Who runs this

My name is Horace Ward. I've spent over four decades in professional audio — front-of-house engineering, monitor engineering, broadcast mixing, system design, and studio work. I'm a Grammy nominee, recognized for engineering on Lady Gaga's "You and I" (2011–2012). When this site recommends a pair of headphones, it's coming from someone who has spent more hours in front of a console than most people have spent watching television.

I started this site because friends, family, and colleagues kept asking me the same questions. "What headphones should I buy for the gym?" "Are AirPods Max actually worth it?" "What do you use for mixing on the road?" After answering those questions hundreds of times in person, I figured it was time to write it all down. HeadphonesMatch is that answer — for them, and for anyone else who wants honest guidance from someone who actually does this for a living.

A bit about my career

The Grammy nomination came in 2011 for engineering on Lady Gaga's "You and I." That's the one that ends up on most bios, but the work behind it spans four decades — front-of-house and monitor engineering across hundreds of tours starting in 1978.

A few things stand out from the past few years. In 2019, I designed the audio system overhaul at the United Center in Chicago — the arena that hosts the Bulls and the Blackhawks — working as sound designer at Crossfade Design with Clair Solutions handling the integration. That's a building that runs over 200 events a year, and the system has to perform for both sports broadcasts and full-scale concert tours. Getting that right was easily one of the more demanding jobs of my career.

From 2022 to 2024 I was the Audio A1 on Google's global events and live broadcasts — corporate work, but the kind where a single dropout in front of a worldwide audience would be a problem. Same period, I was running live sound for Lauryn Hill on a string of high-profile shows and video productions. From 2024 to 2025 I worked as live and studio mix engineer for Victoria Monét. Now I'm freelance A1-ing in New York.

The touring side runs back to 1978. Arenas, festivals, broadcast productions, world tours. Four decades of front-of-house and monitor engineering, mixed in with system design and studio work.

The artists

People always ask, so here's the list. Tours I've engineered, monitor mixes I've built, or live sound systems I've designed, going back to 1978:

Lauryn Hill · Usher · Beyoncé · Lady Gaga · Mary J. Blige · Kanye West · The Fugees · Prince · Destiny's Child · Aaliyah · N.E.R.D · Chris Brown · Guy · Jodeci · Earth Wind & Fire · Puff Daddy · Wyclef Jean · Busta Rhymes · Nas · Santigold · Steel Pulse · Maxwell · Faith Evans · 112 · 98 Degrees · Q-Tip · Chico DeBarge · Zhané · Joe · Ginuwine · Nancy Wilson · Peabo Bryson · Blackstreet · Silk · SWV · H-Town · Intro · KRS-One · Iron Maiden · Saxon · Twisted Sister · Yumi Shizukusa (Japan) · Double (Japan) · L.S.G.

Studio credits run through Lauryn Hill, Dru Hill, 112, Keith Sweat, Cheetah Girls, Robert Miranda, and Yumi Shizukusa.

Why this matters for a headphone site: the gear I'm recommending isn't theoretical. The Sennheiser EW IEM G4 wireless systems. The Shure PSM 1000 in-ear monitors. The Sony MDR-7506s that show up on every truck. Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pros. Audio-Technica M50x. These aren't products I read about — they're tools I've set up, repaired, handed to artists before showtime, and watched perform under conditions consumer reviews never test.

Why this site exists

Honest answer: because most existing headphone advice on the internet is written by people who have never used headphones in any context that genuinely tests them.

A consumer reviewer testing a pair of in-ear monitors in their home office is doing useful work — but it's not the same as watching what happens when a $300 IEM is used on a 90-minute stadium set with a vocalist who pushes them to their limits. A "best headphones for studio" article written by a tech blogger looking at spec sheets misses what working engineers actually grab when they need to make decisions that matter.

The headphone advice dominating Google search results often gets the basics right but misses the working-professional perspective that distinguishes genuinely good gear from "good for the price." HeadphonesMatch tries to add that perspective — combined with the broader consumer-review research that's already out there.

Where I have direct hands-on experience (live sound gear, studio reference monitors, in-ear monitor systems, professional headphones), I write from that experience. Where I don't (every $5,000 audiophile IEM, every consumer wireless earbud I haven't personally deployed), I'm explicit that the recommendation synthesizes other reviewers' work — and I tell you which reviewers I'm trusting and why.

The goal is straightforward: when you're ready to buy headphones, you should be able to find the right pair here in five minutes instead of five hours — and you should know who's behind the recommendation.

What's on the site

Buying guides, mostly. Organized by what you actually need: by use case (gym, travel, studio, DJ, working from home, commute, calls), by price (under $100, under $200, under $500, flagship, summit-fi), and by specialty (in-ear monitors for stage, headphones for mixing and mastering, podcast and stream monitoring).

There's also a matcher tool on the homepage. Tell it your budget, how you'll use the headphones, and what matters to you — it'll give you three picks. It's the fastest way to skip the research if you just want an answer.

Right now there are 25+ guides covering the questions I hear most often. I add new ones when readers ask the same thing enough times, and I go back through existing guides when products change, prices shift, or new generations replace old ones.

How I make recommendations

Three sources, weighted by which matters most for each product:

1. Direct experience. For pro audio gear — wireless IEM systems, studio reference cans, broadcast headphones, stage monitor systems — I've used most of what I recommend. The Sennheiser EW IEM G4 has been on artists I've engineered. The Shure PSM 1000 is what I've deployed across countless touring rigs. The Sony MDR-7506 shows up on every truck I've ever worked on. Those recommendations come from decades of hands-on use, not spec sheets.

