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!

Have you had a chance to take a peek at the latest and greatest from Westone – the Westone 4R? If not, now is definitely the time. Coming from Westone, you already know the 4R is going to be something to write home about for sure, especially if you forgot to include it in your letter to Santa! But as for what you’ll actually be writing?

First, you’ll likely jot down the specs: 118dB @ 1mW sensitivity, 4 symmetrically balanced armature drivers, TrueFit Technology, a generously-sized 50” removable cable, 31 ohms, sleek style, and of course, even more. And even with these phones being oh-so-fresh, the reviews are already rolling in, and we anticipate many more once everyone has had a real chance to enjoy them after the hustle and bustle of the holiday season.

If your presents this year didn’t include a new set from Westone, don’t sit around sulking for 12 more months. Make a resolution to put your holiday cash toward buying something you’ll enjoy every day, whether you’re relaxing on the couch, concentrating on work, or letting your favorite gym playlist carry you through the last mile on the treadmill. They’re comfortable, have superior symmetry and the Epic removable cables will even resist tangles – these are the earphones for the job!

We’re excited to see what you think of the new Westone 4R, and hope you’ll share your review with us on this most impressive set. The more people in the world listening through high-quality earphones, the happier a place it will be!

According to Grissini’s steps on Instructables.com for creating “Muff-Fones,” you can “hack some headphones into a spare pair of earmuffs” in just a few steps. We would never recommend doing this to a sweet set of the high-quality headphones available at Earphone Solutions, but if you have an old, off-brand set you aren’t using anyway, this could make for an interesting Saturday afternoon.

The necessary ingredients for this recipe of snuggly sound are simple enough – earmuffs and headphones. And while we recommend going cheap on the headphones as you’ll be taking them apart a bit, we recommend opting for a decent pair of earmuffs. After all, the point of the project is to keep you warm and toasty while listening to tunes in the shivery days of winter. Go super cheap on the earmuffs themselves and you’re wasting your time! A few tools are necessary as well, and some careful attention to detail and safety, but overall the earmuff mod doesn’t look to be very time intensive at all.

Another upside to keeping your ears cradled in the comfort of Muff-Fones while outdoors is that you might just find yourself appreciating the crisp, clean unfiltered sounds of your everyday Beyerdynamic headphones or Sennheiser headphones even more. The first note you hear once you’re warm indoors will be like the first bite of a premium, Grade A burger after a week of fast food!

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.

At Earphone Solutions, it is our goal to make shopping for the best earphones not only easy, but also enjoyable. After all, getting a new set of quality buds isn’t like writing out a check for the mortgage or making a car payment – this is the fun stuff! For me, it’s akin to setting up an appointment with the eye doctor. Like most people, I don’t exactly look forward to most doctor appointments. But the eye doctor? Apart from the slight discomfort of that ‘puff test,’ going to the eye doctor is actually pretty exciting. Not only won’t he notice if I haven’t been flossing, but I get to choose a new pair of awesome frames. Sure, new earphones are more exciting than new frames, but I have enough excitability in me for both!

But other than the excitement factor, what I also love about the eye doctor is that everything I need is in one place. I don’t have to go to another location for blood work like I might after a visit with the family doctor; I don’t have to see an endodontist like I might have to after a visit with the dentist. Everything I need, from the exam itself to the puff test to the selection of new frames, is right there in one place. When I walk out, I’ve already paid for everything and just have to anxiously await its arrival. That is what we strive for at Earphone Solutions – to provide you with everything you need in one place, from the specs and extensive reviews to the quality earphones themselves. You can ‘walk in’ needing earphones, and walk out having made an informed, exciting purchase. But there’s one element our site was missing, and something we we’re able to figure out how to add until now – your friends and family.

Don’t worry, we haven’t kidnapped anyone! We just found a way to be where they already are – in your Facebook. We aren’t new to Facebook itself; we’ve been lucky enough to connect with many of you at the Earphone Solutions Facebook page for quite some time now. But we recently launched something new that you can access from our Facebook page – the Earphone Solutions Facebook Store. While you can always visit us at EarphoneSolutions.com, our Facebook Store lets you browse and shop our site without ever leaving Facebook. Pretty cool, right?! No clicking back and forth between tabs, missing anything important in your Mini-Feed, or cutting any Facebook Chats short. You can shop and socialize at the same time, and importantly, ask your friends or family members for their input more easily.

