If you’re anything like me, you probably comb spec sheets, read reviews, and watch videos before purchasing a new pair of headphones. Even with a ton of research, there’s only so much you can learn about any audio product until it physically arrives at your door. The good news is that generous return windows from a variety of online and brick-and-mortar retailers ensure you still have a way out if your new cans aren’t as great as you expected.
Of course, it takes time to learn the ins and outs of a pair of headphones or earbuds. It’s hard to get a feel for your purchase in the few days or weeks when you’re still covered by the return policy, but you can simulate extended use in a short time with these five tests. I’ve been reviewing audio gear for years, and these are some of the same aspects I consider when evaluating headphones and earbuds of all price points.
Check the comfort and fit
Make sure your headphones can handle long listening sessions
When you first put on a new pair of headphones, don’t be fooled by the initial comfort. Take the time to properly adjust the headband and make sure your ear cushions make a secure seal against the side of your head. Ideally, wear your headphones continuously for the longest amount of time you’d expect to keep them on in the real world. In my case, I need headphones to remain comfortable for the duration of a six-hour, cross-country flight.
With a pair of earbuds, try every single ear tip size to make sure you’ve got the right one installed. If your pair supports the feature, conduct the ear tip fit test in your earbuds’ companion app, which uses software to evaluate the strength of the seal. Like with a pair of over- or on-ear headphones, you’ll want to wear earbuds long enough to make sure they’re comfortable during extended sessions.
If your headphones or earbuds are even slightly uncomfortable, try making adjustments or consider returning them. The discomfort will only get worse over time as your headband and ear cushions wear out.
Try out the microphone
This is a crucial test for calls and voice memos
At some point, you’ll probably have to make a phone call with your headphones. If you’re choosing a new pair of cans for your office setup, virtual meetings and calls might be your primary use case. As such, it’s a good idea to test the microphone.
To do so, try recording a voice memo while wearing the headphones or earbuds, and listen to the output. This will give you an idea of how your voice sounds through your headphones’ mic in ideal settings. Next, make an actual call and ask someone else to report back on how you sound. It’ll give you a glimpse of what others will hear when you speak through your headphones’ mic, after audio compression and quality losses are factored in.
Drain the battery
Test your headphones’ battery claims for yourself
Before you bought your headphones, you probably checked their battery life specifications. However, you might not know that audio brands use certain testing conditions to get the battery life claims they use for marketing. Some brands test with ANC on or off, while others test with it on or off. Certain headphone companies will even dictate the volume level or audio codec used to get the battery life figures they claim.
In other words, if you aren’t careful, you could end up with headphones with a much shorter runtime than expected. Test this for yourself by draining their battery life across various modes. Try different volume levels, ANC modes, and wired/wireless playback, observing how much the battery decreases over time. If you don’t want to spend a week’s worth of listening time on this test, simply track how much battery is drained over the course of an hour, and estimate the headphones’ overall runtime from there.
Test your headphones’ ANC chops
Make sure they block out (and let in) sound
Sound isolation is key to creating immersion, preventing audio leakage, and blocking out unwanted sound. Unless you’re using a pair of open-back headphones, your new pair will use some form of passive sound isolation. This keeps your music in and keeps distracting noise out by creating a physical seal in your ear or head. Headphones or earbuds that support active noise-canceling will also use software to play frequencies that cancel out environmental noise.
If immersion and noise cancellation are important, test your headphones’ ANC performance. You can take them to a noisy place, like a local coffee shop, to see how well they cancel out background noise at various music volume levels. Additionally, it’s worth trying out the transparency mode your headphones support. Will you be able to tell the flight attendant what drink you’d like on a plane with transparency mode, or will you need to yank your headphones off to hold a brief conversation?
Make sure you love the sound quality
Run tests, set EQs, but most importantly—play music
At the end of the day, we buy headphones to listen to music, so sound quality is the most important factor. Even if you know nothing about what makes the sound “good” or “bad” — sound quality is subjective, but data shows the audio characteristics most people prefer — there are simple tests that can help. You should start with Audio Check’s The Ultimate Headphones Test. It’s a collection of audio tests that cover frequency response, spectral flatness, dynamic range, quality, and distortion.
By playing a collection of audio samples available on the website or in a YouTube video, you’ll hear how your headphones sound in challenging conditions. These samples simulate what you might experience listening to various genres with headphones or earbuds across years of ownership.
But most of all, you should listen to your favorite songs with your new headphones. If you’re into audio podcasts or movies, try playing those through your headphones too.
It doesn’t matter how well a pair fares on a test if you don’t like how they sound playing your favorite tracks. Listen for things like instrument separation, volume, and clarity. You’ll be able to tell the difference between your new and old headphones most clearly on songs you’ve listened to the most, because you know the details already.
Use the return policy while you can
There may not be a more subjective product category in tech than the world of headphones and earbuds. Everyone is going to have different preferences for comfort, noise cancellation, and, of course, sound quality. That’s why you should use the brief period while your new headphones are covered by a return policy wisely.
Check the amount of time you’ll have to test and live with your gear before the return deadline comes and goes. Better yet, consider choosing which retailer to buy your new headphones or earbuds from based on the details of their return policy. I pay for Best Buy’s annual membership to get access to a generous 60-day return window on most products, which gives me ample time to decide if a product is right for me. If you’re considering buying during the holidays, remember that most stores offer extended return windows through the new year, providing extra time for you to test your new headphones and earbuds.
