What are open-back headphones? Here's what you need to know about the latest open headphones trend.

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If you've noticed that nearly every major audio brand now has some form of open earbuds, you're not mistaken — seats are filling up quick on the latest audio bandwagon. Naturally, it would follow that open headphones are slowly starting to creep into the market.

The idea of open headphones, however, isn't quite as intuitive as their earbud counterpart. While it's easy to picture earbuds with a hook or cuff component holding them in place, headphones by design have ear cups that cover — and close off — the ear.

So how do they work? Below, we break down the emerging trend of open headphones (spoiler alert: they've been around longer than you think), how they're different from traditional headphones, and the pros and cons of trying them out.

What are open headphones?

In the most basic terms, open headphones allow air to pass through the ear cup, allowing for a more natural soundstage that feels like it's coming from the space around you — because the sound is actually able to reach the space around you.

Typically, this means open headphones have a mesh ear cup, so there's still a physical component covering the ear. This also makes the open headphones' other common name, open-back headphones, make more sense — the back is there, it's just very permeable. This design also means that open-back headphones absolutely do not come with any active noise cancellation, or any passive noise cancellation, as the ear cup isn't designed to keep sound out.

Traditionally, open-back headphones have occupied the studio headphone space — think audio engineers, music producers, or just straight-up audiophiles. Again, the open space can allow for a more natural spatial audio (which is especially helpful, considering how horrific microphone-induced spatial audio can get). Open-back headphones are also known for more faithfully reproducing sounds as intended by the original mixers of audio, whether that be music or video games.

Right now, popular models of open-back headphones come from brands like Sennheiser, Beyerdynamic, and Sony, with the latter just releasing its first pair of open gaming headphones. JLab also recently released a pair of open-back headphones with an entirely removable mesh panel, to more closely mimic the experience of an open earbud (but more on that below).

Open headphones vs. closed-back headphones

To the average consumer, high-end headphones can be synonymous with flagship noise-cancelling headphones. Understandable, as they usually offer some of the best audio performance, comfort, and of course, noise cancellation.

However, those headphones aren't necessarily always the best for a certain listening experience. As one of our testers explained, the open-back Sennheiser HD 599 offered the best audio quality against traditional, closed-back headphones because they incorporated the ambient environment and allowed for that wider soundstage you might get from studio monitors or surround sound speakers. As our guide points out, this can be great for "deep, critical listening, especially if you plug them into a vinyl record player."

Open-back headphones are also likely to produce a more flat sound, or in other words, one that does not emphasize any particular frequency. This can be great for hearing the mix as it may have been intended, but bass-heads can sometimes have issues with these headphones as a result (if you fall into that category, we recommend you check out the Sony ULT Wear headphones). Finally, as many are intended for the best audio quality possible, many open-back headphones are wired, which is a notable deviation from the almost entirely wireless options from closed back headphones.

Open headphones vs. open earbuds

While both open headphones and open earbuds can offer you greater awareness of the environment around you, for the former, it's a byproduct, while for the latter, it's by design.

A large part of the reason open earbuds became popular in the first place is because they provide a degree of safety when running through a park or riding a bike. The situational awareness allows for the wearer to listen to their audio with relative privacy, but not totally be in their own bubble, whether at home or out and about.

The major downside of open earbuds is that they tend to require some degree of sound sacrifice. Their small housing means they can't pack a ton of drivers, and don't benefit from sitting outside of the ear canal — the result can mean a less robust and nuanced sound profile than you would get with traditional earbuds.

On the other hand, open-back headphones were made with sound at the forefront of their design. As mentioned above, the transparency they provide allows for the most natural-sounding spatial audio possible, letting the nuances of the audio envelop the listener. And the sheer size of the headphones means they can typically house more, and better, drivers for a superior listening experience similar to studio monitors.

The fact that both open earbuds and headphones allow you to hear the world around you better is merely an inevitability for the headphones' design, but it wasn't the reason they were created. That said, earbuds and headphones share the common problem of not being the easiest to use in louder environments. And as both allow for sound from the outside to come in, they also both allow for sound to come out, so you'll want to be aware that both are prone to sound leakage.