Popular Products > Electronics > Headphones

Headphones are a small pair of loudspeakers that serve as listening devices. You can listen to music or radio broadcasts with these devices on or in your ears. Headphones were invented around the turn of the 20th century. The earliest headphones were intended for use with telephones. These were large, cumbersome and very heavy units and were not very convenient to use. Headphones became more popular after the invention of the radio. Early radios used Morse code and operators were required to hold the earpiece close to their ear to hear messages coming through the radio.

Over the years, headphones have evolved into sophisticated, compact and lightweight devices. Headphones are available in a wide variety and have multiple uses; they can be used with computers to listen to music or even while talking on the phone as a hands-free device. Their size ranges from small earbud headsets to the large studio sound monitors which accurately reproduce the recorded sound.

Headphones are also known as earphones, and are available as binaural headsets which provide sound to both ears and monaural which have just one earpiece. Each contains an element which vibrates according to the electrical energy passed through it. Inside a headphone, there is a thin copper wire wound around a magnet. The magnet is connected to a diaphragm which vibrates when current is passed through the copper wire windings. Thus, sound is created through electrical inputs provided to the headphones. These may be open backed, free air headphones or closed back depending on the design.

Advanced headphones run on batteries and they also have noise cancelling features, which means they provide a clear and clean sound without allowing any external noise to intrude into the ear. These noise cancelling headsets provide a superior listening experience and are used when external noise needs to be filtered out or when you need to be completely focussed on what you’re listening to. Most airlines provide these noise cancelling headsets to their passengers in premium classes to block out the noise of other passengers and the constant humming sound in airplane cabins caused by the jet engines.