Have an uncle that’s a Shure earphones expert and want his take on a set? Open a Chat and see what he thinks! Just made a purchase that you’re super excited about? Announce it on your wall mere moments after ordering. We’re really excited about our new Earphone Solutions Facebook Store, but we’d really love to hear feedback from you!

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.

We’ve always considered ourselves among the biggest fans of Etymotic earphones, and are proud to be an Authorized Etymotic dealer. Not only are Etymotics some of the most unique looking earphones on the market, but they’re also an affordable option that works well for those with a more modest budget who aren’t willing to compromise on a quality set of earphones. But for as much as we loved Etymotic earphones before, we love them even more now that we heard about their Awareness! iPhone App. In short, it is awesome.

To quote Etymotic.com, the Awareness! App “is an innovative earphone app for anyone who uses an
hf3 or mc3 headset or Etymotic earphones and needs to hear sounds around them.” It “listens to your surroundings while you listen to music. Any sound louder than normal background noise can be heard in your earphones.” The App will actually pause the music you are listening to through your iPod player when an external noise “exceeds the set mic threshold”, and will resume play once the noise has subsided. This AutoSet feature reads your environment to determine what qualifies as an “above normal” range, making it possible to enjoy music in more places with less danger. This App is designed for hf2, hf3, mc2, mc3 and ETY-Kids 3 models, and has certain minimum hardware and software requirements, including iOS 4.1 and above, and iPhone 3GS and above.

If you want to try out the Awareness! for Etymotic noise isolation App yourself, you can download it free through Apple’s App Store. It currently has a 5-star rating, and the reviews speak for themselves. Users are taking advantage of the App everywhere from the subway to taking their dog for a walk. We love it when good sound and safety come together, and congratulate Etymotic on an App very well done!

Here at Earphone Solutions, we are always working hard to not only bring you the best earphones and headphones available, but also to offer you the information you need to feel confident you’ve made the right choice, and make the earphones and headphones that are best suited to your needs easy to find. We take notice of how our customers are navigating our site so we can continue to make improvements and adjustments when necessary, and taking notice gives us a sneak peek at what’s going on in the wonderful world of audio! What do we mean exactly? Let us explain…

As we mentioned above, we like to make it as easy as possible for everyone to find the best earphone solution to suit their needs. Some people prefer to shop by brand if they have a favorite or have read good reviews of a particular set. Others prefer to shop by price if they are looking for the best pair that matches their budget. Others shop by Best Earphones, others by lifestyle, and others still prefer to browse our earphones by type – and it is those ‘by type’ others we’ve been seeing a lot of this week! What are they looking for, you might ask? They are looking for the best gaming headphones. And we think we might know why!

When the iPhone 4S release was announced just over a month ago, just like you, we were more than well aware. But even if we hadn’t known, we would have as soon as we looked at how people were shopping our site. Our iPhone Earphones category was the most popular kid in the class as people prepared to outfit their new iPhones with the best set of buds. And while people are certainly still looking for iPhone earphones, those looking for gaming headphones aren’t far behind! What would cause this recent surge in popularity? For one, the holidays are on the near horizon. Premium headphones and earphones are a popular holiday gift for audiophiles and casual listeners alike, so that is surely part of the answer. But we think it might also have to do with a little game you might have heard of named Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. From what we’ve heard, it’s kind of a big deal!

When wildly popular new games like those in the Call of Duty series hit stores, the effects are felt across many avenues. I have a few friends that take a vacation day when a Call of Duty video game hits the stores, and chances are good that many of you reading this do as well (or are one of those people yourself!) These games can be as much about the sounds as they are the visuals, and wearing premium gaming headphones while playing can let you more fully immerse yourself in the experience, escaping the world for a while to really get down to the business of gaming. After all, when you’re really committed to beating a game, it’s as though winning is your call of duty.