LAUREN: We’re going to have a new noise-canceling earbud pick. It has a fantastic noise-canceling microphone, magical.
CAIRA: I’m Caira Blackwell.
ROSIE: I’m Rosie Guerin, and you’re listening to The Wirecutter Show.
Hey, Caira.
CAIRA: Hi, Rosie.
ROSIE: Today on the show we’re talking headphones, but more than that, we have some support from our listeners, which is a thing that we love, love, love, love, love to have.
CAIRA: Always love.
ROSIE: Always love to have. Hit us up. We love to hear from you. A couple of months ago we asked our listeners for their questions about headphones, specifically, and we were overwhelmed by the response, in a really good way.
CAIRA: Yeah. In a great way. We are never complaining. Yeah. I mean, I get it. Headphones are an everyday item for most people, whether for work or commuting, or just tuning in at home, and of course, I mean, a lot of people are probably listening in on their headphones right now.
ROSIE: Hello. Also, there are so many options. It really can be overwhelming. Where do you start?
CAIRA: Yeah, I don’t know. That’s why we’re bringing on a perfect expert to talk about all of the solutions. Her name is Lauren Dragon. She’s a senior staff writer on our audio team, and in her many years at Wirecutter, she’s tested over 2000 different pairs of headphones. Do you realize how many headphones that is, Rosie?
ROSIE: It’s a lot. A lot.
CAIRA: It’s a lot.
ROSIE: Yeah.
CAIRA: She truly, she knows her craft. She’s been on the show before talking about noise and hearing protection. Love her.
ROSIE: That was a great episode. Yeah.
CAIRA: It was great, and we’re so happy to have her back.
ROSIE: She is a wealth of knowledge, and we had so many questions come in that obviously we couldn’t cover them all. We had Lauren tackle a few extra questions and we’ll throw those in the show notes for this episode. You can check those out, if you have a question and you don’t hear us answer it in this episode. Okay. Diving into your questions all about headphones, after the break.
CAIRA: We’re back with Wirecutter senior staff writer Lauren Dragon. Lauren writes about headphones and over-the-counter hearing aids, and she’s tested over 2000 pairs of headphones over the years, which is a lot, y’all. Lauren, welcome to the show.
LAUREN: Hi, thanks for having me back.
ROSIE: Hey, Lauren.
CAIRA: Lauren, we got dozens of emails from listeners looking for recommendations and solutions to their headphone conundrums. All in, they fall into a couple different categories. We want to talk through all of these categories with you. The categories are microphone quality, fit issues, sleep, and safety. Does this sound good?
LAUREN: Sounds good to me. Let’s do it. Lightning round.
CAIRA: Yay. I love it.
ROSIE: Let’s start with microphone quality. We heard from tons of listeners who are frustrated by bad quality built-in microphones on their headphones, like Melanie. She wrote, “I’ve had Apple AirPods for a while now, first the originals, now the pros, and whenever I take a call, the person on the other end tells me it sounds like I’m in a crowded bar, even when I’m walking down a completely quiet street. All I want is a pair of earbuds that can handle the occasional phone call without picking up a ton of background noise.” Why is microphone quality an issue with so many headphones, Lauren?
LAUREN: Really what it comes down to is real estate. These microphones are super-duper tiny, and a lot of times they have to be aimed directly at your mouth, kind of in front of your mouth, because they’re going to pick up whatever they’re aimed at. If your earbuds are kind of in a little on a funny angle, or the microphone on your wire is turned around and it’s aiming at your chest, that’s what it’s going to pick up, so the first issue is just literally where it’s pointing. That’s the main problem with a lot of these.
ROSIE: Is call quality something you test for when you’re testing these 2000 plus pairs of headphones, and if so, how are you doing that?
LAUREN: Every single pair that goes into consideration for a pick, I put them through a sort of battery of tests for the microphone call quality. I will test it first in a quiet room. Then I do it in front of a fan at a set speed, so that I can get wind noise, and I face it and I move my head back and forth. Then I go in front of a sink and I do sink noise, because that’s one of those sounds that really picks up loudly in a lot of microphones because it’s in the vocal range, so I’ll do that. Then, what I do is I call into a service and call someone on the phone so I get through the phone line, and I record myself walking around near traffic, so every single pair goes through that, and if they fail terribly on any of those things, they are not a pick, or I will very, very strongly call it out. In a workout pick, I’ll be like, “This is the one thing, it’s not great at phone calls in the wind,” or something, but if it is a pick, assume that I have at least done, to make sure that it is solid for phone calls.
