Osnat Amzaleg - October 19, 2016

A Guide to Finding The Best Bass Headphones

Headphones are a great way to take your music with you anywhere or to shut out the distracting sounds of the outside world with your own tunes while you study. They’re also perfect for when you want to listen to music without disturbing other people around you.

However, being so compact compared to full sized speakers, it can be difficult to find headphones that reproduce the same sound quality as speakers.

Woman Dancig with Headphones on Head

There are many amazing headphones out there but there are also a lot of cheap ones that are a waste of money. And you’re going to have to sift through the cheap ones before you land on a quality product that is worth the price. When you need bass headphones, it can get even harder.

In this article we’ll talk about what goes into the best bass headphones and how to tell whether or not you have found headphones with good bass.

What Makes Headphones Good Bass Headphones

Bass is a term that refers to the lower frequencies of sound. It’s deep, heavy, rich and resonates through everything. A song with a lot of bass is a song that you can feel in your chest because the long sound waves vibrate through everything.

Full Size Headphones

Bass is also one of the most difficult things for headphones to do. And it’s difficult because of how powerful it is:

  • Bass needs more space. This piece of wisdom explains why a passionate fan of bass heavy music knows that ear buds are pretty much worthless when it comes to listening to music. The long sound waves literally need more space in the speaker than shorter, higher pitched sounds. This is why many sound systems tend to dedicate an entire speaker (the bass amplifier or subwoofer) to the sole purpose of reproducing bass.
  • Bass is harder on the hardware. In the same way that bass will vibrate car windows and resonate in your chest, it vibrates the small headphone speakers. If you don’t have headphones designed specifically to deal with bass, your music could literally knock pieces of the speaker out of place with the vibrations. This will lead to an unpleasant buzzing sound as the speakers rattle around.

Because bass is so difficult to create in the small space of a headphone, they need to make special modifications in order to serve the high demands that bass heavy music puts on them. And even with these modifications, you simply cannot find headphones that let you actually feel the bass in the same way that you would if you were listening to it on a full stereo system with a subwoofer.

Woman Holding Full Size Headphones on Head

In most cases, headphones designed for bass address the challenges with one or more of the following solutions:

  • Make the headphones bigger. The larger they are, the better they can reproduce bass. As someone who wants to listen to your music on the go, you’re going to have to try and strike a balance between large enough to deliver quality bass but small enough to still be portable. This is why over the ear headphones are generally the best option for casual, every day listening. When designed for bass, they are large enough to provide solid bass (again, not as great as a full stereo system but respectable for headphones) and small enough to take with you on the go.
  • Make the bass track louder. Headphones are designed to focus on your ears which means they are there to help you HEAR the music, not feel it. But bass is one of those things that is equal parts hearing and feeling. So in order to make up for the lack of feeling, many bass headphones will simply up the volume of the bass so that it is louder relative to the rest of the audio in the music. If the headphones don’t do this, the bass will be lost because it is drowned out by the middle and higher frequencies in the audio.

So, when shopping for headphones, look to see that it is doing one (or both) of these things in order to provide the best bass that is possible to produce in headphones.

The Best Headphones For Bass

Two of the best brands to check out if you need headphones that can handle bass heavy music are Beats and Bose. The Beats brand was originally founded by Dr. Dre—someone who knows quite a bit about bass heavy music and what a good pair of bass headphones should do.

White Beats Solo Headphones on Table

They make great over the ear headphones that are designed to be comfortable, stylish, and pack a powerful bass punch.

Bose is another great band that has long been associated with quality. They make headphones that suit a wide range of purposed but they also offer a great line of bass headphones that have the right cushions, the right design, and the right modifications to handle bass as well as headphones can.

Final Word

Bass is tough for any speaker handle because it’s so powerful and heavy. But if you’re trying to listen to bass on a set of headphones that haven’t been specifically designed for the job, you’re quest is hopeless and you’ll burn out those headphones faster than usual.

Woman Wearing Bose Bass Headphones on Head

You need to check for a quality set of headphones from a brand like Bose or Beats that have been specifically crafted to handle bass.

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