How much audio bleed is there on open backs

[Caveman0407]

Hi there. I wanted to upgrade my audio setup as my birthday present and also because of issues with my current headset. Anyways, I've narrowed it down to an Astro A40, Hfiman He400se, or Audio Technica GDL3. The latter 2 are open back. 

 

Open backs are okay if you're alone in your room. However, there's someone hiding in my walls my brother stays in the same room as me and his mic is quite sensitive. Typing on a keyboard is enough to activate it. So I wonder, if I was playing music or a game, will the leak be loud enough to bleed to my brother's mic or even my own mic? (if I get the GDL3, it has a boom mic.) If so, I would probably get the A40 because "It's not terrible" -Crinacle

 

Minor correction: Astro A40 is open back

[saintlouisbagels]

Tremendous sound leak. They're little speakers.

Seems like your brother is more the issue - if typing on a keyboard is enough to set it off, his mic gain is too high. That's annoying to everyone on the other end of his mic.

[Spuriae]

Open backs are roughly as loud on the outside as closed-back headphones taken off your head and rotated to have the cups facing outwards. You can try that with your current headphones to get an idea of whether it's too much sound leakage.

 

FWIW I've had roommates with open backs and it has never been an issue.

[Cocococo]

Unless your headphones are cranked up to damage-inducing volumes sound leak is not a problem, i actually have a pair of HE400SE's and the best advice i can give is that if your head is slightly the wrong shape the headband is insanely uncomfortable. Quite a few people don't like the treble (i can see where they're coming from but it is nowhere near as piercing as Beyerdynamic headphones) Hifiman quality control is notoriously bad unfortunately, if you're looking for headphone upgrades please give a budget and country to search in (recommendations will be different if you live in USA compared to say Malaysia)

 

As for your brothers mic it sounds like his mic's gain is up far too high and might need a foam pop filter just to reduce it's sensitivity

[Caveman0407]

28 minutes ago, saintlouisbagels said:

Tremendous sound leak. They're little speakers.

Seems like your brother is more the issue - if typing on a keyboard is enough to set it off, his mic gain is too high. That's annoying to everyone on the other end of his mic.

I'm not quite sure how to because he uses a Hyperx Cloud Alpha s with the boom mic. Perhaps I can download the software or just adjust gain in Discord where he normally chats

[Caveman0407]

7 minutes ago, Cocococo said:

Unless your headphones are cranked up to damage-inducing volumes sound leak is not a problem, i actually have a pair of HE400SE's and the best advice i can give is that if your head is slightly the wrong shape the headband is insanely uncomfortable. Quite a few people don't like the treble (i can see where they're coming from but it is nowhere near as piercing as Beyerdynamic headphones) Hifiman quality control is notoriously bad unfortunately, if you're looking for headphone upgrades please give a budget and country to search in (recommendations will be different if you live in USA compared to say Malaysia)

 

As for your brothers mic it sounds like his mic's gain is up far too high and might need a foam pop filter just to reduce it's sensitivity

Indonesia, around 100-170 USD

[Cocococo]

33 minutes ago, Caveman0407 said:

Indonesia, around 100-170 USD

Quick search on Amazon Indonesia has a few very good options, Shure 440 and 840, AKG K361 and K371, some deals on Sennheiser HD560S and Beyerdynamic DT880 (880 are the only good headphones Beyer makes, and 560S are the better of the two) If you're really lucky you might have an Indonesian equivalent ebay or gumtree. In the east asian market Sennheiser are typically a lot more expensive than in USA/ Europe, fortunately the Audio Technica R70X exists and is absolutely brilliant competition to the HD600. You might be able to find a pair used (replacement pads are widely available and are SO much easier to find than HD600 pads) i will say that if you can save your budget even more the Moondrop Para and FiiO FT3 are outstanding in the 300usd-ish market. But idk how your finances are going, just a super easy upgrade path if you decide 

[Caveman0407]

1 hour ago, Cocococo said:

Quick search on Amazon Indonesia has a few very good options, Shure 440 and 840, AKG K361 and K371, some deals on Sennheiser HD560S and Beyerdynamic DT880 (880 are the only good headphones Beyer makes, and 560S are the better of the two) If you're really lucky you might have an Indonesian equivalent ebay or gumtree. In the east asian market Sennheiser are typically a lot more expensive than in USA/ Europe, fortunately the Audio Technica R70X exists and is absolutely brilliant competition to the HD600. You might be able to find a pair used (replacement pads are widely available and are SO much easier to find than HD600 pads) i will say that if you can save your budget even more the Moondrop Para and FiiO FT3 are outstanding in the 300usd-ish market. But idk how your finances are going, just a super easy upgrade path if you decide 

We have an equivalent to Amazon called "Tokopedia". Sennheiser has an official store there but they sell the Hd650s 2x my budget. 

Also, Audio Technica also has an official store there

[saintlouisbagels]

3 hours ago, Cocococo said:

Unless your headphones are cranked up to damage-inducing volumes sound leak is not a problem

I mean that’s not true at all.

i’ve listened to Koss PortaPros at 25% volume and I’ve had people tell me to turn down the volume. I’ve listened to Audeze’s semi-open EL8 headphones at like 75% volume and I’ve had a roommate in an adjacent room (door open) comment on the podcast I was listening to. And in general people always hear what I’m watching when I use AKG K702’s no matter what volume.

 

Sound leakage is really obvious.

[Cocococo]

8 hours ago, saintlouisbagels said:

I mean that’s not true at all.

i’ve listened to Koss PortaPros at 25% volume and I’ve had people tell me to turn down the volume. I’ve listened to Audeze’s semi-open EL8 headphones at like 75% volume and I’ve had a roommate in an adjacent room (door open) comment on the podcast I was listening to. And in general people always hear what I’m watching when I use AKG K702’s no matter what volume.

 

Sound leakage is really obvious.

Interesting, i use K702's as my daily driver around home and i've never heard a comment on what i'm listening to, same goes for the rest of my open headphones, not even with Grados. Only time i've had someone comment on my music was in highschool and i had some apple earpods cranked to max volume on the bus home, these days i listen at very low volume so maybe that's where my opinion comes from