[LordBadAss]

Hi all,
 
I would like to buy headphones to use primary at my computer for gaming, listening music and watching movies.
 
I am not sure which one of those two are better. Or if you have any other recommendation at this price range I am open
to any other suggestions.
 
Which one of those two are more comfortable for long wearing?
 
Also these headphones are open style. Will other people behind the wall or in the corridor which leads to my room
hear what I am listening to?
 
I will watching porn movies some time and I dont want my parents would hear those sounds
 
And when I will be gaming at night and my parents room is next to mine behind the brick wall so I dont want to disturb them.
 
Regards,
 
LordBadAss

 

[CognitiveBiased]

You have every reason to go with closed (sealed) headphones, as open-back will leak quite a lot! If your parents room is really next to yours and you want to game at night/ watch pornographic material with audio (without them hearing anything), then choose something else.

 

[timidteddy]

Hey man I've been in the same situation you're in. Closed headphones while they don't leak sound also have a flaw because you CAN'T heard outside noises as well (Eg. If parents are calling you/walking in on you footsteps). I have the Sennheisers HD 558 and I find them to be great with movies and music mainly because of their wide soundstage and clarity, but they DO LACK in bass quantity (EDM, dubstep you aren't gonna get that sub wooooooooofer rumble). I'm not sure what kinda games you play so I can't say if the bass will be a problem for you.   

 

[Razor512]

Not sure how close the sennheiser hd555s are to the 558, but with the 555, there is hardly any bass, and unless I turn up the bass in the audio control panel (using a audigy 2 ZS) many explosions in games like warframe, left 4 dead 2, firefall, battlefield 4, crysis 3, and half life 2 death match, sound pretty tinny. but once you adjust the equalizer, they get a bit better, but I have been unable to adjust them enough to get a really good deep bass rumble from explosions like my old sony MDR xd-400's were able to do with no adjustment at all. (for those, the bass was not overpowered at all but when a bass sound required a deep rumble, they did it enough that you could get the bass sensation in the upper part of your body.
 
for an example of the type of rumble that I am talking about, play this song (skip to about 15 seconds) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdaZ8_xfTUU (pretty much a bass test primarily designed for subwoofers, but does well on headphones)
 
It has a low bass note, and at an even lower frequency. (basically the main bass notes vary from 25hz, to 40hz, then at around 10-15hz there is a lower bass rumble that really contributes to the sensation you feel when the note is played. in many of the games such as battlefield 4, they make use of them also but the hd555 never reproduces them unless the equalizer is tunes to bring out more of the bass. (I wish I could get headphones that could give the bass of the sony mdr -xd400, and the mids and highs of the sennheiser hd 555)
 
with open headphones you still end up with like 95%+ of the volume going you you and not outside. You would have to be blasting audio at some very unsafe listening levels for people to hear it outside of the room, especially if the door is closed.

 

[PurpleAngel]

I like my HD558s better then then my ATH-AD700.
 
For good sounding low priced closed headphones.
Gemini HSR-1000 closed headphones, $56

 

[LordBadAss]

  with open headphones you still end up with like 95%+ of the volume going you you and not outside. You would have to be blasting audio at some very unsafe listening levels for people to hear it outside of the room, especially if the door is closed.

 
So if I would have one of these headphones, play some music on it, not overvolumed level leave them on the table next to the PC
and go to other room will I be able to hear something or not?
 
I am confused now, because CognitiveBiased writes, that sound leaks a lot. You write if I understand well, that it does not leak a lot.

 

[Razor512]

I recorded a video (and audio) of how much audio leaks from the HD555. The construction seems similar to the 558 so the sound leakage may be similar. My headphones also have the foam pad removed from inside of the housing of the headphones which also increases how much sound escapes slightly
 
For the first part of the video, I am playing music at a normal but still high listening volume (pretty much the volume listen at when I want to not hear outside noise when listening to music. Afterwards, I turned up the volume to a point where I feel that no one would realistically listen to music at, it will literally be painful to keep it on your ears.
 
this should give you an idea of how much audio actually leaks from the headphones.
 
http://youtu.be/aDWcd6nj9_s skip to 24 seconds (wanted to avoid that youtube audio bot crap)
 
the leakage will certainly be more than a sealed pair, but it shouldn't be enough for someone to hear the audio outside of the room (no one is able to hear it outside of my room). The audio leakage is enough that if someone were to come in the room, they will be able to hear if you were listening to music, or other stuff.
 
PS if the speakers in the 558 are anything like the 555, then you will have very little bass in your audio if you do not change some equalizer settings for your soundcard.

 

[LordBadAss]

Thank you very much for your effort. I really appreciate it.
 
Quote:

 
the leakage will certainly be more than a sealed pair, but it shouldn't be enough for someone to hear the audio outside of the room (no one is able to hear it outside of my room). The audio leakage is enough that if someone were to come in the room, they will be able to hear if you were listening to music, or other stuff.

 
  Agreed.

 

[CognitiveBiased]

Well it certainly varies with the model. It does seem pretty reasonable. I do want to add though, that in my experience, my parents when trying to sleep would hear even the faintest noise coming from my room, which my have biased my opinion, haha!