solo3 Wireless On-Ear Headphones". They meet every charter parameter, they are not that expensive that he could not replace them and the phone are really durable. I have a pair that are older and I have beat this things up for about 3 years now. I laughed when he said his fereind with the higher costing phone wants a pair like the one he got because they fit better in his backpack. I didn't hink about any backpack stuff, but wanted him to know how to make wise money decision so to get the most value for his dollar!

Good Bye!
Darryl Lipscomb

get yours

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