Best Earphones

While most of us listen to a wide variety of music, and a favorite playlist can find hip hop and pop right on top of one another, there is often one type of music we listen to most often. Or, at the very least, there is one type of music whose audio crispness and quality matters most. That quality comes from the recording itself, of course, but also from the speakers or earphones through which we listen to it. And as it turns out, those earphones might have some musical preferences of their own!

We decided to run a little experiment to determine the best earphones by music type. Working with our staff and some carefully-chosen friends and family members, we put together a 12-person team of testers – 8 males and 4 females. The mission they were given was simple and sweet; to listen to a variety of songs from a chosen group of popular musical genres. These genres included Classical, Rock, Hip Hop, Techno/Trance, Acoustic, Latin, Country and Jazz. Each was given an assortment of popular high-end earphones through which to listen to the music and asked to rate each set on its sound for the songs they listened to in each genre. Each tester had the same earphones, same songs. And once the results were in, we tallied them up to find the best of the best!

You can scroll to the bottom of our best earphones by music type page to see all the results and read more about the test itself, but we’ll provide you with a quick summary here…

You ready to Rock? Then Westone 3 and Westone UM3X should top your list! In fact the Westone 3 was the most popular of all the sets we tested, being the hands-down selection for Hip Hop and Techno/Trance, and one of the 2 top picks for Rock, mentioned above, as well as Country music. For Classical, testers’ ears were pleased as punch by the Shure SE535 and Westone 4. The Shure SE535 also joined the Westone 3 for Country tunes, the Westone UM3X for Acoustic tracks, and the Shure SE425 for Jazz. Who took home the most honors? Let’s have a look at which phones will best meet your musical needs, and which have the most well-rounded sound…

Westone 3 – Rock, Hip Hop, Techno/Trance, Country
Shure SE535 – Classical, Acoustic, Jazz, Country
Westone UM3X – Rock and Acoustic
Westone 4 – Classical
Shure SE425 – Latin

We all know the importance of a perfect fit for earphones, but fitness goes far beyond the ear! If you’re among the countless teens, men and women working hard at keeping your New Year’s Resolution to get in better shape, one of the important tools you can add to your arsenal of motivation is a serious set of workout-ready earphones. Whether you’re keeping it indoors at the gym, or with workout DVDs, or venturing outdoors for walks, jogs, hikes and runs, Earphone Solutions has the best earphones to help you take some tunes along on your journey!

The Best Earphones for Running and Sports

When it comes to a snug fit that won’t quit, two brands that are always at the top of their game are Westone and Shure. Fumbling with your earphones at the gym or on the track or trail isn’t only annoying – it can be downright dangerous to you and your earphones. Dangling cords can easily get caught in a machine or trip you up on the treadmill if they slip free. Plus, as we said, it’s annoying! You’re trying to stay in the zone with your carefully-chosen playlist of motivating music and your earphones keep trying to make the great escape. Not cool, earphones. Not cool at all. So skip the cheap sets and treat yourself to some quality earphones in our selection of recommended options from Westone and Shure. It’s an investment in keeping your annoyance level low and your motivation high!

At Earphone Solutions, we fully recognize that we are only a part of what makes us one of the best earphone retailers. We think we’re an important part, but still just a part! After all, we couldn’t be the best at offering high-quality earphones at a great price if companies including Shure, Westone and Klipsch didn’t produce those earphones in the first place. We also couldn’t beat Amazon’s prices if Amazon didn’t exist in the first place!

But what we really couldn’t do is provide people with such an amazing, thorough, diverse variety of feedback without you. We truly mean it when we say the knowledge, dedication to quality sound and willingness to help others that our customers bring is a huge, integral part of what makes us a premiere destination for earphones. The product reviews you’ll find at Earphone Solutions, all 2,500+ of them and counting, help others make an informed decision and learn more about what they should be looking for. Read enough reviews and you can go from Earphones 101 to advanced classes in no time, so in short…Thank You!

What you may not know is that in addition to the reviews you see on our site, we are the first online high-end earphone retailer to give you the option to ask a specific question about any of the products we offer and get answers not only from our tech support team, but also the Earphone Solutions community! We will always try to answer any and all questions you might have, but we also invite others who have purchased the same earphones you have questions about to share in their experience. These are real people who are really using these earphones and can provide a real world perspective on how well they are working for them in a variety of settings. So we can ask Jim if they’re good for the gym – ask Olivia if they’re good for the office – ask Ron if they’re good for running!

