Headphones (again)
2000-03-13 by Mark T. Owen
Fellow e-percussionists: While I find the 'phones to be adequate for playing by myself, I can see they won't cut it for band rehearsals, or live use. I'm kinda in the audio biz, so I offer the following info: Closed cans: they typically block out more outside noise , thereby allowing the 'phones to be heard ( block out those "plastic" cymbal clicks for a start) This may be obvious to some, but I didn't see it mentioned in past posts. Headphone Impedance: domestic 'phones are typically high impedance: 2K Ohms. Pro "phones typically 600 Ohms or lower. The headphone amp in the DTXpress is wee! and can't drive a high imp. load to high levels. Headphone Sensitiviy: expressed as "dB" , "max spl", look for a headphone with a bigger number. The caveat is that some very high output phones may sacrifice sound quality to get there...kinda like speakers. So listen to them on your kit before buying. I did a little reserch and found an example of some Sennheissers that look promising: 64 Ohms ( easier to drive) 106 dB (that's loud! when it's clamped to your ears) http://headroom.headphone.com/ProductsHeadphones/SennheiserHD200.asp Having said all that, I'm using two pairs ( so I can "share" without waking the neighbours) of Stax Electrostatic SRX Mk III open-air type, driven by a Meridian 556 power amp, off the 1/4" stereo outs of the DTXpress. I plug a Sony boombox (or my Mac Powerbook 3400, for mp3's and .lqt's) into the aux in. You haven't lived till you've heard your kit through really high quality headphones. I've owned the Stax for years and they getting use again after sitting in a box for too long. (Yes they are driven at speaker level ) Newer versions are available from folks like Headroom (site address above.) Headroom are specialists in headphone amps, headphones and ideal combinations of both. Mark o