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2 months ago | 
me.pcmag.com | Tim Gideon |Ben Moore
What's the Difference Between Headphones and Earphones? There's an endless selection regarding headphone design, but you're essentially choosing between padded over-the-ear headphones and snug in-canal earphones. Although both have merits, this roundup focuses on the over-the-ear and around-the-ear designs of traditional headphones. Generally, headphones can reproduce richer low-end audio because they have larger drivers than earphones and don't rely on an in-ear seal to deliver sound.
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Mar 11, 2025 | 
me.pcmag.com | Tim Gideon |Eric Zeman
What's the Difference Between Active Noise Cancellation and Passive Noise Isolation? Plenty of headphones and earphones claim to isolate or reduce noise, but that doesn't mean they offer proper ANC. Passive noise isolation, sometimes called passive noise cancellation, is a fancy term for what earplugs do. Simply, when an object (such as a thick earpad with memory foam) blocks sound, it passively (without any battery power) reduces the ambient noise you hear.
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Feb 5, 2025 | 
legrandangle-lgm.fr | Tim Gideon |M. David Stone |John R. Delaney
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Dec 10, 2024 | 
au.pcmag.com | Tim Gideon
While wired headphones have made a comeback among the cool kids in recent years, some of us prefer not to get tangled up in cords. And phone makers have largely dumped the headphone jack on their flagship models, making it necessary to invest in wireless headphones. But is wire-free audio only suited for tech-savvy people, or can anyone pick up a pair of Bluetooth headphones and start enjoying some tunes? The good news for newcomers is that setup is easy.
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Nov 27, 2024 | 
pcmag.com | Chandra Steele |Jim Fisher |Tim Gideon |Iyaz Akhtar |Angela Moscaritolo |Sarah Lord | +3 more
The dudes in your life will love these top-tier tech toys.
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Nov 18, 2024 | 
me.pcmag.com | Tim Gideon
Do Headphone Drivers Matter? Between headphones and earphones, there's a range of driver styles. In headphones, the most common option is the dynamic driver-headphones typically only employ a single full-range driver in each earcup's enclosure. In recent years, audiophiles have gotten excited about planar magnetic drivers, which use a magnetic field to vibrate a large (compared with a dynamic driver) flat surface area.
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Nov 16, 2024 | 
me.pcmag.com | Tim Gideon |Eric Zeman
What's the Difference Between Earphones and Earbuds? The terms earbuds and earphones might seem interchangeable but they usually indicate an important distinction. For our purposes, earbuds don't enter your ear canal and instead sit just outside of it. This design fits more loosely and can cause problems when it comes to accurate stereo imaging (in which both ears get the same amount of audio) and bass response.
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Oct 20, 2024 | 
me.pcmag.com | Tim Gideon |Ben Moore
Pay Attention to IP RatingsLet's start here: Waterproof is a flexible term and water-resistant is even more so. To qualify as either, a product ostensibly has to go through standard testing to determine its level of protection against liquids. The resulting score is called an ingress protection (IP) rating. Our explainer on the IP rating system has more details and is a good read for those curious about the process.
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Oct 20, 2024 | 
me.pcmag.com | Tim Gideon |Ben Moore
Do Noise-Cancelling Earbuds Block All Sound? Active noise cancellation (ANC) debuted in over-ear and on-ear headphones first but is now prevalent in wireless earphones. As the first word of the term suggests, active noise cancellation requires power, as opposed to passive noise reduction. Battery power feeds ANC circuitry that creates a live, inverse signal of the surrounding noise using microphones.
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Oct 7, 2024 | 
me.pcmag.com | Tim Gideon
The fourth-generation AirPods continue to sport an open design that doesn't seal off the ear canal. We're typically not fans of this style because it often leads to unbalanced audio, poor bass response, and a less secure fit. That said, Apple's latest are the first open earbuds we've tested with active noise cancellation (ANC). Additionally, they deliver rich sound, advanced adaptive audio features, and tight iPhone integration.
