The Headphones I Actually Use Every Day

Three pairs of headphones. One gets used religiously, one has a very specific job, and one is currently missing.

I own three very different pairs of headphones.

A pair of KZ Castor Pros.

A Logitech G935.

And a pair of AirPods 4.

If you looked at the three on paper, you'd probably assume I rotate between them depending on what I'm doing.

That's not really what happens.

The Castor Pros are used religiously.

They're my daily headphones. Music, YouTube, coding, gaming, Discord, working, basically anything involving audio while I'm sitting at my computer.

The G935 has a much more specific role.

It's the headset I grab when I'm gaming and want to have music playing in the background while the Castors handle the actual game audio. It's also what I use when I'm streaming and need to move around without having a cable attached to me.

And the AirPods 4?

Well...

I lost them.

So my running playlist and I are currently on a break.

That wasn't exactly the original plan.

But honestly, having these three around has made me realize something I didn't expect:

I don't actually care about owning one "perfect" pair of headphones anymore.

I care about having the right tool for the situation.

And most of the time, that tool is a pair of wired IEMs that cost considerably less than the other options sitting on my desk.

The Castor Pros are my actual headphones

Let's get this out of the way first.

I use the KZ Castor Pros constantly.

Not "I use them when I'm listening to music."

I mean they are basically the headphones I put on whenever I'm at my desk.

There's something incredibly satisfying about having a device that doesn't need you to think about it.

The Castors don't have a battery.

They don't need Bluetooth.

They don't need a charging case.

They don't need an app.

They don't need to be paired.

I don't need to wonder whether I remembered to charge them.

I just plug them in.

That's it.

And because I'm using a Type-C cable, they fit naturally into the rest of my setup.

USB-C has become the closest thing we have to a universal connector, so having a detachable Type-C cable on the IEMs makes the whole thing feel pretty painless.

My headphones are effectively always at 100%.

Because they don't have a battery.

That sounds stupidly obvious, but after using enough wireless devices, I've come to appreciate it more and more.

The sound is why I keep coming back

Convenience is nice.

But if the Castors sounded terrible, I wouldn't be using them every day just because they don't have a battery.

The main reason they're my daily drivers is simple:

I really like how they sound.

I prefer their sound to the G935 and AirPods 4 for the way I actually listen.

And because I spend so much time at my computer, that matters.

Music has a good sense of separation.

Vocals don't disappear into everything else.

There's enough bass to make things enjoyable without turning every track into a bass test.

And there's enough detail that I can actually pay attention to what I'm listening to when I want to.

They're also incredibly easy to drive.

I'm not sitting here with some ridiculous headphone amplifier setup.

It's an IEM.

Plug it in.

Play music.

Done.

I also EQ everything

This is another reason I don't think headphone comparisons are quite as simple as people make them sound.

I don't necessarily listen to the Castors exactly as they come out of the box.

On PC, I use Equalizer APO.

On Android, I use Poweramp Equalizer.

So I can tweak the sound depending on what I'm doing and what I'm listening to.

And that's one of the things I think gets overlooked when people talk about headphones.

A headphone isn't just a fixed experience.

You can change how it sounds.

Maybe you want a little more bass.

Maybe vocals need a slight adjustment.

Maybe something in the upper frequencies is a little too aggressive.

EQ gives you some control over that.

And because the Castors are already my preferred hardware, having the ability to tune them just makes them even more useful.

They become my headphones rather than simply the way KZ decided they should sound.

And somehow the mic is better too

This is probably the part I find funniest.

The Castors also have a better microphone for me than the other two.

Now, obviously, the G935 has a proper boom microphone.

It's a gaming headset.

That's literally one of its defining features.

And the AirPods have Apple's microphone processing doing a lot of work.

But with the microphone on my Type-C cable, I've ended up with a setup that I actually prefer for my calls and voice communication.

So now there's even less reason for me to switch.

I'm not sacrificing communication just because I'm using an IEM.

The Castors handle my audio.

They handle my music.

They handle my games.

They handle Discord.

And they handle my microphone.

At this point, they've basically become the default audio device for my entire computer.

The G935 has a completely different job

This is where I think the G935 gets misunderstood in my setup.

I don't use it because the Castors aren't good enough.

I use it because the G935 lets me do something the Castors don't.

The biggest example is gaming.

I'll sometimes have the Castors handling the actual game audio while the G935 is playing music in the background.

So I've effectively got two audio layers.

Game audio goes through the IEMs.

Music goes through the G935.

And because the G935 is over-ear and wireless, it works really well for that kind of secondary role.

It's almost like having a dedicated background-music headset.

Which sounds ridiculous when you say it out loud.

But it works.

The G935 is also my streaming headset

The other situation where I genuinely prefer the G935 is streaming.

This is where wireless actually earns its keep.

When you're streaming, you don't necessarily want to be glued to your desk.

You might get up.

You might walk across the room.

You might need to grab something.

You might be moving around while still monitoring audio.

With the Castors, that cable is always attached to something.

That's fantastic when I'm sitting at my desk.

It's considerably less fantastic when I'm walking around.

The G935 doesn't care.

It's wireless.

Put it on.

Connect it.

Walk around.

Come back.

Keep going.

That's the kind of situation where I genuinely appreciate having a wireless headset.

It's not replacing the Castors.

It's doing something the Castors aren't designed to do.

