Headphones Louder Than Another Pair Or Is It In My Head?

Recording, Mixing and Producing
#1

I had a pair of really crappy sennheiser headphones, I replaced them with a pair of Grado 60e’s. I got rid of the sennheisers, and when I listened to the grado’s, they seemed quieter to me, but then again they were radically different in frequency curvature. Over time, I started listening to them at the same levels as my sennheisers originally. I bought a new pair of better sennheisers, and they sound quieter than the Grados as of now. I’ve already broke the Senns in, but I kept the grados this time, and listen to both. I’m wondering if once you get accustomed to a frequency response that a different one will sound quieter? The reason the Senns aren’t matching up is because I still have the Grados? I’m confused.

#2

different sensitivity. ie, one is louder with the same level of input. also of course could be slight differences in freq curve

is one more “open” while the other is more of a cup? that might make a huge difference

#3

Also different headphones can have different impedances, some fancy headphones have really high impedance and need special headphone amps and what not. You probably don’t need a special headphone amp or anything but its not unusual for different headphones to have different impedances and volume output. At least that’s what I’ve gathered from reading way to much when I was looking for headphones.

#4

Seems like the easiest way to find out would be to play pink noise through both sets in your DAW and see how much you need to turn one or the other up to match. As stated above, headphones have a bunch of impedance differences and eq curves. Good Grados and good Sennheisers are both very capable and will boil down to personal preference, but it’s not unusual for there to be volume differences from one to the other.

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#5

Ill go with the impedance comment above.

Brothers recording studio had an issue the other day a friend brought in some higher dollar headphones and they were much quieter than the 280Sein’s and its the impedance…my 250ohm are a lot quieter than the 280Seins lower impedance.

it can be an issue if everyones on one volume knob for playbacks.