What would happen if I covered the grills of an open back headphone?

Submitted by gingerisdeadinside t3_1162bnv in headphones

So, everyone knows that open backs generally creates a wider soundstage than closed backs, with the main caveat being sound leak. What would happen if I 3D printed some snap on grill covers for my pair of Senheiser HD560s?! My Train of thought is: if I wanted to travel on a bus or train with the HDs, it would stop the sound leak from bothering the other people around me. Since the impedance is quite high @ 125 Ohms, it's really efficient and takes low power to drive from my lightning to Dragonfly headphone DAC. I'd think even with the lack of airflow, it wouldn't overheat the drivers. Since this is an extremely flat and analytical headphone for the price, the lack of airflow wouldn't effect the bass that much? I'm probably gonna get ripped to shreds by more experienced audiophiles for even asking this, but am genuinely curious... (I'd place rubber seals around the plastic plate to create a nearly airtight seal)

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rimrink t1_j94p6b6 wrote

If you haven't tried covering the grills with your hands yet, you should try it, to discover how bad it will sound.

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roladyzator t1_j94t4qt wrote

Off-topic, but try listening like that for a minute or two and then remove your hands. Now for a brief moment the music will sound a little off. Yet there are people who refuse to belive in brain adaptation as explanation for burn-in.

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No_Analysis6187 t1_j94tzoa wrote

Impossible! You mean I wasted hundreds of hours playing pink noise with headphones I don't actually like?

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Grieflax t1_j97mpkk wrote

I just want to thank people like you in this community for dissuading me of the notion that burn in is a thing that exists.

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roladyzator t1_j97vi57 wrote

You're welcome:-)

The reason such tiny our even immeasurable differences can work for us is psychological. Because the sound entering our ears is extremely complex, what our brain can do to reduce it to individual instruments, melody, sense of rhythm and even sense of sound quality is astonishing. We can't remember so much detail. When we expect a difference, we trick our minds to analyze the sound again and we can make new notions about the sound. Sound doesn't change (or changes very little), but we do.

Try to visualize how the palm of your hands looks like, for example. Then look at it and compare to what you imagined. The difference in the level of detail between our memory and the real- time emotive experience is crazy. If someone told you're developing some mild skin condition, how easy would it be for you to find something in that picture that is different to what you remember?

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amano32 t1_j98p1vi wrote

You can mitigate brain adaptation by using EQ. If you’re used to EQ, you will never adapt to a headphone, which in long term actually develop your taste to a specific tuning.

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ratmfreak t1_j98w24i wrote

Grados in particular, it is shocking how much it completely changes the sound.

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S0_B00sted t1_j94s9s2 wrote

It would sound bad. Closed headphones have material in the cups to dampen the sound bouncing around inside the cup. The 560S are meant for home listening, they're not made for outdoor use or travelling. If you want to listen on the go, get some portable closed-back headphones or IEMs. ANC would be a nice feature for that use case as well.

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[deleted] t1_j954w8v wrote

[deleted]

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BehaveWithClass t1_j95hq6u wrote

How would that increase volume?

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[deleted] t1_j96361q wrote

[deleted]

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SoNic67 t1_j96p1ok wrote

That's false explanation.

The reality is that the material fibers vibrate and absorb energy from the internal soundwaves, dampening them.

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TagalogON t1_j94rmf9 wrote

Sound shouldn't leak that much with open back headphones, you're probably listening too loudly, especially when outside as you're trying to compensate with the external noises with your music.

Try not to raise your volume before you leave your home as yes it's damaging your ears when you make it compete with outside noises.

I have the Sennheiser HD 560S too and I can power that (one-sided only, lol) with the FiiO UTWS3/5 TWS adapters just fine and it's yes easy to get high volume, so yup don't try to increase it so much when outside.

But yes the HD 560S can leak quite a bit with certain albums/songs/etc. even if the other ones in your playlist don't leak at all. It's just varied like that and so you have to know which ones are more likely to leak, like usually you'll know as the volume is louder (even if you didn't change the volume on the app/phone/anywhere) but sometimes those songs are after you're already listening for a long time and our ears get easily used to loud noises and so it's easy to forget.

So yes just be mindful if you don't want to bother the other people commuting on the train/bus. Though I must emphasize again to try not to raise the volume once you leave your home as even though you likely won't be able to hear anything against the bus engines, people's conversations, et cetera, it's the safe way for your years.

Try IEMs or TWS earbuds instead for the better passive noise reduction. Closed back headphones, especially those with ANC/Bluetooth will also work well with commute.

There's Bluetooth amp/DAC dongles like the Qudelix 5K btw, but make sure to search up on how to use them with Apple/Lightning devices as people need special OTG (allows data transfer) cables and so on. Or adapters/converters like the Apple camera kit or something like that, so that the dongles work properly with the Lightning device.

Those Bluetooth amp/DAC dongles usually have parametric/etc. EQ these days and so you can easily change the sound there. As yup, covering the grills of open back headphones are not gonna really change the sound to what you think. Like usually it doesn't do much even with the noise reduction/isolation.

