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I specifically purchase noise cancelling headphones / earbuds now since it makes it easy to listen at MUCH quieter levels. I have done some tests with the noise cancelling disabled and setting the volume and with it on… It really makes a huge difference as I am not cranking it up to drowned out noise on transit or walking down the street.
Came here say this. Absolutely agree. Being able to reduce background noise is huge.
As a side point - having a car that’s quiet has really allowed me to enjoy music at a much more reasonable level when driving as well.
I bought some Sony XM4s because I’d heard this theory before but I found noise cancelling barely makes a difference.
Which Sony XM4s are you talking about? Sony is terrible at naming their products, the WH-1000XM4 are noise cancelling overear headphones, while the WF-1000XM4 are in ear ones. If you’re talking about the earbuds, try different tips.
Yeah I have the WH-1000XM3s and the noise cancelling made a substantial difference to my listening volume (like 30-40% quieter on average).
The overear headphones. The ANC just made no difference.
Odd I have tested them in stores before and they are typically well rated.
However I was using Bose QC II for a few years and now I use the apple air pod pros.
For in ear seal is really important for nose canceling and apple also provides a test mode / app on apple devices to test that sound isn’t leaking substantially.
Makes no difference in a quiet environment but will easily cancel out a loud air conditioner or most traffic noise from passing cars.
Strange. Have you tried to RMA it?
No I just sold them. They weren’t worth the price.
11, obviously!
It’s 1
better than 10louder, innit?Why don’t you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?
But this one goes up to 11
Actually it’s a logarithmic scale.
WHAT? SORRY I CANT HEAR ANYMORE
I try to target under 70db to protect my ears. Some earbuds and DAC’s can show you a db estimate
How can they estimate it with a standalone DAC? I can understand that it can be calibrated when using a wireless headphone/earbuds (although it probably would be different depending on what the shape of the ear is, and what tips/pads you’re using), but for a standalone DAC it sounds really strange since different headphones have different efficiency and it would be impossible for the amp to know what it would be, right? I have very efficient IEMs that get very loud even on very low volume when plugged to an ordinary USB-C DAC (one click above zero is a bit too quiet, another click is too loud), but on some larger overear headphones I have, even the max volume on the same DAC will be pretty underwhelming.
Even if the amp can detect the impedance of the headphones, it won’t know the energy conversion efficiency… right?
I’m guessing the dB is not absolute volume, but relative dB (to measure amplification), so if you plug the same headphones into different amps, and give them the same source and the same dB setting, you probably will have different listening volume at the end.
I’m just a layman, so I might be missing something crucial.
As someone else said, I’m referring to the Qudelix where you can input the Impedance and Sensitivity manually
I believe you’re correct. DACs obviously can’t determine volume at all, but amps can try to use the impedance to create an estimate.
This probably isn’t accurate though. If you really want a good estimate, you would have to calculate it with current voltage output and the specs of the headphones/IEMs in question.
I’m just a hobbyist too, but my headphones are extremely inefficient so I’ve spent some time looking into this. Too bad we don’t have oratory here
I guess it might be possible to calibrate an amp for true volume if you calculate it, assuming such a feature exists (I never actually owned a dedicated amp, much less a fancy one, so I have no clue if such a feature exists), also I assume that overtime headphone efficiency will reduce as the permanent magnet gets weaker if exposed to high heat (no idea if forgetting the headphones in a car in summer would be hot enough to make a meaningful difference though) or dropped repeatedly (though I’d wager the headphones will stop working before the magnet itself in such case).
Some amps do indicate how much power they’re outputting. The little portable dac/amp Qudelix 5k is $100 and does this. I think it also has fields for impedance and sensitivity, wherein it calculates SPL (dB), but I don’t actually have one so I’m not confident.
That’s pretty cool.
Sound engineer here. Please protect your ears people, there’s no way to reverse hearing damage.
depends.
In the middle of angry-programming? The linkin park will be turned up to 80%. I want to make sure Chester’s screams wakes the dead.
Business as usual? around 20%. Enough to drown out external noises.
I use the headphone safety feature of my phone to limit it to 80dB. Anything higher and you’re risking permanent hearing loss.
10-15% on earphones. However, that doesn’t really mean anything. Different sound card and headphone combination will produce different loudness at same levels.
11
As quietly as possible, you don’t notice hearing damage until it’s too late to do anything about it.
I’m just going to take this moment to remind everyone not to destroy their hearing. Back in highschool I used to blast my ears with headphones at maximum volume and go to loud venues without hearing protection. I’ve been permanently listening to EEEEEEEEEEEEE ever since. That was 25 years ago. It never goes away folks. Stay safe!
30-40%, but depending on what I’m listening to, I may temporarily crank it up. I think this question kinda depends on sound hardware, though.
multiples of 5
A 5 is the only exception to it being an even number
20% typically. I prefer to be able to hear my surroundings clearly still
I listen at a low volume. I’m usually doing something else as well, so loud music is too distracting and irritating. I’m old, and I can still hear very well except for spousal deafness.
I love that the font size on this post is twice as big as all the others.
