I lean minimalist. Everything I own must pay rent, in terms of storage space, mental clutter, faff in moving it whenever I next end up moving, etc. I pretty regularly realise some item I own isn't paying rent, and evict it.

As such, I was surprised to see that I had ended up with 4 different pairs of headphones. Here they are:

With more thought, it made sense. Each pair earns its slot by being best-in-class in some dimension that I care about. Here is a table justifying this claim:

Type Product Bulk Noise cancellation Ability to hear surroundings Audio latency Use cases
In-ear, wireless Jabra Elite 8 Active Low Medium Medium High Out without a bag (low bulk means easy to stuff in pocket); the gym (low bulk means low sweat).
Over-ear, wireless Sony WH-1000XM6 High High Medium High Loud offices, loud flights (high noise cancellation).
Open-ear, bone conduction, wireless Shokz OpenRun Pro 2 Medium Low High High Running on roads, cycling (high ability to hear surroundings).
On-ear, wired Sennheiser HD 25 High Medium Low Low DJing (low audio latency is important for beat matching).