The G935 is basically my "I need freedom" headset

And that's probably the best way I can describe its role.

When I want audio quality and simplicity, I grab the Castors.

When I want freedom of movement, I grab the G935.

The funny part is that the G935 is objectively the more complicated piece of hardware.

It has a battery.

Wireless connectivity.

A boom mic.

Large earcups.

RGB.

Software.

More physical controls.

There's simply more going on.

But sometimes all those additional features are exactly what you need.

If I'm sitting down and working?

Give me the Castors.

If I'm moving around?

Give me the G935.

That's a much more useful comparison than trying to decide which one is "better."

And then there were AirPods

The AirPods 4 had a very specific job too.

Running.

That's basically it.

They're tiny.

They're wireless.

They don't have a cable flapping around while I'm moving.

That's exactly what I want when I'm running.

I don't want to have an IEM cable bouncing around.

I don't want to worry about where the cable is.

And I definitely don't want a giant G935 sitting on my head while I'm trying to run.

The AirPods were the obvious choice.

Put them in.

Start running.

Listen to music.

Simple.

Except I lost them

And then, in a completely predictable piece of technology-owner behaviour...

I lost them.

So now I run cold turkey.

No music.

No podcast.

No playlist.

Just me, the road and whatever is happening inside my head.

Which is probably not what I would have chosen.

But there's something oddly interesting about it.

When you rely on technology for something as mundane as running, losing the device suddenly reminds you that the activity itself doesn't actually require it.

Running still works.

It's just quieter.

Much quieter.

And I have to admit, part of me misses having music.

But until I replace the AirPods, that's where we're at.

Three headphones, three jobs

If I had to explain my current setup to someone in one table, it would probably look like this:

And that's really the story.

The Castors aren't my "budget option."

They're not the headphones I use because I can't afford something more expensive.

They're simply the headphones I prefer using.

That's an important distinction.

Why I keep choosing wired

The more wireless devices I own, the more I appreciate wired ones.

That's probably the opposite of where I expected my preferences to go.

Wireless is great.

I'm not going to pretend otherwise.

The G935 is incredibly useful when I'm moving around.

The AirPods were perfect for running.

But wireless also adds another layer of responsibility.

Charge the thing.

Remember where you put it.

Pair it.

Make sure it has enough battery.

Keep track of the case.

Deal with Bluetooth occasionally doing something weird.

None of that is particularly difficult.

But none of it needs to exist with the Castors.

I can leave them sitting on my desk for a week.

Come back.

Plug them in.

They work exactly as they did the last time I used them.

There is something incredibly satisfying about that.

The cable isn't the problem people think it is

A lot of the argument for wireless headphones boils down to:

Fair enough.

Neither do I sometimes.

That's why I own a G935.

But I think people sometimes forget that a cable can also be useful.

At my desk, the cable is barely an inconvenience.

The headphones are already connected to my computer.

I'm already sitting there.

I'm not walking around.

I'm not running.

I'm not jumping up every five minutes.

So why do I need wireless?

For me, the cable becomes the simpler solution.

It means I don't have to think about anything.

And because I'm using a detachable Type-C cable, I'm not dealing with some weird proprietary connector either.

It's just another cable on my desk.

I have approximately 700 of those already.

What's one more?

I think this is what I actually want from tech

I've started to appreciate technology that gets out of the way.

Not necessarily technology with the most features.

Not necessarily the newest thing.

Not necessarily the most expensive.

Just something that does what I need and doesn't create another problem.

The Castor Pros have become that device for me.

They're boring.

And I mean that as a compliment.

I don't have to think about them.

I don't have to maintain them.

I don't have to charge them.

I don't have to update them.

I don't have to pair them.

I don't have to wonder whether they'll work.

I put them in.

And I get audio.

So why do I still own the other two?

Because the Castors aren't perfect for everything.

That's the important part.

If I'm gaming and want background music while keeping game audio isolated through the IEMs, the G935 has a role.

If I'm streaming and moving around, the G935 is the obvious choice.

If I'm running, wireless earbuds make much more sense.

The fact that I use the Castors more doesn't make the other two useless.

It just means I've figured out where each one fits.

And that's probably the more interesting conclusion than trying to declare one headphone the winner.

If you forced me to describe them in one sentence each:

KZ Castor Pro: "I'm sitting down. Give me the good stuff."

Logitech G935: "I'm moving around, or I want a second audio source."

AirPods 4: "I'm going running."

And right now, that last one has become:

"I'm going running. Unfortunately, we're doing this without music."

The headphone I actually reach for

I think there's a difference between the technology you think is impressive and the technology you actually use.

The G935 is more obviously impressive.

It's a huge wireless gaming headset with RGB and a boom mic.

The AirPods are arguably more impressive from an engineering perspective.

They're tiny wireless computers that sit in your ears.

The Castors?

They're just IEMs with a cable.

But they're the ones I reach for every day.

They're the ones sitting next to my keyboard.

They're the ones I put in when I start coding.

They're the ones playing music while I work.

They're the ones I use when I game.

They're the ones I use for Discord.

And they're the ones I don't have to think about.

Maybe that's the best compliment you can give a piece of technology.

Not that it's revolutionary.

Not that it has the most features.

Not that it's expensive.

Just that you keep using it.

Religiously.

And for me, that's the KZ Castor Pro.

At least until I lose those too.