do headphones have any limiters to them

leftwinger57

I just got a weeks ago a vintage set of Koss 727b models and i swear you can turn these up until either blood comes out of your ears or your head just explodes. I would think that would be for lack of a better term a limiter of some kind and this might be a bad analogy akin to restrictor plate super speedway racing to non plate racing for short tracks and the like...Lew

pitdogg2

The limiter is between the ears.....

leftwinger57

Nice to know. These things really have no limits. So as Clint once said a man has gots to know his limitations.

pitdogg2

Lew it would be hard to have what you're asking. Ears are so different what is loud to me may not be to someone else. I will agree that with headphones it is VERY easy to over do it and damage the ears. I remember when the first Walkman's came out, they may of went to 10 but 20 would of been better in my mind. The open foam really let a lot of outside noise in and thankfully it did as that was the time when I spent 20hrs a day on my BMX bike and thankfully still heard many a car horn for my actions.

Emlyn

Headphones can be overdriven to distortion and damage in the same way speakers can, the drivers are just smaller on headphones. Unless driven by a quality separate headphone amp the distortion can kick in early depending on the impedance of the headphones.

I think ear buds are much worse for the ears than on-ear headphones.

leftwinger57

hey guys if interested in Koss in general I found their site. This dates my set to 1971 and like I said are in freaking pristine condition for something that can get tossed around, coil cord entanglements and so on. Just scroll a bit till the yearly lineup

https://www.koss.com/history/

Nightfall

I had a pair of sealed Koss headphones growing up that when connected to my vintage Pioneer SX receiver you could turn them up so loud you could hear them from other rooms (not on anyone's head), it was insane. You could literally feel the bass against your head. They weren't good headphones for a young listener of metal to have, really, now I get to hear a high pitch scream as I fall asleep every night. The open back Phillips Fidelio X1's I had a little ways back didn't have nearly the balls.

ALL212

It's not difficult to do this but you'll need some DIY mod's. This is what I did on the back end of one of the headphone kits I built. The resistors drop the volume about 10db.



You could build a box that went on the outside with a similar layout, just not involving the volume knob directly.