[crystalsakura]

Somebody told me good earphones should not be closed-type since closed-type earphones can't get good sound field.
I doubt that...

 

[Alex_O Rules]

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f4/ant...ml#post5649530

I had posted about this subject previously. See the above for my 2c.

 

[AmanGeorge]

I don't buy it. The best soundstage I've heard is the K701 (open). #2 is the CD3000 (closed), which beats lots of other headphones, both open and closed.

 

[Makenshi]

If you have never heard any open headphones, then even if it is true it shouldn't really matter as you have no other frame of reference. What I mean is, all the full sized headphones I have heard thus far are closed. They sound perfectly fine to me; but then again, maybe open headphones do have wider sound stage (I'll find out eventually when I find someone to sell me HD555 or AD700). However, until then, I am perfectly happy with these closed headphones.

 

[tk3]

W5000 does a pretty good job in this field.

 

[Acix]

The Ultrasones and some of the MB Quart can get 70-80% sound stasge of the K702.
And not all the open headphones have the K-702 sound stage.

 

[oqvist]

As a generalization it´s not entirely wrong. If you are looking for headphones with biggest soundstage possible yes you are looking at open designs. Like those that actually don´t even sit on your ears but are more satellites straped on your ears with quite some distance from your ears.

But take K701. Yes significantly larger soundstage then both the PRO 900 and the DX 1000 which is the best from the closed headphone perspective. They on the other hand have bigger soundstage than the HD 650 for example and many other headphones.

Some closed headphones can sound closed. Take DX 1000 big soundstage but you do get a colorization from their wooden cups. Not as airy as the K701 or PRO 900 (kees modded). But again take the HD 650. Once again open design but less airy than the K701, HD 650.

So more comparisons between headphones rather then open versus closed would help more

 

[Uncle Erik]

Quote:

Originally Posted by crystalsakura /img/forum/go_quote.gif Somebody told me good earphones should not be closed-type since closed-type earphones can't get good sound field. I doubt that...

Not necessarily true. It is just more difficult and takes a lot more engineering to get good response from a closed design. It usually costs more, as well.

 

[mrarroyo]

The definition of open or closed is not enough to know if a headphone has good or poor soundstage. Way too many variables, mostly dependent on the designer and system synergy. Either can be very good or poor, you would have to listen to both in your system to decide. Good luck.

 

[krmathis]

Not true!
There are closed-back 'phones out there who reproduce sound stage very good. It just harder to do right than open-back 'phones, as you need to control the back-wave, and more.

 

[lecky]

In my experience (rather limited) open cans may tend to sound airier, but not necessarily with a bigger or more defined soundstage than closed cans. My only closed cans at the moment are MB Quart QP 805 HS which have a good soundstage - similar in scale to my DT990 pros, perhaps with a more defined sense of instrument positioning, but are less airy sounding. Is that typically true?

 

[Operandi]

In my experience it's held true but I don't think it has to be that way (for reasons mentioned above).

I own two pairs of headphones; Byer DT770, and Sony MDR-V6, both are closed. The Byers are better than the Sony's (as the price would suggest) but both have a limited soundstage in my opinion.

I barowed a pair AKG 240 (semi-open) for about a week and these had much more open/wider sound, I really like them overall. I also listened to Sennheiser HD555 (open) and these also had much wider soundstage as a whole however they had issues.

 

[leeperry]

well the cd3k SS sounds artificial! but so amazingly artificial

 

[Aimless1]

OP, soundstage (sound field as you called it) is not dependent on headphone style. I've owned two closed back headphones, the JVC DX1000 and the Audio Technica W5000. Both have a much wider sound stage than most of the open cans I have owned. I haven't heard a can with a deeper sound stage than the W5000. In this case you were wise to be skeptical of the advice you were given.