blown headphones - a poll

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Hey, do you studio owners (home or pro) blow a lot of headphones? (That is,
fried from too much volume, as opposed to being stepped on or having the
cords yanked out.)

How much of a budget item is this? Does it affect your choice of headphones
much?

In what circumstances do the 'phones usually get blown?

I'm asking because I'm poking at the embers of a back-burner design project,
thinking about ways to avoid the problem and wondering if it's actually
worth it.

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In article <lsSdnauUMeZ5OcDcRVn-iQ@speakeasy.net> walterh@cafewalterNOSPAM.com writes:

> Hey, do you studio owners (home or pro) blow a lot of headphones?

Never. Never blown a speaker either.

They only thing that blows around here (other than some musicians) is
light bulbs.


--
I'm really Mike Rivers (mrivers@d-and-d.com)
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me here: double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

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Walter Harley <walterh@cafewalternospam.com> wrote:
> Hey, do you studio owners (home or pro) blow a lot of headphones? (That is,
> fried from too much volume, as opposed to being stepped on or having the
> cords yanked out.)

> How much of a budget item is this? Does it affect your choice of headphones
> much?

> In what circumstances do the 'phones usually get blown?

> I'm asking because I'm poking at the embers of a back-burner design project,
> thinking about ways to avoid the problem and wondering if it's actually
> worth it.

Both sides of a set of Sony 7506s (yes really!). Drummer in a punk
band who insisted on listening at insanely high levels.

Rob R.

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On Sat, 02 Oct 2004 02:12:10 GMT, "sycochkn" <sycochkn@earthlink.net>
wrote:

>Headphone jacks usually have 200 ohm resistors in series, or at least they
>should.

Consumer stereo amp headphone jacks usually do have such resistors,
but my Sony MDR-7506's plugged into such a jack turned LP clicks into
cowbells (really, it rang that bad, I wondered what the hell was going
on). Here's a post I made on the topic:

http://groups.google.com/groups?q= [...] com&rnum=1

On to answer the original question:

>Bob
>
>"Walter Harley" <walterh@cafewalterNOSPAM.com> wrote in message
>news:lsSdnauUMeZ5OcDcRVn-iQ@speakeasy.net...
>> Hey, do you studio owners (home or pro) blow a lot of headphones? (That
>is,
>> fried from too much volume, as opposed to being stepped on or having the
>> cords yanked out.)

I've never blown a headphone, but I never play anywhere near
ear-damaging volume, which is apparently what it would take to blow
even the cheapest, most inefficient headphone.

>> How much of a budget item is this? Does it affect your choice of
>headphones
>> much?
>>
>> In what circumstances do the 'phones usually get blown?
>>
>> I'm asking because I'm poking at the embers of a back-burner design
>project,
>> thinking about ways to avoid the problem and wondering if it's actually
>> worth it.

If it's something like a headphone amp with a limiter, I doubt it
would be worth it, but if you do make a headphone amp, make sure the
output impedance is less that 1 ohm.

-----
http://mindspring.com/~benbradley

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<< >In what circumstances do the 'phones usually get blown?
> >>

Deaf drummers playing to a click.

Scott Fraser

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"Walter Harley" <walterh@cafewalterNOSPAM.com> wrote in message
news:lsSdnauUMeZ5OcDcRVn-iQ@speakeasy.net...
> Hey, do you studio owners (home or pro) blow a lot of headphones?
(That is,
> fried from too much volume, as opposed to being stepped on or having
the
> cords yanked out.)


Pulled cords out of several, cut cords on others, broken a few, but only
one blown driver in 15+ years (knock wood).

--
"It CAN'T be too loud... some of the red lights aren't even on yet!"
- Lorin David Schultz
in the control room
making even bad news sound good

(Remove spamblock to reply)

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On Fri, 1 Oct 2004 11:41:39 -0700, "Walter Harley"
<walterh@cafewalterNOSPAM.com> wrote:

>Hey, do you studio owners (home or pro) blow a lot of headphones? (That is,
>fried from too much volume, as opposed to being stepped on or having the
>cords yanked out.)
>

Never blew a set of phones. Have had cable/connector problems on a
dozen or so, of every category of quality. If you want to put some
time into improving headphones, fix that first.

