Do earbuds or over-the-ear headphones provide better sound quality?

First suggestion this website is great! Has a mini tutorial for picking headphones. https://sites.google.com/view/headphoneadvice/faq-eli5 It talks about everything I mention in better detail.

From my understanding over the ear is going to provide better sound quality. I’ve personally used Bose and Sennheiser. Both have been really good but I do prefer noise canceling for home use. The biggest reason I haven’t tried others is there isn’t a store or place to really try a variety of brands sadly.

Interesting thing I’ve come to learn about sound is the signature of headphones and EQ of the device or where the sound is coming from and those factors alone can make a big difference. Also having a good headphone amp depending on the headphones you get can make quite the difference. The reason I mention this is that at some point it is personal preference and taste.

If you really want some seriously good quality “cans” I’d say be prepared to drop 150–300 bucks(USD).

I personally have a set ONLY for home use music and gaming mostly. I have another pair for walking,running, and the gym.

BOSE Quite comfort 15 – I got these used for about 80 bucks years ago – which is a hell of a deal and recently took them to BOSE store and they replaced the wore out headphone pads/filters for like 35 bucks. Worth it still use these nearly 4 years later. Only real downsides is it wired and takes 1 AAA battery. I have rechargeable batteries and its for home use, not a deal breaker for me.

Bose IE2 Audio In‑Ear Earphones – I only recently “retired” these had these as my gym and outside headphones took a beating. Pretty cheap nowadays. At time I got them for 100 bucks I wanna say. My upgrade was to the SoundSport wireless headphones

All that said this is just my experiences. If I really HAD the money to drop I’d get some high end headphones.

I dislike earbuds and rarely use them. I prefer over-the-ear headphones and I use quite expensive ones by Audio-Technica. The sound quality is excellent, they are comfortable and they don’t fall out of your ear.

I always thought that OverEar Headphones are the best. Open ones, to be specific.
I use midrange Sennheiser.

Over the ear, hands down

@Hawaii_Jake I wear BTE behind the ear hearing aids. I bought Sennheiser around the ear headphones and they are very good.

Vote over ear!

I use Bose over the ear headphones.