Hoping you don't break my stereo, because it's the one thing that I couldn't live without

[venta]

I'm the sort of anti-social type who sits at my desk all day with headphones on. The lovely pair of Sennheisers I bought well over a decade ago were looking rather shabby by the time I started newJob so they have been promoted sideways to be headphones-plugged-into-the-piano at home. I set off to buy some new ones.

Now, the last pair came from a tiny little audio shop in Reading. They let me faff about trying headphones on for an hour or more, checking whether I could still hear someone talking to me when wearing them, checking that my music didn't leak out to annoy colleagues. Sadly, that shop shut years ago. And the model of headphones is discontinued. Since almost all headphones are uncomfortable for me, there's no way I'm buying without trying. Where does one go to try on headphones these days?

The answer, rather gratifyingly, turns out to be "just about anywhere". John Lewis. HMV. Fopp. CometDixons. Headphones are everywhere, in a way they really weren't a few years ago. I blame Dr Dre.

However, there is a larger problem. The return of the proper headphone has involved the development of a new style: the "on ear" headphones. Instead of the cans sitting comfily over your ears, they're smaller and sit directly on your ears, which I find painful after about two minutes. Most over-ear headphones wait at least half an hour before they become painful. Anyway almost every pair of headphones readily available in the capital's emporia is "on ear" 'phones. I blame Dr Dre for this, too.

Eventually my questing took me to Selfridge's, which t'tinternet claims is a Sennheiser specialist. Sure enough, there was an over-sized and beautifully comfy pair of headphones. The padding around the ears and along the inside of the band was, however, made of extremely plush velvet. The sort that doesn't slide, and sticks to your hair. By the time I'd pulled them on and off in the shop a couple of times I looked, as valkyriekaren would put it, like a hen's arse on a windy day.

Since I reckon it's a quid pro quo of wearing 'phones in the office that you can remove them quickly if someone comes to talk to you, they were right out. (Before anyone suggests in-ear headphones, I rule these out for the same reason. I can hit Ctrl-Alt-z[*] and knock the headphones round my neck in the time it takes my nearest neighbour in the office to get one wire out of one ear. And I've never had a pair of earbuds that were comfortable for more than an hour or so.)

The worst pair I tried were noise-cancelling earphones, though I forget which brand. As a means of cancelling background noise they were awesome. However, it turns out that noise-cancellation feels to me exactly the same way walking into a soundproof room feels: oppressive and violently unpleasant. It registers with me as the same sensation of sudden pressure on the ear drums as that caused by deep water or a change in altitude. I could barely rip the 'phones off my head quickly enough.

Anyway, having spent a ridiculously long time prowling round Selfrdige's, I eventually located a lightweight pair of Bose headphones which seem to accommodate my delicate shell-likes admirably. After a month or two's use, I've found that they're not quite as good as the falling-apart Sennheisers for all-day ear-comfort, but they seem like the best of what's available. They're nicely unobtrusive, unlike the ludicrously giant Sennheiser's, and their earpieces fold flat to sit tidily on the desk.

Do any other long-term hearphone-wearers have these problems, or do I just have whingy ears?

[*] Hurrah for Winamp and its brilliantly flexible hotkey mappings. Ctrl-Alt-z on my machine is "pause music", regardless of who has focus.

Comments

[shermarama]

I've got some over-the-head ones I like, that only become uncomfortable after somewhere between one and two hours, but most others I've tried, including the softphone headsets we've all been issued with at work, become uncomfortable after about ten minutes due to pressure on the ears. But I find the in-ear silicone bobble type ones to be remarkably good for long-term use too, especially as compared to the old solid-plastic type. (And my comfy over-the-head ones are, umm, now I think about it, fifteen years old now so they're not really available any more.)

Not whingy!

[uitlander]

After many years experimenting, and throwing away earphones that made my ears hurt after an hour or so, I discovered Sennheiser - soft, in the ear. Headphones. I bought three pairs on the grounds that these things vanish or get broken. I'm now on pair #3, which are getting rather manky, and wondering what to replace them with.

[vicarage.livejournal.com]

As someone who's ears stick out at ten-to-three, I hate cup headphones. (Oh those horrid session in the Language Lab at school)

I like the lightweight infra-red Sony MDR-IF140 on-ear ones. Good for a couple of hours without discomfort

But working from home, and having just discovered Spotify is now free bar a few ads, I can have all sorts of 60s stuff bouncing my room, and the headphones are for early morning and late night when Mum might be asleep.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I think this may be the problem - "a couple of hours" isn't what I want, I want a whole day! Maybe headphones just aren't designed for that :)

[vicarage.livejournal.com]

My ears certainly aren't! I've always been grateful I can hide them under a mop of hair, as no male pattern baldness in my family.

[damerell.livejournal.com]

I rip to monoaural; originally, because I got an mp3 player to help with the morale problem on Audaxes, although the in-ears I used to ride with aren't too bad even with both in. This means in the office I can use a handsfree headset that covers only one ear, the sort intended for telephone use; it looks funny with the microphone sticking up not doing anything, but it suits me. Disclaimer: I have a cloth ear.

[grahamb.livejournal.com]

I tend to listen to music at my desk and on the way home. So I use my headphones for about 10ish hours a day?

I've had a similar sort of problem but with 'in ear' headphones (or earphones? Can never work out what to call those) which some years ago seemed to be phased out for 'in canal' headphones. Which annoy the hell out of me. The feeling of discomfort you described with noise cancelling headphones is pretty good description.

I tend to listen to music on the way into work. The in ear ones manage not to block out important street noise, cars etc.The canal ones manage to block out everything and suddenly make you aware of your own breathing and heartbeat etc.

So I ended up ordering on a whim a phillips something or other from the states which I've been using for a few years now to replace my Sony in ear headphones which died a while back. Not looking forward to when they break and having to go through this all over again...