Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Wiring headphones into my monitor

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Posted by Dan Chilton (Member # 2288) on 01-08-2007, 10:54 PM:

One of my goals in 2007 is to watch more of the films we show. Whenever I watch movies, I like to do so from the booth, but I have a hard time hearing everything over the projector, fan, etc.. Is there a way to wire in headphones to my monitor? I'm using a Smart EX500B. Or perhaps you guys have a better solution for hearing the movie... ?

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 01-08-2007, 11:36 PM:

..you could tap a two conductor headphone jack across the monitor's speaker connecting wires, which curtails the opening of the monitor cabinet itself to to the connect (along with the experience of knowing how to do soldering) but this arrangement will let the speaker to continue to drive as with the headphones.

Yet, there is alternative ways - using FM hearing impaired units (if any are available as spares) is a good start ..et.al.

-Monte

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 01-09-2007, 09:13 AM:

You could add a small phone plug which cuts off the monitor speaker.

I really like using the hearing impaired system (if RF) since you can walk around while listening. Louis

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 01-14-2007, 10:26 AM:

How many screens are being run from this booth? Are you up there as the projectionist? If you are, then I oppose the idea that you lock yourself to a headset teather that prevents you from observing all the systems in the booth for every screen. Even if it is only a single screen booth, using the infrared system strips you of a very important diagnostic tool -- your hearing. There is a lot about a projection system that the sound of the mechanism will tell you -- eliminate that tool and you are at a decided deficit as a good projectionist. Basically what I am saying is that you can't do your job effectively if you are watching a movie instead of being attentive to the machines running it.

Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 01-14-2007, 12:20 PM:

I for one do not like watching the movies from the booth. if I am going to watch a movie I am going to do it from the auditorium. Movie checks that are brief in nature are fine from the booth but blasting the monitor loud enough that it could bleed out into other auditoriums is out of the question so all sound checks need to be properly done from the auditorium.

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 01-16-2007, 09:17 PM:

I agree with Frank that as the projectionist, you need to be aware of the sounds from all of the theatres you are responsible for. Listening for problems is a part of the job.

Posted by Dan Chilton (Member # 2288) on 02-12-2007, 02:18 PM:

We're a single screen theater.

Posted by Daniel Wright (Member # 1983) on 02-15-2007, 07:37 PM:

Is there any way to use wireless headphones. Can you just plug the transmitter into one of the outputs on your sound processor. They would give you more mobility around the booth then being plugged in.

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 02-15-2007, 11:43 PM:

Doesn't your booth have a monitor speaker? I would suggest just turning it up so you can hear the soundtrack. I don't get this infatuation with wearing a headset, but it seems you've got your heart set on it. So yes, there is a way to hook up a wireless headset to the system -- just tell your theatre tech to hook it for you. He'd be happy to. Tell him that hearing the soundtrack thru the monitor isn't working for you, what with all the distractions of running the show. Explain to him how being a projectionist is boring you and that you would rather watch the movie with no distractions. No doubt he'll agree and hop right to that headset installation.

Posted by Richard P. May (Member # 3598) on 02-16-2007, 11:12 AM:

I did this simply by wiring the phones to the center power amp output, along with the speaker wires.
Frank is right about the responsibility of monitoring the sound as it is heard in the auditorium, but I found the headphones quite useful. This was especially so when needing to hear such things as alignment of a buzz track, to overcome the projector noise.
At the time, we were also reviewing many prints made from very old negatives, where shrinkage of the sound track negative sometimes put an image of the sprocket holes in the track area, causing a very objectionable 96 cycle buzz. This was easy to hear with the phones, but not so from the booth monitor.

