I'll second that by saying Welcome to Head-Fi, sorry about your wallet.
 
One thing I will say is that I can GUARANTEE The 25s will keep up your DubStep. The bass is REALLY controlled, which is why I'm worried about DubStep in the XB series. I've heard they have a problem with control, although maybe the 1ks will suprise.
 
Quote:

caze said:

Welcome to Head-Fi.

 

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the XB500 handle dubstep like nobody's business. Such a fun set of cans.
 
Quote:

morbidtoaster said:

I'll second that by saying Welcome to Head-Fi, sorry about your wallet.
 
One thing I will say is that I can GUARANTEE The 25s will keep up your DubStep. The bass is REALLY controlled, which is why I'm worried about DubStep in the XB series. I've heard they have a problem with control, although maybe the 1ks will suprise.
 


 

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I really want to try a pair and possibly purchase some 1ks. They look so ridiculous that I just have to have some.
 
Can't judge 'em 'til you hear 'em I guess.
 
Quote:

borgbox said:

the XB500 handle dubstep like nobody's business. Such a fun set of cans.
 


 

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Sorry for hi-jacking, not read every comment but thought I'd just jump in with the AIAIAI TMA-1. I would not overlook those matey.

 

Get the HD25-1 Mark II it's what real DJ's use

Yep, the HD25 1 II is great for DJ mixing for club gigs.
However if it's just for the studio / home mixing, I'd recommend others such as Ultrasone if you want a balanced sounding headphone, the Roland RH300.

Actually, the single reason I hear a lot of DJs NOT use these is because the ear cups don't rotate. I didn't have a problem with it, but I had a few friends complain about that when I loaned them out.
 
They are absolutely the best for a club situation though, I will give you that one.
 
Quote:

glasslike said:

Get the HD25-1 Mark II it's what real DJ's use

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I had the Xb700s for over a year...must say they sound like subwoofers in your ear XB1000 I would expect even more and deeper bass. Not much punch in the XB700 tho, XB500 have much more punch, but less deep

How about the new Sony MDR-XB1000? According to the review done by one member on here its supposed to be perfect for genres such as trance and house.
Hit the link below it'll tell you all you want to know about the XB1000
 
http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/541833/sony-mdr-xb1000-impressions-and-pictures

Quote:

caze said:

You'll probably end up with almost as many suggestions as there are people answering to this thread, that's how Head-Fi works.

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Unfortunately, a lot of those recommendations will come from people who don't really understand (or didn't bother to read) the requirements and will simply suggest one of their favourites or merely parrot what they heard from someone else who might have read a review once.
 
For studio/mixing, you want headphones with a relatively flat frequency response, and isolation if you don't have a quiet environment. You don't want emphasis on any part of the spectrum because then your mix levels will be inverted from what you actually want. The standards here (that I have experience with) are the Sony MDR-V6, Sennheiser HD280, AKG K240 and M-Audio Q40. The V6 and HD280 are quite flat, the K240 has a bit of a midrange bump, the Q40 is strong in the bass but slopes gently. Oh there's the Shure 440/840 too which are ok, and the omnipresent M50 which I don't like and are a bit too wobbly for studio work, but people will recommend them anyways.
 
Also keep in mind that each person has specific frequency responses tuned to their own ear. Here's a popular test to find out more: http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/hearing.html
Keep that in mind when determining headphone response as well as how you interpret your mixes.
 
 
For DJ'ing, you really don't care about sound quality. Your primary needs are durability and isolation, with pronounced highs and lows so you can hear your beat cues over the noise. If your studio cans have good isolation, you can use them here as well.
 
For "fun" headphones, go with whatever the heck you like.
 
Your local music center should have a lot of headphones for you to try out.

The underrated Roland RH300's frequency response



Easily more balanced sounding frequency response wise than the others (even factoring in the width of the graphs):



for a decent cheap monitor headphone, can't look past the Sony 7506 or Roland RH50.

I'm just recalling my own experiences with the above headphones using test tracks and frequency sweeps.
 
