Over-ear Headphones

About

Over ear headphones sit around your ears rather than pressing directly on them or sitting inside the ear canal. The larger earcups can give you more room for comfortable padding, stronger passive isolation and a fuller bass response. They are a popular choice for long listening sessions, travel, gaming and studio work. If you are deciding between different styles, browse the wider headphones range to compare your options. Choose Between Open and Closed Back The back of the earcup changes how headphones sound and how much outside noise gets through. Open-back headphones allow air and sound to move through the earcups. This can create a wider, more natural sense of space, making them popular for home listening and some mixing work. They leak sound and offer little isolation, so they are not ideal for commuting or recording near a live microphone. Closed-back headphones keep more sound inside the earcups and block more outside noise. They suit travel, everyday listening, studio recording and monitoring when you do not want your audio spilling into the room. Know What Noise Cancelling Can Do Passive isolation comes from the physical seal around your ears. Active noise cancelling, or ANC, uses microphones and processing to reduce outside sound. ANC works particularly well with steady, low-frequency sounds such as aircraft engines and transport noise. Sudden voices and changing sounds can be harder to remove completely. Many ANC headphones also have transparency or ambient modes that let outside sound back in when you need to hear announcements or talk to someone. Compare Wireless and Wired Listening Bluetooth makes wireless headphones convenient for phones, computers and travel. Different Bluetooth codecs affect how audio is transmitted, but sound quality also depends on the headphones and source device. Wired headphones remove Bluetooth compression from the connection and do not rely on wireless battery life. On wireless models, check whether a cable can be used as a fa