Sitting back and winding away a few peaceful hours, lost in a world of music is a great way of spending an afternoon. If you have the right headphones.

There are a few things to look out on your hunt for the perfect cans. In the first part of our guide we go through the three major design styles.

What to look for?

Style of the headphones

The way the headphones fit is important to get right, do you want on, in or over the ear?

Over ear headphones

Over ear headphones or DJ style headphones fit over your ears like a cup. Provided the padding is good, they can be extremely comfy to wear. The style offers passive noise cancelling so blocks out a significant amount of background noise. This style of headphones is great for commuting and relaxing to your favourite tunes or music.

On ear headphones

Compared to over ear headphones, these headphones have a smaller cup or flat pad that sits on top of the ear. This design difference means that they don’t cancel as much background noise, which is a real benefit when jogging or walking. They are also great for the gym as they don’t warm your ears like their over ear cousins

In ear headphones

In ear headphones need no introduction, it is this style that’s included with every mobile phone or mp3 player on the market. Small, lightweight and discrete, the in ear style is great if you just want a pair that you can keep in your pocket.