High End Audio: The Headphones Quiz

Answer: audiophile

Popular culture may portray audiophiles as elitist snobs who possess more money than good sense. This doesn't have to be the case. Anyone who wants to enjoy recorded music at the next level can do so. Options exist for most budgets, and the audiophile community is full of helpful individuals who are happy to offer advice to beginners. Yes, researching, acquiring, and configuring the equipment is a big part of it, but music is always at the core of the pursuit.

Once you've heard your favorite song on a great system, discovering details and nuances of the music you never knew were there before, you'll most likely be hooked on the audio hobby, seeking and hopefully finding ecstasy. Listening with good gear can be a transcendent, intensely pleasurable sensory experience unlike anything else.

Answer: 44.1 kHz/16 bits

None of the other answer choices are used when creating digital audio.

The engineers who designed the compact disc digital audio standard used 16 bits (a base ten number from zero to 65,535) to represent a voltage (sound volume level). They knew that if they measured the volume level in this way, 44,100 times per second, they could digitize sound in a way that was sufficiently accurate to convince most listeners under most conditions. This type of digitizing of analog data is known as pulse code modulation, or PCM.

Any combination of sample rate and bit depth greater than 44.1/16 is considered "high resolution" audio. So if a certain number of samples and bits per sample is good, then more must be better, right? Well, there are limits. Bit depths greater than 24 are not practical, and when it comes to sample rates, sound scientists and electronic engineers continue to debate the "more is better" camp of digital audiophiles as to what is perceivable and desirable.

Answer: mp3

Much of the music we listen to is in digital format: the original analog sound waves have been converted into a stream of 1s and 0s that can be stored and interpreted by computers, then converted back into an analog electric current that reproduces the sound in headphones or speakers. Often the digital information is compressed to save space and improve network transmission speeds. Mp3 and m4a are lossy formats, meaning that parts of the sound are lost when it is encoded. Higher compression rates, measured in kilobits per second (kbps), are generally better for lossy sound files. Most listeners will be able to hear a difference across a range from 32 kbps to the practical maximum of 320 kbps for mp3s.

Some audiophiles avoid lossy music, some are dedicated exlusively to analog formats such as vinyl or tape, and many embrace most of the common formats, even lossy ones. But it is rare to find a digital audiophile without at least some lossless music in their collection.

Wav is uncompressed audio for computer devices. It uses the same quality standards as compact discs. Flac is a lossless compressed format incorporating CD or better quality while taking up proportionally less digital storage space. DSD is Direct Stream Digital - a unique system. While mp3s, CDs, and other pulse code modulation formats measure sound levels with 16 or 24 bits, tens or hundreds of thousands of times per second, DSD uses a single bit, millions of times per second. Along with multiple channels (like the ones in home theater systems), DSD makes up the super audio compact disc (SACD) standard.

Answer: Mastering

The mastering process includes a number of steps that make an album sound as sweet as possible. Recording and mastering engineers have a very special skill set that encompasses technology, musicianship, and psychoacoustics - the perception of sound. Like editors make books a more polished, enjoyable experience for readers, these engineers are artisans who make recorded music a magical experience for the listener.

Garbage in, garbage out, the saying goes. The best equipment money can buy won't fix a poorly mastered recording. So audiophiles not only seek good gear, but quality recordings as well.

Answer: Plasma recirculator

Dynamic transducers are by far the most common, and can range from sounding just okay to out of this world. Some higher end headphones use planar magnetic drivers. Electrostatic headphones require special devices to drive them and can be quite expensive, but their proponents swear that the sound is better than anything else available.

A fourth type of transducer is balanced armature, only seen in earphones that are inserted into the ear. Some headphones and earphones are hybrids: they employ two or more different transducer types.

Answer: Around the ear

On-ear headphones are often seen in the recording studio or other professional settings, but home listeners use them too. There is an extremely enthusiastic group of audiophiles who are devoted to in-ear monitors, also known as IEMs. Can something so small produce mind-blowing sound? Absolutely. Can they be insanely expensive? Oh, yeah.

Headphones are, in essence, electromechanical devices, not electronic devices, so many audiophiles are skeptical of wireless headphones. As wireless technology improves, though, they are gaining some acceptance. For many of us who listen on home "rigs," wireless is an unnecessary feature - we just settle in a comfy chair, plug in, and enjoy.

Answer: Solid state

Solid state amplifiers use transistors instead of tubes. Tube amps can produce warm and rich sound, but at the expense of detail. Solid state amps sound clean and precise, but possibly sharp and cold as well. Hybrid amplifiers that use both tubes and transistors offer the best (and worst) of both worlds.

All consumer electronics that have headphone jacks contain some sort of amplifier circuit, so why would you need a dedicated amp? As you climb the proverbial ladder from less expensive mass marketed brands to higher tier and flagship headphones from specialized and boutique manufacturers, headphone amps become an absolute necessity. They will help you unlock the full potential of these fine instruments. Sure, you could plug a $3000 pair of headphones into your cell phone, streaming low quality mp3s, and sound would indeed come out, but to experience truly amazing sound, all elements in the signal chain should ideally be of high quality.

Answer: Ohms

You will also need to know the headphones' sensitivity, measured in decibels or decibels per milliwatt. Internet calculators allow you to input headphone impedance and sensitivity, and they will tell you the power required to drive the headphones at various volume levels. An amplifier's specs should tell you the power (in milliwatts) that it outputs with various loads (headphone impedances).

Typical headphone impedances range from 32 ohms or lower, up to 600 ohms. One might assume that a 32 ohm set of phones is easy to drive, but if the sensitivity is low, this will not be the case.

Answer: Delta-sigma

Most audiophiles will tell you that a DAC should be transparent, that it should should simply convert into an analog voltage the stream of ones and zeros coming from the CD player or computer or portable device. It should do it cleanly, precisely, and without affecting or "coloring" the sound in any way. Apparently this is not as easy at it sounds. The better the implementation of a conversion technique (delta-sigma or resistor ladder), the more accurate the conversion, and the resulting sound is closer to the original. Of course, better implementations and higher quality components will cost more, and top tier DACs have price tags that will make many people (most audiophiles included) gasp in shock.

Early audio DACs employed a resistor-ladder (R-2R) method, but they require very precise component tolerances and are therefore expensive. Delta-sigma DACs took over, but have the disadvantage of using fewer of the available 16 or 24 bits in the digital signal stream. As R-2R DACs made a resurgence, many listeners that were able to compare the two architectures agreed that the R-2R DACs sound more musical and natural.

Answer: XLR

The left and right audio channels in unbalanced (single-ended) designs share a common ground, so the headphone cables are 3-conductor: one for the left channel voltage, one for the right channel voltage, and the ground wire. These most commonly terminate in a tip-ring-sleeve (TRS) plug: 3.5 mm and 6.35 mm plugs are standard. Balanced audio has a own ground wire for each channel, so balanced headphone cables are 4-conductor. 4-pin XLR is common, and 2.5 mm and 4.4 mm TRRS (tip-ring-ring-sleeve) plugs are also available.

Some listeners and manufacturers go so far as to insist that balanced configurations for headphones are completely unnecessary and a waste of money. Others, however, believe that balanced audio improves the soundstage, the perceived width of the music's performance space.

Few subjects arouse as much online verbal combat as those of high-end cable materials, design, manufacture, and marketing. Even short lengths of cable can cost thousands of dollars. If you have the money and want the status symbols, go for it. For the rest of us, quality cables are available at reasonable prices.