[K.I. Unlimited]

Sorry but I just wanna ask, what's this phrase all about? I've been seeing the phrase used in places like iLounge and blogs, but no places ever really explain the phenomenon in detail.

Need a little help, thanks.

 

[Agnostic]

I think what people generally mean by that is reverberations or distortions in the sound stemming from sound waves reflecting of surfaces inside closed headphones.

This create an overblown honk-like sound similar to the effect you might hear when making a loud sound in a small space with large flat surfaces (a bathroom for instance).

 

[krmathis]

^ Yeah, I am sure that is what they talk about.
They probably have not heard a well made closed-back headphone then, like the Stax 4070.

 

[moogoob]

It's more prevalent in cheaper or undamped closed phones. Both my HD280s (notorious for honky mids) and D1001s (apparent especially on piano pieces and sibilant vocals) display this tendency.

 

[dallan]

I read alot about the honk in the HP DX-1000 thread before i bought them but since owning them i don't hear it.

 

[Mellow Mushroom]

closed phones resonate in the midrange, but it's minor, and they still manage to sound better than open phones

 

[krmathis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mellow Mushroom /img/forum/go_quote.gif closed phones resonate in the midrange, but it's minor, and they still manage to sound better than open phones

That is certainly up for discussion!

 

[panda]

Quote:

closed phones resonate in the midrange, but it's minor, and they still manage to sound better than open phones

you've been smoking/eating too many shrooms.

 

[hiisinux]

i suggest some audiologist book if you truly want to know about hearing,
not smoking/shrooms

 

[moogoob]

I would advise against smoking shrooms.




Everyone knows they should be ingested.

 

[Eagle_Driver]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mellow Mushroom /img/forum/go_quote.gif closed phones resonate in the midrange, but it's minor, and they still manage to sound better than open phones

Actually, many closed headphones suffer from severe resonance issues. This is due primarily to their excessive empty air space inside the ear cups (and regardless of how thick the ear cup material is, the material still resonates, but in a different way) with insufficient or no damping material inside, and their closed backs give the sound nowhere to go but back through the transducers. Some of the EXPENSIVE closed headphones are just as underdamped as their cheaper cousins.

As far as the transducers used in closed headphones are concerned, had a headphone manufacturer designed a closed headphone to sound good in a properly damped closed headphone shell, they must use a transducer which would otherwise sound a bit too dark in an open-air headphone configuration; otherwise, the sound would become thin and bright. And such designing costs money. Undamped (or underdamped) closed headphones at every single price point are the norm given the desire to cut costs at the manufacturing level - and this underdamping allows the manufacturer to share the same transducers between open and closed headphones at the same price point. The end result is that in most cases, closed headphones simply don't sound quite as good as open headphones at competitive price points. On the other hand, vintage closed headphones don't sound very good, if only due to their poor design with expensive parts. And I do admit that closed headphones can equal or beat open headphones in sound quality - if done right.

In the end, I blame the cost-cutting at the headphone manufacturers, and not the inherent limitations of the closed headphone design, for the underperformance of closed headphones versus competitively priced open headphones.

 

[krmathis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eagle_Driver /img/forum/go_quote.gif In the end, I blame the cost-cutting at the headphone manufacturers, and not the inherent limitations of the closed headphone design, for the underperformance of closed headphones versus competitively priced open headphones.

x2

Blame the developers/designers for crappy sounding closed-back headphones. Cause if designed properly they can sound on par with open-back ones.