Headphones
- Thread starter shuggee
- Start date
johnson430
Well-known member
Shuggee,
So many questions: In or over the ear? Noise cancelling? Price range?
I would love to help and I am sure Booli will reply with some great suggestions but we need a bit more info to help you the best we can.
So many questions: In or over the ear? Noise cancelling? Price range?
I would love to help and I am sure Booli will reply with some great suggestions but we need a bit more info to help you the best we can.
I think I would prefer over the ear as I feel they would be more comfortable. I am new to this so I don't know anything about it really. What is noise cancelling? I don't want to spend a fortune, the ukulele only costs £130. Is that enough information?
johnson430
Well-known member
Yes, now we just wait for Booli to see this.
I will PM him with a link to this. He will give you some great advice on the matter.
Jim Hanks
Well-known member
Even a solid body is not truly "silent" so you may not need anything. But for this purpose my first thought is "anything" will do. As long as the chord is long enough and the fit is comfortable in or on your ears, it should be fine. Does the Stagg have a headphone jack or do you need something else to plug into like an AmpPlug?
jollyboy
Well-known member
So it looks as though your new uke has a dedicated 3.5mm headphone socket, distinct from the actual preamp output socket. I wonder what the output voltage is - I would guess probably low - in which case I would recommend looking at buying some low impendance Sennheisers. If you don't want to spend too much they have some great entry-level options.
Alternatively you could buy a plug-in headphone amp. Obviously this adds expense but you might get better sound.
Alternatively you could buy a plug-in headphone amp. Obviously this adds expense but you might get better sound.
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If you are looking for over-the-ear STUDIO headphones (neutral tone, no coloring/pronouncing of certain frequency ranges), I found the ATH-M50 model from Audio-Technica to be among the best in the lower price second. Very comfortable to wear, flat sound (which is desirable, you don't want hifi headphones). Bought mine a few years ago and still use them. There are lots of good choices in the upper price regions (€/$300 and far up), but in the "affordable" range the ATH-M50 are a great pick. I had spent weeks researching and trying out headphones for mixing and mastering (hobbyist level). I normally use studio monitors (neutral speakers), but sometimes the time of the night just calls for headphones. 
Other folks have already given some great ideas here for the OP in this thread...but...I was called on to add mine...
Johnson put up the Bat-Signal...so...here I am reporting for duty....
The problem with such battery powered and build-in headphone amps is that they will not be able to drive a high impedance load in headphones (which will give better sound) and as such even most headphones under $100 USD are going to be 32ohms or 24ohms. What this means is that the preamp in that uke will not have much volume into such headphones...
the maths are far beyond the scope of this conversation, but you will likely be better off with using the earbuds that came with you iDevice or Android phone, otherwise, the 2 pairs of ON THE EAR type headphones, that I might recommend that are 24ohms and 32ohms respectively yet will work better for this application because they both have highly sensitive drivers...
Sony MDR-ZX100 ~$15 on Amazon
Koss Porta Pro ~$49 on Amazon
Please, just ignore the Amazon reviews, which for me are all by folks that are mostly ignorant of pro audio.
These reviews all seem to be written by folks easily impressed with over-emphasized bass as in the Dr. Dre 'beats' headphones, and these 'beats' cans would be a total WASTE since a low-G or even baritone ukulele does not produce any sound below 80 hz anyway.
I tried those 'beats' cans for normal music and thought they were AWFUL and it was like having a subwoofer attached to my head and fatigued my eardrums in only a few mins - if you care about audio FIDELITY, you want a FLAT frequency response, and NOT EMPHASIS on certain frequencies...I would NEVER use nor recommend the 'beats' cans for critical listening or studio monitoring. Keep in mind that I've been at this more than 35 yrs.
ALSO, if you dont mind circumaural, or AROUND THE EAR type with bigger speaker drivers, but at 50ohms impedance the AKG K240 cans will likely be VERY LOW VOLUME even with the STAGG preamp cranked all the way up due to the higher impedance of this set. Most folks using the AKG K240s are driving them with a USB DAC dedicated headphone amp that is much more powerful than you can get with a 9v or 3v battery (usually the USB 5v DC is rectified to 36v or more)...
