Headphone Jargon

Welcome to my page on headphone jargon.  I'll try and keep these as simple as I can with links for better explanations I've found around the intarwebs.  If you'd rather read some of these things like posts check out these posts.

Amp - A headphone amp is used to boost or modify the sound of headphones, these are often paired with DACs and are usually only necessary for high impedance/low sensitivity headphones

Balanced Armature - A type of driver sometimes used over dynamic drivers see wikipedia or google for how they work.  Balanced armature drivers can sometimes sound weird based on source output impedance, see reference in the impedance section for more details.  An example of headphones that use balanced armature are the Brainwavz B2.

Bass - The lower end of the frequency spectrum, I like putting this as below 200Hz but that varies among people.

Burning in - The act of running headphones for a prolonged amount of time.  Sometimes this is done with simple music while others like to do this with sweeping test tones.  This appears to have an effect on the sound of the headphones but is somewhat debatable.  The idea is that burning in allows headphones to go from factory condition to more normal listening conditions and that by doing so the sound is more representative of what the headphones will end up sounding like.

Circumaural - Referred to as 'over ear' headphones for the purposes of this blog.  These are headphones that go completely around the ears instead of simply resting on them.  Examples are the Audio Technica ATH-M50 and Beyerdynamic DT880.

Closed - Headphones that have a closed back.  The closed back allows for greater noise isolation but the sound stage tends to suffer.  Examples include the Audio Technica ATH-M50, VModa Crossfade LP, and Sol Republic Tracks HD.

DAC - Digital Audio Converter.  These devices convert digital signals to audio signals.  Most often used to get a better 'source' sound which honestly I don't care too much about.

Dynamic Driver - Also known as moving coil tranducers.  This works by having a coil, generally copper, wrapped around a magnet which vibrates and moves a membrane, usually plastic, to represent analog sound.

Earbud - Headphones that rest just in the ear.  These do not go into the ear canal.  Examples include Apple earbuds (not the EarPods, those are kinda half earbud half in ear, I'm talking about the older ones) and the Yuin PK1

Frequency Response - The range of frequencies that a particular pair of headphones can reproduce.  Note, the frequency response shown on product pages is not generally a good estimate of how headphones sound, if possible look for frequency response graphs to better understand the sonic qualities of a pair of heapdhones read this for more in depth explanations on this, impedance, and sensitivity

IEM - In ear monitor.  Referred to as 'in ear' for the purposes of this blog.  These headphones go inside the ear and are thus good at isolating sound.  Also known as canalphones.  Examples include the Klipsch X11i and Brainwavz B2.

Impedance - The electrical resistance that the drivers have.  Generally ranges from 16Ohms to 600 Ohms.  Higher impedance headphones tend to need amping.  Read this for a more in depth explanation of impedance and why it's important to think about.  That entire blog is pretty sweet for the more technically inclined.

Mids - The midrange of the frequency spectrum.  I like thinking of this as the meat of the spectrum.  Scientifically I like putting it from around 200Hz to 2000Hz.  This is where the majority of instrument sounds exist from the lowest note on a violin (around 196 Hz) to the highest note on a flute (2093Hz).  Mids are said to be recessed when the bass or treble dominate and the mids sound hollow.

Noise Cancelling - Noise cancelling headphones make use of a microphone to listen to ambient sound and then feed a negative signal back into the headphones to make outside sounds quieter.  This technique works best with repetitive sounds like airplane engines but does quite a bit worse with higher pitch frequencies that vary like babies...oh baby screaming...  Examples include the Audio Technica ATH ANC7b and Bose QC25.

Noise Isolating - Noise isolating headphones seek to attenuate sound by keeping sound from entering the ears from outside.  In practice, these are closed on or over ear headphones and in ear headphones, earbuds are not quite as noise isolating.  See closed and in ear for examples.

Open - Headphones with an open back that allows noise to flow relatively easily in and out of the headphones.  This allows for more natural sound especially in terms of panning/sound stage.  Headphones can also be semi-open which means they allow some sound in and out.  Examples of open include the Grado SR80i and Beyerdynamic DT990 with the Beyerdynamic DT880 being semi-open.

Panning - The spread of sound between the left and right channels.  Occasionally sound 'pans' or moves from left to right or vice versa.  This means that the center of the sound moves from the left side to the right side.  Related to sound stage.  An example of shifting between left/right channels is in Ellie Goulding's track 'Starry Eyed' from 0:12 to 0:15.

Sensitivity - A measure of how loud headphones are at a given power rating.  A lower sensitivity level (given in SPL or sound pressure level in dB) leads to a quieter pair of headphones.  Low sensitivity and high impedance headphones are very quiet and need amping to get to listenable levels.

Sound stage - The positioning of sounds in the aural field.  Headphones with a good sound stage more accurately represent how things would sound in space instead of simply pointed at your ears directly.  A wide sound stage can be likened to a stadium while a narrow sound stage can sound tinny and claustrophobic and has a large effect on both bass and treble.

Supra aural - Referred to as 'on ear' headphones for the purposes of this blog.  These are headphones that rest on the ears instead of completely going around the ears.  Examples are the Grado SR80i and Sol Republic Tracks HD.

Treble - Also referred to as 'the highs', these are the uppermost part of the frequency spectrum at over 2000Hz.  In this range is the utmost limits of the human voice and things like cymbals.  Trebles are described as bright when they are forward in the sound stage and are over represented which can lead to some very harsh sounds.  When treble is lacking, it can be described as rolled off.  This leads to splashy and nondescript cymbal sounds amongst other things.  I mainly listen to cymbals for this if you haven't noticed.