Over a third of our readers own a graveyard of headphones. How many is too many?

Recently, my colleague Chris wrote about why he stopped chasing the perfect pair of headphones — how the gear doesn’t always make the listening experience, and how easy it is to mistake buying things for a hobby. That piece clearly struck a nerve, so it got us wondering: just how deep in are our readers?

We asked how many pairs of headphones and earbuds you own, and almost 5,000 of you answered across our site and YouTube channel. The results speak for themselves:

• Just one: 15%
• 2–3 pairs: 51%
• 4–6 pairs: 23%
• I’ve lost count: 12%

Only 15% of you own a single pair. Nearly half own two or three, a quarter own four to six, and 12% of you have flat-out lost count. So, statistically speaking, if you’re reading this and you own more than one pair, I’d wager you’ve probably wondered at least once whether that’s a problem.

However, after reading through all the comments, it became clear that the number doesn’t matter. The most common answer was from people who own one pair per job. Noise canceling headphones for flights and winter commutes. Earbuds for the train. Open earbuds for running, so you can still hear traffic. A gaming headset that never leaves the desk. Rather than hoarding headphones, each pair in some readers’ collections earns its spot because it does something the others can’t do.

But of course, there are those who own five pairs that all do the same thing, and that’s where trouble starts. If you’ve got three sets of noise canceling earbuds and you can’t explain why you’d grab one over another, that’s not a use case — that’s the thrill of the purchase wearing a use case as a disguise. A few of you copped to exactly this: one commenter went through 10 brands of expensive headphones, chasing an ideal sound that never materialized, and another pointed out that the best-sounding pair they own costs 20 euros. Buying anew rarely fixes what the last purchase didn’t.

Here’s my honest answer to “how many is too many”: count your jobs, not your headphones. Most people’s lives have two or three genuine audio jobs — something for the commute, something for home or the desk, maybe something for the gym. If every pair you own maps to one of those, you’re fine, whether that’s two pairs or six. If you’ve got pairs sitting in a drawer that haven’t touched your ears in six months, they’re not part of your kit.

But even if you lost count, hey, no judgment here — you’re in good company with 12% of our readers. But maybe try one thing before your next purchase: pick up the pair you use least and ask what job it was supposed to do. If you can’t answer that, then you already know whether you need the shiny new one.

Here are some of our favorite responses from readers:

• “One NC headphones for winter. One NC earbuds for daily commute. One open earbuds for running and exercises.” — @llii_llii_3416
• “More accurately, I own one set of headphones per device I regularly require audio out of.” — @GoodScottyy
• “You only need 2: classic wired Apple EarPods and a good pair of wireless earbuds or headphones.” — @misterduckmyles
• “Way too much, and the most ironic part is the fact the best sounding ones I own are the ones that cost 20€.” — @ThibautMahringer
• “After my first office headset, I went down the rabbit hole and have an addiction lol! Now even if my wife sees a headphone up on my screen she says ‘no more headphones!!'” — @loconius
• “16 pairs of headphones and 16 pairs of IEMs. Is that too many? I don’t think so. But don’t ask my wife. I call that balance.” — @dongiammarrusco6572
• “One set of ears. One set of cans.” — @iamhestbech.iamorphan