Re: [LAU] headphones

From: Fons Adriaensen <fons@email-addr-hidden>
Date: Fri Jul 18 2008 - 23:54:03 EEST

On Fri, Jul 18, 2008 at 10:38:03PM +0200, Arnold Krille wrote:

> > Never EVER trust that indication. It's _always_ useless. Everybody just
> > twists and bends the definition so much that they can essentially put
> > any numbers there. It's worse than useless, it's misleading.
>
> Apart from the fact that probably only small children (to young to wear
> phones) are able to hear that full range. For everyone else / everyone older
> the higher frequencies (above 16kHz or 19kHz) are only psychoacoustics. And
> if these are important to you on a headphone, you need to get one that has a
> (preferable flat:) frequency response up to 96kHz...

Very true. The one spec that is probably even more useless
is the power rating of amplifiers.

Some manufacturers are (were) honest about FR specs.
The M15 tape recorder from Telefunken was probably one
of the best ever made as regards sound quality, yet the
official FR spec was 50 Hz to 15 kHz...

Returning to headphones, I have a Sennheiser HD600 which
is great, but outside the price range considered by the OP.
I use it often to play the piano (Linuxsampler) at night,
and indeed sometimes you just forget you are using headphones,
in particular if you add some room response to the otherwise
dry sound of most electronic / software instruments.

I'd say the most importand qualities for a headphone used
for intrument playing are

- A decent frequency response, which means no obvious
  colorations. All the rest can be corrected by EQ, and
  part of it you will get used to.

- NO trace of distortion at the listening level you want
  to use. This is really essential. Once you notice any
  distortion it takes only a short time before it will be
  a permanent irration. ALso means you need the right amp
  to drive your headphone.
 
I also have a Beyer DT100 wich must be around 30 years old
by now. It has survived all abuse that comes with doing
audio work 'in the field', and still sounds very good.

Ciao,

-- 
FA
Laboratorio di Acustica ed Elettroacustica
Parma, Italia
O tu, che porte, correndo si ?
E guerra e morte !
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Received on Sat Jul 19 04:15:01 2008

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