Willie K. Yee, M.D. http://users.bestweb.net/~wkyee
Developer of Problem Knowledge Couplers for Psychiatry http://www.pkc.com
Webmaster and Guitarist for the Big Blue Big Band http://www.bigbluebigband.org

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>
>They only thing that blows around here (other than some musicians) is
>light bulbs.
>

This gets me..I've been in my present studio for 7 1/2 years. The light bulbs
around my bathroom medicine cabinet are still working..and they get turned on
dozens of times a day. Every other bulb in the place lasts about 2 months..is
this a conspiracy?


John A. Chiara
SOS Recording Studio
Live Sound Inc.
Albany, NY
www.sosrecording.net
518-449-1637

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Blind Joni <blindjoni@aol.com> wrote:
>
>This gets me..I've been in my present studio for 7 1/2 years. The light bulbs
>around my bathroom medicine cabinet are still working..and they get turned on
>dozens of times a day. Every other bulb in the place lasts about 2 months..is
>this a conspiracy?

Is that why you're Blind?

You might try traffic light bulbs. They burn around 2500'K so they are
noticeably more yellow than regular bulbs, and they are only available with
clear envelopes, but they last forever and can take heavy shock without
burning out.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

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> Blew on side of one of my 7506's using a behringer HA4400 on a punks head. Bought a bunch of
> Harvey Gurst's More Me phones and they work great. Bands still want more volume though.
> Insane.
>
> Phil A


For me it's been the other way around, have had the harvey phones
either distort (buzzings plastic-like noise) or just no signal (bad
wire connectors?) and that was only after a weeks use (one of them
didn't work out-of-box) I've had 7506's last forever, and with much
much more abuse.

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"Walter Harley" <walterh@cafewalterNOSPAM.com> wrote in message
news:lsSdnauUMeZ5OcDcRVn-iQ@speakeasy.net...
> Hey, do you studio owners (home or pro) blow a lot of headphones? (That
is,
> fried from too much volume, as opposed to being stepped on or having the
> cords yanked out.)

I've only had one such case. The cheapest Aiwa consumer cans. The AKGs,
Beyers, some of them already veterans, are still working fine.

However, all of my Sennheisers have that notorious intermittent contact
problem with the cord connectors.

Predrag

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"Predrag Trpkov" <predrag.trpkovNOSPAM@ri.htnet.hr> wrote in message
news:cjs5ni$t1q$1@ls219.htnet.hr...
>
> "Walter Harley" <walterh@cafewalterNOSPAM.com> wrote in message
> news:lsSdnauUMeZ5OcDcRVn-iQ@speakeasy.net...
>> Hey, do you studio owners (home or pro) blow a lot of headphones? (That
> is,
>> fried from too much volume, as opposed to being stepped on or having the
>> cords yanked out.)
>
> I've only had one such case. The cheapest Aiwa consumer cans. The AKGs,
> Beyers, some of them already veterans, are still working fine.
>
> However, all of my Sennheisers have that notorious intermittent contact
> problem with the cord connectors.

For a while the AKGs moved from captive cables to 3.5 mm jacks . These were
great. But they've changed again, to Mini-XLR (TA3F) connectors. Now
these are latching, and when you stand up with your foot on the cable .....

geoff

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

The Sony MDR's blow the most here. Sony gives them a six month
warranty, so we send them in for replacements. Now they are only for
the clients who DEMAND them. They are 80 ohm instead of 600 like AKG,
Fostex, etc. and are not forgiving of someone leaving them connected
when not in use.
I do this for the punks and rockers- I put AKG 240 elements into
pistol range headphones and wired with Canare L4E5C. Funny that the
only maintanence on them are the same broken transducer lead-out wires
mentioned before. And clean the blood off em' occasionally. . .
Miked