CAIRA: Got it, and can we get into some specifics, here? What are the best headphones for somebody like Melanie who struggles with the mic in her AirPods?
LAUREN: Okay, so you guys have great timing, because two weeks ago I would’ve said,” Oh, well, they’re all about the same.” However, I’m giving you guys a little heads-up sneak peek behind the curtain. We’re going to have a new noise-canceling earbud pick, and it has a fantastic noise-canceling microphone, magical. It’s called the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro. Here’s the thing, it has a little chip inside of it, and I don’t know how they worked this wizardry, but essentially they have it so that it trains to your voice and eliminates everything else. I did a recording of my son doing the best he could to make as much noise in the background, and you could not hear him. I was so impressed, so these things are fantastic. They’re $170. They’ll probably go on sale on occasion, too, and they’re going to be our best noise-canceling headphone and our best Bluetooth earbud very, very soon, so you get the inside track.
CAIRA: Oh, I love the inside scoop. Just to be clear, the mic cancels background noise for who you’re talking to, and the earbuds cancel noise where you are?
LAUREN: Yeah, both, so they have excellent noise cancellation in the airplane range, so if you’re going to go and you don’t want to hear construction noise or train noise, takes care of that, but it also cancels things for your caller, so they’ll hear you, but they won’t hear background noise. In fact, our editor-in-chief was on a call with me and there were people trimming a tree in the back alley literally down below me, and I was like, “Hey, do you hear anything?” He’s like, “No,” and I turned my camera around and faced it at the alley where they’re putting one of those trees through those choppers, and he’s like, “I had no idea that was there.”
CAIRA: I think I need to get these headphones, Lauren.
LAUREN: I think you do too.
ROSIE: What about listeners like TH, who want to prioritize call quality but not spend too much money? What is a budget option?
LAUREN: For that, I would say the EarFun Air Pro 4. I know, these names, but it’s our budget pick in the noise-canceling guide. That one has a really good background noise reducing mic. It’s not as magical as the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro, but it is quite good at getting rid of wind noise. It’s good at getting rid of basic hums and things behind you, and they’re around $70 most of the time. Not too bad.
CAIRA: No, that’s not bad at all, and just for anybody who’s rushing to take notes, we will be linking every one of the products that Lauren recommends today in the show notes, so don’t worry about that.
LAUREN: Won’t be a quiz at the end, for your names.
CAIRA: Yeah, exactly, no pop quiz. Let’s move on to our next topic, and this is a big one. It’s fit and comfort issues. Let’s start with something that a listener named Leah summed up pretty well. She writes, “Why are earbud style headphones not made for people? For example, women who have small ear canals. In my 50-plus years, I’ve yet to find a comfortable earbud that actually fits.” What do you recommend for folks with small ears or who find that earbuds are just uncomfortable to wear?
LAUREN: Okay. First of all, she’s not crazy or alone. This is a widespread problem, and the reason comes down to, we are trying to pack so much technology into a small space, so you’ve got to have room in there for things like the battery, the Bluetooth chip, the drivers, touch control stuff. Everything has to squish into this tiny little thing, and when you have small ears, all of that weight is going on the tiny little ear tip that’s in your ear, and makes it harder for it to stay in. Slides out, so for people that have small ears, I would recommend looking for something that has either a hook over the ear style, so something like the Power Beats Pro 2, which is one of our workout picks, or look for something that has a wing that will help to stabilize it.
Well, the new pick that we’re going to have, the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro, does have a little wing, and you can choose a different size. Another one is Sony’s LinkBuds Fit. Also have a very soft little wing that kind of conforms to your ear and holds them in place better. That’s usually the best kind of way to go, until at the very least we get better at technology and they make it smaller.
CAIRA: What about just doing over-ear headphones?
LAUREN: I mean, you could. I mean, that’s just a preference, really. I have actually a very small noggin, so that’s one of the things I actually test for, is the ability to have something that will fit a wide range of heads, because oftentimes with me, if they run a little big, they won’t stay up. That’s something you can do, but as far as your ear size, that’s not going to be as much of an issue, because you’re usually going around your ear, and so if you have smaller ears, no big deal.
