Tech Matters Q&A: Which headphones are right for you this Cyber ​​Monday?

Here is that conversation, edited for clarity and length.

How important is audio quality to the gaming experience?

I think it’s really important. Many gamers invest in high quality headphones and so on to ensure that they have maximized their experience, because not only do you want those visuals to come to you, but you also want to be surrounded and immersed in beautiful sound. that accompanies with that.

So what do you use to listen to audio?

Oh man. A handful of things depending on what I’m listening to or where I’m at. I actually have headphones at the moment. Right now I have my Bose noise canceling headphones, but I have a set of AirPods next to me that I use when I exercise.

AirPods, they’re hot these days. Where do they fit in the grand scheme of audio?

“I was really skeptical of them, to be honest I only had mine for a tiny handful of months. I integrated them well into the pandemic because my partner kind of told me to have something smaller in my ears then i They’re actually pretty good, Apple is pretty well known for their decent quality products. They do a good job, the sound is pretty close to something going over your ears and the noise cancellation is pretty good. So I “I’d say they’re pretty decent.”

“I think Apple does a lot of research on their products, they also go to great lengths to make sure that the products are reliable and that they connect seamlessly with their other products like your iPhone or maybe your Mac. There’s a lot of it. And then I think you pay a little more for a premium product, you know, for the brand name and stuff like that. So I think it’s two or three things.

There are some knockoff AirPods, which are less than half the price. Are they good?

That’s a good question, I don’t have much experience with them. I certainly have a lot of experience with cheaper headphones in general, the ones you buy for $ 20, $ 30 at the store … you tend to find that the cables don’t last very long so if they are wired headphones, you know, a few bends in the cable and they don’t work anymore. Maybe they disconnect at the adapter or maybe they get a little hiss or pop later. So there is definitely something to be said about the quality of the components and being careful that you understand that you will often get what you pay for.

Well, [Dr. Dre’s] Beats are another big name in headphones, which are expensive, are they good, or is that the name of the brand?

I don’t have a lot of personal experience with Beats, but I did a bit of digging into them and found that they were rated pretty well in a lot of places, under a lot of circumstances. I think it’s another product that’s a mix of decent to good quality, but also with a brand name going behind them because you see Beats in a lot of TV shows, in a lot of movies. They are kind of the must-haves, they have this really strong logo on the side. So like Apple headphones, I think you get a good product and also think you are paying for the name that goes with it.

And Bose, the ones you have, they suppress the noise. How does it work and does it matter?

Is it necessary? It depends on the circumstances. Noise canceling headphones are actually designed to get rid of that kind of low, monotonous tone of being on airplanes and things like that. So the first noise canceling headphones came from Bose and they were designed when the founder of Bose was flying and couldn’t hear his music over the hum of the plane’s engine. So basically what noise canceling headphones do is they have microphones. So it’s a microphone-headset combination and they listen to the noise that’s going on around you and what they’re doing is actually inverting or making an opposite copy of the sound wave coming into them. headphones from the microphone and they overlap that into what you’re listening to. So what you get is what’s called deconstructive interference which basically cancels out all that background noise.

Are they necessary? I don’t think so, not for everyday use, but they’re certainly nice when you’re in a noisy environment.

What should people think about before buying new headphones?

Your budget should probably be the top of any checklist. Look for reviews, if you don’t have any experience with a particular brand name read the reviews as people tend to be pretty straightforward with things like sound quality and then work within your budget and of these opinions. And you will probably find a very good helmet.

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