Gadgetory

me me ladies and gentlemen I present to you weapons of mass tinnitus welcome back to tech a city this is Barone's coming back to you guys today with the video about headphones versus loudspeakers and when you should use one or the other now this video comes to me is pretty much an unintentional discovery or an unintentional shock that I made when I was testing out a variety of different headphones over the last few months I will say however before we get into this video I'm not an audio engineer and I'm not a physicist so this video don't take this video as concrete proof it's pretty much just my findings in my opinion on this matter and I will say as well if there is an audio engineer out there or some of that you guys I employ you guys to comment in the comment section and share your knowledge because this video is ultimately about just sharing knowledge and educating myself as much as it is about educating you guys anyway before we get on with the video I will be talking about decibels and SPL so if you guys want to get up-to-date with that and you don't know what that means I'll put a link in the description below so you can know what that means anyway let's move on now to the first part and that is my research in my history so as you guys know I've been testing a variety of different headphones and headsets over the past few months and a lot of the times these headphones and headsets they left my ears ringing or stinging and flaring up a condition otherwise known as tinnitus so if you guys don't know what tinnitus is I'll put a link in the description below you can get up to date with that but a lot of times it affected my hearing to the stage where I was not being able to hear people properly the next day I mean it wasn't huge it wasn't like oh my god I can't hear anything but it was just a real annoyance and this is the thing I'm going to emphasize through this video this was all my listening tests were pretty much done at comfortable listening levels I never really turned the volume up to ridiculous levels or even something that would be loud and so that's that's a scary point and that's why I wanted to share this video with you guys today and point out the dangers of headphones because a lot of time a lot of these headphones actually left my ears just sort of ringing like means this real bad effect although maybe some of you guys have had it before especially if you've gone to a loud concert but anyway my research involves me buying an SPL meter from Amazon and then using I decided to use two just very budget kind of the Logitech G 230 which is a gaming headset and I also decided to use some is case these are a I think they're also the tax star 2050s so there are very cheap headphone but they sound very good for the money I then decided to volume match these against my loudspeakers so everything was volume matched at around about us just below 70 decibels and I decided to volume match this across three different songs the songs I did was crying by Chris Isaak somebody's crying I also did booty in your face and Eddie Murphy party all the time so I just decided to do three different songs volume match him and when I did this it was all comfortable the listening levels on all three the two headphones and the loudspeakers it was comfortable however this is where things got scary I decided to grab a I decided to pull up two tests a 300 Hertz test and a 2000 Hertz tests and when I did the 2,000 Hertz test this is at the same comfortable listening levels mm test shocked me because basically it's on the is KS it peaked to 87 decibels this is from a level that was just below 70 decibels for me it's a comfortable listening level just below 70 decibels is a really comfortable listening level when I had that comfortable same comfortable listening level it peaked all the way up to 88 decibels on the 2000 Hertz sign test which to me was really scary when I did this on the Logitech G 2 30s it was the same deal this is considered a low sensitivity headset these picked up to 82 and a half decibels when I ran that same test on my loudspeakers they only peaked 272 decibels so we can see there's almost a 10 decibel difference in the peaks and this is the thing the 2000 Hertz tests it's one of the most dangerous frequencies for your ears I think the the human is most sensitive from 2 K to 6 K in terms of ink alerts so it's 2 kilohertz to 6 kill Urtz to be very careful if you guys pull this test up now be very careful because maybe after 5 seconds it'll leave your ears ringing so I'll pull the put link in the description below for the 2000 Hertz test but be very careful with it I'm not responsible for the damage you guys do to your ears but that's something that shocked me when I did the 300 Hertz test things were more in line the loudspeakers were point 77 decibels the g2 30s were pulling under 70 decibels only point 67 decibels and the ice caves were pulling in the low 80s however the 300 Hertz test it doesn't really annoy my ears it didn't flare up tinnitus at all 2,000 Hertz was the test that really flared my ears up it got my ears like ringing and stinging really hard so what does this mean what does this research essentially mean it means that basically when we look at it the is K is at comfortable listening levels compared to loudspeakers peaked 15 decibels higher and essentially this translates into at comfortable listening levels headphones have the potential to damage your ears more than loudspeakers so I'll say that one more time let headphones at comfortable listening levels in my opinion they have the potential to damage your ears more than loudspeakers so that's something to take out of this video so why is this this is the part where I'm not an audio engineer and I'm not a physicist so I can't tell you common concrete proof why it does this however I do have some theories and that is the first thing is the distance the loudspeaker there's a lot more distance between your ear and the speaker and so the high SPL sounds or the high impact sounds meet more resistance but when the before the sound hits your is as opposed to a headphone where there's just generally there's not that much space between the speaker and your ear so those high impact sounds really just travel down your ear canal a lot faster and they don't meet as much resistance as opposed to a loud speaker so the second theory I have is that obviously it's just the size of the speaker and the sound signature of headphones in general and that they got smaller drivers and those smaller drivers are able to pump out the treble or the higher frequencies with ease so that's that's my just my experience if there's an audio engineer out there on or a physicist that maybe they want to chime in but anyway let's move on now to the last part of the video so this is the recommendations and conclusions and now basically I'm going to say this is