Open Headphone Leakage Measurements?

Hey folks,

I've been digging around for an answer the last few months but haven't found it yet.

MY SITUATION: I usually stay up later than my housemate. This means I need to wear headphones when he goes to bed. He sleeps in a room that is 20' away and behind a closed door.

I have never owned a decent pair of headphones. I am not an audiophile but I appreciate quality, so I am investing in either some HD650s or a BeyerDynamic 770.

My only question is about the actual noise someone can hear if I'm wearing open headphones.

I listen to music and films at a level which may be close to loud, but never unsafe for my ears. I understand there could be all kinds of variables, but work with me here.

MY QUESTION: Could someone in a different room, behind a closed door, 20 feet away, be able to hear the noise from an open pair of headphones?

Thanks guys. As it happens, I already bought the Compass, mostly so I could connect my digital outs from my AVR and my PC and switch between them at will while controlling the volume. So driving the 650s shouldn't be a problem.

Thanks for the test suggestion, Nullsoft and TinTin. I tried playing back content on some crappy earbuds and on my Sennheiser PX-100s and found that I had to strain to hear the audio down the hall and could not hear it at all in the bedroom with the door closed. In fact, I did this before I posted because I had seen it mentioned in other threads.

The reason I still posted this was that the other threads seemed to be in reference to co-workers or roommates. I only found one thread that referenced leakage and people in another room and that thread seemed inconclusive. So, for anyone out there like me, watch this space because I am going to get some open headphones and try them first. I'll be sure to post the results here.

FWIW: My choices have changed in the last few hours because I went and searched for pricing and found that the Senn HD650s are running at ~$500 everywhere. Not sure why I thought they were cheaper, but I had them pegged as $350 headphones.

My budget was $300, which I was willing to stretch a little, but not double. So now I'm back to 3 Beyer models: the 770, 880, and 990. All of them can be had within my $300 budget. I'm leaning toward the 880s as they seem to be well-respected and are a semi-open design.

I'll let you know what I find out.
Thanks again, all.

Thanks, Oggranak.
I was a radio announcer in a previous life so I have a passion for many types of music ranging from ancient (chants and drums and such) to orchestral (e.g. Mahler, Strauss, Mozart, Bach) to Jazz, Rock, and yes, even some techno, house, trance and ambient.

I am also a big film buff so I am often watching DVD and Blu-Ray films.

I am also a heavy gamer, though I don't do a lot of FPS gaming so positional gaming audio is not a critical factor for me.

Lastly, I am truly not an audiophile. By that, I mean that it is not worth the extra money or hassle to buy multiple pairs of headphones, each tailored to a specific task. Partly because I'm cheap, but mostly because any gains in quality are likely to be incremental to my ears and not necessary for my full enjoyment.

I hope this helps. Thanks for asking and for any input.

Thanks. I will keep that in mind.

huh...I either just got very lucky or very ripped off.
I found a pair of 650s on EBay for $290. I'll know within a week if that was a good decision.

Thanks all. Very re-assuring.

And you're right TinTin. I should have waited for more responses. I would say that I got impatient but the truth is I've been building up to this decision for over 6 months now.

By B&H, do you mean B&H Photo? I've bought from them several times - good folks there. But they were listing the 650s at $499 too. What's really strange is how strongly I remembered these being $350 headphones but when I went looking, only one place listed them near that price and they had a sketchy little web site with too little history so I didn't buy from them.

Oh well, it's done now.

It's funny...I've always felt too intimidated to post in these forums. There's a lot of very good info here and a lot of very knowledgeable people, but I have never had anything I could add, just a lot of questions...so I read a LOT of posts. I'm glad I asked this question. I'm sure future seekers will find this thread useful.

keywording follows
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