Sennheiser HD 598 vs Beyerdynamic DT 990 (250 Ohms)

[SSL]

5 minutes ago, Majestic said:

So it's semantics then.

 

True, there are no hard lines. But we can atleast draw 'some' lines in the sand, albeit crude ones. At the risk of sounding hyperbolic;

 

90dB/SPL is unlikely going to be efficient enoug for phones, 110dB/SPL likely is. It's hard to tell between those numbers what the tipping point is. Maybe it's something we need to work on?

 

What is a "dB/SPL"?

 

There really is nothing to work on. Objectively, an audio system should be able to hit a theoretical 120dB in order to faithfully produce the largest dynamic range found in acoustic music. It turns out that the DT-series headphones cannot even hit this SPL before exceeding their power handling capacity.

 

If someone decides that they aren't getting enough volume, telling them that their headphones are "easy to drive" is not going to be helpful. That is why I always recommend that people try things out themselves before making the decision to buy an amp. Numbers can give a rough estimate of how objectively loud a headphone will get from a specific amp, but they cannot predict whether that will be "loud enough".

[Majestic]

14 minutes ago, SSL said:

 

What is a "dB/SPL"?

 

There really is nothing to work on. Objectively, an audio system should be able to hit a theoretical 120dB in order to faithfully produce the largest dynamic range found in acoustic music. It turns out that the DT-series headphones cannot even hit this SPL before exceeding their power handling capacity.

 

If someone decides that they aren't getting enough volume, telling them that their headphones are "easy to drive" is not going to be helpful. That is why I always recommend that people try things out themselves before making the decision to buy an amp. Numbers can give a rough estimate of how objectively loud a headphone will get from a specific amp, but they cannot predict whether that will be "loud enough".

dB SPL 

 

But you'd take the fact that a certain pair of headphones has a sensitivity of 111dB instead of 96 into consideration right? Especially if someone is planning on using onboard or a mobile device initially. The first is objectively easier to drive than the latter. Regardless if both would be loud enough in the end. So the risk of it not being loud enough, is significantly lower (logarithmic scale and all).

 

That was the point I was trying to make.

[Dackzy]

1 hour ago, Majestic said:

If I look at my own cans, and in particular the K612. Those only get loud on my Objective2. The rest (onboard, D1, HTC M8, FiiO X1) plays them at sustainable/reasonable volumes only. And those are 101dB/SPL / 120 ohm.

What they are easy to drive I can max them out with my motherboard easily, you must have a bad motherboard.

[SSL]

7 minutes ago, Majestic said:

dB SPL 

 

But you'd take the fact that a certain pair of headphones has a sensitivity of 111dB instead of 96 into consideration right? Especially if someone is planning on using onboard or a mobile device initially. The first is objectively easier to drive than the latter. Regardless if both would be loud enough in the end. So the risk of it not being loud enough, is significantly lower (logarithmic scale and all).

 

That was the point I was trying to make.

 

dB what? "dB" is not a unit of sensitivity. Yes, all else being equal a more sensitive headphone is more likely to be louder from a given device; but this is basically a trivial point. It doesn't remove the need to actually try things out in order to determine if an amp is needed.

 

1 hour ago, Majestic said:

If I look at my own cans, and in particular the K612. Those only get loud on my Objective2. The rest (onboard, D1, HTC M8, FiiO X1) plays them at sustainable/reasonable volumes only. And those are 101dB/SPL / 120 ohm.

 

Fuck me, why do I even bother. dB SPL is not a unit of sensitivity.

 

The K612 is 101 dB per Vrms. the DT990 is 96 dB per mW. Huge difference.

[Majestic]

18 minutes ago, SSL said:

The K612 is 101 dB per Vrms. the DT990 is 96 dB per mW. Huge difference.

Would help if they put that distiction on the datasheet.

http://europe.beyerdynamic.com/shop/media//datenblaetter/DAT_DT990PRO_EN_A4.pdf

96dB SPL it says. Not saying you're wrong, the datasheet is confusing.

 

And why would 96dB vs. 111dB be trivial? That's quite the difference, and leaves little up for interpretation or subjectivity.

[SSL]

8 minutes ago, Majestic said:

Would help if they put that distiction on the datasheet.

http://europe.beyerdynamic.com/shop/media//datenblaetter/DAT_DT990PRO_EN_A4.pdf

96dB SPL it says. Not saying you're wrong, the datasheet is confusing.

 

And why would 96dB vs. 111dB be trivial? That's quite the difference, and leaves little up for interpretation or subjectivity.

 

Not the difference. The statement that a more sensitive headphone will get louder all else being equal is trivial; we don't need specific numbers to reach that conclusion.