[dcfis]

Seems like people always judge closed phones as being good despite their handicap instead of equal to open phones in the same price range. Does the soundstage suffer that much?

 

[asdfghjkzxcvbnm]

Quote:

Does the soundstage suffer that much?

Yeah that is the biggest difference.

 

[jerg]

Their soundstage will be worse in comparison to good open-ear cans, and that gap can only be marginally bridged by some ingenious cup shaping / damping schemes. Some very TOTL closed headphones have that.

 

[ferday]

The soundstage, imaging, and "air" are all affected. For "serious" listening I'll never go closed no matter how great they get, but the isolation (and often bass) of closed is a very strong case if you want those things. Every good head fi'r should really have one of each

 

[AzraelDarkangel]

...Such as the Jvc DX1000 which are supposed to be one of the best closed cans for soundstage. But they cost over $1000. I've heard that the Kenwood K1000 are very good too at around $400.

 

[dcfis]

So, its basically to compete with the 400-700 great open phones you have to go straight to the 1000+ closed phones it seems

 

[jerg]

Quote:

So, its basically to compete with the 400-700 great open phones you have to go straight to the 1000+ closed phones it seems

Precisely, which is why there aren't nearly as many high-end closed headphones as open ones, because you need to sink in a lot more R&D for cup design/damping, and will have to end up pricing it higher than open headphones that perform just as well or better. All of that for the sake of isolation.