Headphones too quiet!

[counterofbeans]

Probably a stupid question this, but here goes...

I bought a little Sony CD Walkman just to use in my office. The sound level is fine using the little in-ear headphones supplied but I don't find them very comfortable so I bought some Sony on-ear headphones to use instead

The problem is that using these the sound level just isn't loud enough even on full volume. They are noise cancelling phones which seem to do a good job of blocking outside noise but I can't figure out why the volume is so much lower

Is this normal with noise cancelling headphones and is there anything I can do about it?

Thanks

CofB

[5potTurbo]

A mistake I used to make with my Technics CD player was to plug the headphones in the "line out" socket.
Check that first!

[skahigh]

Check the resistance of the headphones you've bought vs the earphones you were using, the greater the resistance of the headphones the greater the power of the amp needed to drive them. I'd guess the amp built in to the walkman is not particularly powerful.

[Heed20]

Assuming that you're int he headphone port and nothing else is wrong you might want to look into a headphone amp. Filo make one for around £18 that you can buy on amazon or the CMoy headphone amps on eBay which will boost the volume and also improve the sound.

[GT2CS]

skahigh said:

Check the resistance of the headphones you've bought vs the earphones you were using, the greater the resistance of the headphones the greater the power of the amp needed to drive them. I'd guess the amp built in to the walkman is not particularly powerful.

I think you mean impedance.

[TonyRPH]

GT2CS said:

skahigh said:

Check the resistance of the headphones you've bought vs the earphones you were using, the greater the resistance of the headphones the greater the power of the amp needed to drive them. I'd guess the amp built in to the walkman is not particularly powerful.

I think you mean impedance.

Also - that's the wrong way around (kind of! - see below).

If your Walkman is designed to drive headphones of 32 ohm impedance (which is a typical value), plugging low impedance 'phones into (8 ohms or so) will result in insufficient volume.

I use a small rechargeable headphone amplifier with my Sony MP3 player.

ETA: A headphone amplifier like this - it can be a hassle to carry around - but the improvement in volume and sound quality is worthwhile.

The Sony NWZ-X1060 spec. is: Maximum Power Output (16 ohms/mW) 5+5mW

So if you have 8 ohm 'phones - it'll try to make 10mW (mW = milliwatts) into 8ohms which will most likely distort at a relatively low level.

But likewise - if you have 32ohm 'phones, it'll produce 2.5mW which will make it sound quiet too.

Edited by TonyRPH on Sunday 12th May 18:27