Are Passive Closed Back Headphones and IEMs Outdated?

[HiFiHelp]

In the modern portable audio landscape with great options from Bose such as the QuietComfort series and Samsung with the Buds Pro series, I don't understand why individuals would rather opt for more expensive passive offerings. One of the key challenges ANC and transparency mode headphones address is the occlusion effect, where you feel physiologically closed off from your environment. You'll notice that your voice and other internal sounds are amplified. Eliminating occlusion effect is a known prerequisite for accurate binaural rendering and everyone at Meta Reality Labs and Apple Acoustics already knows this.

 

[Chagall]

For home listing? Once they have respectable frequency response, easy EQ feature and battery life then sure.

 

[HiFiHelp]

For home listing? Once they have respectable frequency response, easy EQ feature and battery life then sure.

Why wouldn't you just use open-back headphones with fewer internal reflections and no occlusion effect with EQ instead?

 

[HalSF]

Closed back headphones and IEMs are how I listen to music at home when family are close by, or in shared public spaces like airplanes and airports. Active Bluetooth ANC/transparency phones and earbuds can be excellent but I still mostly prefer the stronger amplification and wired sound quality of “passive” headphones/IEMs.

 

[Chagall]

Why wouldn't you just use open-back headphones with fewer internal reflections and no occlusion effect with EQ instead?

I do, and in general I would always recommend open-backs. However, I also like my closed back. People just need to be aware of what they are getting into with closed backs.

 

[HiFiHelp]

Closed back headphones and IEMs are how I listen to music at home when family are close by, or in shared public spaces like airplanes and airports. Active Bluetooth ANC/transparency phones and earbuds can be excellent but I still mostly prefer the stronger amplification and wired sound quality of “passive” headphones/IEMs.

By wired sound quality, do you mean lossless audio, latency, or both? Regarding the former, the differences between 256 kbps AAC and lossless have been shown to be extremely minimal in subjective evaluations. Amplification makes a lot of sense. Most of these bluetooth headphones are quite power limited, but that can certainly be improved.

 

[TurtlePaul]

For home use, I can still use my 20 year old Sennheisers and Sonys, with just pad replacements. I have never found the same to be true for li-ion powered devices.

 

[Aryzon]

In the modern portable audio landscape with great options from Bose such as the QuietComfort series and Samsung with the Buds Pro series, I don't understand why individuals would rather opt for more expensive passive offerings. One of the key challenges ANC and transparency mode headphones address is the occlusion effect, where you feel physiologically closed off from your environment. You'll notice that your voice and other internal sounds are amplified. Eliminating occlusion effect is a known prerequisite for accurate binaural rendering and everyone at Meta Reality Labs and Apple Acoustics already knows this.

For me the problem is always the comfort and the ear pressure due to ANC.
Every bluetooth headphone I have tried are heavy, have small earcups with relatively thin pads. You know, the general Sony XM formfactor.

I currently use Focal Azurys for on the go listening. It has the same formfactor as Focal Bathys but the velour pads and much lower weight make it a much more comfortable headphone to wear. It also has very good sound even without EQ. Bathys sounds so much worse it's almost comical, and that is one of the better BT headphones. The new Bathys MG is better but still a farcry from Azurys.

Until wireless headphones become as big as Hifiman eggshaped headphones with very deep pads and won't weigh 500+ grams, I won't consider those.

 

[roladyzator]

I think that for an "average consumer", wireless headphones / IEMs will dominate the market if they already haven't.
Year-by-year the frequency response, ANC and transparency modes are getting better without a doubt.

Now as to why go for a passive model? Here are my reasons:
1. No problem with battery dying.
2. Can easily connect those to device that don't work well with Bluetooth. The Sony PS5, for example, doesn't allow bluetooth headsets besides the official Sony ones, but it has a headphone jack in the controller.
3. There are passive closed back headphones that are cheaper that active models while having a more preferrable frequency response.
The K371 are one of my favorite headphones (even when compared to open backs) and the Pro models from Apple or Sony cost nearly twice as much.
And there are more closed backs that people like released recently (Adam H200, Fiio FT1).

Although the cheap Galaxy Buds FE sound pretty good to me, I'd go for the K371 for the best sound quality.
But who knows, maybe the next generations will be even better.

 

[JaccoW]

One very simple reason; long term durability and repair.

I have a pair of Sony Wf-1000XM3 ANC iems that were introduced in 2019. Now, barely 5 years later, the batteries are dead and having them replaced is either impossible or not cost effective. It's essentially e-waste.

Whereas a pair of cabled headphones will still work for decades to come. Worst case scenario I replace the earpads or eartips and the cable when it breaks.
And don't underestimate how much of a jump IEMS are making right now. Chinese manufacturers are pumping out great designs every year at all price levels.

You can get great sounding models that also measure well for $20 but can go all the way up to several thousands.

 

[HiFiHelp]

I think frequency response is extremely important, but there are other factors not discussed enough. You can have a "perfect" measuring multi driver IEM with high passive noise isolation, and it will sound completely closed off and claustrophobic with poor soundstage. The same applies with over-ear headphones. The perceived soundstage of the Bose QuietComfort and Apple AirPods Max in ANC modes make the Dan Clark Stealth and E3 sound muffled and closed off.

