[ADUHF]

The Neumann NDH-30, Audeze MM-500, and upcoming Audeze MM-100 seem to be getting a fair amount of positive response in some professional audio mastering circles.

I'm just wondering which over-ear headphones would Head-Fiers currently recommend as a good reference for listening to music, and why.

 

[Philimon]

The Neumann NDH-30, Audeze MM-500, and upcoming Audeze MM-100 seem to be getting a fair amount of positive response in some professional audio mastering circles.

I'm just wondering which over-ear headphones would Head-fiers currently recommend as a good reference for listening to music, and why.

Links to “fair amount of positive response(s) in some professional audio mastering circles”? Particularly for MM-100 since its not even available yet.

Im betting pro audio masters listen loudly so benefit from the particular signature of MM-500 when based on equal loudness contour.

 

[ADUHF]

Links to “fair amount of positive response(s) in some professional audio mastering circles”? Particularly for MM-100 since its not even available yet.

Im betting pro audio masters listen loudly so benefit from the particular signature of MM-500 when based on equal loudness contour.

Thanks for the reply, Philimon.

I'm getting thie above impression from some recent posts on Gearspace, for example...

https://gearspace.com/board/masteri...ur-favorite-headphones-mastering-room-63.html

 

[ADUHF]

I haven't listened to any of the above myself btw. So that's why I'm wonderin what Head-fiers would suggest in the way of alternatives.

The MM-500 posts also mention Oratory's EQ profile though. And the out-of-box FR on the MM-500 seems to leave a bit to be desired, based on Ora's plot anyway.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pgeovbx06fnglbn/Audeze MM-500.pdf?dl=0

The mids look decent. But the bass and treble both look depressed on MM-500. I beleve this is open-back though.

 

[silent-circuit]

The Sennheiser HD6XX series are typically well thought of, as are the Audio Technica ATH-R70x, some Shures, Sonys... There's a lot out there.

 

[ADUHF]

The Sennheiser HD6XX series are typically well thought of, as are the Audio Technica ATH-R70x, some Shures, Sonys... There's a lot out there.

Right on. And thanks for the response, silent-circuit.

 

[Philimon]

Thanks for the reply, Philimon.

I'm getting thie above impression from some recent posts on Gearspace, for example...

https://gearspace.com/board/masteri...ur-favorite-headphones-mastering-room-63.html

I quickly searched keyword “MM-100” but didnt find any impressions. Do you mind linking directly to any impressions of MM-100 by audio masters? At gearspace all the comments I saw were about how Audeze MM-100 are too heavy for practical use.

 

[ADUHF]

Here is Ora's plot of the Neumann NDH-30 fyi.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/z3ksf2h4nyia1uh/Neumann NDH 30.pdf?dl=0

This has better bass extension. But it appears to be missing some air up top.

 

[ADUHF]

I quickly searched keyword “MM-100” but didnt find any impressions. Do you mind linking directly to any impressions of MM-100 by audio masters? At gearspace all the comments I saw were about how Audeze MM-100 are too heavy for practical use.

There may not be any reviews of the MM-100 yet, since it's not out. But there seems to be some anticipation that it could be good. And it is alot more affordable than the MM-500.

Guess we'll have to wait and see on that.

 

[ADUHF]

The Sennheiser HD6XX series are typically well thought of, as are the Audio Technica ATH-R70x, some Shures, Sonys... There's a lot out there.

No idea how good the technicals are on Shure. But the FR looks kinda fun on a headphone like the new SRH840A... And price is pretty reasonable.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/z4kfrvxw92hlz7t/Shure SRH840A.pdf?dl=0

Maybe you had a different Shure in mind tho?

 

[ADUHF]

I guess this isn't as easy a question to answer as I thought... Or maybe I'm just askin it wrong.

I appreciate the replies so far though. Maybe there are other headphones by the above mfrs, or other reputable audio companies (such as AKG, Beyerdynamic, DCA, Denon, Focal, HFM, etc.,) that could deliver a more reference experience than some of the above? Or at least something comparable.

 

[ADUHF]

This is more about mixing on headphones. But I thought it was at least an interesting experiment, which is somewhat tangentially related to the topic. I'll probably have some more thoughts on this another time. Answers are in the spoiler below though. And the "best and worst" mixes according to the participants are also show in parentheses.

Spoiler: Answers

1. IEM (best mix)
2. LCD-X
3. DT-990 PRO (worst mix)
4. MM-500 (best mix)
5. HD 600 (worst mix)

 

[willkins]

No idea how good the technicals are on Shure. But the FR looks kinda fun on a headphone like the new SRH840A... And price is pretty reasonable.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/z4kfrvxw92hlz7t/Shure SRH840A.pdf?dl=0

Maybe you had a different Shure in mind tho?

Not sure about the newer 440A and 840A models as they haven't been on the market for that long yet, but their predecessors are commonly used in the music industry for monitoring. As well as the more expensive 940, 1440, 1540 and 1840... basically their entire lineup has been used by many for quite a few years now. And it's hard not to understand why, they all have a relatively flat frequency response, good detail retrieval and are well-known for being some of the most comfortable headphones on the market.

 

[ADUHF]

Not sure about the newer 440A and 840A models as they haven't been on the market for that long yet, but their predecessors are commonly used in the music industry for monitoring. As well as the more expensive 940, 1440, 1540 and 1840... basically their entire lineup has been used by many for quite a few years now. And it's hard not to understand why, they all have a relatively flat frequency response, good detail retrieval and are well-known for being some of the most comfortable headphones on the market.

Thank you for the reply, willkins.

I'm interested in trying the SRH840A. The tuning looks a bit scooped in the mids. But it could probably be tweaked fairly easily with some EQ, since the headphones are closed. And a little "Fletcher-Munson" isn't necessarily a bad thing if you like a more dynamic sound and/or listening at lower volumes.

I'm pretty rough on my headphones though. And have heard some varying opinions re the quality and durability of the Shures, even though the company has a very good rep in the audio world.

 

[ADUHF]

The Neumann NDH-30 is substantially darker in the treble than the SRH840A btw. And also less bassy. So I would expect these headphones to have a pretty different sound, and sense of tonal depth.

The NDH-30 is open though. So it has that going for it. It looks too dark in the treble/air region to be neutral to me though... without some EQ. YMMV on that.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/z3ksf2h4nyia1uh/Neumann NDH 30.pdf?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/z4kfrvxw92hlz7t/Shure SRH840A.pdf?dl=0