2. Trusted reviewers. For consumer headphones and IEMs I haven't personally lived with, I lean on RTINGS for measurements, SoundGuys for real-world testing, What Hi-Fi for audiophile perspective, and category specialists like HeadFi.org for audiophile gear, Sound on Sound for studio equipment, and headphones.com for summit-fi. When I'm working from somebody else's testing, I say so.

3. What pros actually use. Cross-referencing against what shows up on touring rigs, in mastering studios, on broadcast trucks. Real-world professional use is one of the strongest signals there is, because we can't afford to use gear that doesn't deliver.

Every product review on the site includes both "Best for" and "Skip if" sections. I tell you who shouldn't buy each product, not just who should. Real recommendations include real caveats — that's how I'd give advice to a friend, and it's how this site operates.

Articles are updated as things change. Headphones get discontinued, new models launch, prices shift. Every guide carries a "Last updated" timestamp showing when it was last reviewed.

What this site isn't

I want to be clear about limitations so you can calibrate accordingly.

This isn't a measurements lab. RTINGS does excellent objective measurements with calibrated equipment. I don't replicate that work — I synthesize it, alongside my own experience and other professional usage data. When you want detailed frequency response graphs or sealed-chamber THD measurements, RTINGS is the right destination.

I haven't personally tested every product on this site. Coverage spans 100+ products across the entire market. I've used many of the pro audio products directly. For the rest — most consumer wireless headphones, every $5,000 audiophile IEM — the site is explicitly framed as editorial synthesis of expert reviewer work. That framing is honest and protects you from the trap of any single reviewer's preferences.

I'm an engineer, not a mastering specialist for every genre. While I've worked across pop, R&B, hip-hop, rock, and reggae across my career, I'm not personally mixing classical orchestral recordings or pressing electronic music. For genre-specific production advice, dedicated mastering engineers and producer communities are better resources than me.

This site isn't infallible. Headphone preferences are partly subjective — two people with the same use case can prefer different products. Recommendations here reflect what evidence, professional experience, and consensus support. If a pick doesn't work for you, try something else.

How I write here

A few things I try to stick to:

Honesty over optimization. I could probably rank higher in search and earn more commission by writing more aggressive "best of" content with bigger claims and weaker caveats. I don't, because the recommendations would be worse for readers. Long-term trust beats short-term traffic — that's true in audio, and it's true in writing about audio.

Plain language over jargon. I use technical terms when there's no way around them — you can't really talk about IEMs without "balanced armature" or "impedance" — but I explain them. Audio writing has a habit of gatekeeping through vocabulary. I try not to.

Trade-offs over hype. Every product has limits. I tell you what they are. A review that claims a product is perfect for everyone isn't useful — no product is perfect for everyone, and the absence of caveats is itself a signal not to trust the review.

Brevity where it works, depth where it doesn't. A simple question gets a simple answer (yes, the SE215 is a fine starter IEM, here's why). A complicated one gets a 3,000-word guide. Length should match what you actually need.

Updates over stale content. The audio world keeps moving. Articles need to move with it. I treat what's published here as living, not finished.

My promise to readers

A short list of commitments to anyone who uses this site:

  • I won't recommend products I wouldn't recommend to a friend or fellow engineer. Every pick goes through the question "would I tell my friend to buy this?" If the answer is no, it doesn't get recommended.
  • I won't fabricate hands-on testing where I haven't done it. Articles are clear about which products I've personally used and which I'm recommending based on industry consensus.
  • I won't push expensive products to earn higher commissions. If a $100 pair is genuinely the right answer, you'll see that — even though the commission would be larger on a $400 pair.
  • I won't ignore problems with products I like. Every product review explicitly addresses trade-offs and limitations.
  • I won't take undisclosed money to write favorable content. No sponsored articles, no paid placements, no manufacturer relationships that affect editorial decisions. If that ever changes, it gets disclosed prominently.
  • Corrections welcome. Email me at any time — corrections are welcome, not annoying.

The book

I've written everything I know about mixing into a book — The Professional Audio Mixing Blueprint. Twelve chapters covering monitoring setup, gain staging, EQ, compression, reverb and delay, automation, psychoacoustics, mixing for different genres, and the diagnostic protocol I follow on every session.

The book is available now on Amazon. A few of the chapters are also published free as articles here on the site, if you'd like to read before you buy. See the book →

Get in touch

Questions about recommendations? Disagreements with picks? Article ideas? Corrections to existing content? I'd love to hear from you.

The fastest way to reach me is by email: horace@headphonesmatch.com. I respond personally to most messages within a few business days. See the contact page for what I do and don't respond to.

Thanks for reading. The fact that you scrolled all the way down this page means you care about who's behind the recommendations you're considering — and that instinct alone puts you ahead of most headphone buyers. Whatever you end up purchasing, I hope you enjoy what you hear.

"Forty plus years on the road and in the studio taught me one truth: the fundamentals never change. Control them, and the music takes care of itself."
— Horace Ward

HeadphonesMatch is operated by Horace Ward, based in New City, New York, USA. For privacy practices, see the Privacy Policy. For how the site makes money, see the Affiliate Disclosure.