Difference between...

[Merc.]

...In-ears, on-ears and over-ears? Basically sound and comfort differences. Can someone explain and clarify some differences between those types of headphones?

 

Also which type of headphones would you choose for following situations:

 

Training on the gym:

Walking to school:

Gaming:

Listening to music from phone:

Travelling:

DJing:

Monitoring:

 

Choose only in, on or over ear for those above. (don't recommend any specific headphone please)

 

Thank you.

 

[lufihengr]

 

Training on the gym: In ear

Walking to school:In ear

Gaming: Over

Listening to music from phone: At home, over ears and on the move in ears

Travelling: In ear mostly

DJing: Over ear

Monitoring: Over ear

 

Personally I have never used a pair of on ear headphones that are comfortable for more than 10 minutes.

[squirrl]

Over-ear for everything. If i can't find over-ear, then on-ear. In-ear is damn uncomfortable and often falls out (especially when on the move).

[Merc.]

 

 

Training on the gym: In ear

Walking to school:In ear

Gaming: Over

Listening to music from phone: At home, over ears and on the move in ears

Travelling: In ear mostly

DJing: Over ear

Monitoring: Over ear

 

Personally I have never used a pair of on ear headphones that are comfortable for more than 10 minutes.

 

I am deciding between over ear and in ear. That didn't help very much as it went like 4/4... If you know what I mean.

[Rohith_Kumar_Sp]

[Lord_Karango17]

Training on the gym: in ear (less likely to fall off your head)

Walking to school:in ear (less bulky, easy to store)

Gaming:over ear (more comfortable)

Listening to music from phone: over/ in ear (depending on the impedance of either headphone)

Travelling: in ear (isolation of sounds)

DJing: over ear (hearing the outside/ lack of isolation)

Monitoring: over ear (more space for better sounding audio?)

[Philosobyte]

I am deciding between over ear and in ear. That didn't help very much as it went like 4/4... If you know what I mean.

I use over-ears for everything.

I used in-ears at first, but the discomfort (the disconcerting feeling of sweat and earwax) was not worth the portability for me. 

 

I feel like my over-ears would be more portable if they used a straight, shorter cable, as opposed to a coiled cable, but I'm satisfied with its portability. 

 

I don't listen to music when working out, though. I like to concentrate on technique. 

Edited August 28, 2015 by Raymondbl

[lufihengr]

I am deciding between over ear and in ear. That didn't help very much as it went like 4/4... If you know what I mean.

I use in ear and over ear about 50/50. Over ears are more comfortable to me than in ear, but if I'm just going on the bus and not travelling with a bag, nothing beats the convenience of sticking your in ears in your pocket.

[Lord_Karango17]

I am deciding between over ear and in ear. That didn't help very much as it went like 4/4... If you know what I mean.

Over ears would likely be better overall. Personally I dont like wearing bulky over ears when Im outside, but if you can only have one, considering something like the momentum over ears.

[Philosobyte]

Edit: never mind. 

[Aphexx]

over ears for absolutely everything except the gym and there I'm going to add to your confusion

 

 

clip ons. or behind the headbands

[JPopJRockFanatic]

Training on the gym: In ear

Walking to school: I don't walk to school anymore. But when I do, I don't use any...

Gaming: Depends

Listening to music from phone: Depends

Travelling: Over-ear

DJing: I don't do this...

Monitoring: Over-ear

[Merc.]

over ears for absolutely everything except the gym and there I'm going to add to your confusion

 

 

clip ons. or behind the headbands

Yes. you definitely confused me...

[Aphexx]

Yes. you definitely confused me...

simple concept really they are as they sound. they have a clip that hangs on your ear or they clip on your ear and have a solid headband that wraps behind the head.

[Fluffinator]

gratz on linking headphone videos that don't even address the op's question?

[JPopJRockFanatic]

Oh yeah, TS, I forgot to answer your initial question: In terms of sound quality? Much depends on how manufacturers design or engineer their products. There are cases that IEM's tend to have a better frequency response than on-ears and over-ears and vice versa for on-ears and over-ears when compared to IEMs and one another.

Comfort? Much depends. I personally prefer over-ears because I like the feeling of my ears actually inside the pads, provided the pads don't make my ears touch the drivers.

[KaminKevCrew]

For sound quality, universal in ears generally take the cake up until about $500, then over ear starts to pull ahead. Custom molded in ears (and their low production count universal bretheren) can pretty much hold their own against any full size headphone until you start talking about the $3,000 and up range. At that point over ear takes the cake. Custom molded in ears are pretty much the most versatile type of headphone. That's what I would buy if I could only have one.

On ears tend to be hit and miss with comfort and sound quality, so unless you know they are comfy for you, I would stay away.

Cs go professionals play with in ears at all major tournaments, for sound quality with massive isolation.

In ears also take it for travel, because I aside from the small size, they are also the best at noise isolation, which you want over noise canceling because noise cancelling ruins sound quality, whereas noise isolating just blocks the sound out.

[Rohith_Kumar_Sp]

gratz on linking headphone videos that don't even address the op's question?

and what did you do ? gratz on quoting someone's comment that don't even address the op's question ? 

i rather don't answer something that i don;t know the answer and let you do instead if providing false info.

[KaminKevCrew]

and what did you do ? gratz on quoting someone's comment that don't even address the op's question ?

i rather don't answer something that i don;t know the answer and let you do instead if providing false info.

If you don't know the answer why post something that's completely irrelevant to the question at hand? Fluffinator was just pointing out that the videos you posted didn't help OP at all, and we're really rather pointless. Also, he never provided false info. He just pointed out that the videos linked were irrelevant (which is 100% accurate, by the way).

[Rohith_Kumar_Sp]

Fluffinator was just pointing out that the videos you posted didn't help OP at all, and we're really rather pointless. Also, he never provided false info. He just pointed out that the videos linked were irrelevant (which is 100% accurate, by the way).

so did he provide any answers to OP ? i know what you are doing here, common psychology, no matter what reason i give now on why you are doing here or what he did, you will circle back, so let me be the wise one and stop derailing this thread, have a nice day.  

[KaminKevCrew]

so did he provide any answers to OP ? i know what you are doing here, common psychology, no matter what reason i give now on why you are doing here or what he did, you will circle back, so let me be the wise one and stop derailing this thread, have a nice day.

You're right, he didn't give any answers for the OP, and he probably should have. The thing that Fluffinator didn't do, was to pretend that he knew an answer (which, by the way, I'm sure Fluffinator knows his own opinion on this matter... He's a regular on this sub) that he didn't, and post videos that, from my current perspective, were totally pointless. If you want to explain why you linked those videos, I'm all ears, because I'd love to know why. It's just that right now, it doesn't seem like they were a relevant post in the first place...