Well, today I was sitting in the den (where I usually am while in the house) and happened to glance over at the set of headphones I have on my laptop. Hmm... That looks like a bunch of little holes in the backs of those headphone cups. Taking a closer look, I can see the "speaker" diaphragm through those holes. Wha?? Well I'll be darned! I have been using a pair of open backed headphones for years and just never noticed it. I cranked up a YouTube video playing some music, put the volume level to "STUN" and just listened to them at arm's length. Nope, can't hear a thing. So I moved them to about 6 inches from my ear and THEN I could actually hear the music. Tinny sounding, but it was audible.
So what do you know? Seems that the issue between open backed and closed backed is really a non issue. Anyone who could hear what someone else is hearing wearing open backed headphones is WAY too close to that person anyway. My concerns about waking up Connie while I am playing a game late at night were just completely unfounded. Which, I guess, when thinking about it, had the noise been THAT loud externally, then that noise internally would have been loud enough to blow my eardrums into my head, crushing my pea brain.
Oh well. I have a set of the Audeze closed back headphones on order, but it appears I didn't have to fret so much looking for a closed back set instead of an open back set.
Live and learn, I guess. At my age, I guess it is getting embarrassing to admit that I learn something new every day. I should know EVERYTHING by now! Of course, I am probably forgetting something old at least twice a day.