You get the answers you need, and we consider all the information we receive to better categorize our best earphones by lifestyle and provide more well-rounded feedback in the future. It’s a beautiful system, and we’re grateful for how helpful you’ve all been, how many questions we were able to solidly answer, and how much we all help each other learn every day. Thanks for joining us on this journey to the best sound possible for the most people. It may be a small revolution, but it’s ours!

Is there a special teen on your holiday shopping list that has an eye for smart design and an even better ear for it? A nice new set of earphones would make the ideal stocking stuffer – even better than oranges and socks! We have put together a collection of our Top 4 Best Earphones for Teens, all designed to perform and comfortably fit smaller ears, with a consideration for price as well. All high-rated earphones, our list includes Shure SE215, Shure SE315, a-Jays Three and the perfect entry-level set for Westone, the Westone 1.

As with a gift you buy for any teen – or someone of any age, really – one of the most important things to consider is how well they will take care of it. As someone who always respected my belongings, even as a young child, I know firsthand how good it feels to be trusted to properly care for something. If the teen you’re shopping for also respects their belongings and appreciates that quality earphones don’t grow on trees, spending more will not only treat them to better-sounding tunes, but give them an opportunity to prove that they deserve your trust.

If your teen is like most, they possess an ever-expanding collection of music that can range from classical to hip-hop and beyond. With the internet at their fingertips in a way it wasn’t for many of us, they have an unprecedented exposure to all types of music, and an enviable opportunity to discover new talents and their own personal taste at a very young age. They also often have the best multimedia players available, making them an ideal candidate for the best earphones through which to listen to all that great music! Ah, to be a teen today. Hope they recognize how musically good they have it.

It isn’t every pair of earphones or headphones that earns a 5-star rating from more than 30 reviewers. It also isn’t every pair of earphones or headphones that leaves people saying they are “A Gate To The 7th Dimension,” “Music Heaven,” and the “Best Universal In-ears I’ve Ever Heard.” Think it’s only diehard Westone fans saying these things? Not quite! One reviewer titles their release “Westone Finally Wins Me Over.” So what is this magical pair of earphones that has everyone singing its praises? We’ll give you a hint: It comes packed with four balanced armature drivers, a three-way crossover network and little “4” on the side of each bud. Yeah, we’re not exactly making it tricky, especially if you read the title! We’re talking about the Westone 4 – one of the “Big 8” at Earphone Solutions.

At Earphone Solutions, we are audiophiles just like you. We can’t wear to tear open the packaging on a new set of phones, test it against all our favorite music, compare notes and repeat. We give them a listen, have our best friends give them a listen, reach out to fellow audiophiles to see what their initial impressions are, and so forth. Sometimes reviews are mixed, sometimes not. For the Westone 4, reviews were not very mixed at all. Everyone at least kinda loved them, even those who expected not to.

We always want you to make the best earphones decision for your needs, preferences and ear shape and size. We understand that quality earphones are an investment, and that even if money is no object, you want a perfect pair the first time. To make that right decision more easily made, we have created categories of the best earphones for specific activities, including everything from “best earphones for running” to “best earphones for yoga & meditation.” And for as much as some of these ‘bests’ vary from activity to activity, there are a handful of earphones that are simply the best no matter how you look at it. Westone 4s are one of those bests, which is precisely why they landed a secure position in our “Big 8” – our current assessment of the best earphones on the market.

But don’t think this is just us picking personal favorites! We read every review that our customers submit (thank you!), and every review from outside sources we can get our hands on. We also consider the pure capabilities of the earphone at hand, and how well it delivers because of or even in spite of those capabilities. It’s a big picture approach aimed at making it easy to choose a reliably amazing pair of earphones if you don’t know where to begin, will be wearing them for multiple activities, or simply want to experience a set for yourself that some of the most discerning ears have already given a thumbs-up! To be sure, a 5-star rating from any group of 30+ people would be tricky to achieve. But when those are people who really and truly know what to listen for – people who have really trained their ears to pick up on every high, mid, low and subtle nuance – 5-stars shine even brighter.