I assume you grabbed the RH300 graphs from here? http://www.geocities.jp/ryumatsuba/review.html
 
The graphs from there are different compared to those from Headroom. I don't know the precise testing/measurement methodologies of either, though I do know Headroom applies some version of a transfer function to their data. Comparing charts within each company's dataset is useful, but comparing Headroom vs ryumatsuba is tricky. Somewhere on the forums here there's a link to Headroom's data archive without the transfer functions applied. I have no idea if ryumatsuba's data is processed in any way.
 
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Armaegis /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
For DJ'ing, you really don't care about sound quality. Your primary needs are durability and isolation, with pronounced highs and lows so you can hear your beat cues over the noise. If your studio cans have good isolation, you can use them here as well.
 

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x2. From experience doing FOH sound for full bands, the concern's pretty much the same--just something that isolates is a godsend. How coloured it is almost doesn't matter entirely.

I've told people before that if they really wanted some isolation, get some decent iems and put earmuffs on top.

Quote:

armaegis said:

Unfortunately, a lot of those recommendations will come from people who don't really understand (or didn't bother to read) the requirements and will simply suggest one of their favourites or merely parrot what they heard from someone else who might have read a review once.
 
For studio/mixing, you want headphones with a relatively flat frequency response, and isolation if you don't have a quiet environment. You don't want emphasis on any part of the spectrum because then your mix levels will be inverted from what you actually want. The standards here (that I have experience with) are the Sony MDR-V6, Sennheiser HD280, AKG K240 and M-Audio Q40. The V6 and HD280 are quite flat, the K240 has a bit of a midrange bump, the Q40 is strong in the bass but slopes gently. Oh there's the Shure 440/840 too which are ok, and the omnipresent M50 which I don't like and are a bit too wobbly for studio work, but people will recommend them anyways.
 
Also keep in mind that each person has specific frequency responses tuned to their own ear. Here's a popular test to find out more: http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/hearing.html
Keep that in mind when determining headphone response as well as how you interpret your mixes.
 
 
For DJ'ing, you really don't care about sound quality. Your primary needs are durability and isolation, with pronounced highs and lows so you can hear your beat cues over the noise. If your studio cans have good isolation, you can use them here as well.
 
For "fun" headphones, go with whatever the heck you like.
 
Your local music center should have a lot of headphones for you to try out.

Click to expand...

 
 

Very good food for thought, and thank you to the others as well.  It's been an eye opener for sure.  I thought since bass was part of my mixing issue, I'd need cans that accentuate bass.  Makes much more sense to have flat phones to be able to hear the source instrumentation better, and therefore mix it more efficiently (if I'm making sense at all).  The follow up to that is:
 
1) If I go with something "flat", does this mean I won't really hear much bass on songs which uses it as it's primary sound (i.e. Dubstep)?  Want to make sure I can still hear highs, mids, bass as close to as its supposed to be in the original and not feel it's bland
 
2) People mention the HD 25-1 II's are fav's among DJs: What makes them popular in a club setting and would they translate for at home mixing?  Keep in mind I don't have a fancy set up, and using Virtual DJ right now (though Traktor would be nice if I could only have the time to learn it all).  And for the music I listen to and mix (Trance, House, Dubstep, Electro, Dutch, etc), which of the ones you recommended do you think is considered the "best" under $350 (Sony MDR-V6, Sennheiser HD280, AKG K240 and M-Audio Q40)?  I've heard great things from the HD series; just don't know if there is really a good "one"
 
 
Like I mentioned before, I popped $300 in those Beats Pro (and thankfully I'm sending them back for a refund), so spending around $200-$350 won't kill me.  As far as recreational, for those who care to put in their two cents worth, should I go for the HD 25 1 II's (if you think they'd make good walk around phones), Sony MB500's (or MB1000's when they hit), or something else?  I heard the MB500's and thought they were good, but very curious to know if it's worth going up to the 1000's (I know it'll have a bit less bass power, but much better soundstage), or if the HD 25 1 II's would work just as well for everyday listening.
 
Never thought it would be so hard to decide on headphones, but very happy I ran into this forum and that there are fantastic people out there like you guys to help educate me without making me feel stupid.
 
Cheers