CAIRA: Okay, so we have another fit question from Catherine and she writes, “I wear glasses and find a lot of the premium or high quality recommended headphones that go over the ear are a nonstarter because they painfully press the arms of your glasses against your head.” Lauren, what are the best headphones if you wear glasses?
LAUREN: I love that you’re asking me this question, when I’m wearing glasses and headphones. If you can wear earbuds, they’re obviously the best, because they are staying out of the way. They’re in your ears. They’re not over your ears where your glasses are going to sit. If you can’t wear earbuds or that’s something that’s not comfortable for you, the other option I would recommend of all of our picks, Sony’s WH-1000XM6, which is currently our noise-canceling headphone pick. Here’s why I love them. They’re very lightweight. They have really supple memory foam on the ear pads, so they don’t have a ton of squeeze on your head, and the foam conforms around the glasses. Now, granted, your mileage may vary if you have very thick glasses, but I always test all of our headphones with glasses, so know that if there is something, if you’re reading a guide and I don’t say anything like, “These are terrible for glasses-wearers,” or, “They might be uncomfortable for glasses-wearers,” know that they will be something that you can wear with glasses, because I always test for that.
CAIRA: I love to hear that. Well, how much do those Sony headphones cost? Because, I feel like over-ear headphones tend to be more expensive than in-ear.
LAUREN: They are on the pricier side. Those are, at the moment, I believe, 450.
CAIRA: Whoa.
LAUREN: However, you can also get the older version, which is the XM5, that are still available right now. But honestly, they’re just as good in terms of the actual wearability, and you can get those sometimes now on sale for closer to 250, 300.
CAIRA: Okay. Reasonable.
ROSIE: We had a listener, Sue, who wrote in and said, “For years I used various iterations of Bose SoundSport earbuds. They don’t have a wire to the device, but the two earbuds are tethered to each other. When they were discontinued, I was devastated. Do you know why the tethered earbuds are being discontinued? For me, the tether is critical.” What do you say to Sue? Do you recommend any tethered models?
LAUREN: Here’s the problem. I can’t recommend what people aren’t making, and unfortunately they just sort of fell out of favor, and if enough people aren’t buying something, the companies pivot to what people are buying. Here’s what I would say, though. If you have an earbud that has a stem, so let’s say that you have the AirPods Pro. You can actually go on Amazon, and there are some third party tethers that you can just hook onto there. That would be my kind of life hack for you, is go look for something like that, and we can probably link it in the show notes. I’ll show you kind of an example of what I’m talking about, but there’s a bunch of companies.
ROSIE: Lauren, I want to ask you about a kind of headphone that’s growing in popularity, and we know this because we got a ton of questions about them. What are bone conducting headphones? How do they work? What are they? Explain those.
LAUREN: All right, let’s get a little nerdy. We know that sound is basically vibration, right? It’s just air molecules vibrating at a certain kind of oscillation back and forth, and your brain interprets that as a sound, which is kind of magical. Usually, sound goes through air, right? Bone conducting headphones are actually using the bones in your head to carry that vibration from the outside of your head to your inner ear. What does that feel like? A little buzz, maybe nothing. It sounds dramatic, but it’s not, but sound just needs a medium to go through, so it doesn’t have to be air. It could be something else. That is what bone conduction does, is it essentially just uses you as the speaker rather than the device and air.
ROSIE: Do they look like normal earbuds?
LAUREN: They kind of usually sit in front of your ear, so oftentimes they’ll hook over your ears to hold them in place, and then you’ll have a little module, usually about the size of a postage stamp-ish, that will sit on your temples, and it will just kind of rest there and it vibrates right there.
ROSIE: Does that mean if you’re wearing them, you can hear other things?
LAUREN: Yes, so essentially they leave your ears open, which is a major plus for a lot of people. The only downside to that is that you’re going to get less bass response, because the wave forms for bass notes are bigger, and in order to create those, there needs to be more vibration, and that greater vibration can be a little annoying with a bone conduction if you have something just going bzz-bzz-bzz on the side of your head. You’re going to get a little less of that type of clarity. However, it’s great for hearing your surroundings. They work well underwater, so that’s kind of what they’re for.
