Question regarding audio terms

[aznmist]

What does Impedance mean?
-The higher the better?

How does Frequecy Response(Hz-KHz) work?
-Is 6-23 good?
-Does this mean I have good bass?

What about Power Handling Capacity?

Thanks

 

[Viperoni]

Impedance: basically the resistance of a speaker. Your amp can overheat or fry if it's too low. If it high, and you want to crank it very loud, you may send your amp into clipping....which hurts your speakers (to a certain extent; but that's for another thread )

Frequency response; the range that a speaker can reproduce.
Usually like: 60-16,500hz, +/-3.0db.
That means from 60-16,500hz, there's a + or - 3db variance between the peaks and valleys of the speakers output.

Note that even speakers with 12inch woofers usually start rolling off (AKA the bass response starts diminishing) around 30hz.
My own 15inch Dayton DVC home theatre sub starts rolling off @ 40hz, BUT because the (sealed) box is SO big , it rolls off VERY smoothly.....something like 8db/octave instead of the typical 12db/octave rolloff of sealed box.
That's why I can push 115db @ 20hz in room

Sorry if I confused you

Pwer Handling; how many watts the driver can thermally handle.
Like say you have a 10inch subwoofer that's rated for 600watts RMS. It may be able to handle that all day long, but if you were to run music through it @ 600watts RMS, it would likely bottom out (AKA; the cone would move too far and hit the magnet or rip the foam surround, etc etc).

 

[aznmist]

Thanks for the useful information!
Basically, I'm comparing two sets of earbuds:

MDR-EX70LP ($49.99)
Driver Size - 9mm
Sensitivity(db/mW) - 100
Freq Response - 6-23
Impendance - 16
Power Handling Capacity - 100 (MW)

MDR-NC10 ($199.99)
Driver Size - 13.5mm
Sensitivity(db/mW) - 106
Freq Response - 10-22
Impendance - 27
Power Handling Capacity - ? (MW)
This one has noise cancelling cirucitry"
"Noise canceling circuit actually senses outside noise with built-in microphones and sends an equal-but-opposite canceling signal to the headphones; cancels noise from 50Hz to 1,000Hz, with a maximum of 10dB noise cancellation in the critical range from 100 to 400 Hz --where the human ear is super-sensitive "

What do you think?

 

[Viperoni]

Quite a price range

Do you really need the noise cancellation feature?
I've used ear buds before, and found I didn't really need it.....but I use headphones because I hate the shape of earbuds.
You can find some awesome headphones for ~$75........

It's a though call as to which would sound better.....probably the noise cacelling ones because they are higher sensitivity and use bigger drivers....but their impedance is a bit higher so that'll make them harder to drive.

What are you gonna use to power them?

 

[aznmist]

My MD portable system... do not plan to use an amp...
Well I'm quite concerned about the fact that using earbuds will cause damage to your ear.
Extenral noise causes you to turn up the Vol and well... you know the rest..

Can you recommened me some earbuds <$125?

 

[aznmist]

Anyone else have any ideas?

 

[Viperoni]

Headphones can cause damage to your ear too if you crank them too loud....
why not consider headphones? You can get a good bit more quality with some nice sennheisers or grado's.....

I really don't know of any earbuds

 

[aznmist]

but they are clumsy and don't match my style ...

 

[Viperoni]

Earbuds it is then
All I can suggest is go listen to a few using material you're familiar with....

 

[Superdoopercooper]

I bought some Koss $25 model... it has a tube with a soft foamy earplug type thing around it... it deadens outside noise surprisingly well, and sounds pretty darned good IMHO. Good bass response, but also fairly clear over the audio range.

They come with about 4-5 different types of earplugs so that you can pick which ones fit yer big dumbo ears (oops... I was talking about myself there ) the best.

Plus, you can get them at Worst Buy or Circuit City.

At the earbud level.. power handling is sort of a joke. Ok... so if they can handle more power, they're likely to sound cleaner at lower volumes compared with a set that has low power handling... but in general, you'll damage your hearing b4 power handling is a big issue.

 

[Shermanator]

I've always wondered how good those noise cancelling speakers would work