- Wired headphones for making music
- Wireless over-ears or earbuds for listening
- Choose earbuds and headphones your listeners are likely to have
- Older models tend to get the biggest Black Friday discounts
As a recording musician I have strong opinions on headphones and earbuds because I spend so much time using them, both as a music maker and a music fan. And that means I don’t just have one pair of headphones or earbuds. I’ve got more than your local Best Buy.
That’s because different headphones and earbuds excel in different areas, and are useful for different things. For example, if you’re producing music you want headphones that don’t flatter your audio: you want to hear any mistakes. If you’re making music for others to hear, it helps if you listen on the same headphone and earbuds that they’ll be listening to. And because you’re also a music fan, you also want headphones that make your favorite music sound fantastic.
Finding headphones to do all of those different jobs soon adds up, so I tend to draw up a wishlist and then wait for the likes of Black Friday so I can get the ones I want for a bit less cash. These are the ones I’d recommend you look out for this Black Friday.
The must-have: AirPods (or Sony equivalent)
Apple‘s AirPods (and the equivalent Sonys, such as the WF-1000XM5) are the earbuds that many of your listeners will be using, so if you’re making music for a wide audience you want to be checking out how your own music sounds on a set of these.
Which one you choose is largely down to budget and personal preference, but from a purely practical perspective the AirPods 4 are far more likely to get decent Black Friday discounts than the AirPods Pro 3.
Keep an eye out for AirPods Pro 2 deals, though: now Apple’s discontinued them retailers will be shifting what stock they’ve got left. They remain an excellent pair of everyday earbuds.
For my everyday listening on buses, trains and dog walks I actually use different earbuds: Bose QuietComfort 2 earbuds, which I’ve had for a few years now and which are available in even better versions now – see the newer Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen). You really can’t go wrong with Bose earbuds, especially when it comes to ANC, but I think many more of your fans will be listening on Apple or Sony earbuds.
In the studio: Beyerdynamic Pro over-ears
If some bizarre law made it illegal to own more than one pair of headphones, I’d keep my Beyerdynamic DT-770 Pro over-ears.
They’re exceptionally comfortable even during very long sessions, and they deliver a sound that really works for me when I’m mixing: not too flattering, but not painfully harsh either. They’re also well suited to recording vocals as they don’t leak too much audio into the mic. And because they’re wired rather than wireless there’s zero latency, which is crucial with live performances.
I’ve got the 80 ohm versions but there are 32 ohm ones that are easier for phones and tablets to drive as well as 250 ohm ones for studio setups.
Because I’m worth it: AirPods Max, B&W Px7 S2, Cambridge Audio Melomania P100, Grado SR80x
The more headphones you test your music on, the more likely you are to spot issues – and I sometimes hear things on my AirPods Max that I didn’t spot when using my Beyerdynamics. But in all honesty, the reason I have really nice headphones is because I like really nice headphones, especially for analysing or just enjoying other people’s music.
Headphones I’d recommend in this bracket also include the superb Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S2 (there’s a newer model but the S2 is where the deals are) and Cambridge Audio’s very impressive and aggressively priced Melomania P100, as well as wired options such as Grado’s SR80x. These are the headphones you buy because you’re worth it.
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