CAIRA: We have a listener, Claire, who’s interested in these kinds of headphones, but she does have a concern. She writes, “For running, I’m very skeptical about being able to rely on bone conducting headphones to not have noise bleed. I don’t want people on my run to hear that I’m listening to the Les Mis soundtrack, even if it’s just for the second I’m running past. Can I actually rely on any pairs of these to be for my ears only?” What do you think, Lauren?
LAUREN: Well, first, embrace the Les Mis, but also the answer is probably not. You could potentially, in a very quiet room, and you jack the volume up really loud, but you also probably wouldn’t be comfortable with that level of volume. If you’re outside, people aren’t going to hear it. It’s not like a speaker, so don’t think of it as being the person that has that Bluetooth speaker in the backpack walking through the trails and annoying everybody. They will not hear thatx. They might, if they lean very close to you, hear a little bzz, that you are listening to something. Unless you have a habit of running up to people and leaning very close to them, you probably are going to be fine.
CAIRA: Is bone conducting better for … You were on our podcast a while ago now, about hearing and protecting your hearing. Does bone conducting mean that you’re not damaging your ears at all?
LAUREN: No, you can still, if you’re blasting it loudly, you can still do some potential damage, and so that is one thing that I was going to say as a caveat to people. If you are going to be wearing something like this and you find that you’re in a loud space, instead of competing with the sound around you, you can actually put in earplugs and you’ll hear it better, because you’re kind of getting rid of some of that external sound. That’s the other option you can do, but don’t be trying to compete with everything around you by blasting it, because it’s just potentially something that could do some damage to you.
ROSIE: We had a listener who wrote in, Estelli, asking if there are headphones she can wear while swimming laps. Obviously these bone conducting headphones are an option here, so what brand should she consider?
LAUREN: There’s a couple different things that you could do. If you want to swim with bone conduction headphones specifically, there’s a model called the H2O Audio TRI 2, and essentially it is a MP3 player and a bone conduction headphone in one. Why is that important? Because Bluetooth does not go through water. That is the one caveat that I have, is that in order for you to be able to hear something streaming, it has to be basically strapped to your head, which is annoying. I mean, no one wants to swim with an iPhone on their head, or, it has to be pre-downloaded onto a device. If that’s an issue, the other option is, there’s a device called the Mighty Wave, which is basically a little … Looks like, remember those old iPod Shuffles? It’s about that size and it works with Spotify and with Amazon Music, and you can sync it with your streaming, and that can be your music player if you’re someone who uses streaming services.
It is kind of life-changing, because lap swimming can be really boring. I’m a swimmer, and it does help to have something to listen to, and then once you get that groove, it’s actually really nice.
CAIRA: What you’re saying is, the Mighty Wave, for example, is kind of the size of an MP3 that you’re strapping to yourself in the water?
LAUREN: Yeah. Usually you just put it on your goggle strap.
CAIRA: Okay.
ROSIE: Can you just quickly explain how bluetooth can’t transmit through water?
CAIRA: Yeah, I had no idea that was a thing.
LAUREN: What a Bluetooth headphone is, is essentially like a little radio transmitter and a little radio receiver. Imagine that your phone is broadcasting the tiniest little radio station to the tiniest, most specific little radio in your head, and essentially that’s all they’re doing, is going back and forth, so because these things are made to be in a way that won’t interfere with other devices, the FCC has all these things where you can’t interfere. Obviously you don’t want it to … Air traffic control, or medical radios back and forth. It has to be small. As a result, these types of waves do not travel through different types of surfaces well, and water is one of them.
CAIRA: We do have one last question in our fit section, and this one comes from Heather. She says, “I’m writing to ask you for a recommendation for somebody near to my heart. My 12-year-old son has cerebral palsy, autism, and a lot of the sensory concerns that come along with that. He’s sensitive to noise, but a lot of headphones marketed for noise reduction are super tight fits, and it’s not long before the discomfort of them outweighs his discomfort from the noise. Earbuds are too finicky, and they always seem to be falling on the floor. I’ve tried a few noise-canceling headphones with soft earpieces, but noise-canceling, quote-unquote, is sometimes a generous description, and battery life is a concern.” Lauren, what are your tips for finding headphones that work if you have sensory issues? Anything you recommend for Heather and her son?
