Headphones vs Earphones

Now that the various aspects of headphones have been pointed out so far to this point, what else would be left to say? The kind of headphones you would prefer to use, this would come down to two basic types. There's headphones that situate over your ear with a band over your head. Then there's the in-ear or earphone variety. These are preferred in most cases for portability and the discretion factor of them. Both have their advantages and disadvantages however.

In-ear style

In-ear style of earphones have the distinct portability advantage, that's for sure. They are easy to bring with you anywhere really and can stand up to varying levels of daily wear and tear and abuse. Earphones such as these can vary however in their design and sound quality. The main factor for most experienced audio entrepreneurs is what is called soundstage (perceived degree of sound 'echo' from the source). In-ear style generally can not compete with the level that headphones can. This is down to the size of the drivers (The actual miniature speaker within the piece) that are in earphones. Headphones can feature drivers from 40-70mm in size, this gives certain advantages which will be pointed out in proceeding paragraphs. Earphones though are limited to drivers at the 7-12mm range, the double digit variety being the more expensive. The final real advantage is power use, earphones use minuscule power at full operation, increasing battery life for any portable device. All in all, earphones still do endure a reputation for portable sound at a cut price.

Headphones

Along the lines of headphones.. the distinct advantage you can see immediately is the size. Headphones feature drivers that are well and above the size of their earphone counterparts and do not have much, if any, restriction on this (Audeze LCD-3 being a good example of this). Although a thought shared by many that headphones are the be all and end all of personal audio enjoyment, the more higher end earphones can keep up with headphones (IEM's are an example of this, IEM's are custom designed 'In Ear Monitors' costing many hundreds). Within this scope, most headphones do not stack up in the pro's and con's between both, but this is just for the average under 100 or 200 price range. When you go above this and get into the many hundreds or 1,100-1,200 range you will find where headphones really shine in comparison. Offering sound quality on par or exceeding the very best home theater or custom monitor speakers in a studio environment. Headphones such as these, and most well sounding ones do come with one major drawback, high power use. Not suitable for portable devices, and requiring amps. -- 

In final, yet again, it is up to the end user, what do you require and why? It's really that simple. Just pick what you want, within either your budget contstraints or be it style or more. Next topic? Style over function!