[BELMONT]

Hello,

I just got my new MkII amp, and I'm having a blast with it. It appears as if the DT880's put out a little more SPL than most headphones, so I'm concerned about my hearing. What volume level do you guys typically listen at? Is listening to music with the volume turned up half way too much?

 

[TravelLite]

HeadWize has a good article on this subject. Note the relationship between intensity (SPL) and duration of exposure. Like most anything else though, a little common sense goes a long way.

Preventing Hearing Damage When Listening With Headphones:
http://headwize.com/articles/hearing_art.htm

TravelLite

 

[sacd lover]

BELMONT, its hard to say how volume settings compare because different amps have different gains; and I have a gilmore amp not a corda. I can say I have to turn the gilmores volume up considerably more than with my grados or jvcs to get the same subjective loudness; but this is because of the 880s higher impedence requiring more power. The dt 880s have punch, so I dont believe I listen any louder to the 880s than I do any of my other headphones to compensate for say... lacking bass or dynamics. I really dont think the 880s actually have higher spls than than other phones, at the same volume settings the 880s have less volume on my amp. By the way, I listen at about 10:30 with the 880 vs 7:30 for the grados and 8:00 for the jvcs, with 6:00 being the starting point on the volume control. I am also not a loud listener, I prefer volumes quite a bit lower than my friends use with the same setup. Drop me a pm if you have any other questions.

 

[JaZZ]

As sacd lover has stated: you can't rely on the volume control position when it comes to judge the volume of a headphone. With my Corda HA-2 and the Bel Canto DAC2 as source (with regular 2 volt max. output) I have to turn it up to between 1 and 4 o'clock. This due to the DT 880's relatively low efficiency and high impedance as well as the HA-2's relatively low gain. BTW, I don't listen abnormally loud.

Oh, and congrats on your new gear! You made a good choice.

 

[lini]

BELMONT: With the different sensitivities and efficiencies of headphones, it's sometimes really hard to tell. But by getting the cheap Techcessories Sound Level Meter from Radioshack (~ 30 US$), you can check and objectively compare for yourself. In general, as long as you keep within 85 - 95 dB for listening perionds up to a few hours, you shouldn't run into problems.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini