[Chri5peed]

D'oh, again, its not anything to do with anything being objectively better, i.e. frequency response...

It is not completely a fact, but its fair to say its a majority. Same as more is usually better than less.


edit - I give up, you'll never get it. Like my Mom will not accept she is wrong on blatently obvious things....your mouthwash is evaporating, even though its in a sealed bottle.

 

[facelvega]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chri5peed /img/forum/go_quote.gif Anyway, it is an engineering principle, more often than not a bigger item will do a better job over an identical, but smaller one.

Yes, this is why ibuds sound so much better than high-end canalphones, right? Diaphragm surface area (and its relation to air mass being moved) can control the threshold of bass reproduction, but there is a reason that tweeters are smaller than woofers and tend to be executed with a different diaphragm principle.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chri5peed /img/forum/go_quote.gif D'oh, its an engineering principle and I am an engineer. Not always, but a lot of the time, bigger things are better. I am a electro-mechanic, got a degree in Electrical Engineering.

Well, I am a professor of design, and you're doing a disservice to engineering to use your profession to back up poppycock when you get called on it. Yes, bigger things are often better or at least it's easier to maintain performance with them, but we're talking about a specific design problem here for which the benefits and compromises of size are easily demonstrated not to carry the connotation you claim. Why not just back off on it, and say as an engineer yourself, you know there are ways around this problem. Then you'd be right again.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pantocrator /img/forum/go_quote.gif Which do you think is better? First off, I am going to be using these headphones in college in a dormitory, so there might be some noise issues, and also i might use these in public where I do not want other people to hear my music...

Sorry your thread got so derailed. What most of us in your position end up doing is building up both a home rig and a portable one. With a good closed portable, a canalphone like the RE2 or a headphone like, say, an ES7, you'll be covered on the go. Then you'll be free to get a great-sounding circumaural for the dorm-room that can scale well with any later source or amp upgrades you get the urge to do. You can also afford to get an open headphone for the home set then, because you'll have a closed option for those times someone is trying to sleep within earshot.

But for what makes sense as a good choice in either case, don't worry about circumaural or supraaural, worry about your music preferences and budget. We know what your initial rig will be, so unless you're thinking of going for a real home amp and source someday, the best home headphones are all out. That doesn't mean there aren't still good options.

 

[Chri5peed]

Quote:

Originally Posted by facelvega /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yes, this is why ibuds sound so much better than high-end canalphones, right? Diaphragm surface area (and its relation to air mass being moved) can control the threshold of bass reproduction, but there is a reason that tweeters are smaller than woofers and tend to be executed with a different diaphragm principle.

iBuds are not exactly larger high-end canalphones are they? I said two identical things.

A Tweeter =/= a Woofer.


...but a fire-truck is bigger than my keyboard, whoops, take everything I said back.

 

[Dr. Foxcastle]

Honestly I think Grado is a good brand, and it's not as though they only make one type of model. I recently read some raving reviews on Grado on Headphone Reviews & Recommendations if you're curious, they provide quite a bit of info and should be able to help you out if you haven't made up your mind yet.

 

[peepee-king]

Circumaural for me... but I don't mind well fitted Supraaural (Grados), they can fit better sometimes ie. when I have my specs on. The overall comfort of my circumaural ATs is much more comfortable than my Grados though.

 

[money4me247]

Quote:

I'd say you probably want circumaural, for the requirments you stated. The sound quality isn't really different, you just have to choose models with good sound quality. Rather it's open or closed has more effect on isolation and quality.

Could you please give me an example of an open supraaural headphone & a closed supraaural headphone? 
 
I haven't really really seen on-ear headphones be described with either of those terms. Only have seen over-ears say open or closed in their description.

 

[money4me247]

Quote:

D'oh, again, its not anything to do with anything being objectively better, i.e. frequency response...

It is not completely a fact, but its fair to say its a majority. Same as more is usually better than less.


edit - I give up, you'll never get it. Like my Mom will not accept she is wrong on blatently obvious things....your mouthwash is evaporating, even though its in a sealed bottle.

In terms of the size argument, perhaps bigger drivers may be able to have higher performance ceiling? So hypothetically, if two drivers of different sizes with the same parts were tuned to their maximum potential, the bigger one will be slightly better?
 
However, just a straight comparison of driver sizes cannot reveal the sound quality as the drivers may have been made out of different materials or tuned differently. So you cannot say that one headphones will sound better than the other based on driver size because there are a lot of other variables at play. Kind of how you would think taller people would be better basketball players, but there are a lot of other factors that go into basketball skill, so NBA scouts don't draft solely based on height.
 
This is just conjecture. I don't know b/c I am not an electrical engineer or a sound engineer or anything like that.