What does headphone sensitivity affect?

When choosing headphones, it is important not only to look at the brand, price, speaker size and design. You should carefully read their technical specifications, study the sensitivity and impedance indicators. What it is and how to choose the right devices will be discussed below.

What is headphone sensitivity

Headphone sensitivity is the efficiency of devices, their effective energy consumption, measured in decibels and megawatts or watts. That is, in simple words, this is the ratio of volume to the power of the incoming signal. This value indicates the energy efficiency of musical instruments. However, it is impossible to give an exact figure for all types of devices. The sensitivity is different for everyone and depends on the impedance (resistance). Therefore, when choosing a device, they often look at its resistance.

What does the indicator affect?

He is responsible for the sound volume. Due to the low indicator, it is impossible to fully perceive the entire frequency range and hear the sound signal in places where it is very noisy. For example, it is difficult to do this in a train, tram, car, etc. If we consider two models with the same power, those with higher sensitivity will sound better in noisy places.

It is important to understand that the value of this parameter is different for each manufacturer, since today a strict standard for measuring this indicator has not been determined and the data for the same power models may differ.

What should be the sensitivity of headphones?

In general, the sensitivity of headphones is determined by the sound pressure they produce, measured in decibels. This is done after supplying an electrical signal of one megawatt. An indicator of 0 decibels is the sensitivity threshold of the human ear, and 140 decibels is its pain threshold.

The model should be selected based on their further use. It is important to take into account not only this parameter, but also the resistance coefficient. For smartphones, players and tablets, models with a sensitivity of 90 decibels and a resistance of 16 ohms are suitable to ensure sufficient volume with low signal power entering the device.

Attention! If the headphones are intended “for the street,” then it is better to take models from 100 decibels, otherwise the sound will be very quiet.

To connect the model to a head monitor and sound card without special amplifiers, you should take more sensitive models from 100 decibels and an impedance of more than 150 Ohms. Thanks to the high value of the latter indicator, distortion can be reduced and sound quality improved.

How can you test sensitivity?

The specifications of the device do not provide exact data regarding sensitivity, since today there is no strict unified standard for measuring devices and different manufacturers make measurements in different ways. Therefore, it is impossible to compare two models that are identical in power, cost and parameters, since manufacturers use different purities for their measurements.Thus, two popular brands Sennheiser and AKG measure this way: one is guided by the general rule and compares this parameter to one kilohertz, and the second uses the IEC 60268-7 standard and compares it to five hundred hertz. Therefore, in terms of amplitude-frequency response, both devices give different results.

The manufacturer can also write an average value in the device passport or compare the research result with the peak value over a whole frequency range. It can bring sensitivity to levels not for home music listening, but for outdoor use. In this case, it will be lower than nine decibels.

So what to do? How to check sensitivity? You can’t check it when purchasing; you should focus on device ratings and reviews from ordinary buyers, so as not to buy a bad device with low sound. Everything can only be measured in laboratory conditions at the manufacturer’s factory.

Thus, many experienced headphone owners, when choosing their models, answer that it is not worth looking at the sensitivity indicator carefully. You just need to pay attention that their frequency is not less than 20 hertz (for home use).

Important! If you need to choose musical earbuds or on-ear headphones for outdoor use, you need to make sure that the indicator is at least 100 hertz. For a tablet or player, you should take models with the same parameter, but with a lower resistance - 16 Ohms.

In general, sensitivity affects the volume of a sound. The higher it is, the louder the sound. When selecting a device, it is important to take into account the resistance along with this parameter, so that the sound is not only louder in indoor and outdoor conditions on any media, but also cleaner.