Shopping for earbuds is a strange process. Most consumers will pick a pair based on three qualifications:1.Design (whoa, that looks SO cool!)2.Price3.Brand EquityThough these three are definitely significant deciding factors in the purchasing process, there are many other factors that we must bring into consideration. Most consumers overlook the technical specifications marked on the packaging of earbuds. It would do well for the manufacturers to educate us on the significance of these terms. Knowing what these aspects mean will make you a much more intelligent consumer. Don’t take this knowledge for granted either; most employees at electronics retailers themselves do not know what these details mean. Knowledge is power, and I believe when you supply yourself with the right knowledge, you are on a much better path toward independence in buying, and you will be able to more accurately assess whether a pair will deliver the kind of power you have come to respect and love.1.Frequency: You see this on every package of earbuds. You’ll see numbers like 60hz-25khz, 15hz-20khz. What does all of this mean? Well the sound is measured in hertz. The lower the hertz, the more bass the speaker will deliver; therefore, a speaker that promises you 15hz is going to have much deeper bass than one that delivers at a starting range of 60hz. The higher the hertz, the more treble. Usually, the khz (kilohertz) don’t matter, because the specs are thrown so far out of proportion that there really isn’t an argument. A human ear can only hear up to roughly 20khz, and even that number is enough to make someone deaf. That having been said, we mustn’t just rate the quality of a pair of earbuds on the frequency alone.2.Impedance: Your earbuds run on electricity, and they can certainly wear out over time if you don’t have a strong enough pair. That having been said, electricity itself carries a vibrational frequency. Vibrations emit sound. The type of sound electricity emits isn’t the most attractive; it lets out a hiss. In order to eliminate hiss, we need impedance. Impedance is measured in ohms, and my personal rule of thumb is: the higher the ohms, the lower the phones. In other words, a high impedance means a much clearer set of earbuds. You want to buy a pair of headphones with the highest impedance you can afford so that all you hear is music. This guy explains impedance and ohms very well. Check out the video.