Earbuds aren’t earphones, but depending on the definition, earbuds can look a lot like earphones. So what’s the difference, and how do you decide?
The question of earbuds vs earphones is one reviewers regularly field, particularly if you’ve stuck with Apple’s AirPods for much of your life (and by extension, the wired EarPods before them). It’s a question of tips vs no tips, or more specifically, wearing little sealers in your ear versus not, and it’s one that can throw many people a bit of a curveball.
My wife glances at the tips on my earphones and says she doesn’t like those, referring to the tips on them. I’m not sure she’s actually tried them, but I can understand the hesitation.
Tips are little bits of silicone or foam (more likely the former) that sit on the end of an earbud to form a greater seal. They sit inside your ears and close your ears up, allowing you to focus on the sound as opposed to everything else around you.
That’s distinct to earbuds, which typically forgo the tip entirely, though some classes of earphones muddy those waters, too.
It’s not unusual to find companies calling their earphones earbuds, largely because the term “earphone” can also describe a pair of earbuds with longer tips made to go in the ear. It’s all a bit confusing.
The difference between fits
Regardless of the names, when you look at a pair of earbuds or earphones and see tips, you can be sure it’s going to feel a little bit different going in. That’s not a surprise.
It’s an extra bit of material in your ear, but it’s hardly one that’s terribly intrusive. However, it can be intrusive enough to make you think twice.
And you can’t test earphones before you buy them, so how do you know what to buy?
We recommend the finger test.
Simply put, lean the soft underside of your pinky finger into your ears and see what your ears feel like sealed with a small plug. This is roughly what a pair of earphone tips feel like, blocking your ear canal.
Earphones also come with tips of various sizes, typically ranging from small to large dependent on the size of the holes in your ears, but some manufactures may include extra small options for people who need those.
Can earphone tips cause discomfort?
Besides the style you wear, earphone tips can be uncomfortable for some people, especially of you succumb to an almost vacuum-like pressure from noise cancelling earphones.
Also known as “eardrum suck”, it’s like feeling a slight vacuum as you wear the hearing device, and may affect both noise cancelling headphones and earphones, though the latest models don’t seem to exhibit much if any.
The problem may be a trick in the brain with a difference in pressure. There may not technically be a difference, but your brain may mistake the cancelling of some sound waves as that pressure difference, and that can trick you into feeling a little sick wearing them.
Over the past 15 years of reviewing headphones, some of the solutions we’ve found include:
- Taking the headphones off for a few minutes to an hour, and just listening to the outside world
- Switching to the transparency mode to listen to the outside world through headphones, and
- Upgrading to newer noise cancelling models that do a better job with the cancellation
The technology has improved in leaps and bounds, but ears and the brain can still be fickle. If you’re struggling with a potential ache while wearing and using noise canceling anything, consider just having a breather every so often.
Which style is better: earphone or earbud?
In terms of deciding which style is better, the choice typically comes down to how you want to listen to your audio.
If you want to seal yourself in a bubble of sound, and cancel out the world behind you, earphones and earbuds with tips do a better job thanks to how they close your ears. The tips seal each entrance, and you in turn block the outside world out before noise cancelling earphone algorithms kick in.
However, if you want to listen to the outside world or don’t like noise canceling earphones for other reasons, earbuds may be your best bet.
In some instances, you may even be able to find a device that blends the difference.
The 2024 release of the Apple AirPods, the AirPods 4 with ANC, saw a pair of earbuds where Apple had nailed the active noise cancellation in a style of earbud that has never seen the technology work. By comparison, the Samsung equivalent on Android was far less successful, and hardly warranted a buy.
However, Android owners and by extension iPhone owners, too, have a lot of other options when it comes to earphones with active noise cancellation, not to mention the number of over-ear and on-ear headphones that serve this purpose, as well.
What ends up being the best for you will be the one you find most comfy, that matches your budget, and reviews well. Find a pair that fits your ears and needs, and you’ll be right.
