[Chuwy]

feel free to let this one sink to the bottom of the threadlist after answered.

say I'm using an ipod with all sorts of music with a headphone plugged into it (specifically a grado SR80), could there possibly be any long lasting damage to the headphones if I turned the volume on my ipod up all the way for long period of time? (say...more than 2 hours)

thx.

 

[Golden Monkey]

All the way up will have a ton of distortion and will be unlistenable, but shouldn't be enough to damage the Grados (there's simply not enough pwer in the ipod to harm them). All the ragged distortion might not be ideal for them, but I doubt long term damage could be done. Why all the way up? Why not 80% or so, or just simply louder than you'd normally listen to? Are you burning them in?

 

[Chuwy]

in some rare situations, believe it or not, I would rather not have my headphones on my head, but still want to listen to music.

in those situations, I am usually without any good speakers to plug my ipod into. and my computer is way to slow to be enjoyable to use at all.

So yes, it sounds incredibly stupid, but I was planning on using them as speakers. more of a quirky fun thing than an actual "omg, I don't have to buy speakers anymore" thing.


oh, and how DO you burn-in the grados?

 

[captian73]

i've never had headphones ...blowing out...for a very long time, and then they were cheap headphones, not like your Grado's. I use my headphones as a portable speaker sometimes, not had any problems.

 

[Golden Monkey]

For burn in, there's a stickied FAQ, right up ^^^^ there.

You can get some cheap portable, foldable battery powered iPod speakers that will do a much better job than using your headphones. Your battery will also last a lot longer.

 

[wae5]

Compare your loud phones to those tiny portable minispeakers that are made to be used like this with the iPod. I've used them and they work quite well.

 

[BrookR1]

You can always purchase a set of inexpensive mini speakers for your iPod. To answer your question, I don't think you'll harm the headphones. I normally listen at 70-80% and haven't had any problems...besides my hearing loss.

 

[moogoob]

I do the same thing, but in a quiet environment so I only need about 95% volume on my iPod. Helps 'em to burn in, too.

 

[Sherwood]

It's worth noting that too little power is more likely to damage your headphones than too much.

Either way, that's more theoretical. The drivers in SR80s are quite capable of playing out of a full-volume ipod.

John Grado has even hinted at a dedicated line source speaker using only headphone drivers. So yeah, they'll be fine.

You will, however, get some really nasty distortion. If you find yourself doing it even semi-regularly, look into a pair of cheapo speakers or a cmoy amp for a better experience.

 

[Tridacnid]

^ I'm assuming that those speaker would need a non-headphone-driver woofer to provide decent bass.

 

[Sherwood]

Actually, it's pure RS1 drivers. There are just 30 of them.

I can't assert that I understand speaker technology well enough to explain why it works, but I've heard line source speakers with an array of small drivers deliver excellent bass, albeit in a very narrow listening area.

 

[feh1325]

i've blown out a pair of cheap sony v150s doing that

 

[Tridacnid]

Oh, 30. That would make a difference. I was thinking 12 or something.

 

[tjohnusa]

It's worth noting that too little power is more likely to damage your headphones than too much.

QUOTE]


How is that? Any type of speaker is abused when you try to reproduce distortion. Quite possibly the point you were trying to make....if you drive a pair of speakers rated at 200 watts and drive them with a 10 watt amp they are fine until you drive them with distortion. You start to get DC and heat the voice coil thus expanding them and.....tada....blown driver. Normaly the tweeter is the first to go. I can't say this happens with headphones but I for one am not willing to test the theory.

 

[Sherwood]

Quote:

How is that? Any type of speaker is abused when you try to reproduce distortion.

Precisely that. Reproducing distortion is more often the cause of blown drivers than pure DBs. Of course, it's really user error in both of these situations, but you get less user error when driving speakers with a properly powered source.

For the OP, however, neither of these should be an issue. iPods aren't built to put out all that much power OR distortion at 100%. If you want to be safe, however, I would strongly recommend using the "set maximum volume" feature on your unit to about 90%. Almost all of the volume, almost none of the distortion.