[K2Grey]

Hi,

I'm trying to decide on next and final (I will bet money with anyone who wants to that after this purpose I won't buy another for x period of time, any takers?) headphone purchase. Anyway I had decided that if I'm buying an open can I'll buy Sennheiser HD580, however, I have a few questions:

1) Can someone give a rough estimate of how meaningful open cans leaking is? For example, can you compare it to Koss KSC75 and Senn HD201 in terms of how much sound is leaked out. Will it be enough to bother people around you, assuming you listen at a reasonable volume.

2) Do open cans isolate at all? I live in a college dorm, so there's often some noise outside, however I find with HD201 I don't really hear it at all. On the other hand, I tried putting on and off HD201 and comparing A/C noises, and it seems to mostly be the music which is drowning out outside noise, since the headphones themselves only cut the noise somewhat. Since HD201 is not really a very isolating headphone it gives me some hope that HD580 will result in similar effects.

Thanks for any answers, I do hope that HD580s dont leak excessively and have at least a modicum of isolation, then my search for a can will be over

Otherwise I'll need to go back to figuring out what closed can to buy and there don't seem to be any totally satisfactory ones, plus the AKG K271 (what I was thinking of) costs quite a bit more than Senn HD580 and is probably harder to drive to boot.

 

[en480c4]

I can hear my 650's in the other room when burning them in (even when against a pillow at normal listening volumes) and can hear just about everything going on around me when they're on. Having owned 580's, I know there's really no difference in isolation or leaking. If you think any leaking will bother people, or if noise will bother you, open cans are not the answer.

 

[Chri5peed]

Sorry, they leak a lot.

 

[Firam]

The leak like a sieve.

There is very little if any passive isolation. To get isolation you need to turn up the volume and drown noise out with music. However your roomate wouldn't like that.

 

[mahlerfan]

If you want open headphones, but some isolation-- well akg's open headphones are typically more like semi-open. That's an idea anyway. I think that they isolate better than Sennheisers, which in turn isolate better than grados. If you want to spend not a $100 or less like it sounds and you want isolating I guess you can consider the Sennheiser 280pros. I think that they are a bit dull, but they are better than most of the competition for closed headphones in that price range.

 

[K2Grey]

OK, that wasn't the answer I wanted to hear

I guess it was predictable though considering the plainly obvious grills on both sides.

Actually, for now I think I'll wait and see how often my roommate is out, so I can decide if I'll get ample opportunities to use the HD580s or not, and then go from there. In the meantime I can do more constructive things, like getting an amp, buying CDs, or saving money, which all seem reasonable to me, although the latter is made more difficult when you read posts on this forum

 

[cetoole]

People always talk about the open cans bothering room mates, but considering how loud a dorm is anyway, and how often people have speakers playing, I never felt this to be an issue. I used my HD580 all last year, and while it was audible to my room mate, there was never any issues, he listened to his music on a cheap CDP and laptop speakers, much louder than what I used.

 

[Chri5peed]

They do leak like a person. They also sound awesome though.

Plus like Firam says, you only need them on at a reasonable level to block out sound with the music. If you're not bothered about disturbing others don't worry, plus they won't leak sound through the walls!

 

[K2Grey]

Ahh, that's reassuring

It's true that my roommate frequently has the TV on / speakers, and alot of other people on my floor seem to use speakers as well (and leave the door open to boot), so it's not like using an open headphone is especially disrespectful or anything.

Cetoole: It seems like I may yet end up having pretty much the same setup as you (Emu1212 -> Pimeta -> HD580) although I will think a little more about HD580 vs K240s.

 

[sionghchan]

DT880 is a very nice semi open cans... They don't really isolate that much...but a bit better than my HD580..