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"anybody-but-bush" <Anybody But Bu$h@YAHOO.com> wrote in message
news:C9j8d.3285$Vm1.568@newsread3.news.atl.earthlink.net...
>
> "Predrag Trpkov" <predrag.trpkovNOSPAM@ri.htnet.hr> wrote in message
> news:cjs5ni$t1q$1@ls219.htnet.hr...
> :
> : "Walter Harley" <walterh@cafewalterNOSPAM.com> wrote in message
> : news:lsSdnauUMeZ5OcDcRVn-iQ@speakeasy.net...
> : > Hey, do you studio owners (home or pro) blow a lot of headphones?
(That
> : is,
> : > fried from too much volume, as opposed to being stepped on or having
the
> : > cords yanked out.)
> :
> : I've only had one such case. The cheapest Aiwa consumer cans. The AKGs,
> : Beyers, some of them already veterans, are still working fine.
> :
> : However, all of my Sennheisers have that notorious intermittent
contact
> : problem with the cord connectors.
> :
> : Predrag
>
> Oh please don't remind me. I paid 350 for the HD600's and then replaced
the cord and the damn
> things still cut out. How could anyone make something that sounds so good
so unreliable. I
> hate them for this.
>
> Phil Abbate


That it's unreliable right from the start is annoying enough. What's really
pissing me off is that there doesn't seem to be a way to fix it.

I still like how they sound, but I've stopped buying them years ago.

Predrag

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In article <4p08m0td5j5g1jkinjtam40s8pkrm90d86@4ax.com>,
Ben Bradley <ben_nospam_bradley@mindspring.com> wrote:

> On 04 Oct 2004 04:31:11 GMT, blindjoni@aol.com (Blind Joni) wrote:
>
> >>
> >>They only thing that blows around here (other than some musicians) is
> >>light bulbs.
> >>
> >
> >This gets me..I've been in my present studio for 7 1/2 years. The light bulbs
> >around my bathroom medicine cabinet are still working..and they get turned on
> >dozens of times a day. Every other bulb in the place lasts about 2 months..is
> >this a conspiracy?
>
> Maybe your bathroom lights are on the loaded-down side of the
> 120-0-120 line coming in and so get a lower voltage, and all the
> others are on the other leg and get a higher voltage. I recall a
> formula that filament lamp life is inversly proportional to the fourth
> power of voltage. Hmm, that's probably true of headphones as well.
>

I suspect it has more to do with the construction of the filaments in those
decorative bathroom bulbs. We bought our house 6 years ago and the former
owners had mixed clear and frosted bulbs in the 14-bulb bathroom fixture. My
wife leaves these lights (and all others BTW) ON every chance she gets and we
haven't had a single bulb burn out in 6 years. I'm afraid we're going to have
to pull out still functioning clear bulbs if we ever want to get them all to be
frosted bulbs.

The 40 watt high-intensity bulbs in the bed headboard burn out about once a
month.

-Jay
--
x------- Jay Kadis ------- x---- Jay's Attic Studio ------x
x Lecturer, Audio Engineer x Dexter Records x
x CCRMA, Stanford University x http://www.offbeats.com/ x
x---------- http://ccrma.stanford.edu/~jay/ ------------x

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

In article <4164ce67$0$23895$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.au>,
"TonyP" <TonyP@optus.net.com.au> wrote:

> "Jay Kadis" <jay@ccrma.stanford.edu> wrote in message
> news:jay-DC9FC0.08025806102004@news.stanford.edu...
> > I suspect it has more to do with the construction of the filaments in
> those
> > decorative bathroom bulbs. We bought our house 6 years ago and the former
> > owners had mixed clear and frosted bulbs in the 14-bulb bathroom fixture.
> My
> > wife leaves these lights (and all others BTW) ON every chance she gets and
> we
> > haven't had a single bulb burn out in 6 years. I'm afraid we're going to
> have
> > to pull out still functioning clear bulbs if we ever want to get them all
> to be
> > frosted bulbs.
>
> You could have replaced them all for what she wasted in electricity :-)
>
> TonyP.
>
>

Can I quote you?

(I've replaced most of our lighting with CF bulbs and that did cut the energy
bills quite a bit. It's easier than changing behavior...)

-Jay
--
x------- Jay Kadis ------- x---- Jay's Attic Studio ------x
x Lecturer, Audio Engineer x Dexter Records x
x CCRMA, Stanford University x http://www.offbeats.com/ x
x---------- http://ccrma.stanford.edu/~jay/ ------------x

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In article <4166517d$0$23896$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.au>,
"TonyP" <TonyP@optus.net.com.au> wrote:

> "Jay Kadis" <jay@ccrma.stanford.edu> wrote in message
> news:jay-8E14BF.07251107102004@news.stanford.edu...
> > "TonyP" <TonyP@optus.net.com.au> wrote:
> > > You could have replaced them all for what she wasted in electricity :-)
>
> > Can I quote you?
>
> Of course, I'm sure she won't find me :-)
>
> > (I've replaced most of our lighting with CF bulbs and that did cut the
> energy
> > bills quite a bit. It's easier than changing behavior...)
>
> I use a few CF lamps too, but they never seem to last as long as a normal
> bulb (even though they quote much longer)
> Given the much higher cost, I'm not sure I actually save anything.
> For real savings I find a standard fluoro tube is easily the best.
>
> TonyP.
>
>

The fluorescent bulbs that really seem to work best for me are the 2D
rectangular ones, GE I think. The really cheap CFs don't last or work that
well, but some of the more expensive ones are better. I have a 22 watt CF in
the garage that's been going 5 years now and still throws plenty of light.

-Jay
--
x------- Jay Kadis ------- x---- Jay's Attic Studio ------x
x Lecturer, Audio Engineer x Dexter Records x
x CCRMA, Stanford University x http://www.offbeats.com/ x
x---------- http://ccrma.stanford.edu/~jay/ ------------x

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On Fri, 8 Oct 2004 18:35:13 +1000, "TonyP" <TonyP@optus.net.com.au>
wrote:

>
>"Jay Kadis" <jay@ccrma.stanford.edu> wrote in message
>news:jay-8E14BF.07251107102004@news.stanford.edu...
>> "TonyP" <TonyP@optus.net.com.au> wrote:
>> > You could have replaced them all for what she wasted in electricity :-)
>
>> Can I quote you?
>
>Of course, I'm sure she won't find me :-)
>
>> (I've replaced most of our lighting with CF bulbs and that did cut the
>energy
>> bills quite a bit. It's easier than changing behavior...)
>
>I use a few CF lamps too, but they never seem to last as long as a normal
>bulb (even though they quote much longer)

Are you turning them on and off often? Their life allegedly goes
down the more times you turn them on and off, and I've seen a CF in a
bathroom (on for short periods several times a day) go out in about a
year. If you turn them on and off only once a day or even leave them
on all the time, they should last a lot longer. And yes, the problem
with switching them on and off a lot makes them a bad replacement for
incandescents in a lot of applications.

>Given the much higher cost, I'm not sure I actually save anything.
>For real savings I find a standard fluoro tube is easily the best.
>
>TonyP.
>

-----
http://mindspring.com/~benbradley

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In article <416a39ca$0$10347$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.au> TonyP@optus.net.com.au writes:

> As for leaving them on all the time, I still think a full length tube is the
> best choice for such applications. You won't find too many office buildings
> fitted with CF's.

What's a "CF?" Do you mean those fluorescent lamps that screw into a
normal lamp socket?

I'm trying one now, the one in a swing-arm lamp over my desk, that's
on most of the day. I figured that I'd save money overall by leaving
the 30 watt (100 watt equivalent) lamp on all day over turning an
incandescent on and off when I enter and leave the room, which would
cut the "on" time about in half. I meed to replace the incandescent
lamp (using cheap bulbs) about twice a year.

If I can get about five years (the 'advertised' life) out of the
fluorescent, there will probably be a net saving in the operating
cost, but if I have to replace it in a couple of years, I'll be
behind by about the cost of a lunch.

The single 40W fluorescent over the sink in my kitchen is another
story. I turn it on when I stumble to the switch in the dark to find
the coffee pot in the morning and it remains on until I go to bed.
After a couple of years, I have to flick the switch several times
before the lamp will start (yes, I've checked, and even replaced the
switch) but once started, it stays on and, while it's hard to tell,
the brightness seems normal.

I've tried replacing the tube of course, and while a new tube is a
little better, after a couple of months, it too goes into the "gotta
flick the switch" mode. Cramolin on the socket pins doesn't help
either. I suspect that the ballast is failing (no starter in this
fixture) and it's necessary to switch it on near the peak of the AC
cycle in order to get the lamp started. The ballast, of course, is
undocumented and likely to be unreplaceable (and if I could find a
replacment, it would probably cost more than a fixture).

I replaced the fixture once (damaged socket) and I don't want to do
that again. I don't bend that way any more.

Lights - can't live with 'em, can't live without them (no, I wouldn't
rather be blind).


--
I'm really Mike Rivers (mrivers@d-and-d.com)
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me here: double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo