Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Open Back Headphones: Explained!”.
Hey what is up guys mkbhd here and the idea for this video came from a bunch of test footage i shot. So it’s a little bit short, but i really like the footage, so i wanted to upload it anyway, or at least include it in a video. So this is everything you need to know about: open-backed headphones. There are only really two types of headphones and, if you’re in the market to make a decision, it’s a pretty good idea to understand the basic differences between the two. So there’s closed back headphones and open back headphones, so most headphones you’ll see are closed back and that’s because most of us listen to headphones to just hear our music and not anything else. So, whether we’re on a commute or we’re working out or whatever we’re doing listening music, we just want to hear the audio and not our environment, so closed back headphones. Do this by creating a seal around your ear to isolate the noise and separate the inside from the outside? A couple of months ago, i did a video on my top five favorite headphones under 200 bucks.
Those were all closed back headphones and i still stand by that list by the way. That’S still like some of my favorite headphones for the price, so you’ve probably heard by now of one of the headphones on that list, which was the audio technica ath m50s m stands for monitor and they are closed back headphones. So they will isolate your inside audio from your outside environment, but in a studio or in some other quiet, solo, listening environment. You don’t need that isolation between yourself and the outside noise, because there is no outside noise.
So that’s when you might explore open back headphones. So open back as the name implies means the back of the headphones, are literally open, there’s no barrier between the drivers and the outside world, so sometimes in some pairs you can actually see straight through from the inside to the outside of the headphones. If you shine enough light through it, this of course has its main pros and cons. The main pro is normally in the way it sounds. You’Ll typically have a much more natural sound where it sounds like the music is coming from the room around you.
Instead of being played into your head, this is what’s called a wider sound stage where essentially, the stronger. This effect is the more it’ll sound like the sound is coming from further away from you, the more separation there is, so it might sound like the guitar is back there and the drums are over here and the bass is over there and the vocals are up There it can be really immersive and that’s pretty cool and another thing that can be considered either a pro or a con is that real world sound gets mixed in with your audio. Since it’s open back, you get room noise as opposed to just a totally silent, isolated noise from closed back, so you’ll feel, like you, can snap, along with the music and hear yourself snapping, you can have a conversation with the person next to you, as if they’re Sitting in the room – and they can’t hear your music, but you can still hear them if they talk to you, it’s pretty interesting again. That could be a pro or a con, but the real downside of open back is definitely sound leak because there’s no barrier between the inside and the outside, the vibration of the diaphragm pushes audio both inward and outwards. So if someone’s sitting next to you, it’ll sound, like you’re wearing many speakers on your head or something they’ll, be able to hear everything you’re listening to in a studio or alone.
This might not be such a big deal. But if you’re trying to listen to music in a public place like in a gym or on a bus or really anywhere, that’s gon na be a little weird that everyone can hear exactly what song you’re listening to. These are the audio technica ath r70x. The r stands for reference, and you can see it says on the box: they’re professional, open back headphones.
Of course, there are other features that make them more professional grade headphones like the design and the material choice, and they have removable cables. But really it’s the open back design that makes the real difference in sound versus the m series. These are the sennheiser hd800s and they sound incredible and they are legitimately professional headphones and they are also open back and a lot of the highest end. Reference headphones, you’ll find the ones designed for studio use are open back for these reasons, you’re listening to it in the studio by yourself in a quiet, listening environment. But no you don’t have to go super high budget to get some nice open bag headphones. There’S a company called grotto.
Actually i’ve talked about them before no one’s paying me to say this, but they make some pretty awesome. Lower priced open back headphones, so they make open back and closed back, but i’ll leave a link to grotto’s stuff below their sr-80is were one of my favorites a couple years ago. There is also something called semi-open back headphones, but you really won’t see too much of those. So now you guys basically know all the differences between open back and closed back and all of their pros and cons. So there you have it thanks for watching hope. You enjoyed something or learned something and i’ll talk to you guys.
The next one peace .