2 channel vs headphones
Just curious how many of you have both a high end system but also listen to high end headphone systems as well?
@limomangus - I could be mistaken, but you seem to have never listened to headphones because they are not 'like having two speakers on the side of your head' unless you've got the tiniest loudspeakers ever created or even conceived of. The trick is to get one of those headphone amps with a volume control... Enjoy your weekend... |
Just spit-balling, headphones are a very tight & unforgiving acoustic environment; those drivers are firing right into your ear canals. I think certain resonant peaks could get real bad in a hurry, and are not easily nor repeatably measurable, especially since what matters here is your very specific head. Especially dangerous are higher frequencies IMO. A single SPL number (averaged or at a specific frequency) isn’t nearly the whole picture. I just know that for me on average headphones are more fatiguing at the same perceived SPL than speakers (over a large trial number of both). But of course there are exceptions - some speaker setups have been fatiguing to me, and e-stat headphones in particular are a huge relief to my ears, even those with tipped-up frequencies responses that on-paper look like they would be horribly fatiguing (e.g. Stax SR-009). By far by FAR, Grado headphones have been the most fatiguing listening devices on earth in my experience. My right-ear is particularly sensitive to this, and I just can't anymore with Grados. |
My headphone AKG K340 give me a sound which comes to my ears like if i was listening to speakers out of the head... No fatigue... And i listen at relatively low sound level... Then the problem is very bad headphone fatiguing one like the Grado i never heard again after the first and last time i listened to them...It was not a high level model... Like the low cost Stax model i disliked for his artificial sound... Then the danger is not headphone , it is bad design paired with high level sound pressure and some unbalanced set of frequencies.. Headphone well chosen, optimized, at low level for listening,for sure pose no problem... Public concert of rock, pop etc and speakers designed for this kind of music at high level is the problem ... Pop music at high level in the ears for sure = deafness... Beethoven quartet through headphone will not make me deaf .... I prefer speakers by the way to headphone.... But now in my local condition i enjoyed my headphone too ... |
@limomangus - yes, they are loud and deafening if you turn the volume loud, just like speakers. Again, if you get a headphone amp with a volume control, you do not need to have that problem. Enjoy your Sunday! |
