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RE: Headphones: to seal or not to seal?

Subject: RE: Headphones: to seal or not to seal?
From: "Barb Beck" <>
Date: Mon, 1 Mar 2004 10:56:10 -0700
I too prefer open headphones.  I am too "cut off" with my good ones that I
thought I needed to record.

I always want to be aware of something "better" behind me when I am
recording something. We are often out doing atlas or other work like that
and I want to be aware of all that is around me.

Of course the point of my recording is identification CDs and I am sure thi=
s
is a great part of my headphone choice.  I use a parabola even though it
trashes some of the sounds from the sides and backs because my main focus i=
s
on the one critter vocalizing.

Syd is right, however - has to be a female thing - after all we have to
listen to multiple conversations with kids all the time. If we couldn't I
doubt our species would have survived.  And most wives will tell you that
there is insurmountable proof that husbands cannot even listen to ONE
conversation 8-)

Barb Beck
Edmonton

-----Original Message-----
From: Syd Curtis 
Sent: March 1, 2004 1:27 AM
To: 
Subject: [Nature Recordists] Headphones: to seal or not to seal?


Here we have two opposing preferences, and I think I know why.  My wife can
happily listen to two simultaneous conversations and get the sense of both
of them.  If I try, I don't get either of the two.  And I think this is a
pretty general male/female thing.

Syd Curtis



> From: Dan Dugan <>
> Reply-To: 
> Date: Sun, 29 Feb 2004 19:13:06 -0800
> To: 
> Subject: Re: [Nature Recordists] Beginner
>
> Vicki Powys, you wrote,
>
>> I know some people do use sealed headphones, but personally I can't stan=
d
>> them!  I use open-air headphones with no feedback problems.  In the fiel=
d
I
>> can also hear what is happening in reality, as well as what I'm
recording.
>> If I need a directional cue I simply turn back the headphone volume to 0
>> (which doesn't affect the recording level), then I can hear what else is
>> happening around me.
>
> I'm of the opposite school, I want to exclude the real sound so I can
> be fully aware of what my mics are hearing. I use Sony earplugs that
> block the ear canal completely. I've heard the Etymotic Research
> earplug phones are flatter, but more expensive.
>
> -Dan Dugan



"Microphones are not ears,
Loudspeakers are not birds,
A listening room is not nature."
Klas Strandberg
Yahoo! Groups Links







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