very subjective because when I play for the 2000 Hertz for example that might not affect the next guy as much as it affected me so ultimately it's your is you guys be the judge with that being said the first recommendation I'm going to make is that use loudspeakers whenever you can only use headphones when you absolutely have to now for me personally the need for headphones came about two years ago when my baby was born before that I had never used headphones or headsets maybe just for like two minutes in my life but that was about it so I only really started consistently using headphones from about two years ago when I bought the razor carcases as my baby was born I had to keep the noise down but also be had to be able to hear him so I needed a semi-open design these things they are a godsend I will talk about these a little bit later but let's get on to the second recommendation and that is keep volume levels as low as possible as low as comfortably possible so I'm literally if you've got your volume at like 70 maybe turn it down to 33 and just let you is adjust and see if you can hear the voices clearly for me I now listen to audio at on my own board this is on my onboard audio I now listen to levels at 25 yes that's how low I listen to music on board audio - so you guys know how weak the amp is on an onboard audio compared to say a dedicated headphone amplifier I'm listening at levels of 25 on my onboard audio with my razor carcases now so let's talk about headphones though my headphones now there's only really I have only a few different headphones in my arsenal as you guys know I've sold a lot of the different headphones I reviewed the first one I have is my ghetto Heiser's these are a custom job custom hack job I did on some HD 5/9 5s and I turned them into a gaming headset these things I mean look the sound quality is phenomenal these things sound a world different compared to my razor carcases however one thing these do is that they just manage to leave my a flare up my tinnitus if I listen to these for longer than like literally 10 minutes they are very accurate however I can only listen to them even at levels of like 20 or my onboard audio which is comfortable they still managed to leave my ears ringing and stinging however I do love them when I'm really when I need real accuracy when I need to analyze sound I do keep these around and they just provide a phenomenal listening experience as well they're the bass is a little bit better than HD v normal HD v 9 5s and I made a video about that it might get arises but these are the next video I'm a I make the next headphones I have hanging around and these are the is case these things are just amazing they're they're $40 headphone I think they're called the tax star 2050s I mean there's a lot of different names for these a lot of different Oh am a KERS make these things and for $40 man they are a phenomenal headphone however these after a good few hours actually left my ears ringing and stinging as well so that's something to keep in mind also the comfort of these is phenomenal as well I mean they're really good I managed to do the 32 0 gameplay the flawless black ops 2 gameplay on this headphone so the sound stage is amazing they're a semi-open design and man the sound quality coming out of these things is phenomenal I'll be doing a mini review in another video soon about these because there is something you should do to make these more comfortable and yeah the last headset I have is the Razer carcases now basically these are my main gaming headset it's sad after all this time I've come back to these things because after literally an eight-hour gaming session these headphones or this headset does not leave my ears ringing and stinging they don't flare up my tinnitus at all so I don't know why that is I mean I've tested so many different headphones and these are like the only one that I can have on my head for like eight hours at a time and not affect me I can still go to bed sleep peacefully wake up the next day hear everyone fine I don't know why that is but I do have a theory and that is once I put them on they you put them up like that and they start to Sag down a bit after about an hour and so the speaker's not actually directly hitting your ear canal that's the reason why I think these don't flare up my tinnitus as much as other headphones so that's something that was just maybe it was just luck of the cards I bought my first headset and they happen to be the ones that don't flare up tinnitus at all on then on a sidenote yes they're muddy they don't sound we're near as good as the other two headphones I have here they don't even sound as good as my KSC 75s which I use for outdoor however I only use them for exercising and so I only use them for like 20 minutes at a time so I can't really tell you if they are a long-term gaming headset but yeah the only headset I've had that comes through that does not flare up my tinnitus is the Razer carcases and no I'm not marketing for racy you guys know me I don't care about any of these companies Razer just I don't know man they're muddy headphones just seem to do it they don't flare up my cum tinnitus but anyway I'm going to close out now and say in the end there your is be very careful with your ears ladies and gentlemen because in 10 years time you know I want to be able to hear my baby you know doing his first sports carnival or whatnot I want to be able to be there I want to be able to hear everything perfectly so I'm going to be taking care of my ears and I implore you guys to do the exact same take care of us so when you buy a pair of headphones try them out I mean just buy them if you can do like a trial for a day or borrow some headphones from a friend just clean them with alcohol wipes and when we give them back cleaning with alcohol wipes - I just test them for comfort and now comfort encompasses a lot of things it doesn't just in capacit for me when I test headphones now I'm going to be telling you guys do these headphones flare up tinnitus especially for me that's a new test that I want to know because there's a lot of people on different headphone forums that I've been reading about who have some really serious tinnitus problems so something to keep in mind ladies and gentlemen and ultimately I care about you guys and I want you guys to take care of your ears and now I'm going to close out I'm going to make one more video about audio where I just close out and do some mini reviews of headphones for instance these these things and other headphones that I haven't reviewed and after that I will be finished with audio and we're going to get back to the juicy tech stuff I've got a gtx 750ti mini ITX build coming for you guys that is on order and with that being said can I get a thumbs up and if you love tech your city hit that sub button and I'm going to roll the outro piece out for now but Oh