Conclusion: Senn 600s are A-OK for Office Use headphones

I read lot of people online talking about how bad open back headphones leak sound and aren't appropriate for office use. I use mine constantly in the office and have had never had any complaints about others hearing my music. I work in an open office space, with a person 6 ft away to my right and another person directly on the other side of my desk straight across at their own desk.

So I ran some somewhat scientific tests on my own to see what the actual measurements were.

Setting: my kitchen with only the refrigerator running. (avg: 28 db...quiet library) Equipment: Geek Out V2 DAC, Senn 600

Volume on computer: 30 Volume in the actual heaphone/head space: average 51 db (conversation) Volume directly outside the earcups: 47 db (quiet library) Volume @ 4 ft away: average 28 db (whisper)

So, yes, at 4 foot away you maybe can hear them if it is dead silent in your office. Even at 6 or 7 foot, if it's dead silent.

But you take an average office like mine, with lots of normal office talking/laughing, clicking and clacking on keyboards, printers going off, the background radio playing, telephones ringing, normal telephone conversations, the overhead air conditioning, etc.....you aren't going to hear these at a normal safe volume (which I would consider at 51 db or less). At even less volume, these get even harder to hear.

Unless you're working in a silent lab, in the real world your co-workers aren't going to hear this, especially if they have their own headphones or doing whatever it is they're doing that makes noise at conversation level or above, especially if there are multiple multiple people around you, and they're not directly sitting on your lap or 2 feet away from you.

For fun, I also tested the Senn 558s. About approximately the same results, slightly less by a few db. A noticeable difference but not enough to really matter in real world functionality.

So let's end the myth or worry that people are going to hear your music to an annoying degree using these. It won't happen in most real world conditions.

Now, I can't speak for other open back headphones. I haven't heard them or measured them, but maybe there are a lot out there that just pour sound out of them. These aren't them.

Thoughts welcome.

Submitted June 01, 2016 at 11:12AM by stuck_limo http://ift.tt/1Ww616D headphones