Audiophiles & the Office: The Best Headphones for Work

Who says you have to leave your audio hobby at home when you go to work? For audiophiles and music enthusiasts, hi-fi sound can and should be a part of your workday. But if you spend the day in an open office setup or shared office environment, you can't just play music through desktop speakers — well, unless you want to elicit glares from your boss and co-workers. Listening to music on headphones or IEMs (also called in-ear monitors or earphones) is going to be a necessity for workplace harmony. Provided you keep in line with your workplace’s headphone policy, music listening should absolutely be a part of your workday. But there's no reason to settle for cheap earbuds or disappointing headphones. You deserve excellent sound, not muddled versions of your favorite tunes.

Music can make the workday more enjoyable, that's for sure. But music at work is about more than entertainment. Research has shown numerous work-related benefits of listening to music, including better concentration, stronger memory, increased motivation, and reduced stress. Power through mundane tasks? Check. Relax your mind ahead of a big meeting? Check. Get a burst of creativity for a big project? Check! And if you're looking for a way to signal "do not disturb" to your colleagues, just having your headphones on (music or not) is a great way to let them know that you are occupied. So, how do you choose the best pair of headphones for a work environment?

There's nothing worse than being stuck at a desk next to someone whose music is steadily leaking out of their headphones. It may sound great on the listener's end, but it's going to be annoying or disruptive to people in the vicinity. For this reason, we recommend closed-back headphones for the office.

The term "closed back" refers to the fact that the headphone cups — the round part of the headphone that sits on your ears — are fully sealed. This is in contrast to open-back headphones, whose ear cups have openings in order to ventilate the drivers (the devices in your headphones that produce sound). The main advantage of closed-back headphones at work is that their sealed nature minimizes the amount of sound leaking out. Some closed-back headphones may leak minimal sound at very high volumes, but your colleagues shouldn't hear a thing under normal listening circumstances. (Needless to say, hearing protection is highly important, and listening at moderate volumes is always recommended.) Additionally, closed-back headphones will minimize outside noise from entering your ears, so you can both concentrate on your work and enjoy more focused listening. Closed-back headphones generally don't have as wide of a soundstage as open-back headphones, but they do tend to offer a better bass response.

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$2,000.00

From the makers of the notorious open-back Empyrean headphone comes the closed-back Meze Liric. With its all-black coloring (save for a couple of copper accents), it's a sleek and sophisticated-looking headphone. The ovoid-shaped ear cups and pads follow the natural shape of the human ear, which makes for a comfortable fit. The Liric has a fast and tight bass response, with clear and detailed mids and highs. Imaging and transients are phenomenal. The Liric sounds amazing with most any music, given its superb imaging, clarity, and neutral-warm sound signature.

We like to pair the Liric with a Black Dragon Premium Cable for added body and dimension.

$299.99

The Sony WF-1000XM5 truly wireless earbuds take noise cancellation and audio quality to the next level. The newly designed driver unit gives you improved performance in low frequencies. It also enhances noise canceling by generating a high-precision cancellation signal to the low frequency range. Improved noise canceling performance and Bluetooth™ ‘System on Chip’ technology delivers the industry’s highest level of noise canceling yet uses less power. Two noise sensing microphones per ear – one feed-forward and one feed-back – on the surface of the headphones catch more of the ambient sounds of your surroundings. You also get crystal-clear call quality, thanks to a beamforming microphone and a bone-conduction sensor that provide clear voice detection even in noisy environments. The WF-1000XM5 earbuds boast features like automatic wind noise reduction, Adaptive Sound Control, Precise Voice Pickup Technology, Ambient Sound mode, and Speak-to-Chat, which automatically pauses your music and lets in ambient sound so you can have a conversation. You also get intuitive touch control settings, and you can use the Sony | Connect Headphones app to assign your own functions to each earbud. You can enjoy a full working day of charge – eight hours – from your headphones and store another 16 hours in the case. That means a full 24 hours of listening time every time you leave the house. In a hurry? A five-minute quick charge gives you up to 60 minutes of play time, and the Sony | Headphones Connect app will even notify you when your charging case drops below 30%.