[LAU] headphones

[Florin Andrei]

schoappied wrote:
> So it's not recommend to use a sealed headphone when you're on the road 
> riding a bike?

I would not attempt that as long as I intend to live a long and happy 
life. :-)

> How sealed is sealed...

Look at the attenuation factor. A sealed phone should be between -10 and 
-20 dB, is my guess.

But anyway, the difference is the back of the acoustic membrane.
Sealed phones - the back moves in a closed box.
Open-air - the back is in an open cavity. There might actually be holes 
on the outside of the phone, through which you may actually see the 
membrane (not always).

> You don't make a distinction between pop/ rock music and jazz/ classic 
> music headphones?
> (by the way: Isn't a distinction between light music (eg pop/rock/ jazz) 
> and classic music better?)

Music is music, and an accurate phone is an accurate phone. What works 
best for one kind of music should work for any other kind. I think the 
so-called "phones for classic music", or whatever, are a commercial 
gimmick. The phone should not do anything. Quite the opposite, the phone 
must get out of the way and just be a pure conduit for the sound, it 
must introduce as few changes as possible.

The only exception might be when you're doing special work. E.g., you're 
mixing the tracks and you need a _very_ revealing phone to spot any 
defect. Something like a Grado might help.
I don't know what happens when playing the bass guitar. Do you want the 
bass emphasized? I'm not a bass player so I can't answer that.

Otherwise, just get the flattest and most accurate ones you can afford, 
and learn to trust them.
Like Mark said, it often helps to get two or three phones over a period 
of time, if you can afford them, and use each one of them as needed.

> There are some of this types on ebay for around 47 euro's, but I don't 
> know if I can trust it and if they're exactly the same type of the one 
> you have mentioned...
> 
> http://search.ebay.nl/search/search.dll?from=R40&_trksid=m37&satitle=Sennheiser+HD+280

The black ones are the 280 Pro. I have one of those. It's a very good 
sealed phone. It's flat and laid-back; people used to cheap bright 
phones are usually not impressed. It's like eating super-hot food for 
many years, tons of black pepper and what not, and then you go back to a 
subtle, refined, normal diet - your taste buds are shot and you may not 
feel any taste for a while, which is a paradox because actually only now 
you have any chance to feel the real taste of the food, instead of the 
fire from the black pepper. I hope that makes sense.
It's something that happens to a lot of people when they listen for the 
first time through flat accurate phones.

-- 
Florin Andrei

http://florin.myip.org/