The Vic Firth Drummer Headphones are a simple pair of headphones designed to help drummers keep their hearing!  It isn't connected to any sort of wire, so these aren't the type of headphones that you would use to listen to things on, they are merely designed for hearing protection.  They do look a lot like the black version of these headphones that do indeed have listening capabilities.  The advantage here is that the Vic Firth Drummer Headphones are specifically designed to protect your ears while maintaining the ability to still be able to hear what you are playing and have it come in crystal clear.  While I wouldn't call myself a drummer, I have played the drums a lot and have used these headphones a number of times while playing around.  In my opinion they do a great job of keeping the decibel level down while still giving you the ability to hear everything well.  A lot of sets of ear plugs and headphones I feel that while they will protect your hearing well, they cut out a lot of the frequencies you want to be hearing and make it hard as a musician to hear everything that is going on around you.  I haven't used these too often while playing with other people, but for solo drumming I could hear everything fine - it was just at a lower volume.  All drummers should know that since their instrument is so loud that proper hearing protection is essential and for this reason I highly recommend these headphones.  While I would probably rather have the other version of these headphones that you can plug in and use as traditional headphones, these are specifically great for drummer to use while they practice or play shows.  All in all, this is a very smart product from a company that knows a ton about drums.