Karl

I already have a pair of HD-201s which I use with my computer. I don’t find them that they isolate well. I’ve been doing another round of research, and a new very interesting pair cropped up – Sennheiser HD 280 Pro.

It is mentioned as very good in isolation (32db), and have a good head grip which for me I guess is a plus for isolation. The cups look very big to accommodate bigger size ears, which is another plus. The slight negative is the 64ohms impedance, which might not be as loud as I want them to be directly from the Traktor Audio 2 DJ, or laptop sound card. However, I do have an Fiio E6 headphone amp, so I guess with that then they should be fine.

Any particular comments regarding these Sennheiser HD 280 Pro headphones?

Still, the problem is there is no “base-line” to compare with. I cannot easily switch between two headphones – by the time I disconnect headphones A and connect headphones B, my ears will have re-adjusted and it won’t be easy to know if the difference isn’t exaggeratedly huge.

Basically, I want to know which set of headphones sound the loudest at the same volume, from the same jack. That is my ultimate goal, I just don’t know how is the best way to judge this.

Well, I do already have the Numark Redwave headphones. Would the Sennheiser HD-201 actually be better than the Numark? 200+ is a bit out of budget right now.

The Sennheiser HD-205 II are around 60EUR, well within my budget. Would the HD-205 II be better than the HD-201, or is it similar, not worth the additional price?

Copied below are the specs for HD-201 based on Sennheiser’s website:

Sennheiser HD-201

WEARING STYLE Headband
COLOR silver
FREQUENCY RESPONSE (HEADPHONES) 21 – 18000 Hz
SOUND PRESSURE LEVEL (SPL) 108 dB (SPL)
THD, TOTAL HARMONIC DISTORTION <0,7 %
CABLE LENGTH 3 m
WEIGHT w/o cable: 165 g
NOMINAL IMPEDANCE 24 Ω

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For example, I notice that one has an Impedance of 24Ohm while the other has 32Ohm. Also one has an SPL of 108dB while other has an SPL of 112dB. In real-life terms, how would I be able to compare based on these?

Just wanted to follow up on this – Bought the FiiO E3 Headphone Amplifier (http://img.dxcdn.com/productimages/sku_14823_1.jpg), and it works brilliantly! Powered from a single AAA battery. I haven’t tested it in a loud environment yet, but I tried lowering the volume to barely audible directly from the laptop, and then attached it in between and it was perceived at least 3 times louder!

Have just got it, so can’t judge how long it gives on one single AAA battery, but should be enough for a couple of hours I presume. Its also extremely small, maybe the size of 1 AA battery or slightly bigger. Almost too small that you can easily lose it.

The headphone amp look interesting, though as you said you need to actually try them to know. I’ll try to grab a cheap one off ebay, see if it does work.

Regarding “loud” headphones, considering that they can go much higher if I push the gain, wouldn’t that mean that the problem isn’t the headphones but the controller? Or can it be a bit of both? I’ve never tried them to a mains-powered controller, so can’t really compare.

@GroovePunk That is actually my issue. I wouldn’t want to be so used to it, that if I show up at a place with a mixer that doesn’t have a cue mix functionality. Then again, maybe I’ll start getting used to it in the headphones first, and once I get the hang of it pretty much, I’ll see how I go with the monitors.

Thanks! 🙂