Everything equal, which headphone type have better sound -closed or open????
Feb 10, 2003 at 2:09 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 18
IDREOS

IDREOS

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All things being equal what type of headphones have the most pleasing sound - open type or closed isolated type.
I am not concerned about leakage just good sound and comfort and good value. Thanks for your help!
 
Feb 10, 2003 at 2:12 AM Post #2 of 18
Open.

I'll leave it to one of the senior folks to give you the dissertation.
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Feb 10, 2003 at 2:36 AM Post #5 of 18
Open headphones, IMHO, have a much better soundstage.

Just my $.02, for what it's worth.
 
Feb 10, 2003 at 3:43 AM Post #10 of 18
now that I think a bit more about this...if you compare the $300-$400, they seem to be dominated by closed phones...specifically the AT A1000, W1000 and the Sony CD3000. The $200-$300 market has the HD600s and the new beyer 880s. Nevertheless I haven't heard any of the closed phones I just mentioned so right now open phones are still my cup of tea.
 
Feb 10, 2003 at 3:54 AM Post #11 of 18
Open.

My first pair of headphones were the HD25's, they're a closed headphones & my personal best closed headphone. And now I have the HD600's, I personally think they sound better.
 
Feb 10, 2003 at 4:15 AM Post #12 of 18
Well, from a design point of view, open phones are far easier to make sound good. With closed designs, you have to factor in resonances and all that, and so they almost always end up costing more than an open design. Well at least that's how I understand it. That's why there are so many more successful open designs than closed ones. That doesn't mean closed can sound as good as an open one. It just costs more (I'm guessing) to design a very good closed headphone.
 
Feb 10, 2003 at 5:24 AM Post #13 of 18
The CD3000 has a huge soundstage, better than the HD600, and is closed (or semi/closed as many consider it) there is no rule on that, the sounstage is not inherent of the kind of can (open or close) IMO has more to do with the design and position of the drivers internally...
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Feb 10, 2003 at 5:41 AM Post #14 of 18
I was generalizing, Sovkiller. Of course there will be exceptions to the rule. If you look at the majority of closed phones and the majority of open phones, however, you'll see that open phones will have a better soundstage.
 
Feb 10, 2003 at 6:03 AM Post #15 of 18
fiddler sorry I was not refering to your post, by coincidence it was under yours, but I was reading above along the whole thread, and it was a general comment, to clear up those who assure that open cans have a better soundstage, just for beeing open, I think that this is not a rule, maybe by coincidence, most of the open ones that most of us had tried, have better soundstage, but there are a lot of closed cans with good sounstage too, this IMO is not inherent to the kind of can, has to do with the internal position of the drivers, or the resonance, or size of the cup, or any other internal parameter...sorry but is better to name the cans, instead of a huge generalization, I think that this is not a general rule, but who knows maybe I'm wrong...
 
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