Headphone related

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On this page you can find links to articles that are related to certain aspects that have a relation with headphones.

• Your budget will automatically exclude a number of headphones. In practice most people will mostly look for models close to their allocated budget. A lot of people decide to even exceed it slightly.
  This is built on the premise that more expensive = ‘better’ but this certainly not the case.
  One can often find gems (or models that fit your needs/wishes) well below the allocated budget but are reluctant believing those devices aren’t as ‘good’ as lower priced models.
• The buying guide on this website is there to inform you what you may be looking for.
  Price and performance do not have a 100% relation.
  Even price and build quality/longevity do not have a 100% relation.
  This is especially true for the cheapest and very expensive models.
  The cheapest models around could very well be errmm less desirable and may be of poor quality.
  Just above that good (enough) models can be found.
  The flagship models are very likely to be over-priced and may perform/sound just slightly better.
  If that slightly better (or slightly different) is what it is worth to you… that’s fine.
  One simply does not have to own a Top-Off-The-Line model if one wants ‘the best’.
  
  
• This is a link to recommended headphones in a few price tiers. They are generally of good quality.
  Most of them have a different tonality and differ in other aspects too. Most will need some EQ but a few of them can also be used without EQ.
  Which ones these are you can read in the reviews the models link to.
  Only a few ones, those I did not review, do not have a link.
• Some basics about around-ear (over-ear), also called circum-aural headphones
• Some basics about on-ear, also called supra-aural headphones
• Some basics about in-ear headphones, also called intra-aural headphones 
• Some basics about driver (speaker) types used in headphones.

• An important aspect of headphones are the ear-pads.
  They aren’t just for comfort even if that is important as they are (always) also an integral part of the ‘tuning’ (tonal balance) of the headphone. This is especially true for closed headphones.
• A lot of headphones have too much or too little bass or sharp treble.
  For some people ‘sharp’ treble is a big no-no and can make or break a headphone.
  (Parametric) EQ is not always an option. Fortunately modifications or a passive filter can help remove sharpness and or sibilance (emphasis on ‘s’ sounds).
  More about taming the treble is found HERE.
• When (sensitive) headphones play too loud when the volume control is barely opened and the rest of the volume control range is not really usable (too loud) then chances are you might accidentally blow up the drivers when the headphone is not on (or in) the ear.
  Also when one hears a (faint) constant background hiss even when nothing is playing you will need a headphone attenuator. Information on, and how to build one yourself, is found HERE.
  I can also make one for you, especially when one wants custom attenuator(s).
• There are some notoriously inefficient headphones around that could very well be connected to speaker amplifier outputs. Also when a you have an integrated amplifier that does not have a headphone out or that headphone out is very high resistance and you can select between 2 speaker pairs one could use the unused speaker out to drive headphones.
  How to do this is and make your own speaker-output headphone adapter is described HERE.

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