Advice on buying headphones for digital piano

Here you can find some ideas

www.pianoconcerto.it/forum/index.php?/topic/234-cuffie-audio

www.pianoconcerto.it/forum/index.php?/topic/1470-silent-kit

The choice of one headphone over another also depends heavily on the impedance characteristics of the amplifier to which they are connected. You should understand what the output impedance of your digital piano is. Normally, Hi-Fi amplifiers are able to handle very high impedances. In essence, a headphone with very high impedance reproduces all frequencies very accurately at the expense of volume; this is why they require a good amplifier (if you were to connect a high-impedance headphone to a portable MP3 player, you wouldn't hear anything); conversely, low impedances guarantee more volume but are very fallible when analyzed in frequency. Normally, good amplifiers have low output impedance. Headphones should always have a higher impedance than the amplifier. In any case, impedance must then be considered according to the signal frequency. In the audio field, however, inductive and capacitive phenomena are negligible compared to resistive ones; therefore, one often speaks of resistive impedance, and the signal frequencies within a certain frequency range are not that important. I would use standard headphones like the AKG K121 Studio 55 Ohm... They don't cost too much and are an affordable standard that adapts well to all contexts.

Thanks Exit and Simone!... I have read the previous discussions.

TheSimon wrote:

In essence, a headphone with very high impedance reproduces all frequencies very accurately at the expense of volume; that is why they require a good amplifier

So from these words, it seems to me I understand that high impedance does not mean delicate headphones, and therefore I haven't necessarily broken my current headphones by using them with the piano... or am I wrong?

the Sennheiser HD598, which I am leaning towards, if they have a good sound like the ones I have used so far, that is very fine with me.

My situation is not that of someone who studies on a digital piano and "builds their chops," but then, has to deal with valid grand pianos in ensemble music or playing in public, etc.

I am someone who plays only for personal recreation (and often, it must be said, much more with headphones than without). So if my headphone is "for listening" and not for monitoring, then it's the right thing for me.

The important thing is that it isn't a tiny delicate object.

And I would like to know what the parameter is to understand the "robustness" (acoustic) of a headphone (if such a parameter exists)

Impedance represents the hindrance to the passage of a signal (in this case, it is more of a resistive impedance). The higher the impedance, the lower the signal volume will be, but as a consequence, it will be more filtered and generally of higher quality. All of this has nothing to do with the robustness of the headphones, which depends on the materials used to construct the drivers.

Thank you so much for everything Simone!... very clear

now I can navigate more consciously "on my own" through my doubts... until the final decision!

bye

Luca

Don't mention it

I'm starting this topic because I found it very interesting

on my Casio GP 300 it says: "standard stereo PHONES headphone jack" and so I can't understand the impedance of the outputs.

at the moment I use AKG 270 MKII which are becoming increasingly "glassy" and I would like to replace them (since they are many years old) with something more comfortable (the AKGs are too big for me), closed-back to isolate myself from the children when I study. At the moment when I use the headphones I have to turn up the volume quite a bit and they are 75 ohms, but I was reading that AKGs tend to need more drive compared to other brands at the same impedance (??)
i was thinking about the Beyerdynamic DT 770 80 ohm... and I was wondering if I will need a headphone amp. Do you think the Casio would also handle 250 ohms? Still without a headphone amp.....

valid alternatives in your opinion??

/&%)(=?çé?*è?=--I only knew the SENNHEISERS... but are they really that good?

..are you referring to the beyerdynamics?

I bought them but I'm still breaking them in. ...at the moment, compared to the AKGs I had, their only advantage is comfort. ...but keep in mind that I use them without a headphone amp, so perhaps I am not getting enough value out of them!

No, I don't know the models in detail, but only the big brand that many people have recommended to me.