"Safe" headphones :)

[ericj]

Jebus.

The sound pressure level in the ear canal determines the perceived loudness no matter how indirectly it got there. Whether you cram a tiny driver in there or put a speaker in the next room and crank it up, SPL is SPL. Pointing a driver some funny direction and saying this fixes the problem is dumb.

I'm also anxious to hear Ultrasone's response to my question - more than six months ago - asking for clarification with regard to why their paper on EM radiation from headphones neglects to mention that the frequency of flux in a magnetic field is a major factor in how dangerous it is (and at audio frequencies, it generally rates a "not dangerous"). And even then, the worst headphones they mention are measured in a couple thousand nanoteslas - a good friend of mine works with an 11 tesla field on a daily basis.

That and the part where it turns out that if you stick your head between two slabs of high-permeability metal, you block EM sources that are directly on either side of those slabs, but larger ambient fields (such as from power transformers and CRT yokes) are greatly amplified right in the vicinity of your brain.

A safe headphone is a clean headphone. All other claims are marketing nonsense.

 

[Fitz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peter Pinna /img/forum/go_quote.gif What, in any of my posts, could you have possibly interpreted the way you did? Other than saying IMO I don't know what to write that expresses that a particular topic is "in my opinion". Is there some additional code I need to use with IMO to make it more believable to you? What exactly are you talking about? Once again, I wrote in bold text because the post was so long. I thought it would make the post easier to read. That is the only reason I did it. If it annoys people, I won't do it. At no point have I ever made the judgment that someone's opinion in these forums is less valuable then mine. How could I possibly do that? I know nothing of the background of anyone on these forums. How then, could I possibly make that assessment? In my last post to Than, I wanted him to clearly understand that I appreciated the fact that he could not hear the full Ultrasone sound stage. However, I was not going to allow him to call me (at worst) a liar and (at best) unrealistic in my perceptions (one of which or both, in essence, is exactly what he was doing) without defense on my part. You will notice in my post that at no point did I write that he was wrong about not hearing the Ultrasone sound stage the way I and others do. No, I accepted his position on this subject and did not try to persuade him in this regard, in any way. How much more liberal pertaining to this subject could I possibly be? Contrastique, there are members of this forum (and, apparently this includes you) who think that defending your position about a particular topic is rude. I happen to disagree. I mean no disrespect to anyone. If you have interpreted my words to mean something other than which I intended, when my words were simple enough when taken at face value, what can I do about that? I went back and looked at my most recent posts on this thread and I see absolutely nothing rude or in any way negative about them, whatsoever. For your future reference, I repeat, at no point in the past or in the future have I intended nor do I intend to convey disrespect or an attitude of "my opinion is better than yours" to anyone. I try to be liberal and accept the statements, beliefs and opinions of others at "face value". I can not do anything about a situation when someone "reads into" my words a meaning that was certainly not intended on my part. Now, that you know that, in my opinion, it will be completely out-of-line to unjustly "call me on the carpet" as you have done, in my opinion, in your last post.

 

[Peter Pinna]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ericj /img/forum/go_quote.gif Jebus. The sound pressure level in the ear canal determines the perceived loudness no matter how indirectly it got there. Whether you cram a tiny driver in there or put a speaker in the next room and crank it up, SPL is SPL. Pointing a driver some funny direction and saying this fixes the problem is dumb. I'm also anxious to hear Ultrasone's response to my question - more than six months ago - asking for clarification with regard to why their paper on EM radiation from headphones neglects to mention that the frequency of flux in a magnetic field is a major factor in how dangerous it is (and at audio frequencies, it generally rates a "not dangerous"). And even then, the worst headphones they mention are measured in a couple thousand nanoteslas - a good friend of mine works with an 11 tesla field on a daily basis. That and the part where it turns out that if you stick your head between two slabs of high-permeability metal, you block EM sources that are directly on either side of those slabs, but larger ambient fields (such as from power transformers and CRT yokes) are greatly amplified right in the vicinity of your brain. A safe headphone is a clean headphone. All other claims are marketing nonsense.

