purchasing a new set of headphones – sensitivity & impedance

Yep, Terry can tell you exactly which ones in that price range are a sure hit 😀

Terry is our uber-moderator, DA Man!

He reads all posts, so I am sure you will be hearing from him soon 😀

This was a really useful post for me, I needed a pair of wired headphones so I took you guys’ advice and picked up a pair of HD-201s – I am really impressed with how good they sound for a 25 euro pair of headphones, thanks!

I would bring my controller to a listening place and just yank them to full power on the headphones. If you can’t hear the difference in max. loudness (or at least the loudness before it becomes too distorted), there is no difference. A difference of 3dB is equivalent to double the power, 10dB is perceived as TWICE as loud.

Obviously can’t explain it on paper, but you WILL be able to tell the difference.

If you are in a store, you can also ask to try a pair of well-known, well-accepted DJ headphones and try those on too for comparison reasons. If many people have and use it, you may assume that it works in loud environments, as that is where DJs playing out do their thing. Just pick a headphone that compares with that one in level and you should be good.

Just my recommendation of course.

There isn’t one, unless you are willing to do labtests 🙂

I don’t think your ears whill have re-adjusted in the 5 seconds it takes to unplug one headphone and plug in the next (leaving everything else untouched). I also believe your ears WILL tell you any significant differences and if the differences are not significant, they are not relevant to your question.

Again, I understand your point about not having many opportunities to listen. A somewhat limited budget doesn’t exactly make the search any easier.

I am guessing you looked through the review section of the blog for headphone tests. They will usually say if they are nice and loud or on the quiet side.

Personally, I can never turn up my cans to full (not on my controllers, not on my mixers) because they would just blow my eardrums. And if you need to have your headphones so loud, ear damage is a certainty waiting to happen.

If, and only if, you are playing in a place that is extremely loud, then you might consider on/over the ear headphones (that isolate well) and learn to mix in your cans. The alternative is in-ear headphones, but they don’t come at your price range and really good ones (with custom-molded earpieces) come in at a LOT of money. Both these solutions allow you to (partially) shut out the outside sound and focus on what the headphones/in-ears present to your ears.

I understand that. I have no experience with the Numarks. So can’t tell you if they are quiet headphones or if the problem is with the Audio 2. USB-powered units (including some controllers) have trouble running enough power to the headphones. I don’t expect this with the Audio 2, with the volume control on the unit on max it should run headphones hot enough, but I don’t have one to test with my own cans.

It’s one of the reasons I suggested bringing your own soundcard for the test.

Greetinx.

I am pretty stunned by how good the 201s are.