👀 Try 'em before you buy 'em

#285 | A surefire way to know if your new headphones are going to spark joy - musically

I don't buy headphones or earphones too often, mostly because I want them to last for as long as possible. I refuse to give them up unless they're literally losing their structural integrity.

I'm no audiophile. Theoretically, I know a pair of AudioTechnica somethingorothers give you the best sound quality or Sennheiser cans are great monitor headphones for my work.

Beyond this... I simply don't understand the long list of tech specifications enough to parse whether either of these will give me what I want for casual listening - good clear sound, a reasonable amount of bass, and some noise cancellation.

But I know what they're supposed to sound like, and I can tell when I hear it.

Which is why, more often than not, I've ended up buying earphones in-store. I pick out a pair and then ask the salesperson if I can test them. Then, I sheepishly stand around for five minutes trying to find the perfect song on my phone. If I'm especially unlucky, I'm subject to using whatever the salesperson has on their phone (or worse, an in-store device) at the moment - which means a pop song that I'd never ordinarily listen to, or a Bollywood banger that's mixed way, way too loud.

But today, I found the solution to my problem - nay, for everyone who's ever had this problem in the past.

Spotify's Songs To Test Headphones With playlist is exactly what it says. It's got 200 tracks from pretty much every genre (of Western music) that you can think of - spanning pop, indie, rock, experimental electronica, synth-wave, and even a little bit of metal, providing a pretty comprehensive soundscape to discover what your soon-to-be headphones can really do.

Testing aside, it's a pretty great curation of songs if you're just looking for something fun to listen to.

So go forth now and buy new headphones without worrying they'll make your favourite song sound like someone's bedroom demo recording.

Fire away,
S

P.S. Sound engineers and the like, this set of audio test tones has everything you need to test and calibrate your speakers to the greatest accuracy.