[renergy]

I am looking at some receivers to power my headphones. Most of them show a frequency response of around 20hz-20khz. Does that mean it is pointless to have a pair of headphones with a broader frequency response than what the receiver outputs?

 

[TMRaven]

Never pay attention to a headphone's posted frequency response.  It doesn't matter if a headphone is posted to have 20hz-20khz or 5hz-50khz, at the end of the day the only thing that truly matters if it can do it while remaining in a +/- 1.5 or 3.0db linearity without rolloff.  Headphones are never measured like that, though.
 
And as I'm sure you are already well aware of, the hearing limits for humans is roughly 20hz-20khz.  We can definitely feel stuff lower than 20hz, but it takes a lot of air to move-- definitely more than what a pair of headphones can move.

 

[renergy]

 
Quote:

Never pay attention to a headphone's posted frequency response.  It doesn't matter if a headphone is posted to have 20hz-20khz or 5hz-50khz, at the end of the day the only thing that truly matters if it can do it while remaining in a +/- 1.5 or 3.0db linearity without rolloff.  Headphones are never measured like that, though.
 
And as I'm sure you are already well aware of, the hearing limits for humans is roughly 20hz-20khz.  We can definitely feel stuff lower than 20hz, but it takes a lot of air to move-- definitely more than what a pair of headphones can move.

 
 
I think that frequency response can be a bit misleading, sure, but that's not to say it's not a factor at all. Higher end headphones have a broader frequency range, because they are built better. I'm just wondering if I'm going to knock out any of the value of the headphones by having a lower frequency response in the receiver. What you said is certainly true, but it doesn't really answer my question.

 

[TMRaven]

You're not going to do anything to affect the frequency limits of the headphone unless the receiver's headphone amp either doesn't have enough juice and attenuates the lowest ranges of the headphone's bass, or there's an impedance mismatch and the headphone has a peaky impedance response, in which case you won't be just affecting rolloffs, but you'll be affecting the entirety of its frequency response.
 
Again, those extremities on headphone frequency specs mean very little.

 

[proton007]

A range of frequency response is useless for headphones. For amps/receivers it makes sense, because they assume a linear response with a roll off at high freq. Hence something like 5 Hz–100 kHz/ 0 dB, -3 dB.
For headphones, you should look at the frequency response *graph*. Headphones/speakers never have a linear response, and thats what makes the difference in sound. Of course the impedance and amp power also matter.
Most amps can handle frequencies much broader than the headphone.