RPM

Posted by Dan Lyons (Member # 1454) on 02-16-2007, 03:45 PM:

Whatever you do, be carefull with your ears! You'll have to crank up the headphones pretty high to overcome the booth noise. Look into sound isolating earphones.
Check out the stuff at Etymotic Research

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 02-17-2007, 02:01 AM:

Dan is absolutely right. Especially those "buds" as they call them nowadays, that are inserted into the ear canal. If these do not have serious limiting circuitry built into the amplifier driving them, they can easily cause permanent ear damage -- damage that is slow, irreversible and completely preventable. When you notice it, it will be to late to fix that problem you've developed for not being able to hear high and midrange frequencies, most notably in the speech range. You really don't want to spend your 40's and beyond saying, "What did you say?" Because once that damage is done, you won't be able to hear consonants, which are essential to understanding speech. Without the ability to hear those mid and high end frequencies, speech is nothing but unintelligible noise. It's loud enough -- you just won't be able to understand what anyone is saying. It's not fun.

At least with free-air earphones, the sound waves are able to disperse more readily into the surrounding area; ear buds (just look at those things -- even a layman can see the physics of them) are designed to direct the sound waves entirely and directly at the eardrum with no avenue for that energy to escape or any chance of back pressure thru the mouth and nose and eustatian tubes to equalize the pressure on the other side of the ear.

Digital sound especially has such a wide dynamic range, you could be listening to sound that seems comfortable and moderate in level one minute, then here comes that car chase (think any action film....think the train wreck in THE FUGITIVE with its sounds of screeching, twisting metal) or a sudden bombastic stretch of soundtrack score. You better pray those delicate, microscopic sila nerve hairs in your ears and the ear drum itself are not dead at the end the movie.

Seriously; I am a sound engineer....I know plenty of guys, musicians and engineers, who now have to wear hearing aids, and all but one or two are much younger than me.

Actually, any of the wireless systems, be it infrared as in the ADA units, or that blu-ray job or the consumer wireless headset systems, these are a better bet because their dynamic range is very limited in order to make them work halfway decently without over driving their transmitters, they all use a hefty amount of compression. That's good to prevent sudden bursts of very loud sound pumped directly into your ear canal; it's bad if you play compressed sound at very loud levels because it keeps the sound pressure constant, which, if it is played at a high enough level, can be worse for your ears because your ears can't rest as they are no dynamics -- the sound is always at one level -- too loud. It's akin to the difference between an RMS rating which a measured, constant energy, and normal audio that has gaps in the waveform or or what they used to call the "HiFi" rating, i.e., a system playing real music with its broken waveform giving the equipment time to recover before it is pushed into distortion or clipping.

The absolutely WORSE thing would be to hook up a direct ear canal bud headset directly to the output of an amplifier and then stick it in your ear. Listen; I know from whence I speak....I said LISTEN; I KNOW FROM WHENCE I SPEAK

[ 02-18-2007, 06:36 AM: Message edited by: Frank Angel ]

Posted by John Hawkinson (Member # 1135) on 03-04-2007, 07:48 AM:

"I did this simply by wiring the phones to the center power amp output, along with the speaker wires."

Err...wiring headphones into an amplifier output seems like a pretty bad idea. Won't the impedence of the headphones affect the volume levels at the speakers, not to mention the power handling of the headphones and the lack of volume control?

Much better would be to wire the headphones to the amplifier input.

--jhawk

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 03-04-2007, 11:29 AM:

Any temporary solution involving connecting to either the input or output of the amplifier is a bad choice. Loading will alter the level and potentially introduce noise and other unwanted artifacts.

You will want an active solution (powered). Using the amplifier of the booth monitor as others have described can be good so long as you make it an either or as Louis described. Many of these monitor amplifiers are cheap and not designed to operate out of a very specific load range (high or low).

Another solution is to use a headphone amplifier such as RDL's RU-SH1

It will introduce a 10K load to the system BUT it should be installed permanently so that 10K load is always there and the use or lack there of a headphone will have zero affect on the actual sound system.

Steve

Posted by Bastiaan Fleerkate (Member # 3826) on 03-06-2007, 08:55 AM:

After seeing the Manual I think you can hook up headphones to the stage output. Or did I see this wrong...

I really can say that doing you work with a headphone isn't the best idea, but it's you own responsibility.
IF you want to buy a headphone, go for the Sennheiser RS-130 or another open headphone. You can hear the soundtrack of the movie and listen what is going on in the booth.