Thank you... very helpful! I hope it is okay to ask some minor questions
below...
"Todd H." wrote in message
...
"CurtK" writes:
I am really new to audio and am just trying to obtain a very high level
understanding of what audio specs mean. I have been trying the web and
using Google Web and Group search. At this point I just feel
overwhelmed.
I am trying educate myself to buy two things. The first is headphones
for
my iPod. Could someone explain the various specs (sensitivity,
impedance,
response accuracy, noise reduction, etc.) at a very high level?
Sensitivity is a measure of how much sound out you get for a given
electrical input level. To wit, if you have a wimpy mp3 player that
doesn't put out a hot headphone signal (like my Creative Nomad
Jukebox), you'll want headphones with more sensitivity rather than
less. If however, your iPod gives you plenty of oomph regardless of
what headphones you use, you don't care much about sensitivity. In
most cases the loudest settings are unhealthy anyway.
Is there any correlation of sensitvity to quality (higher the number/better
the quality and sound)?
Impedance: basically you don't care. It's just an electrical measure
of how much load the headphones lace on the headphone amplifier.
Lowwer numbers mean a heavier load, but they also pull more power out
of a given device, which may be helpful if you're looking to
compensate for a device that's got a wimpy headphone amp in it.
So your battery will last longer if you get one with higher impedance? Will
this number being higher or lower change the quality or richness of the
audio you will experience?
REsponse accuracy as its name implies is the frequency response of the
system. Ideally you'd like a perfectly ruler flat response that
indicates the headphones neither add or subtract any given frequency
range across the range of human hearing (most often considered to be
20-20kHz though, hte older ya get the quicker that high end falls
off).
Perfect explanation... thanks.
Noise reduction is as it implies. For noise reducing headphones, they
attempt to cancel ambient/background noise. The higher the dB number
they claim to reduce the noise, the better. There are expensive
"active" noise canelling models, and also ones that seal into your ear
that provide very reliable, effective nad inexpensive noise
cancellation. If you want some quiet on a plane ride, while mowing
the lawn, noise cancelling phones are a good thing. Otherwise, you
have to crank your regular phones up to get over the noise, and that's
not a good thing. :-)
What are your thoughts on tradeoffs (sound, quality, richness, etc)? Which
type of headphones would you go with for an MP3 player (iPod and iRiver 799)
and why?
The other thing I need to do is replace my home audio system. The
speakers are still good, but I need a new receiver. Could someone
explain ohms rating on the speaker and what you need to be aware of
when buying a receiver (this is a home theater system).
All you need to know there is to verify that your receiver is rated to
drive the impedance of your speakers. Remembe,r lower ohm numbers
mean a heavier load to your receiver, so don't go below a given
receiver's rated minimum load impedance. For instance, if a receiver
claims "800W/ch RMS at 4ohms" then you'll be fine with it if your
speakers are 4ohms, 6 ohms, 8ohms, etc. If the receiver says
"minimum load impedance 8ohms" don't use 6ohm or 4ohm speakers with
it, as it is likely to overheat the power amplifier which, if you're
lucky just leads to thermal shutdown, if you're unlucky it burns up
your outputs or severely shortens the life of your receiver.
One more curve ball... my main speakers 100W/6ohms, center 30W/8ohms and
rear are 40W/16ohms... does this mean anything with a minimum load impedance
not higher than 6ohms is fine? Any recomendations of brands that would be
good to go with?
Thanks again for all the help!
Best Regards,
--
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