LAUREN: Yes. I love this question. Okay, so I’m assuming what she’s talking about when she says the headphones for noise reduction, she’s meaning those earmuff type things that you’re using. Those things are really designed for safety, so that’s why they clamp so hard. I’m assuming it’s just, you want a little bit of a reduction to kind of bring down the intensity. For that, actually, what I would recommend is, if you go on Amazon and look for, and there’s a bunch of different brands, they have these soft headband earmuffs for sleeping. If you put those terms in and search for them, you’ll basically find this thing that looks like almost a sleep mask headband thing, but it has a thicker fabric padding that slides over to your ears, and it helps to reduce some of the sensory input.
The other thing that I can recommend, which I love, I have one of these. There’s a company called Quiet Sense that has these sensory friendly sweatshirts and vests and things, and this thing has a hood that pops up over your head. It has thicker fabric on the side to help reduce some of the noise. On the hood, it has a little visor that you can pull down if you’re getting a little overstimulated with the light and the brightness. It has magnets for the clasps, instead of Velcro or a zipper. I frigging love these things, so I would say that’s another thing to look into if it’s just about reducing the stimulus and not necessarily having something that is making silence.
ROSIE: We’re going to take a quick break. When we come back, Lauren, we’re going to talk about sleeping with headphones, something I do, and other safety concerns. Stick around.
ROSIE: We’re back, answering your questions about headphones with Wirecutter senior staff writer and headphone expert, Lauren Dragon. Lauren, a lot of listeners had questions for you about sleeping with headphones. It is my favorite thing to do. I pop my AirPods in.
CAIRA: You sleep with AirPods in?
ROSIE: I do. Yeah. I suspect in about 30 to 60 seconds, Lauren is going to tell me not to do this, but I, yeah, put my audiobook on. I time it for 15 minutes, and I am out like a light, so I want to jump into this category. First, is it safe? You can tell me.
LAUREN: Actually, it is, with a few little caveats. Okay? There are three things I’m going to tell you that you need to do if you want to sleep safely with earbuds. First thing is, keep them clean. You want to wipe them down. Obviously, if you aren’t keeping stuff clean and you’re putting them in your ear day after day, bacteria can build up. That’s when you can have some sort of issue. Second thing, keep your volume as low as possible. You don’t want to be blasting something, and ideally, once you’ve fallen asleep, if you can have the sound taper off or stop, that’s another ideal thing to do, because then you’re giving your ears a bit of a break. I know that’s not something everybody can do if you’re prone to interruptions, but ideal conditions. Then, the third caveat is, if you don’t have a health condition that can make it contraindicated for you.
For example, ear infection. Are you someone who produces excessive wax? Do you have an allergy to potentially any of the materials that the earbuds have? You must sleep on your back, though, because I can’t imagine those things are comfortable on your sides.
ROSIE: No, it’s not so … I don’t know what I’m doing. I have manipulated my body in such a way that I stay comfortable. However, in the morning, usually one is under my thigh and then the other one is behind a pillow.
CAIRA: I’m surprised you haven’t a lost one forever.
ROSIE: I have.
CAIRA: Oh, you have? Yes. I mean, obviously.
ROSIE: Moving on.
CAIRA: Lauren, I know you have a whole guide about the best sleep headphones, because not everybody wants to sleep with an AirPod in like Rosie. To all our listeners with questions about this, please go check out Lauren’s work, but Lauren, most of the questions we got about sleep addressed two things, battery life and comfort. Tell us about your best picks with those two things in mind.
LAUREN: All right, I got you. Soundcore Sleep A20 is the earbud pick that I have. They’re flat so they won’t be pressing into your ears when you lay on your side, and they have little winglets to hold them in place so they won’t run down your thigh when you’re sleeping, and they have a 14-hour battery life when they’re fully charged, plus there’s another 80 hours in their case, so they sit in a charging case. They’re $130, and they’re fantastic. They have a lot of little bonus features. The second thing is the SleepPhones by AcousticSheep. They’re like a headband style. You can choose different ones. They are, at this point, 24 hours of playback on a full charge, so you’re going to only need to charge every couple nights, depending on how long you listen and that sort of thing, but they should last you well through a night, and that’s one of the things that I test for. I make sure none of our picks are going to cut out on you if you decide to sleep in.
