Choosing Headphones for Your Travel Needs

There are good reasons you pack a quality pair of headphones in your travelling bag. We all love to listen to music while travelling, and if you have noise-cancelling headphones, it would be great a great tool to cancel ambient noises.

In case you don’t have any headphones or you want to upgrade your existing headphone and are looking for some facts and tips to choose the right pair of headphones for travelling at a reasonable price, then this guide is for you.

At the end of this buying guide, we will also share some recommendations that meet the criteria of choosing the headphone for travelling in 2021, so you can consider them in your list of best headphones for travelling in 2021.

Travel Headphones Buying Guide

1. Wired VS Wireless: Which one is great for Traveling

As always, starting with choosing between the wired and wireless headphones and without wasting any time here, I suggest you go for wireless headphones. The reason is in travel, whether on-road travel or on the plane you will interact with lots of people and objects. You have to carry your bag and other things, which makes no sense for carrying wires.

Even if you cared about the cables well still somewhere, they’ll be tangled and can cause serious injuries, especially in a sudden movement. So it’s wise you look for a wireless option for travelling.

If you are worried about the sound quality, you don’t need to be. There are excellent pairs of headphones such as the Sony 1000XM3 wireless headphones that deliver exceptional sound.

2. Open Back vs Closed Back

The next basic but most important thing you should care about while choosing a headphone for travel is choosing closed-back headphones.

No doubt open-back headphone features wide soundstage, more detail, and clear imaging and offers excellent comfort for extended periods but they didn’t offer any sound isolation at all.

Open back headphones leak the sound and do not block outside noises, which means the person who sits next to you will hear everything, and you’ll also listen to their voices, which prevents you from enjoying the music neither pleasant for others.

So choosing a closed back is a wise decision.

3. Portability

The portability of the headphone matters a lot, especially while choosing the best headphone for travel. The portability of the headphone is folding the headphone most compactly.

As far as portability goes, make sure the headphone is foldable and comes with a carrying case so you can easily place it in the travel bag or carry it with you without any worry.

4. Comfort

One of the features in headphones that you shouldn’t compromise on is the comfort.

Comfort can vary from person to person, but things you should consider in a headphone from a comfort point of view are the following.

• The earcup’s size should be big enough that your ears can stay comfortably without touching the inner surface of ear cups.
• They feature a comfortable and soft padding on ear cups and headband. It could be velour or memory foam padding.
• Look for the clamping force. The clamping force of a headphone shouldn’t be too tight that causes any fatigue. Or it shouldn’t be too loose that you have to adjust all the time, and it causes discomfort as well.
• Try to get headphones that feature some flexibility so you can adjust where you feel better comfortable.
• It would be great if the chosen headphone features rotatable and adjustable ear cups and headband.

These are the basic points that are worth considering to find a comfortable headphone for travelling.

5. Noise cancellation

Have said earlier, look for closed-back headphones that block the outside noises(offers noise isolation). However, they cannot block the outside noises completely.

If you want to block and cancel ambient noises completely, consider noise-cancelling features.

Noise cancellation is a technology that blocks the outside noises generating the same amount of waves but in the opposite direction.

As I mentioned above, the Sony 1000XM3 is an excellent headphone. 1000XM3 headphones are also considered one of the most advanced noise cancellation headphones. There is also noise cancellation leading headphones such as Bose QuietComfort 35 II available.

These can cancel all the outside noises, making them an excellent option to consider in noisy environments and travel in loud environments.

The addition of the noise cancellation feature affects the headphone price as well, but it is one of the most important and useful factors while choosing a travelling headphone.

6. Long Battery Life

Choosing wireless headphones randomly is not enough; you should also consider the headphone battery life.

If you are travelling, you may not easily find a place to charge your headphones. It is a good idea to choose headphones that offer a minimum of 6 to 8 hours of battery life so there are fewer chances you will face any charging issues during traveling. Quality wireless headphones offer many hours of battery life, such as Sennheiser HD 4.50 SE Bluetooth Wireless Headphones with 25 hours of battery life.

If the headphone features a noise-cancelling feature, its battery life will be different, so check the battery life with and without noise cancellation.

7. Price

One of the most important factors is the price. If your budget is too tight, then going for headphones with noise cancellation and other advanced features does not make much sense. The reason they are not good enough so you can look for an earphone/in-ear headphone.

If your budget is around $100 or above, you can find some excellent models. For example, at $69, you can get Plantronics 207120-21 Backbeat Pro 2 Special Edition – Wireless Noise Canceling Headphones, the BEST headphone at this price range.

Sony 1000XM3 is our favourite headset for travelling but if you want more recommendations, then here are the top 5 headphones we recommend for travelling.

• Sony 1000XM3
• Bose QuietComfort 35 II
• Cowin E7
• Plantronics Pro 2 Wireless Noise Cancelling Backbeat
• Powerbeats Pro Wireless (If you are looking for a less bulky option)

Conclusion

With the COVID-19 looming for a while now, we are all eager to get back to the normal world and travel around to break from the lockdown blues. To make these upcoming moments even better, having travel-ready headphones along is always a good option. We hope this guide has helped you find the perfect headphones for your next traveling trip.

Thanks for reading.

Last update on 2023-02-17 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API