Try using aftermarket earpads like Dekoni, Brainwavz, etc. instead. Look for the leather/etc. earpads, or other materials known for noise reduction as velour is usually there for the comfort/sound.

Actually parametric EQ will have easily noticeable changes too.

Don't forget to check the subreddit, /r/oratory1990, for preset parametric EQ list (mainly for headphones but there's some IEMs there): https://www.reddit.com/r/oratory1990/wiki/index/list_of_presets

See here for more info about parametric EQ, squig.link comparison graphs, AutoEQ, et cetera: https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/109meb5/eq/j40cy1n/

Open back headphones noise reduction (scroll to the bottom half part of the comment), earwax clogging issue, parametric EQ, noise reduction for your PC/room, et cetera: https://www.reddit.com/r/HeadphoneAdvice/comments/115c99b/coming_from_iems_and_looking_for_headphones_150_eu/j92mpe9/

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kikirevi t1_j95uqv3 wrote

I tried this with the hifiman Arya. I moved my hands slowly towards the grills while wearing them until they covered them completely. Soundstage took a HUGE HIT. The songs no longer sounded open or airy. Very claustrophobic.

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AyeYoYoYO t1_j975yhq wrote

Total Protonic reversal :

  • every molecule in your body would explode at the speed of light.
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trbd003 t1_j95il0d wrote

The way that air can freely move around the back of the driver actively contributes to the sound of the headphone. Remember that any speaker moves backwards and forwards - hence sound comes off both sides of it. So a closed back headphone design has to consider how the sound coming off the back of the driver contributes to what the listener hears. Its much less of a concern for open backs.

As somebody else said - experiment by placing your hands over the back of your open back headphones and hear the sound change. Also move them away slowly and hear the sound change gradually back to normal.

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SoNic67 t1_j96orv1 wrote

You will need to fill those with some sound absorbing material. And it would still create resonances, like any other closed back headphone.

Some people don't mind them...

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pkelly500 t1_j98xxhc wrote

It would sound like shit. Driver and baffling designs for open- and closed-back headphones are different. So is the tuning.

They're not interchangeable.

As one wise poster in here said, put your hands over the cups of your open-back headphones. Sounds like shit, right? That's what it would sound like if you covered the grills.

P.S.: Your calculus of impedance is way off. High impedance makes a can tougher to drive, not easier. But sensitivity also plays just as important a role. The lower the impedance, the easier to drive. The higher the sensitivity, the easier to drive. Check both stats before determining if your source can drive a headphone without an amp.

I owned the 560s. They sounded like shit and lacked volume from a phone. They really need an amp -- even a portable one -- to sing.

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gingerisdeadinside OP t1_j9gd45m wrote

Final Update: I finally got my set of 560s in the mail after the longest 4 day wait of my life😔✊. For now, I’m only driving it from my IPhone and DAC… I’m very aware this isn’t ideal, even though the 560s are super easy to drive. (I plan on getting a Schiit Valhalla soon).

I was finally able to cover the grills, like I planned to do even before I wrote this post. So, I could finally answer my own implied rhetorical question… Is there an audible difference? Absolutely! There’s no question about it. Does it “sound like shit”, NOPE… and a select few of you are being beyond beyond hyperbolic.

There’s still so many audiophiles that need to realize: the VAST MAJORITY of the population are only used to AirPods and Skullcandy earbuds…

Even compared to the m40x studio monitors that I have, it sounds significantly better, even with the grills covered. Will I apologize for pissing off all the passive aggressive headphone purists?! NEVER!!! I DONT CARE HOW MUCH DAMN KARMA I LOSE!!!!

At the end of the day there’s really only two types of audiophiles: The type who strive for the most analytical sound possible, and the ones who want to enjoy their music… there’s not much leeway.

Downvote me all you want, but here’s the honest truth…
It’s no wonder so many are turned off from Hifi in the first place. The Average Joe still thinks Hifi is snake-oil paired with smoke and mirrors. High fidelity communities have to be one of the most toxic places on the internet, TRULY!!!

There is and ALWAYS will be so much prejudice attached to Hifi for this exact reason. Especially If you few keep Re-enforcing this BS precedent. It’s almost as if some of you don’t want others to experience what magic a good set of cans can make you feel. ✌️

(To the people who said there’s no-one angry, I wonder why there’s deleted comments 😚🤔)

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csch1992 t1_j95lsim wrote

it will loose every single soundstage they have etc

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gingerisdeadinside OP t1_j96dgbb wrote

HAHAHHAA I know I’d anger some Hifi purists 😂😂

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AngusPicanha t1_j96ly5x wrote

Are you a child? People were just calmly explaining how the sound would be negatively affected. Literally the wrong headphone for the job, bringing out the HD 560s as a public commuting headphone. Get some closed-back noise cancelling ones dude.

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hatlad43 t1_j97zhbj wrote

I don't see anyone is angry in this comment section. Just people advising you not to because it'd ruined the tuning completely, or at least try it yourself the easiest way with your.. idk, hands?

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