Hey everyone, John here. This may seem like an obvious topic, but there are a lot of differences between headphones and earphones… some of which are not as obvious as you may think.

Headphones

Starting with the shape and size. Headphones, as the name suggests, fit on your head, and have a headband that sits on top of your head. At either side of the headband, you have the speaker housings or earcups. The earcups hold the speaker drivers, and are designed in one of two ways: on-ear and over-ear. On-ear headphones have the earcups sitting on the ear and tend to be smaller in size, making them ideal for portable use. Over-ear headphones are larger and have the earcups completely surround the ear. Because of this, they tend to be used mainly indoors or where there isn’t much movement needed.

Earphones

Earphones are a lot smaller, and sit in the ear or in the ear canal. There are three main types of earphones:

Earpods / Earbuds

The older earphone design, or newer earpods, rest in the ear without going into the ear canal. This fit means that you are less likely to create a good seal between the earphone and your ear, resulting in an open sound that can tend to be a bit bass light. This fit also means that they will not isolate sound very well, meaning you are more likely to hear what is going on around you and people nearby will be able to listen to your music. Not ideal for public transport, but liked by sports users as it can be useful to hear your surroundings.

In Ear Earphones

In-ear isolating earphones have a deeper fit and will go into the ear canal, they also have eartips installed. This not only helps to keep the earphones in place, they also help create a good seal which improves isolation and sound quality, especially bass performance. In-ear earphones are the most common fit, and there are two ways of wearing them depending on the design. Cable straight down, and cable over the ear. The cable-over-the-ear design tends to provide a more secure fit and deeper insertion into the ear canal. This way, you will benefit from better isolation. Still, a lot of people prefer the cable-straight-down design as they are easier to use.

A quick note on bass performance. It is very important to make sure that you achieve a good seal when using in-ear isolating earphones. If you do not do this, the main effect to the sound will be a loss of bass… and nobody wants that. When this happens, the sound can come across very tinny and flat, so make sure you try all of the supplied eartips to ensure you’re getting the best sound possible from your new earphones.

Custom In Ears

Lastly, you have custom in-ears. These earphones are customised to fit your ear specifically. This is the best way of achieving a perfect seal, which hugely improves isolation and sound quality. This is done by having a mould of your ear taken, and then used to make an earphone that perfectly fits the shape of your ear. This is a more expensive option and is currently only offered by a small number of manufacturers.

Sound

There is also a big difference between how headphones and earphones sound. I wouldn’t say that one is better than the other. The overall experience is different and people will favour one over the other.

Headphones tend to deliver a more natural listening experience. What I mean by this is that with the speakers being away from the ears, sound is delivered in a more natural way. With our ears playing a part in capturing the sound, similar to how we hear day to day. Headphones can also deliver a bigger or wider sound due to the size of the drivers used and them being away from our ears.

With the speakers being so close to the ear, or even inside the ear canal, the experience from earphones is very different and can take a while for some people to get used to. Due to the fit being so close to the ear, and much smaller speakers being used, earphones are capable of delivering a very high amount of clarity and detail. Sometimes this can be overwhelming, especially for those who have never used earphones before. The close fit also means that sound can come across narrower and feel like it is coming from inside the head when compared to a headphone.

Conclusion

Ultimately, it comes down to taste and how you want to listen to your music. Both headphones and earphones can be used in a large number of situations, and whether you prefer using headphones or earphones – there will be a model out there for you.

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Review: Shure SE in-ear sound isolating headphone range

If you’ve decided you like in-ear sound isolating earphones it’s quite likely that you have come across theShure SE in-ear sound isolating headphone range . This round-up is a brief review summary of Shure’s range of ear canal headphones.

Shure have a long heritage of designing microphones and earphones for the professional audio industry. Shure’s build quality is normally excellent, you get good value for money and their headphones come with a reassuring 2 year Shure warranty. Shure’s previous range of ear canal headphones (EC2 and EC3) were generally very well regarded and the SE range is the evolutionary next step.

So let’s see what they have to offer…

Shure SE110 and SE210 – entry level

Currently the entry level in-ear headphone is the Shure SE110 sound isolating earphone. The SE110 is a very worthwhile upgrade from standard iPod headphones. You will be able to hear detail in your music that you simply could not hear before. Saying that the SE110 does lack the bass punch that many listeners expect when upgrading to a more ‘expensive’ pair of headphones.

Shure SE110

The Shure SE210 earphone adds another layer of definition and a small amount more bass response than the SE110. For the modest difference in price it really is worth upgrading to the SE210’s.

Shure SE210

Both the SE110 and SE210 earphones are very sensitive and you may find that you have to watch the volume levels. For example when listening to an iPod Nano I found that anywhere over half volume is too much for extended periods. With the standard iPod headphones I regularly listened upto 75% volume. This is partly due to the fact that they are sound isolating and your music is not competing with the sounds around you, but is also due to the sensitivity of the headphones. It’s unlikely you will want a headphone amp with either the Shure SE110’s or SE210 headphones.

Shure SE310 – midrange

The Shure SE310 earphone is still just a single armature driver design, but the sonic clarity is absolutely spot on. The single speaker design gives the SE310 the advantage that it’s smaller than it’s bigger brothers (the SE420 and SE530). This mid-range offering from Shure has quite a bit of competition, including the Ultimate Ears Super.fi 5 Pro, but holds it’s own with the best of them.

Shure SE310

While the SE range are ideal iPod headphones you will only really get the best from your headphones when listening to uncompressed (e.g. AAC and FLAC) digital music. If you try listening to poor quality, low bitrate MP3’s you may be disappointed by all the sonic artefacts you can hear in your music, e.g. normally resulting in a ‘crunchy’ sound. If uncompressed audio is not possible then 192Kbps is really a minimum when listening with good quality in ear sound isolating headphones.

Shure SE420 – audiophile quality with twin micro-speakers

This is the first in Shure’s range to introduce the idea of more than one driver within the earphone, much like a multi-way speaker. The Shure SE420 earphone utilizes a dual armature driver, with the lows driven by one driver and the high frequencies driven by another dedicated speaker. The result is an extra clean punch to the bass and a slightly more accurate response across the board than the single driver SE310. Compared to the Ultimate Ears Super.fi 5 Pro the SE420’s bass response is stronger and overall slightly warmer sounding. If your preference is for clean and accurate response then you may prefer the UE 5 Pro.

Shure SE420

Shure SE530 – top of the range

The flagship in-ear-monitor from Shure is currently the spectacular Shure SE530 earphone. Whilst not cheap, this headphone really is the pinnacle of consumer ear canal headphone technology. The earphone utilizes three tiny micro-drivers, just like a three way HiFi speaker. The end result is an extremely accurate, dynamic earphone with deep, powerful bass response.

The fact that the Shure SE530 headphone contains three speakers does increase the size a little, but the earphone is very comfortable to wear for long periods and is as easy to fit as the other Shure models.

Shure SE530

The bottom line is that the SE530 is one of the best in-ear headphones you will find. The SE530’s sound absolutely stunning, with accurate response across the full frequency range and when called for a deep powerful bass response.

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