This is why a lot of Chinese in-ear manufacturers are making "semi-open" IEMs, but these still often have higher passive isolation than basic earbuds. If the only way for passive IEMs to compete with ANC and Transparency mode IEMs in soundstage once the frequency responses match is by being purely open-back, this brings into question, what is the point of an IEM?

 

[roladyzator]

Frequency response, comfort, psychological bias all play a role. There's different kinds of recordings when it comes to "spaciousness" and there are ways to enhance it (virtual surround, room simulation).

The soundstage impression varies between individuals, we have quite a long thread about it here. It's an oversimplification to say IEMs can't provide that sensation unless they're semi-open and even if it's your experience, it's not necessarily going to work like this for everyone.

In any case, the consumer grade wireless IEMs / headphones are getting better and better.
I think it's amazing how people today can just take an off-the-shelf product from a major consumer brand at any price range and end up with audio reproduction quality that's between decent and fantastic. 15 years ago you'd really have to be in the hobby to figure out what to consider buying, it was a wild west when it comes to frequency response.

 

[HiFiHelp]

It's an oversimplification to say IEMs can't provide that sensation unless they're semi-open and even if it's your experience, it's not necessarily going to work like this for everyone.

It's pretty undeniable that if two IEMs had identical measured frequency responses and one has 0 dB of isolation and the other had 30 dB of isolation, the IEM with no isolation will sound more open.

 

[Curupira]

It's pretty undeniable that if two IEMs had identical measured frequency responses and one has 0 dB of isolation and the other had 30 dB of isolation, the IEM with no isolation will sound more open.

That's a nice hypothesis there, but we would need to see it empirically tested before drawing any truths or conclusions from it.

 

[HiFiHelp]

That's a nice hypothesis there, but we would need to see it empirically tested before drawing any truths or conclusions from it.

The occlusion effect is a well-known phenomenon.

 

[listener650]

In the modern portable audio landscape with great options from Bose such as the QuietComfort series and Samsung with the Buds Pro series, I don't understand why individuals would rather opt for more expensive passive offerings. One of the key challenges ANC and transparency mode headphones address is the occlusion effect, where you feel physiologically closed off from your environment. You'll notice that your voice and other internal sounds are amplified. Eliminating occlusion effect is a known prerequisite for accurate binaural rendering and everyone at Meta Reality Labs and Apple Acoustics already knows this.

An incredibly based take and an incredibly cool start to a thread.

I do tend to agree that active systems' addressing of the occlusion effect, as well as (in some cases) their ability to ensure consistency of playback frequency response across different earloads, are two meaningful upsides to the modern TWS earphone market vs. their passive, wired counterparts.

Obviously the main arguments in favor of passive wired IEMs are cost and longevity; very good $20-60 IEMs are eminently available and if one is only listening at home, they're likely to last long if taken care of (perhaps longer than something which uses batteries). The really good true wireless earphones out there are quite a bit pricier and have an expiration date due to the necessity to use batteries.

That said, I've yet to encounter a passive, wired IEM that sounds good enough in stock formation to be worth spending the extra money or sacrificing convenience/comfort vs. the AirPods Pro 2, so in most cases I just recommend people looking for a great all-around package around $200 to try and find an AirPods Pro 2, but at prices under that then passive IEMs do become part of the discussion unless people are willing to EQ.

 

[pablolie]

In the modern portable audio landscape with great options from Bose such as the QuietComfort series and Samsung with the Buds Pro series, I don't understand why individuals would rather opt for more expensive passive offerings. One of the key challenges ANC and transparency mode headphones address is the occlusion effect, where you feel physiologically closed off from your environment. You'll notice that your voice and other internal sounds are amplified. Eliminating occlusion effect is a known prerequisite for accurate binaural rendering and everyone at Meta Reality Labs and Apple Acoustics already knows this.

While good ANC Bluetooth headphones have come a very, very long way and I use them extensively... in my quiet home office cabled offerings( both closed and open) rule supreme. Thay sound and measure better (ANC always impacts the noise floor).

 

[Curupira]

The occlusion effect is a well-known phenomenon.

Sure, but isn't the research directed at how we perceive external sounds while having the ears plugged (i.e, not the sound from the observed transducers)? Even when considering the change in ear impedance, I don't find it so trivial to assume that conclusion to be true when considering iems.

Personally, I do find earbuds and open back headphones much more open than iems, but that comes with the great caveat that both often have rolled off bass and perceptually higher pinna gain, further playing with psycho-acoustics.

 

[HiFiHelp]

Sure, but isn't the research directed at how we perceive external sounds while having the ears plugged (.e, not the sound from the observed transducers)? Even when considering the change in ear impedance, I don't find it so trivial to assume that conclusion to be true when considering iems.

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[HiFiHelp]

Personally, I do find earbuds and open back headphones much more open than iems, but that comes with the great caveat that both often have rolled off bass and perceptually higher pinna gain, further playing with psycho-acoustics.

Why don't you EQ the open-back headphones and IEMs to the same target curve then?