Headphones

When I was a kid I didn't listen to music much and not because I didn't like it, I did actually, but couldn't get the CDs I liked. In early 2000s, the Internet was slow, local stores had nothing interesting and if there was something it was of poor quality. Of course after years without music I became hungry for it. I started listen to everything and still do. I love nearly all the genres, I think each of them has master pieces though they are hard to discover.

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After music I opened for myself a new world of audio books and audio dramas. And here I understood the importance of sound quality. With music it is obvious - the higher the quality the better chances to enjoy it. And I am talking not only about  the quality of music. It is important to have good audio equipment. For me as a learner headphones are the best choice.

Why headphones?

Well, with headphones you can listen to what you need without bothering other people around and with good headphones it is easy to hear everything even if the place where you are living isn't quiet. Last fact is essential for students living in dorms or adults with kids playing loudly all day long.

Some tips to choose suitable headphones

I'd like to recommend simple tips without going into the details of buying audio equipment. 
Try headphones before buying. Listen to different music and voice records and even movie trailers. If you like the sound of everything mentioned you can buy these headphones. But before that try 2-3 more brands just in case.

If you are a teacher or learning a language with a tutor choose headphones with a microphone. And don't forget to try the microphone before you give your money away.

Last important thing - buy wireless headphones. If you work from home or study and etc. wireless headphones are must have thing because you can stand up, go to other rooms or just stretch your legs which helps a lot to stay healthy. If you haven't spent much time at your desk yet believe me this little freedom, when you don't need to interrupt your co-worker, turn off the audio file or take your phone with you everywhere in the house making noise on skype or other platform, all these things matter.

And one more about wireless headphones. Buy ones that can be charged while using because some models do not have such feature and you have to wait or switch to other headphones.

I also advise to check the equipment you are buying on compatibility. Ask if the headphones can work well with your phone, laptop, PC, console etc.

My personal experience

When I listen to some records like audio exercises in English student books and they are of high quality it is no problem to understand every word and it is easy to check the meaning in a dictionary because the spelling is obvious. In such situations I don't need to play the file several times.

But when audio files are old or low quality it takes much more time to understand and often I would get puzzled with some words. I couldn't get what people were talking about.

Now I have good headphones with all the features I need. I don't waste time on replaying files. I also have special buttons on my headphones to pause/play videos and audio, play next and the volume buttons of course.

I know I am talking about simple things and seems like everybody knows about them but still people keep asking such questions. And you know this feeling when you buy something and then you don't like this thing at all. So don't ignore simple tips before buying and you can go deeper, study the technical characteristics and read more about capacity of audio devices.

If you want to share more thoughts on this topic leave a comment below. What brands you prefer, what troubles you've had, what models you can advise feel free to share your experience.