Mind Reality

Hi there, are the open or closed style headphones more useful for brainwave entrainment? Are the effects lost with either…ie. closed reverberating the sound or open allowing the effect to escape?
Thanks.

Hi Mark!

technically from my experience both types of headphones will do the job. Actually the effect can not “escape”, since it is created in the brain - as long as the stereo is not mixed and altered, binaurals will work, and other forms of brainwave entrainment which are less dependend on stereo effects will work even with “leaking” headphones.

Open or closed is more a matter of personal taste, concentration and the environment where you use the sessions. E.g. I love to listen to some Hemisync stuff in my garden under an old oak, where the sounds of nature and the birds form a perfect blend with the MetaMucic sessions. So I prefer open or semi-open headphones. For noisy environments with a lot of distractions or if you just prefer to have ONLY the sessions in your ear, closed headphones or in-ear plugs will be better, of course.

Other things will have unwanted effects: better avoid surround headphones (5.1 etc.), gaming headphones with booming bass and added vibration, anything that messes with the stereo channels/balance, and anything that actively alters the sound, like some useless “sound improvement systems” out there, or like the otherwise very useful noise cancellation systems (actually with the latter brainwave sessions MIGHT still work, maybe someone who has worked with this kind of headphone can share his experiences).

cheers and happy waving!

Thanks for the advice Martin, I had trouble finding your site again…bookmarked this time!

I bought some Sennheiser HD 650’s which I really like but am not sure if they provide enough of a range to play the lower brainwave frequencies - Delta (0.5-4Hz) and Theta (4-8Hz) seeing as they are rated at 10-39500Hz on the Sennheiser site.

Does this mean these phones are incapable of transmitting Delta/Theta frequency and don’t suit the purpose?

Thanks :D

Hi Mark & welcome back! Your Sennheisers will just do fine! That is a very common misconception - the low frequencies needed for brainwave entrainment are NEVER transmitted directly. Instead there are several techniques that trick your brain into producing those frequencies itself and thus “hearing” them. The most popular are “binaural beats”, e.g. playing a 400 hz tone in your right ear, and 404 hz in your left. Brain will start to “hear” a third sound, a low vibration at 4 hz. So it is important that headphones you use for brainwave entrainment are distortion-free and don’t mess with “improving” the sound, and they need to have clearly distinct stereo (unlike some cheap ones that “leak” sound from the other stereo channel). But they don’t need to have a frequency range beyond or below the usual 20-18000.

So - of course I would love to say that the Sennheisers are crap and you should buy a pair of Ultrasones through my affiliate link ;-), but unfortunately that would not be the truth. ;-))

haha :D I really appreciate your advice and feedback Martin, I couldn’t get an answer to this in forum land…it’s good to know I didn’t waste my money after all.

Thanks!

Update: for all those who are a bit scared off by the price tag of the Ultimate Ears Super.fi 5 - I found a cheaper alternative, that is almost as good and perfectly ok for brainwave entrainment. Have a look at the Ultimate Ears MetroFi 220 Noise Isolating Earphones

Less than 70 bucks, and really clear, crisp sound, not toooo much bass, just right.

I was under the impression that headphones had to have a special design in order to delay the sound to one ear in order to create the binaural beats which correspond to the various brain waves. Do the binaural recordings make this unnecessary?

Regards,

DON.

I am not clear on exactly how the binaural recordings work. Is the beat created by delay of the same music to different ears or a difference between the frequencies used. Can binaural entrainment work on a pure tones)? Of course, there can be no delay between a pure tone to both ears, so this does not seem possible. Two pure tones with the gaped frequencies are a possibility. Please explain.

Regards,

DON.

thats a common misconception, Don. No “special” headphones are needed. They should be of decent quality, and should not “leak”, i.e. the stereo channels have to be really distinct. Thats all. Delaying the sound is one way of entrainment, but not the most common one, and even that is done in the software or while recording, not in the headphones.

Thanks Martin for the info.
Was also wondering if the “gap” is a set standard frequency difference. Is there no variation between different people? Heads differ in size and perhaps the path of the brain “circuitry” could differ. I have listened to binaural recordings, but not with the best headphones, and experienced nothing. Will try the better headphones, but I’m thinking that I’d like produce my own recording in order to vary the frequency difference.

Regards,
DON.

hm - never heard that different heads make a difference in this regard… ;-) Since actually its a diffence in frequence, not a delay, and the distance should be too short to make some kind of “red shift” happen…
Not all people respond to all kinds of sessions, and frankly there is a lot of crap out there as well. And: do not expect too much, sometimes it is hyped up too much. Start slowly, allow this stuff to work, and get your brain used to it.

Highly recommended, if you want to create your own sessions: the software from Transparent Corp., Mind Workstation, if you can afford it, or Neuro Programmer for personal use. They also have some good background info on their site how this stuff works exactly. :)

just want to add my vote to the portapro’s. have had them for alittle over a month, stumbled on this site while listening to pandora. and smiled to see them here. guess I have no excuse to not listen to brainwave now :).