T3’s tech wizard sounds off on headphones, exercise and cheese

Blissfully unaware of the inbound Asteroids attack...

ILLUSTRATIONS: STEPHEN KELLY

Q JIM GILBERT, VIA EMAIL

Which kind of headphones offer the best experience?

A  Presuming we’re leaving out ear buds and on-ear headphones here, both for reasons of space and because each category is a subjective minefield, GaGu will limit this selection to only over-ear kit. There are a couple of key kinds of cans, both of which tend to have a very different feel: closed-backed and open-backed.

The former is a completely sealed enclosure. Sound goes one way, towards your ears. This means the majority of outside noise can’t make it in to ruin your tunes, and is the logical reason that you’ll only find noise cancelling cleverness in closed-back cans. They’re close, warm, and keep the real world away – they’re core to the patented Guru family-avoidance technique. GaGu’s top pick doesn’t stray far from the meta, as he’ll suggest the Sony WH-1000XM4 (£350) all day long – but those Apple AirPods Max (£549) do sound mighty amazing.

There are a couple of key kinds of cans, both of which tend to have a very different feel: closed-backed and open-backed

Open-back headphones allow air through to your ears, preventing pressure from building up; they therefore sound much more natural, and have a far, far wider soundstage. Hooray, except: they let every other sound in, and bleed their own sound out. If you can find a quiet spot to sit back and relax you’re in for something wonderful, but if you can’t you’ll be able to hear your children screeching and they’ll be able to hear that you’re listening to the Bee Gees on a loop. The Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro (around £89) is a heavily favoured set on the low end; head to the high end, and you find utterly incredible kit like Focal’s Utopia – but they do cost £3,699.