Thank you for your comments and I hope you find the answers from Ultrasone you seek.
I could be mistaken about this, but I seem to recall Florian Konig addressing this issue to some extent in the recordings of him in these forums. Have you heard them?

 

[Beefy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peter Pinna /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thank you for your comments and I hope you find the answers from Ultrasone you seek.

*Beefy's head explodes*

 

[Peter Pinna]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beefy /img/forum/go_quote.gif *Beefy's head explodes*

LOL!!!!

 

[ericj]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peter Pinna /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thank you for your comments and I hope you find the answers from Ultrasone you seek. I could be mistaken about this, but I seem to recall Florian Konig addressing this issue to some extent in the recordings of him in these forums. Have you heard them?

No, I haven't. I have read the paper about EM radiation from headphones, and it seems to defer to EU safety people. The same people who tell me there is 8 pounds of lead in a VGA monitor. I trust them about as much as i trust our own department of homeland security, who want me to believe that i can survive a chemical attack with some plastic sheeting and duct tape.

(There is probably 8 pounds of non-RoHS electronics in a VGA monitor, but, if you remove the glass, iron, copper, and plastic, what you have left doesn't weigh 8 pounds, and certainly isn't a big bundle of lead)

Is there a transcript somewhere? I can read a lot faster than i can listen.

 

[Peter Pinna]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ericj /img/forum/go_quote.gif No, I haven't. I have read the paper about EM radiation from headphones, and it seems to defer to EU safety people. The same people who tell me there is 8 pounds of lead in a VGA monitor. I trust them about as much as i trust our own department of homeland security, who want me to believe that i can survive a chemical attack with some plastic sheeting and duct tape. (There is probably 8 pounds of non-RoHS electronics in a VGA monitor, but, if you remove the glass, iron, copper, and plastic, what you have left doesn't weigh 8 pounds, and certainly isn't a big bundle of lead) Is there a transcript somewhere? I can read a lot faster than i can listen.

What I was remembering was a question that you asked Florian Konig here is that question:

Ericj:
Dr. Koenig, I am a naturally skeptical person, thus I am curious about your reports of radiation in headphones. A good friend of mine works in magnetic resonance spectroscopy. As I'm sure you know, NMR requires the use of extremely powerful electromagnets. He has two instruments - the smaller having a 5-Tesla magnet, the larger having an 11-Tesla magnet. He spends hours every day fully immersed in their magnetic fields and i can assure you that he suffers no magnet-related health problems. Your own tests show that headphones vary from a couple hundred to a couple thousand nanoteslas, and that shielding the driver face with a grille constructed out of high-permeability metal effectively blocks much of the field, but my friend, who has several advanced degrees, tells me that putting your head between two chunks of high-permeability metal will actually amplify ambient magnetic fields - such as those from power transformers and cathode ray tubes in such a way that wearing shielded headphones would protect you from the headphone drivers but increase your brain's exposure to other fields in your vicinity. He also tells me that the rate of change in the field is a far more reliable indicator of the hazards presented by an electromagnetic device than the total strength of the field - that a 500nT field is far more worrisome at 2ghz than it is at 2khz. How much of a health benefit could shielded headphones possibly offer? Can you comment on this?

Here is a link to Florian Konig's answer to you:

http://www.headphone-factory.com/Ult..._EMF5_32kb.mp3

I've read mention about some paper that is written in the Dutch language that is supposed to detail information about this. Beefy knows something about this.
[size=x-small]Beefy? Please tell Ericj what you know about the Dutch paper.
[/size]

 

[Beefy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peter Pinna /img/forum/go_quote.gif [size=x-small]Beefy? Please tell Ericj what you know about the Dutch paper. [/size]

No. I've had enough of you, and enough of Ultrasone, to last a lifetime.

 

[Peter Pinna]

Does anyone know how to translate the Dutch language into English?

 

[Peter Pinna]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beefy /img/forum/go_quote.gif No. I've had enough of you, and enough of Ultrasone, to last a lifetime.

I see. I'm just trying to help get to the bottom of this. I'm not making any comments / opinions about it, though. You could team up with Ericj to research this. Maybe you could find someone who is able to translate Dutch into English.
You don't need to have anything to do with me. Communicate with Ericj about this.