Beginner’s Guide | Find the Best Headphones Using Headfonica Headphone Selector

Introduction

With the advent of Apple’s iPhone 7 and Google’s Pixel 2 it appears that more and more cellphone makers are opting to no longer include headphone jacks with their newest models of cellphones. Whether or not this trend is going to continue is anyone’s guess. Some of the top Android phone makers still do include them…notably, Samsung and LG.

Users however are flocking to both Apple’s newest iPhone’s which include the XS, XS Max and XR, as well as Google’s newest Pixel 3 lineup, and neither of these cutting edge models feature headphone jacks. Which means, the wireless headphone and earbud markets are booming.

Whether or not you’re seeking wireless headphones or your very first ‘audiophile’ quality fones, you’ll be in for a bit of surprise when you discover just how complex and time-consuming finding the right set of headphones has become.

Which is why, when I discovered an awesome new tool that can dramatically simplify and speed up the selection process, I decided to write a post about it.

Get Down to Basics First

Before I get to discussing the tool that’s the main focus of this post however, I’d like to introduce a few other great resources I ran across.

TechCrunch’s In 2018 the Headphone Jack is a Rare Beast

TechCrunch offers some great insight into this new trend.

Digital Music News Lists all of the mobile phones which don’t include headphone jacks.

Digital Music News List is filled with annoying ads, so I’ve made a clean screenshot of their list shown below.

Audiophile 101 The Beginner Guide to Headphones & Hi-Res Audio by Headphone Zone.

Too Much Audio Mumbo Jumbo? Read Audiophile 101

Audiophile 101 is an amazing resource created by Headphone Zone. Headphone Zone is a site that was conceived of with the aim of catering to India’s enthusiastic audiophile community by bringing them the best listening gear, be it headphones, earphones or audio accessories. While the site is geared towards providing a comprehensive, one-stop shop for headphones to the citizens of India, it can’t really be utilized here in the U.S., their educational materials are highly appropriate, very well executed and extremely useful to anyone wanting to get up to speed quickly.

Headfonica Headphone Selector

The Main Event | Searching for Your Best Headphones with Headfonica

What is Headfonica?

Headfonica appears on the surface to be a very simple site, but the power behind it’s engine is far from simple. From a shoppers viewpoint however, it couldn’t be simpler. In addition to offering a great tool that helps you drill down to the best headphones for your unique needs, it also offers quick, in-app instruction for all the terminology used by the selection engine.

How to Use Headfonica’s Headphone Selector

Go to Headfonica’s Headphone Selection tool.

To begin using the headphone selecting tool, you start by choosing the type of listening device you’re seeking, closed, open or earbud. You’ll find a discussion of what the difference between open and closed is in the Audiophile’s Chapter 9.

The next 2 Steps are easy. Chose your price range and the kind of music you listen to most frequently.

Then you’ll need to indicate whether or not you like a lot of bass or just the average amount of bass.

Last you need to indicate whether or not you’ll be providing a separate Amp which you’ll attach to the headphones, or utilizing the amp the headphones provide. I suspect, as a beginner choosing a headphone with an included amp is best…but I’m no expert! So you may want to peruse Audiophile 101’s Chapter 2 or read up a bit more on amps at Digital Trend’s What’s a Headphone Amp and Why Would I Need One first.

What Happen’s Next?

After all your selections have been made, the Headphone selector will present you with a short list of headphones that meet your criteria. If you click on one them you’ll be taken to Amazon’s listing for that model, where you can read more about that specific headphone’s features and user reviews. It also might not hurt to read some of the questions and answers too. This is generally the process I use for almost any tech purchase I make from Amazon.

Once you’ve narrowed down your selection to the top headphone set for your needs you can decide whether or not to purchase them directly from Amazon or another vendor of your choice. If you end up using a different online vendor, you can scroll back up to the top and copy the exact model name and any identifying information which you can then use to paste into Google or your preferred vendor’s search tool to locate the exact same pair.