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Anyone care to explain a couple of Headphone specs?

L

Lichee

Senior member
I was looking at some headphones to complement my new iPod and wanted something portable. my current ones just dont cut it (nor do the white earbuds that came with the iPod).

originally i was looking at some expensive Etymotic ER-6, but after reading about the maintenance on them, i was turned off. I want something more simple than those.

so looking at the BB site, here are some that ive narrowed down to:

Koss over the ear

Koss Ear plugs

Sony MDR A35Gs

the problem was interpreting the specs. what exactly is the relevance of an impedance rating of 32ohms vs 62 ohms?

also, is there much of a difference between a 104db sensitivity rating vs 101db?

btw, im actually leaning for either of the Koss, but i thought i'd throw in the MDR from sony to compare with.


edit: yikes, this new link system is pretty bad
 
You know, actually, my highest reccomendations go to the Sony MDR-848s. Great bass, nice trebble, just a nice pair of earbuds. If great Bass means nothing to you, then I would use the 838s. (I have the 838s.) And if you want to splurge, try the 888s, but try before you buy, and frankly, I like treble alot so I prefer my 838s to the 888s. 😀 Perhaps if you could go into a store and try all of them, you could pick one to your liking. Remember to break them in, play them continously with white noise or something near there for maybe 24 hours or so before you use them. They sound much better after a break in.
 
By the way, Impedence is a measure of how much energy it eats up, most of the time. Higher impedence=lower volume with equal juice. I doubt sensitivity is much of an issue.. but I could be wrong.
 
Originally posted by: Lichee


the problem was interpreting the specs. what exactly is the relevance of an impedance rating of 32ohms vs 62 ohms?

also, is there much of a difference between a 104db sensitivity rating vs 101db?
Click to expand...

The difference is 3dB 🙂

Sensitivity is a measurment of how much sound pressure the device will emmit per a fixed amound of input signal level.

So given a fixed input (say 1mW), the units with a sensitivity of 104dB will be 3dB louder than the units with 101dB of sensitivity.

The impedance is a measure of the electrical loading the device will put on the output circuit of the amplifier driving it.

As Fishtank mentioned, the lower the impedance, the more of a load the device will place on the amplifier.

In general though, those types of specifications are meaningless (in determining the quality of the units) when compared to a quick session of listening to them.

edit -

just realized you got an ipod, been thinking about pickin one up. is this one of the new ones which works on PC? how's the interface?

in addition, if size and comfort aren't such an issue you might do well to look into the Grado line of headphones. The SR60's are some of the best price/performance headphones when used without an external headphone amplifier.

Take a look at this place. I believe they are a good source for non-biased commentary of various headphones.

 
Originally posted by: merlocka
Originally posted by: Lichee the problem was interpreting the specs. what exactly is the relevance of an impedance rating of 32ohms vs 62 ohms? also, is there much of a difference between a 104db sensitivity rating vs 101db?
Click to expand...
The difference is 3dB 🙂 Sensitivity is a measurment of how much sound pressure the device will emmit per a fixed amound of input signal level. So given a fixed input (say 1mW), the units with a sensitivity of 104dB will be 3dB louder than the units with 101dB of sensitivity. The impedance is a measure of the electrical loading the device will put on the output circuit of the amplifier driving it. As Fishtank mentioned, the lower the impedance, the more of a load the device will place on the amplifier. In general though, those types of specifications are meaningless (in determining the quality of the units) when compared to a quick session of listening to them. edit - just realized you got an ipod, been thinking about pickin one up. is this one of the new ones which works on PC? how's the interface? in addition, if size and comfort aren't such an issue you might do well to look into the Grado line of headphones. The SR60's are some of the best price/performance headphones when used without an external headphone amplifier. Take a look at this place. I believe they are a good source for non-biased commentary of various headphones.
Click to expand...

thanks a lot. helps a bunch. so basically, you two are saying impedance doesnt mean much. btw, i take it 16ohms is considered higher than 60ohms?

Fishtank says:
"Higher impedence=lower volume with equal juice"
so it seemed like 60ohms was putting more pressure onto the audio device....but then merlocka says:

"As Fishtank mentioned, the lower the impedance, the more of a load the device will place on the amplifier"

so i suppose 60ohms is a lot better than 16ohms? but in this case, im not really in danger of blowing my iPod or anything so i shouldnt really place too much emphasis on ohms huh?

btw, i looked at headphone.com originall for the Etymotic phones that fit inside your ear canal, but didnt care for them. The Grados you mention look nice but portability looks to be the champion for me when it comes to headphones. 😉

the MDR 838 and 888's you mention sound interesting fishtank. did you get them locally or over the net? they seem a little out of BB's league to stock them so i need another place in town to check them out before i go fishing around for a good price (net or local).

thanks for the input fellas.

as for the Q about the iPod, yes i do have the Windows iPod, now termed Winpod😉. It is the 10 giger so it has the new touch wheel vs the scroll wheel of the 5 gig one. the interface is really easy to use. you should try it at your local CompUSA. I know mine had one on display. if anything, the apple ipod is pretty close to the winpod version so check out the menu. but at any rate, i have a lady friend that found the interface REALLY easy to use. she was maneuvering through this thing with ease. so basically, when i found this out, i figured "if she can do it, anyone can" 🙂. hehe. she is getting better with techy stuff so that may have helped her out though. 🙂
 
thanks a lot. helps a bunch. so basically, you two are saying impedance doesnt mean much. btw, i take it 16ohms is considered higher than 60ohms?

Impedance does matter, it's just that a single number doesn't really capture what's really going on. Impedance is a function of frequency and has both a real (resistive) and complex (capacitive/inductive) component.

So, saying a set of headphones is 16 ohms doesn't provide any real information without knowing how the value was determined. I'd guess that at various frequencies that headphone could vary from 12 to 60 ohms of impedance.

Now, if you wanted to get into the nitty-gritty, the idea is to make sure you "match" the output of your amplifier (internal to the ipod in this case) to the impedance of the headphones.

Headphones with very low impedances and reactive loads could drive a cheap (low powered) amplifier too hard (out of it's linear range). Headphones with very high impedances would be easier on the amp but might not be able to draw as much current as the amp can provide.

Matching the two (by the use of measured data) is no trivial task, and often the end results are about the same as what a quick (controlled) listening session can indicate.


 
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