However, the AKG K240s are great and like forever on sale at Sweetwater.com for $69 (not $29 which was a mistake on my part), but I only use the K240 when tracking in my home studio, otherwise for casual listening, I use the Sony mentioned above, mainly because they are lighter and smaller. I have a pair of the Koss Porta Pro cans also, and those are my 'backup' pair...
Keep in mind that the above is only my OPINION based upon lots of experience, and other folks are going to have a different opinion, and nobody has to be wrong for everyone to have a valid suggestion. What I've suggested here is what works for me...
Hope his helps!
Johnson put up the Bat-Signal...so...here I am reporting for duty....
The problem with such battery powered and build-in headphone amps is that they will not be able to drive a high impedance load in headphones (which will give better sound) and as such even most headphones under $100 USD are going to be 32ohms or 24ohms. What this means is that the preamp in that uke will not have much volume into such headphones...
the maths are far beyond the scope of this conversation, but you will likely be better off with using the earbuds that came with you iDevice or Android phone, otherwise, the 2 pairs of ON THE EAR type headphones, that I might recommend that are 24ohms and 32ohms respectively yet will work better for this application because they both have highly sensitive drivers...
Sony MDR-ZX100 ~$15 on Amazon
Koss Porta Pro ~$49 on Amazon
Please, just ignore the Amazon reviews, which for me are all by folks that are mostly ignorant of pro audio.
These reviews all seem to be written by folks easily impressed with over-emphasized bass as in the Dr. Dre 'beats' headphones, and these 'beats' cans would be a total WASTE since a low-G or even baritone ukulele does not produce any sound below 80 hz anyway.
I tried those 'beats' cans for normal music and thought they were AWFUL and it was like having a subwoofer attached to my head and fatigued my eardrums in only a few mins - if you care about audio FIDELITY, you want a FLAT frequency response, and NOT EMPHASIS on certain frequencies...I would NEVER use nor recommend the 'beats' cans for critical listening or studio monitoring. Keep in mind that I've been at this more than 35 yrs.
ALSO, if you dont mind circumaural, or AROUND THE EAR type with bigger speaker drivers, but at 50ohms impedance the AKG K240 cans will likely be VERY LOW VOLUME even with the STAGG preamp cranked all the way up due to the higher impedance of this set. Most folks using the AKG K240s are driving them with a USB DAC dedicated headphone amp that is much more powerful than you can get with a 9v or 3v battery (usually the USB 5v DC is rectified to 36v or more)...
However, the AKG K240s are great and like forever on sale at Sweetwater.com for $69 (not $29 which was a mistake on my part), but I only use the K240 when tracking in my home studio, otherwise for casual listening, I use the Sony mentioned above, mainly because they are lighter and smaller. I have a pair of the Koss Porta Pro cans also, and those are my 'backup' pair...
Keep in mind that the above is only my OPINION based upon lots of experience, and other folks are going to have a different opinion, and nobody has to be wrong for everyone to have a valid suggestion. What I've suggested here is what works for me...
Hope his helps!
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Jim Hanks
Well-known member
Have to slightly correct you on the K240s. They are one of the best bang-for-the-buck phones at $69 for mixing and casual listening. But I agree not the best choice for the OP's purpose.
johnson430
Well-known member
I think you missed something, Jim. He does speak well of the AKG K240's.
Aye, and thanks for catching the price error, which I have now corrected in the above post.
jollyboy
Well-known member
You just need to bear in mind that you are plugging the phones straight into a battery-powered low output device, something with a similar output to an ipod/smartphone/tablet. So the key is to look for low impedance headphones, ie ones that don't require a lot of power to drive properly and will thus give you decent amounts of volume. High impedance 'phones will not only sound quiet but also probably muted/muffled as there will not be enough power through them to allow them to properly 'open up'. If you stay lower than 50 ohms you should be fine
You gave the price of the uke in sterling so, assuming you're in the uk (and that you don't want to spend a lot on the headphones) I would recommend you look at the Sennheiser HD201s. They are light, comfortable over ear 'phones designed for use with low output portable devices. And the sound quality is greatly superior to equivalently priced models from high-street brands like Sony and Philips.
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