Headphones

Q

Quotec

Active Member
Joined
Jun 30, 2013
Sup?

The title is not encouraging - in this topic we will be discussing a neglected option by music producers community. Yes, I am talking about headphones that are suitable for monitoring purposes. I know, I know, monitors are essential, but my conditions at home are rather cheesy to allow a pair of monitors. Not to mention, up to this day I have been producing with rubbish equipment.

So I want to purchase semi-pro headphones. After brief research I have came up with two options that are widely appraised: ATH M50 and Beyerdynamic DT880.

I like the DT880 that are more efficient when amplified(250 ohms version), but I won't purchase an amplifier. With M50 the main problem is that they are closed-back.

Please help me choose a decent pair of headphones(max 250€) that work well without amplification. Of course you can suggest alternative headphones.

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Or how about 80ohms DT770 Pro?
 
I'm unable to use my monitors at the moment and have been doing most of my work using the Beyer DT770's.

I like them a lot, the only thing I find is after a couple of hours of constant use they can start to become uncomfortable. They are quite big and heavy and my bean head can't take it after a while.

Soundwise they are pretty good though, I'd recommend them for your list of possible choices.

But you are right, mixing on headphones is never a good idea, but I'd prefer a decent pair of cans over shitty speakers in a crap room.
 
JReilly said:
But you are right, mixing on headphones is never a good idea
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You'd be surprised how many top producers predominantly mix in their headphones and then double check the mix on their monitors

Icicle is one I believe and his mixdowns are second to none. It's all about how well you know the source you're listening from because then you're more likely to make the right decisions in terms of eq etc., I know up until not that long ago Rockwell was still mixing on a pair of pretty old and cheap Alesis monitors but I guess because he'd had them for so long he knew them inside out and knew exactly how his mixes were meant to sound on them to be right.

But some people prefer mixing in headphones because then there's no room resonance to think about, so you're always gonna get that super flat response which I guess has pros and cons depending on how you look at it. If like most of us though you're in an untreated room with all kinds of resonance messing with your mix, that flatter sound can be great for getting most sounds at a decent ballpark level, and then you can go back to your monitors after and adjust slightly for the kind of natural resonances you think your mix will probably be exposed to on most monitors setups (this is usually gonna be mostly in the low end though where it can be an absolute nightmare to set a decent level on monitor setups due to the resonances of different rooms which is why that tune that normally blows you away with bass in the club is seriously lacking any punch on your setup! Very misleading!)

It's definitely a matter of personal preference at the end of the day but definitely don't think you can't mix on a decent pair of headphones, can be a really handy tool for getting a solid ballpark mix going first

Big ups!
 
I agree, it's not impossible, just not a good idea. You can never get a good feel for the stereo field on headphones which makes things like paning hard to judge.

But yeah, if you understand how and where to compensate you you could probably get pretty close to a complete mix with headphones.
 
I own the Beyer's DT880 Pro, 250ohms, and they work pretty well on my productions. I only use them to mixing, as I can afford a pair of monitors. But I use to check the mixing on my cheap earbuds as well, my laptop speakers and my car, to get a better reference.
 
lewis797 said:
Those audeze look beautiful
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They're quite a sight to behold.

When I took my SH101 in to get serviced, I noticed one of the tech guys was listening to a pair of LCD-2's that he had acquired a week earlier. He was kind enough to let me demo them for a few minutes...that was biggest mistake I could have made because I instantly fell in love. The downside (aside from the cardiac arrest inducing price) is that I'll have to get a dedicated headphone amp because my Duet 2 won't push enough power (I know, first-world problems...).

They will be mine. Oh yes. They will be mine.
 
I check every 10 mins or so throughout a track in Sennheiser HD25mkIIs


Audeze's though if you have the P
 
I mainly mix out of Audio Technica ATH-M35 cans for D&B and with those I also got some signed tracks to a label. Don't be discouraged by the antics. You can mix with headphones, as long as there is silence in the room :)
 
My M50s just arrived today :O
As I hoped/expected, they've been brutally honest about the quality of the mixes I did on my old headphones. A bit happy and demoralized about that at the same time, but hopefully it means my music will start sounding better soon. Was wondering if anyone had any tracks that would be good to "optimize" my ears with these headphones? Because these are so critical, a lot of the tracks I like sound a wee bit worse now, are there any tunes that particularly sound amazing on these cans to get an idea of what a good mix on these sounds like?
 
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