Originally posted by: davidober
Okay, now I'm REALLY confused!!! LOL.
For starters, I do not see myself getting an amp for my headphones. Second, these will be mostly for gaming, though I will listen to music on iTunes quite a bit with them also. If I'm not mistaken, the sound quality of music purchased on iTunes is not very good, though, right? So I really don't need the best of the best to listen to music that way, right?
Also, I'm really confused about the open/closed thing still. Why would I want open vs. closed? And what is "sealed"? Is that just another word for "closed"?
Still totally befuddled and flummoxed... 🙂
David (who just figured out what "OP" means)
Sealed - a pair of headphones that blocks out outside noise so you can hear your music without distractions. All sealed headphones are closed headphones, but not all closed headphones are (very) sealed. This is my definition of sealed.
Closed - a pair of headphones in which the drivers are not drawing air from the outside world. This means that you can isolate the drivers of the headphones and the sound quality will not change by much.
Open - these headphones essentially "pull in" air from the outside world, meaning that they leak sound in and out from the environment, but as a result, sound much better. You know headphones are open if you see holes in the enclosure, and if you put your hands over the enclosure, the sound quality will change, usually drastically for the worst (Grado headphones are like this - put your hands over the holes and the sound will become tinny and basically unlistenable).
Sound quality on iTunes may not be that great, but it's good enough that you can still tell the difference between a set of bad headphones and good headphones. Also, choosing headphones is a matter of what kind of music tastes you have. There are many differences between headphones from different manufacturers and no matter how bad the quality of the music you're listening to is, you'll be able to tell a difference (once your ears have become "trained", which doesn't take long).
If you'll be reading this anyway, davidober, just pick up a pair of Audio-Technica A500s. I guarantee you you'll be satisfied for a long long time. I'd say the A500s are some of the best middle-of-the-road headphones you can get, because they're closed and half-sealed (from my definition, anyway), have a very balanced sound signature, are fun to listen to, and are great for gaming. The A500s are useable in more places than the Sennheiser HD555s are, so you won't be as concerned with outside noise.
