satori448
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2014
- Posts
- 20
- Likes
- 10
Hey everybody! I have been lurking for the last two months almost and finally decided to take the plunge and sign up. I hope that I have read enough to understand, at least somewhat vaguely, all the terminology and concepts behind headphones as I am also a complete noob at this, so I am hoping you can possibly help me out.
A little background information about myself. I live in Japan and have been checking out tons of headphones at Yodobashi Camera and Bic Camera, and the selection is just outstanding. The biggest problem is that the store itself, as I think many of you know, is louder than The Who's concert, so it really makes listening to new headphones extremely difficult as I can't tell how much leakage there is per say at a given level nor how good they really sound.
I work at a school and within a two to three meter radius, I have about 12 colleagues sitting near me, so I don't want to irritate anybody with noise from my cans and if I take off my Sennheiser HD 439's and just cover them with my hands I can hear significant leakage. I have asked a mate of mine to see if he can hear my music while I'm listening, which is IMHO NOT loud. For reference I am running my headphones out of my MacBook at the 5th to 6thbar, so not so loud but enough to drown out all the noise in the teacher's room and he can hear it from about two meters away. Am I naive to think that by getting some phones that are noise isolating like the P7, DT48, AKG Q701, HP50 (and maybe Momentum's depending on how they fit my ears) that people sitting around me would be less bothered by my music? I have taken my 439's to Yodobashi with me to try and compare but it's just too loud to objectively test it out.
More importantly, up until now, I've only owned Bose AE2's and their IEMs, both of which died horribly. The padding around the AE2's disintegrated into dust and the wiring on the IEM's broke away to the wire in 4-5 spots on both ears so I have had it with Bose. As far as sound goes, I never thought they were bad as they were both the first pairs of headphones and IEMs I ever really bought, but that shows the level we're starting from. I have to say I like my 439's better than both Bose and they were 3/4 cheaper I believe.
I love the Dave Matthews Band and John Butler Trio for bands, Miles Davis, Weather Report, Lonnie Liston Smith, Herbie Hancock, and Chet Baker for Jazz, but also listen just as much to Thievery Corporation, Massive Attack, Cinematic Orchestra, Nitin Sawhney, Rob Garza, Nujabes, and also lots of Reggae from Bob Marley, Desmond Dekker, Burning Spear, Scratch Perry, Toots and the Maytals etc.... So, like many of you I listen to a wide variety of music. I think that any headphones I get will sound great considering my starting point.
Right now my two main questions are:
1) Would purchasing a set of the above mentioned headphones help with eliminating sound leakage like I have with my HD 439's? Because they're noise isolating, do they seal up better than the 439's?
2) Does anybody on here live in Japan and would be able to recommend stores in Kansai (Osaka/Kyoto) that are quieter than Yodobashi so I am actually able to hear (and enjoy!) the music?
If anybody could help me out with these questions, I'd really appreciate it. Cheers!
A little background information about myself. I live in Japan and have been checking out tons of headphones at Yodobashi Camera and Bic Camera, and the selection is just outstanding. The biggest problem is that the store itself, as I think many of you know, is louder than The Who's concert, so it really makes listening to new headphones extremely difficult as I can't tell how much leakage there is per say at a given level nor how good they really sound.
I work at a school and within a two to three meter radius, I have about 12 colleagues sitting near me, so I don't want to irritate anybody with noise from my cans and if I take off my Sennheiser HD 439's and just cover them with my hands I can hear significant leakage. I have asked a mate of mine to see if he can hear my music while I'm listening, which is IMHO NOT loud. For reference I am running my headphones out of my MacBook at the 5th to 6thbar, so not so loud but enough to drown out all the noise in the teacher's room and he can hear it from about two meters away. Am I naive to think that by getting some phones that are noise isolating like the P7, DT48, AKG Q701, HP50 (and maybe Momentum's depending on how they fit my ears) that people sitting around me would be less bothered by my music? I have taken my 439's to Yodobashi with me to try and compare but it's just too loud to objectively test it out.
More importantly, up until now, I've only owned Bose AE2's and their IEMs, both of which died horribly. The padding around the AE2's disintegrated into dust and the wiring on the IEM's broke away to the wire in 4-5 spots on both ears so I have had it with Bose. As far as sound goes, I never thought they were bad as they were both the first pairs of headphones and IEMs I ever really bought, but that shows the level we're starting from. I have to say I like my 439's better than both Bose and they were 3/4 cheaper I believe.
I love the Dave Matthews Band and John Butler Trio for bands, Miles Davis, Weather Report, Lonnie Liston Smith, Herbie Hancock, and Chet Baker for Jazz, but also listen just as much to Thievery Corporation, Massive Attack, Cinematic Orchestra, Nitin Sawhney, Rob Garza, Nujabes, and also lots of Reggae from Bob Marley, Desmond Dekker, Burning Spear, Scratch Perry, Toots and the Maytals etc.... So, like many of you I listen to a wide variety of music. I think that any headphones I get will sound great considering my starting point.
Right now my two main questions are:
1) Would purchasing a set of the above mentioned headphones help with eliminating sound leakage like I have with my HD 439's? Because they're noise isolating, do they seal up better than the 439's?
2) Does anybody on here live in Japan and would be able to recommend stores in Kansai (Osaka/Kyoto) that are quieter than Yodobashi so I am actually able to hear (and enjoy!) the music?
If anybody could help me out with these questions, I'd really appreciate it. Cheers!
