Headphones

[voet]

I would like recommendations for headphones to use with my Content M5800, because I did not get any with my organ.

I am using a set of Sennheiser headphones from one of our computers. However, I don't like using them, because I don't like hearing things exclusively in one ear or the other. On my organ, certain channels are programmed to play in the right ear and the other channels play through the left ear. This seems so unnatural to me. Even if we detect sound coming from one side or the other in a live performance, the sound is in, fact mixed, so that we get a bit of everything from both ears. I imagine that the sound programmed to one ear or the other is internal to the organ, not the headphones.

So I have two questions:

1. What are your recommendations for good headphones to use?

2. Is there a way to get the sounds to play for both ears?

[John Kinkennon]

Purchase a small mixer and custom wire a headphone plug (tip-ring-sleeve) to feed two mono channels. Adjust the pan controls to your tastes so that there is just a bit of separation between channels. There may be a cable available to go from the organ to the mixer but I didn't see one in a quick look through sweetwater.com. I use a set of Sennheiser HD 558's that are reasonably priced and have a sound that is more mellow than others. I don't like the sound of most headphones so others might have better advice.

[myorgan]

I would like recommendations for headphones to use with my Content M5800, because I did not get any with my organ.

So I have two questions:

1. What are your recommendations for good headphones to use?

2. Is there a way to get the sounds to play for both ears?

Since you are using Sennheiser, I don't know if I can improve on that, as long as the frequency response is what you require. Sennheiser has an excellent industry reputation.

However, I've found some cheap Sony headphones (along the lines of these) that have worked great for my students at work, and they can reproduce the sound well, but do NOT block background sound.

Regarding the stereo separation, I second John's recommendation of a small mixer to accomplish the task. In fact, if you need reverb, you can purchase a small mixer with effects (FX--like this one) that will add an adjustable amount of reverb to the sound before going to the headphones.

Please keep us posted on your final decisions.

Michael

[voet]

Thank you, John and Michael.

On the recommendation of another organist friend, I have ordered Sony MDR-V6 headphones, although they cost more than the model you recommended, Michael. I will probably wait to see how often I use headphones before I attempt trying solutions you both suggest to mix the channels. While this is probably electronics 101 for you guys, it makes me feel like Prissy from "Gone With The Wind," "Lawdy Miss Scarlet, I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' no babies!" or in my case wiring a tip-ring sleeve to feed two mono channels.

I appreciate your suggestions.

Bill

[Leisesturm]

On the recommendation of another organist friend, I have ordered Sony MDR-V6 headphones, although they cost more than the model you recommended

It is surprising to me that an organ that has a headphone jack installed does not also have an internal mixer to blend the channels in a more pleasing way. However, if an external mixer is purchased as was recommended earlier, I do not believe any physical modification of the headphones will be necessary. Headphones have gotten very, very good. Just about anything on the market should be satisfactory because listening through the headphones really should be considered carefully. It is quite easy to do your hearing real and permanent harm with organ music piped directly to the inner ear. I personally would consider the mounting of a tactile low bass transducer into the organ bench a near necessity with headphones.

[John Kinkennon]

Here is the sort of adapter one would use to go from a headphone jack to a small mixer.

[voet]

So if I use one of these adapters, I would not have to wire something up myself. So this would go to a mixer and I would plug the headphones in the an output jack on the mixer, right? I could handle that.

Thank you to everyone for sharing your knowledge so freely. I really appreciate it.

Bill

[rjsilva]

On the recommendation of another organist friend, I have ordered Sony MDR-V6 headphones

Those headphones are well respected and are also known to have a rather sterile sound. I have them too (actually the 7506 which is the same) and use them whenever I’m doing serious listening with headphones but I can’t say I really enjoy the sound. They’re just clean and balanced.