ROSIE: That’s actually great. Sleeping with a headband on also seems just kind of cozy, and if it also provides the listening thing that I need.
CAIRA: Would it fit over a bonnet?
LAUREN: Yes. I checked that. Basically, you’re just going to kind of slide it down to where the bonnet’s elastic meets your hairline, so just slide the headband down to there and it’ll be fine. It’ll stay that way. They come into a couple different materials. There’s a fleece material and then there’s one that’s more breathable, kind of lighter weight material, and they come in three sizes, so you can measure the size of your noggin and make sure that it’s not too snug.
ROSIE: Last topic, health and safety. A lot of people asked us how safe Bluetooth is. For instance, one of our listeners, Matt, wrote in and said, “I hear some people talk about fears of radiation from Bluetooth headphones and earbuds. Do you think that is warranted? Is there any scientific evidence one way or the other?” Lauren, have you come across this concern before? I’m sure you have. Is Bluetooth anything to be worried about?
LAUREN: Yeah. No, I get it. Bluetooth is a type of electromagnetic radiation. A lot of times when people hear that word, radiation, it can sound kind of scary. But according to all of the research we have now, it is not a concern largely because of the type of radiation that it is and how small the energy is behind it. It’s not just me saying that because I work here. The World Health Organization, the CDC, all of them have come out and said that these are not a risk to your health. They’re not cancer-causing, or anything like that. That’s the short answer. The long answer, I could explain to you a little bit of physics, if you want to know why.
ROSIE: Please.
CAIRA: Yes.
LAUREN: Okay, so people hear radio waves. Remember, we talked about how Bluetooth is basically like a little radio. Radio waves are actually electromagnetic radiation, and there are two kinds of electromagnetic radiation. We’re going to call them high energy and low energy. High energy, that’s the stuff you have to be careful about, so we’re talking UV, X-rays, and gamma rays, and they actually can kind of rip an electron off of your body, and that’s what causes some of the cancer-causing stuff, is because they are essentially ionizing, which means they pull off an electron. They’re the more dangerous ones.
Low energy are called non-ionizing, which means they’re not doing that. They have bigger waveforms, they’re a lot more chill. So you have infrared light, then you’ve got microwaves, and then you’ve got radio waves way down at the bottom. Imagine you’re at the furthest end of the spectrum, and now you’re taking it in a very low powered situation, so it’s very, very tiny. You’re going to get more radiation going on a plane than you are from your Bluetooth headphones, and by the way, in the middle of those two things, between the low energy and high energy, visible light.
CAIRA: A listener named Mary wants to know if it’s better to use earbuds or over-the-ear headphones for people who have ringing of the ears. Is there a better choice here, Lauren?
LAUREN: There really isn’t specifically for tinnitus. There are masking things you can get. There’s certain apps that you can find, depending on where your ringing is, that can help you mask the sound, and there are also some hearing aids and over-the-counter hearing aids that have specific settings that help to address that, but it really just comes down to your comfort level. The only thing I would say is that, if you’re going to be wearing either of them, you’re going to have some occlusion effect, which is going to mean that you kind of hear the inside of your head more when you’re walking. If that’s going to bother you, that might be the only caveat I’d say for earbuds, as opposed to headphones, but either way, neither one of them is really going to affect tinnitus, other than you can mask sounds with it.
ROSIE: We also got some questions about hearing loss. Listener Amy, she says that she has hearing loss in one ear. She’s looking for Bluetooth headphones where she could adjust each ear’s volume separately. Are there options for her?
LAUREN: Yeah, actually there is. And there are a number of companies that do it too. What you’re gonna look for is headphones that have a hearing test based personalized EQ. Different companies have different names for it, but essentially they’re all the same idea. You take a hearing test in the app that’s associated with the headphones. And then the Earbuds will adjust to your hearing ability. So it’ll make some frequencies louder and some softer and it is individual to each ear. So I know Soundcore has one, Apple does it and they’re AirPods Pro 2 and 3. And there’s a bunch of other companies, so that’s what you’re gonna wanna look for and yes, it will adjust to your earring ability.
CAIRA: That’s really cool.
