[kumaiti]

For the people with experience with open headphones, specially the AD700:


How much sound leaks? At reasonable listening levels, how far can people hear you?

Is the sound as loud as laying a closed headphone on the table?


thanks!!

 

[JxK]

With my sr60, when I let my friends use it I find that I am able to hear the music fairly clearly so long as I am in the same room. It sounds comparable to keeping the TV on at low volume.

 

[Ninkul]

Leaking in is almost transparent with all open headphones i've used. Slightly muffled but i can hold a conversation easily with them on. My friends' girlfriend complains when they're in the same room and she's watching tv and he's using his HD595's.

 

[SanJoseCanJunkie]

Open can be very open. I swear that my HD590's are louder outside than in, and when I would listen to them back in my college days my roommate would occasionally complain of the sound.

Not as much as when I used the Klipsch KG5.5's though.

 

[dongringo]

Significant leakage.

 

[stang]

well with my AD700, if they are on your head, you are getting 100% volume. If someone else is wearing them and you are right next to them, I would say you are getting about 85% of the volume. So yes, they leak a LOT!

 

[kunalraiker]

Apart from the fact that they leak out, they leak in to,trust me it will annoy you if someone is chatting in the same room, even the washing machine in another room annoys me.

 

[stang]

I highly recommend getting a very good pair of open cans and some good closed cans as well. Closed cans come in handy a lot

 

[Uncle Erik]

It really depends on the headphone. Some leak more than others and it also varies depending on how loud you're playing them.

I still mostly recommend open headphones - the only closed ones I've enjoyed are the R10 and DT48.

 

[Bengt77]

I agree with stang. Get an open and a closed headphone. I did and it's definitely a good solution to the annoyance of sound leaking in. And out, of course. When listening to music or when gaming and my girlfriend is watching television or when the dishwasher is running, I sure don't want to use my open headphone.

 

[Ypoknons]

I suspect that people complain because they have the idea that headphones = isolation, therefore if you are playing loud you have to be obnoxious. For example, would they tolerate you using speakers instead at a reasonable volume? If yes, why not open headphones?

But it's head-fi. We love saying just get both

 

[DanielCox]

Again, it depends. My K701s are super open, but the sennheisers are not so much.

 

[666_Pounder]

My AD700s leak a huge amount, I can have them on the desk next to me and still hear pretty much everything.

 

[120717]

HD650s are like little speakers on your head as far as people around you are concerned.

 

[grawk]

It's really hard to make a great closed headphone. And the really great ones aren't that isolating, in my experience. If you need the isolation, go with IEMs.

As to how much various headphones leak, it is very much headphone dependent. I had a coworker at one job who complained that my ps1s were too loud at her desk...