DR150 sound leaking

n1kunj

n1kunj

n1kunj

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Joined
9 Aug 2005
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Location
Surrey
Well they arrived, and they are excellent headphones. Unfortunately everybody else around me can agree with me as the sound leakage is ridiculous. I might as well have bought some nice speakers and taped them to my face considering the sound leakage they have. It's not just tinny sound either, I can clearly hear everything that's happening in my headphones from several metres away even at low volumes.

SO is this normal, or have I got a pair where they massively skimped on materials? Either way I'm not happy at all :mad:

I understand that open headphones will leak some sound but this is just ridiculous...
 
TheRedZealot said:
My DR100's leak quite a bit of sound aswell.
Click to expand...

Is it as bad as what I've got though? If you put it at a comfortable volume in a quiet room how clear is the sound if you move away by 5m? I can still hear mine clearly, that just cannot be right. For the person not using the headphones it's like they were listening to mobile phone speakers on full blast, meaning I can't use them around any other people - which is unfortunately always for me.
 
I can hear my 595's with ease from downstairs, they wouldn't sound as good if they were closed cans.

With my headphone amp plugged in my Senns sound like proper speakers!
 
Looks like I'll have to return these and get some closed ones instead then :( A shame, as I love the sound coming out of them, unfortunately nobody else does :p

Can anybody recommend any good closed cans for <£30 then? - the sound on the 150s was damn impressive but I don't think it was worth £60...
 
You should hear my Grados, mine can be heard by people on the beaches of Normandy.

Open sound better to me, but closed cans can have their plus points.

This is the headphone hobby you have got into, IEMs for a commute, cheap IEMs for battering around, ear clip on koss for amazing value, closed cans for quiet nights, open cans x2 for awesomness, then some HE-90s if you are related to a rich oil tycoon in dubai ;)
 
Yea probably talking £100 + audio technica or Beyerdynamic, don't quite understand why you "have" to listen to your headphones in the same room as other people though ? may i be so bold to add that the "other people" are the real problem here ? send the people away and keep the headphones.
 
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My PC is in the study as there's no space for it anywhere else because my monitor is too big - there's also another computer on the other side of the room, which is the issue. I don't want to have to change headphones every time somebody goes on the other computer as it's just a pain and there's no possible way either computer could be moved. Hence why I need headphones without leakage.

Like I said, the thing on a comfortable volume for me is like listening to a mobile phone speaker on full blast to somebody else.

Fortunately I've only used the DR150s enough to know they have obscene leakage, and not got used to them or anything so I can happily go back to my old cheapo canalphones without being too underwhelmed.
 
I'll compare them to the HD650's when they arrive tomorrow.

Other half wanted a set of headphones and I took advantage of 10% off, free delivery and this week only. Under £53.

That'll do. I suspect they won't be any better or worse than the HD 650's
 
I was refering to the sound leakage. I fully expect them to sound worse than the HD 650's do. *I still miss my HD 580's though. :(* I will give them a good workout though before handing them over. ;)
 
I had a quick look at a thread on Head-fi earlier. They were discussing sound leakage from various headphones. Apparrently the DR150s were recommended as being not that bad, as far as open backed headphones go!
 
Uriel said:
I had a quick look at a thread on Head-fi earlier. They were discussing sound leakage from various headphones. Apparrently the DR150s were recommended as being not that bad, as far as open backed headphones go!
Click to expand...

!

I'd hate to see how bad other open headphones are leakage-wise if I they think the DR150s are good!
 
Well, just tried a little test. These are new out of the box 150's
They're fine. How loud were you listening to them?

They are leaking sound slightly less tham my HD650's - but there isn't much in it.

At my normal listening volume with the normal background noise in the flat I can not hear them.. errr - hang on a mo....

About 3 meters away. At less than this, they are quieter than a normal conversation.

If I turn off the air con and the fan - it goes to about 5 meters.
 
I actually love how my 595's leak, it means I can just have them on the table when watching an online video review or whatever where I don't need them on my head, works well. :p
 
Flibster said:
They're fine. How loud were you listening to them?
Click to expand...

Just at a comfortable volume - quite a bit under the loudest you can put them without hurting your ears (kinda hard to convey the volume as I don't have a sound meter and everybody's ears are different)

It might be the music I listen to (metal) but even when I'm on teamspeak I can hear everybody's voices quite clearly with them off my head from about 10 metres away, in a quiet room with the only background noise being my PC fans.

Oh well, they're packed up and ready to be sent off come monday :( Farewell, DR150s, you were the best sounding headphones I've ever heard!
 
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