How much can you hear through open backed headphones

[Theotherlarryb]

I have had open backed Grados and HiFiMan cans, i could hear pretty much everything going on around me. Including a baby.

Beyer DT880s are "semi closed back" but I still heard a lot

Now I have AKG k550s...they drown everyting out

[goraman]

Get an answer ing machine.

[alan47]

I mostly use open backs,but i always hear the phone and most of what the wife says.I only use closed back when she is home and can answer the phone.

[WOStantonCS100]

I use planar open backs. I can hear way too much other stuff when using them, for my liking. The trade off is they sound fantastic late at night when the house is quiet and everyone else is asleep which is the only practical time to use them. But, I have to turn off everything including the water cooler... in the kitchen. I even ended up tearing the humming doorbell transformer out of the wall. Obviously, I only turn the volume up as loud as necessary to hear everything. At night, with most external noise squelched, that's not very high at all.

I probably wouldn't hear my phone if it rang more so because, subconsciously, I'm trying to ignore it.