Reply to Defective Audio Component
When you say "old school", how "old school" do you mean? I mean, are you going to have a studio where the recordings are etched directly onto a 78 RPM wax disc while the orchestra plays into a big wooden horn? (This is how they recorded prior to the invention of the microphone and before electronic recording.) During the 1930's, 1940's, 1950's and up until around 1965, they didn't use headphones in studios. The performers would be in the same room as the Orchestra some distance from the orchestra but at a place where they were still able to hear the orchestra. There wasn't the need for the type of isolation that is required today because back then, stereo and the idea of stereo separation had not yet been invented. Everything was mono until the late 1950's.
I first started in recording studios during the early 1970's. Back then, limiters (a.k.a. "compressors") which are in common use today (mostly in pop genre recordings) had not yet become available so performers had to watch constantly their distance from microphones (depending on how loud or soft in volume they were performing) and the recording engineers had to more carefully watch the "dials".
Although the Beatles had "overdubbed" and "multi-tracked" during the late 1960's, many studios, until the late 1970's, while recording in stereo, recorded direct to 2-track which left little possibility for post recording mastering.
During the 1970's the most widely used headphones in studios, to my knowledge, were a type of Koss brand headphones that may not still be manufactured. Prior to the 1960's, headphones and "earphones" (for only one ear) were not thought of in the same way as they are today. They were not nearly as clear sounding or as comfortable (indeed, some were wooden with no padding) and were probably used more in the aviation industry than in the recording industry.
Is that what you meant by "old school"?
A side note you might find interesting: Long after they started using headphones in studios, Frank Sinatra didn't use them. There were two reasons for this: he preferred to record everything at once and did not like overdubbing and he was deaf in one ear so headphones were impractical for him.
I was about to order AKG K271's a few weeks back, suddenly they were all replaced by K272's and K271 MKII's. The shops that do still have them.. upped their price :x Or you have to buy the K271 MKII's for more 
