Even in this wireless age, wired headphones still hold quite a bit of magic. They beat out wireless headphones in terms of audio quality — and you still need a wired connection to listen to true lossless audio — plus they harken back to an analog time, where you could tinker with various amps, DACs and equalizers to tweak and improve the sound subtly. They’re typically more affordable, too, which is always a good thing.
That said, picking out a pair of wired headphones can be complicated — even today. You’ve got to decide whether you want closed-back or open-back headphones and figure out how much you want to spend. Instead of traditional headphones with dynamic drivers, you could buy fancier ones with electromagnetic or planar magnetic drivers made of high-end materials and cost many thousands of dollars.
Why Open-Back Headphones?
Open-back headphones aren’t for everybody. Their design naturally leaks audio so that the people around you can hear what you’re listening to; plus they let outside noises in and that will thus hamper your listening experience. Basically, in order for open-back headphones to make sense, you need to be listening to them in a quiet space — like a private office.
The big advantage of open-back headphones is they sound amazing. They deliver an incredibly immersive audio experience with an absolutely enormous soundstage that most closed-back headphones can’t compete with. They basically sound like you’re at a live concert or listening to the artist in the recording studio. It’s amazing.
For this guide, we wanted to exclusively focus on open-back headphones as we wanted to prioritize high-quality audio at a relatively affordable price.
We imagine somebody who is working remotely and looking to improve their desktop audio situation — a great pair of wired headphones that’s paired with a relatively affordable headphone amplifier, you can get a great little setup for in-or-around (or substantially less) than today’s top wireless headphones, like the Sony WH-1000XM5 or Apple’s AirPods Max.
