Please teach me about headphone specs?

[KenM10759]

Went shopping for some as my wife is tiring of my blasting the new KEF speakers all the time. I had a set of Beyerdynamic headphones I bought in 1989, I think they were DT660 or similar. IIRC, they were not the top of the line then, but the "second one down the list." Apparently my kids ate them, they're gone.

Now looking around I see a spec given that I don't recall seeing back them. Well two really. One relates to the impedance. With loudspeakers you generally see 8Ω, 6Ω and 4Ω ratings. It seems headphones are all over the map. The other thing that confuses me is the connection. Back in the day, everything was a standard 1/4" plug. Now that seems really rare, I see "2.5/3.5" as common. Is this the tiny ones used on mobile phones, I-Pods, etc?

If I buy a set of KEF M500 for 50% off, will I be able to get a plug adapter and connect easily to the 1/4" HP socket on my NAD receiver?

Thanks for your help!

 

[Tao1]

1/4' jacks are used more in the niche markets these days. Everything consumer grade uses 3.5mm. Adapters between the two connections should work fine. Also to note that the jack on a phone also has the capability of taking a microphone in signal through a special 3.5mm jack, but it is still compatible with an audio only 3.5mm jack.

Headphone impedance has a bearing on sound quality when paired with the output impedance of a device. This can go into a lot of technical depth, but basically the higher the headphone impedance, the more output impedance from the source that you can deal with without the sound being coloured (you generally want lower output impedance on a device for this reason). Also the higher the headphone impedance, the harder it is to drive them for devices without decent amplification (i.e. walkmans and smart phones). A high impedance set will top out a smart phones volume setting fairly quickly and sound relatively quiet, as well as not have as much bass response as it would when plugged into a proper amplifier.

There are some higher impedance sets out there that will still sound good on a phone or similar device though. It can also be fairly hard to find the output impedance value actually given in a spec sheet by the manufacturer on many devices.

I tried to keep that explanation relatively short and simple, but the rest of the community can fill you in on the other technical details of headphones much better than I can.

 

[markw]

Virtually all headphones I've seen over the past few years have 3.5 mm plugs but the ones I've seen come with an adapter to allow them to be used with 1/4" jacks.

 

[KenM10759]

Just the info I was hoping for, thank you! Didn't need a lengthy treatise on all the technical stuff, just needed to know if I'm going to be OK buying for home use with my NAD receiver the KEF M500 that was "Cyber Monday cheap" but said right on the sparse "M500 Quick Start Guide" that they're "made for iPod/iPhone/iPad." I have none of that and no plans to get any. EVER.

I do have Android smartphone (Motorola) and tablet (Asus), but the M500 "what's in the box" listing shows a 6.3mm adapter. As a machinist I know 6.35mm is 1/4", so "close enough." I'll be getting off my wife's nerves with headphones, but when she's out all bets are off and the R500's are blasting.

BTW, I did read a number of reviews on various headphones. I wanted closed, over the ear, comfortable, and good quality sound for CD quality music. It was the review I found here that keyed me in the KEF M500. It was a 50% off price that sealed it. As a machinist I appreciate the "aluminium" construction, as a budding audioholic it was the sound profile description that really cemented the choice.

 

[KenM10759]

BTW, thanks to Tom Andry for his glowing review, found here:

http://www.audioholics.com/headphone-reviews/kef-m500

We really should add a link to headphone reviews in the "Reviews" tab along the top. I only found that review by means of a Google search.

 

[afterlife2]

KEF $150 here :http://www.accessories4less.com/make-a-store/item/kefm500/kef-m500-hi-fi-on-ear-headphones-aluminum/black-sale-reduced-30/1.html?gclid=CjwKEAiAtf6zBRDS0oCLrL37gFUSJACr2JYb6sGxzkpR7Md4Eu2gqYByk--28ZtmDnkPHgd3zkgMBxoCQrHw_wcB