Wearing headphones when wearing glasses is a challenge, but music shouldn't be something bespectacled fans have to put up with. Although headphones with glasses can never equal the level of relaxation experienced by eagle-eyed listeners, there are ways to alleviate the discomfort.

Choose over-ear headphones while you're wearing shades.

Over-ear headphones are more comfortable than on-ear headphones in terms of pressure distribution. Rather than putting weight on the ears directly, the ear cups surround them. Although this style doesn't completely alleviate discomfort, it does prevent the pain-sandwich that on-ear headphones can cause by crushing the plastic arms between your earlobes and your skull.

The type of earpad you use is important.

When wearing headphones with glasses, convenience isn't the only consideration: proper fit has a significant impact on audio quality. Synthetic or leather earpads are common in headphones, and these rigid fabrics leave holes around your glasses. We suggest searching for headphones with either very comfortable or highly pliable padding to ensure that they fit as snugly as possible around the glasses sides. As a result, you won't be losing as much audio clarity when listening.

As a result of perceptual masking, the music quality suffers as a result of a bad fit. When a comparatively noisy tone makes it impossible to hear a relatively silent one, this is what happens.

Auditory masking is something we've both seen. Consider the last time you were on the train platform; it may seem that the volume of your music was diminishing as the train approached, but it wasn't. Rather than analysing your music, your brain prioritised the low-frequency, noisy noise of the train. This is a means of surviving. It was very helpful during caveman days, but it isn't ideal if you want to hear every nuance of your music.

Earpads made of fabric or velour are your true companions.

Earpads made of a softer material, such as velour, suede, or fabric, are strongly recommended. The former is usually only on more expensive headphones, but you can still swap your headset's default earpads with third-party ones. The Philips Fidelio X2 is one of my all-time favourite headsets: the big ear cups are incredibly supportive, and the velour lining complements the memory foam earpads well. With my glasses on, I can listen for hours at a time, and much longer without them.

Fabric ear pads are a bit harder to come by, but they're often bundled in sports and gaming headphones like the JLab Audio Flex Sport and Plantronics Rig 500 Pro. They're normally made of mesh and cotton, which makes them thinner and more breathable than memory foam mattresses. Cloth earpads, on the other hand, do not have as much cushioning as other types of earpads and can get uncomfortable after an hour or two of use.

The clamping power makes a huge difference.

Another consideration of headphones and glasses is clamping power. When wearing glasses, any pressure applied to the head, especially on the sides, would be amplified. That's how the arms put a lot of weight on the head, and the pain gets worse fast. It's difficult to predict how convenient or uncomfortable a pair of headphones can be without testing a few different solutions first.

When it comes to clamping power, smaller heads are less stressed than bigger noggins, so your child is unlikely to feel the same amount of pressure from a given headset as you. Although it's essential to ask friends what makes them more at ease, it's also crucial to note that every secondhand research you do is just that: secondhand. If you have the opportunity, try on a headset before purchasing it.

With earbuds, you can avoid the most discomfort.

If what you want to do is stop discomfort when wearing headphones, in-ears are the safest option. With glasses and ill-fitting headsets, discomfort along the temporal fossa, sphenoid bone, and zygomatic arch is normal. Since the arms of the glasses rest around both of these bones and are squeezed against the skull with on-ear or over-ear headphones, the pressure is amplified. You won't experience any discomfort and the earbuds don't overlap with the arms of your glasses.

In-ears have certain disadvantages.

So you've made the decision to avoid headaches by using earphones or truly wireless earbuds. Unfortunately, there are problems with in-ears that do not exist with headphones. For one thing, the comfort of earbuds is extremely subjective.

When earbud housings are too big for your feet, discomfort can occur around the interior of the antihelix, antitragus, tragus, and concha, which all come into close contact with most earbuds. This is why I prefer Sony's true wireless noise cancelling earphones, which have a tri-point arrangement that equally distributes weight and pressure around the outer ear's different components. Some people like ear hook designs like the Beats Powerbeats, but the ear hook overlaps where the arms slope down and across the back of the ear, which may be a problem with some glasses.

Aside from fit idiosyncrasies, in-ears need more frequent cleaning than headphone earpads. Ear tips are useful for collecting ear wax and can even trap gunk down the ear tip's tube. The nozzle's grill becomes clogged as a result. Any obstruction degrades audio quality and puts you at risk of contracting an ear infection, which can lead to acute hearing loss or reduction as a symptom. Simply disinfect the ear tips on a daily basis to reduce the risk of infection. How to clean your AirPods Pro is detailed in this post, and the process is the same for both earbuds.

The kind of glasses frames you wear will also affect your comfort.

Glasses, like sunglasses, come in a variety of shapes and sizes. This difference is also seen on the arms of your glasses. In this case, comfort is determined by the arm type, material, and thickness rather than the frame shape. I used to wear heavy frames with rounded faces, but I've now switched to thinner frames with flat arms. Wearing headphones with round-armed glasses was slightly more painful than with flat-armed glasses because there was less surface space, making the discomfort more intense.

Now isn't the time to go to Warby Parker's website to order new glasses just to fit your headphones. However, keep this in mind when purchasing your next pair of glasses, particularly if you spend the majority of your days wearing headphones. Choosing glasses depending on your headphones can sound drastic, but if audio is your primary source of entertainment, it's a worthwhile improvement. Plus, after you've tired out a good pair of glasses, it's always cool to switch up the lens style.

Unfortunately for us, even if you have the best headphones for glasses on the market, they won't save you if they hurt every time you put them on. When wearing headphones and lenses, pain elimination is almost difficult, but I hope this guide helps you find workarounds. Best of luck, and enjoy the music!