Headphones

Headphones are "mini-speakers" that deliver the sound directly to your ear. The proximity to the ear allows headphones to require very little power. Unlike full size speaker cabinets that require fairly large amplifiers to drive them, headphones can be driven by amplifiers that are not even visible such as the amps inside an MP3 player like the iPod, iPhone and many other portable devices. Because of the proximity of the headphone speakers to your ears, you can get higher sound quality with less equipment and consequently less money.

Why headphones?

• Cost - A headphone will cost you much less than a full size sound system would and deliver the same high quality sound experience you could get from them.
  
  
• Portability - Headphones can travel with you practically anywhere. You can take them to work, school, airplane, subway, your bedroom, your family room, hotels, your dream vacation destiny, the pool, the mountains, the train, the boat, the toilet, well, you get the idea.
  
  
• Multiple usage - Headphones can be used while commuting, studying, working, talking on your iPhone (or your favorite smartphone), travelling, running (jogging), exercising, relaxing, meditating, sleeping, watching a movie and playing video games.

Headphones can be divided in 2 large groups

• In Ear Headphones - also known as: earphones, earbuds, ear buds, canalphones, canal phones, earbud headphones, etc. They are basically the smaller lower quality in the ear speakers that are included with portable devices such as the iPod or they could be high end in ear headphones with multiple drivers on each earpiece that can outperform $1,000 headphones or $10,000 sound systems.
  
  
• Full-size Headphones - also known as standard headphones, stereo headphones, etc. These are quite bigger than the in ear headphones and they fit outside the ear mostly in the shape of an earcup. Some headphones fit flat on the ear. Some headphones have an open design. The open headphones let more outside sound in and more of the music out. For that reason the open headphones would not be a good option for use in a library for example or if it's a work environment that you share with your colleagues or classmates as they would also be able to hear your music. Closed headphones, in comparison, isolate more. They are preferred by sound engineers, people that work in a noisy environment, frequent flyers, etc. Less outside will go in and less music will leak out.