ROSIE: Lauren, you mentioned this back when we were talking about sleeping with earbuds in. I want to talk about cleaning your headphones and cleaning your earbuds. It’s important I know, for basic hygiene, how do you do it, and are there any other reasons why you really should do this on a regular basis?
LAUREN: Almost all manufacturers will have something about how to do it with their specific brands, but general rule of thumb, you’re going to want to get a gentle detergent, something like a dish soap, put a couple drops in some water, and make a damp cloth. Do not pour water onto your headphones. That is bad. Electricity and water make zap-zap. Don’t do that, so take damp cloth, wipe down the external parts, wipe down the ear pads, wipe down the headband, things like that. The ear tips you can take off, and also rinse those off, if you want. Do not put the earbuds under the water, but there are these little things that are like a loop tool. You can look, headphone cleaning tool. There’s a bajillion of them, they’re super cheap, but it has a little loop at one end and a brush at the other. The loop is for scooping out any earwax or any lint or things that get in there, and then the brush is to brush out the rest of the debris.
You would be surprised at how much stuff, when you look in there, gets in there. Then, the last thing you’re going to want to do is do the same thing in your case, because a lot of times you’ll get earwax on the ear tips and then put it back in the case, and then that builds up inside your case. Then, I’ve even had people complain that their earbuds aren’t charging anymore, but it’s because the earwax is blocking the charging connection.
CAIRA: No, yuck.
LAUREN: You’ve got to clean that out, and if it’s a connection like that, you can even take a Q-tip and get it damp in a little bit of alcohol and then just wipe it across those connection points and make sure that it’s clean so that it works. General thing, why? It also will help your product last longer, so the device itself, those plastics and things, headbands and ear cups, especially the vinyl stuff that’s soft and squishy, they’re prone to breaking down over time with the oils from your skin, the products that you use, the humidity, and so if you keep them wiped down, it’ll help them to last longer.
CAIRA: How often do you think people should be cleaning their headphones?
LAUREN: I mean, that’s tough to say. If you’re using them every day, you should be doing it once a week. If you’re using them occasionally, not as big of a deal, but I mean, honestly, for me personally, because I use headphones all the time, and I just kind of, when I’m putting them away, give them a quick little glance, and if I see something, I deal with it before it becomes a problem.
CAIRA: Okay, Lauren, before we wrap, we ask all of our guests one final question. What’s the last thing you’ve bought that you’ve really loved?
LAUREN: We just got the drip coffee maker, the OXO Brew, that is Wirecutter’s pick, with the insulated thermos, and I kind of am in love with it, because I have a tendency to take forever to drink my coffee. I forget that I have it and then it gets cold and it’s a whole thing. Eventually it ends up burned because I have to reheat it, and this thing has that insulated thermos so it doesn’t get cold, so I can drink coffee at 1:00 in the afternoon and it’s still warm, which is such a delight from someone who’s been drinking functional burnt coffee for a little bit.
CAIRA: I love this for you.
ROSIE: Upgrade.
LAUREN: Upgrade.
ROSIE: Lauren, thank you so much for joining us. You are always a pleasure to have on the show.
LAUREN: Thanks so much for having me.
CAIRA: If you want to find out more about Lauren’s headphone coverage or if you want to check out the products we recommended today, find the links in the show notes or go to our website, and if you have headphone questions we didn’t address in this episode, make sure you read the show notes. Lauren answered even more questions there, like options for the old school folks who want wired headphones, and durable options for your kids. That’s it for us until next week. Thank you so much for listening.
The Wirecutter Show is executive produced by Rosie Guerin and produced by Abigail Keel. Engineering support from Maddy Masiello and Nick Pitman. Today’s episode was mixed by Catherine Anderson. Original music by Dan Powell, Marion Lozano, Elisheba Ittoop, Catherine Anderson, Rowan Niemisto, and Diane Wong. Cliff Levy is Wirecutter’s deputy publisher and general manager. Ben Fruman is Wirecutter’s editor-in-chief. I’m Caira Blackwell.
ROSIE: I’m Rosie Guerin.
CAIRA: Thanks for listening.
ROSIE: Which brand would you recommend?
LAUREN: What to buy for, here and now?
ROSIE: Yeah. What buy for Esteli now-now?
