Is It all in your Headphones? - Part II

Greetings,

Is it all in your headphones? - Part two

CROSSFEED

Since the release of the Walkman in 1979, modern headphones have been particularly widely sold and used for listening to stereo recordings, there is subjective debate regarding the nature of their reproduction of stereo sound. Stereo recordings represent the position of horizontal depth cues via volume and phase differences of the sound in question between the two channels (known as stereo separation). When the sounds from two speakers mix, they create the phase difference the brain uses to locate direction.(See illustrations)

Through most headphones, because the right and left channels do not combine in this manner, the illusion of the phantom center is lost. In normal listening through loudspeakers, right ear receives signal from right loudspeaker and then, a fraction of a millisecond after, it also receives signal coming from the left speaker. While listening with headphones, you only get right signal to your right ear and left signal to your left ear. The crossfeed function (software) is to send to the opposite ear the other signal delayed and filtered (same as loudspeakers signals would do). When using crossfeed, the sound is really turned around you externally, not going through your head.

Most songs are recorded only for loudspeakers listening so they should benefit from crossfeed. Some Audio enthusiasts do make crossfeed music tapes in order to enjoy its benefits on a personal stereo.

BURN IN

Few years back in time before the age of digital, every piece of equipment in the analog world had to be warmed up; it is a very well known process. Any piece of hardware needs to be stressed or 'benched' to get the best results out of it. Fresh out of the box, a new pair of shoes may not be as comfortable and good as a well used pair. A new car will not reach its peak point unless you drive it for some time. A similar situation is for a pair of headphones; they may not sound as good as a well used pair, as the designers have intended.

Burn-in is the process for exercising new headphones. The main purpose of the burn-in process is to loosen the diaphragm of a newly crafted headphone and to stress the headphone driver. Most audiophiles agree that the sound quality will be noticeably improved after burn-in. The benefit of burn in has always been controversial. Some people say that there is evidence that proves it while others say that there is evidence to disprove it.

Often, people want their headphones to sound the way that they are intended fresh out of the box. Most people choose to listen to their headphones as they change over the burn in period. Others don't want to wait for days or weeks of regular use, so the choice is to expedite burn in by getting the process over with in the first week of ownership.  The physical process is that the diaphragms loosen up through use and eventually reach a point that could be considered final.  Most headphones require at least 56 to 150 hours of burn-in time to reach their optimal performing state. Many will recommend approximately 200 hours for most headphones. Some recommend as many as 336 hours or more. Different headphones may take longer than others for a so-called "complete" burn in, and there is no exact or set length of time for burn in. It is best to use your ears to listen for changes to decide when you should stop the burn in process.

There are different ways to burn-in your headphones (or earbuds). The most common ways include running a variety of music, white noise, pink noise, frequency sweeps, etc. through the headphones at a medium volume. (Please note: too high of a volume can cause damage to, or even burned them out!). Music is an obvious burn-in candidate and works quite well if you have a broad range of musical genres in your playlist. Playing only one type of music however will not exercise and stress the entire audio spectrum. The best thing to do may be to plug your headphones into a player, set the volume to medium, and let your music play for up to 5-9 hours everyday (perhaps, while you are at work or sleeping). After that, your headphones will most likely sound their best and you can hear the difference. Note that you don't have to listen the whole time.

HEADPHONES AMPLIFIERS

Headphone amplifiers or cMoy are commercially available separate devices, sold to an enthusiastic audiophile market. These devices allow for higher possible volumes and greater audio clarity than the smaller, cheaper amplifiers that are used in most portable players. Most headphone amplifiers provide power between 8 mW and 3W depending on the specific headphone being used and the design of the amplifier. Certain high power designs can provide up to 6W of power into low impedance loads.

How do they work?

Effectively, a headphone amplifier is a small power amplifier that can be connected to a standard headphone jack or (usually) the line output of an audio source. The headphone amplifier improves the sound quality by increasing the amount of power available to move the transducer, increasing the control that the source has over just where the transducer is in space. A great headphone amplifier is one that makes headphones sound better than you thought they were.

Types of Headphone amps

There are two main types of Headphone amps: plain amp and Hybrid amp.

The plain amps are simple with just a volume control and input/output jacks for plain audio players and then there is the Headphone Amps w/ USB DAC which is the same amp with a Digital Analog Converter built into it for use with laptops or netbooks. It basically allows you to bypass the sound card in your laptop. Not only is the quality of most USB DAC's a lot better than the sound cards found in most laptops, but it actually takes the sound card out of the system, gets it away from all that electronic interference altogether.

DIGITAL Vs. ANALOG

We are living in a digital age. We are surrounded with bits and bytes, Zero's and One's, CD's, blue-rays and Pixels all advanced and minimized. but there is one dinosaur in all this advanced technology - the loudspeakers and his little brother the headphones. This is the only lonely analog part in our whole hi-fi world. The man and the loudspeakers are very much the same - analog machines in a digital world. Without us there will be no one to play with those gadgets or enjoy them, the same with the loudspeakers, without them we won't be able to hear music. Therefore, speakers or headphones cannot be digital or digital ready as manufactures call them to increase sales, because they are fundamentally an analog mechanical piece of hardware.

There is an old debate among audiophiles which is actually the one that signatures the sound quality? Is it the source, or is it the drivers themselves? Assuming of course, that the source is a Hi-Fi source and is capable of reproducing a wide range and a great Frequency response; will the loudspeakers or headphones have the ability to provide the same sound quality or overpass it? In other words is it all in your headphones?

 

Basically, if your portable player actually provides a pretty good sound, some extra power from a good headphone amp can help you get a better sound by allowing you to connect to higher quality headphones that otherwise would be underpowered by the player.

Because of the charecteristics of analog, good sounding headphones can produce an excellent sound quality only if they use an analog amp to drive them. Unfortunately, as far as the technology goes (considering maximum bitrates) high quality sound from a digital hardware is very noticeably inferior to the good old analog.

I Own 2 kinds of headphone amps, One is an analog type which made by BioScienceGeek (BSG) and the other is digital the NuForce Icon Mobile. When you compare them both you can hear the great difference of digital vs. Analog. The BSG have far great warmer and detailed sound compere to the dull and cold harsh sound of the much smaller nuforce.

In conclusion is it all in your headphones?

The answer in my opinion is definitely YES; it is all in your headphones!

What do you think?

Thanks for your time.

All the best

TheLion