for the audiophiles.

A quick question, I just bought new headphones, Philips HP890's which have the following specs:

frequency range: 5 - 30.000hz
sensitivity: 106dB
impedance: 32 Ohm
maximum input power: 1500mW
weight: 330 grams (without cable)
cable: 4.0m (13.0ft) LC-OFC

what does the above actually mean?

 

Not all that much.

Sensitivity is how loud they play with a given amount of power, impedance is the resistive load presented to the amplifier, and the rest are self-explanatory, except for frequency range.

Frequency "range" is meaningless. It tells you the lowest and highest frequencies that the drivers can reproduce, but it doesn't tell you how well, since it doesn't reference at what LEVEL they can reproduce those frequencies. Generally, the highest and lowest frequencies listed will be "reproduced" at such a low level that you can't hear them anyway, not that you can hear anything above 20K anyway.

The only frequency statistic that has any meaning is frequency response from A to B Herts (cycles per second) within plus or minus X decibels, which would define the response that's actually usable. And even that doesn't really tell you how good they'll sound. If they sound good, enjoy them and don't worry about the numbers.

 

Frequency Range means the range of audible frequencies that can be re-produced. Human ears can really only detect between 200 and 20Khz.

Sensitivity is the "sound pressure". 106 dB is high. Meaning if you play them too loud for extended periods, you'll damage your hearing.

Impedance is really just for matching the headphones with a suitable device. Most of todays equipment is compatible so it really isn't an issue. (A good example is trying to use home speakers in your car. Home speakers are a different impedance than car speakers).

Weight...how heavy they are

Cable, mini or 1/4". Mini is sometimes referred to as 1/8", but really isn't.


Sounds like a decent set of headphones.



Steve

 

Whooops. Didn't see GT's response untill after I finished typing.


Oh well.



Steve

 

yeah they are, they're DJ phones, so you don't hear anything when you put them on cause your ears are cold, quite handy if I may say so

I've got a freq. range. table thingy on the box as well as another table thingy on the box too.

will see if I can get a decent picture of them tomorrow (2:44am here) and put it on the web so you could explain that too, if it's not too much trouble

a friend of mine said that impedance had something to do with the distortion, what's true of that?

thanks all

(oooh, lengthy reply from my end )

 

Friend is wrong. Impedance has nothing to do with distortion. Any amplifier, even a headphone amp, requires a resistive load on it's output, as feeding a signal into a dead short (no resistance) will burn it out. Impedance is the resistance that the phones (or speaker, whatever) has to the signal. But speakers and headphones are reactive loads, the resistance varies with frequency, so it's more than a simple resistance. Impedance is basically an estimate of the overall resistance to an audio signal. Don't worry about it. Doesn't mean anything except to the amplifier.

And human hearing range is from 20 Hz (hertz, or cycles/second) to a max of 20 Khz (kilohertz), although we lose some of the high end as we get older.