$2-300 Double Duty DJ/Listening Cans?

Aug 22, 2016 at 3:56 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 14

NotTheDroids

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My beloved pair of Shure SRH840s just broke. It's been a while since I bought a pair of headphones, and the market has gotten much bigger. I liked the SRH840s, but before I buy another pair, are there better options for double duty listening and DJ booth monitoring? I need closed back cans with good isolation, but also something that sounds good for critical listening, as they get a lot of late-night home use when it's too late to crank my bedroom system (currently a pair of GNP System 110s powered by an Aragon 2004 amp and a Rhythmik F12). I don't care about pivot cups and folding so much, but they need to be able to take a beating, and they can't be so big that it's awkward to only use one earcup. 
 
Budget: $2-300 (open to buying used)

Source: Pioneer DDJ-SX, occasional use with iPhone

Requirements for Isolation: Good isolation a must, these get used for DJing on big systems.

Preferred Type of Headphone: Closed back, over ear. 

Preferred Tonal Balance: Reasonably flat but punchy enough to hear over a big sound system, so not too laid back, and it's gotta have some bass weight.

Past Headphones: Shure SRH840, ATH-M50s.

Preferred Music: Mostly electronic—lots of deep house and tech and downtempo
 
Aug 22, 2016 at 10:34 PM Post #2 of 14
Consider the Oppo PM-3 used, if you can find it. The only concern you might have with them is that the bass is a little anemic without an amp, but otherwise it fits your requirements well.
 
Aug 23, 2016 at 3:12 AM Post #3 of 14
Since they're relatively new, even the used ones I see are going for $350, which is just too much money for me to justify spending on something I treat as roughly as my DJ headphones. The Focal Spirit Pro and the NAD HP-50 both fall into my price range used, though, as does the Phonon SMB-02 that facebook keeps trying to sell me. 
 
Aug 23, 2016 at 12:56 PM Post #4 of 14
The HP50 didn't feel like a headphone I could comfortably toss around, at least to me. The isolation is only so-so for a closed headphone, probably one of the worst choice in that regard. Also if you appeared on stage with those you would probably get some funny looks. Not to talk down them, they could be great for home listening...
 
If you didn't have any problems with your Shure or ATH you could stick to them, especially if you can't audition the headphones before you buy them.
 
With that said the Beyerdynamic DT770 or the Sennheiser HD25 may be something to look at. The DT770 has huge earcups (an acutally "over-ear" headphone) but I could easily listen to only one of the earcups by using my shoulder. I didn't hear the HD25 but I heard the Sennheiser Amperior which is said to sound similar (and definitely looks similar) to the HD25. Both the DT770 and Amperior has good isolation and to me, both of them appeared to be built for rough usage. Sound wise, both of them has more than neutral bass but the DT770 sounded more balanced to me overall.
 
I've just checked amazon and they are selling the HP50 for 250$ so they definitely should be on your price range even if you buy it new by the way.
 
Aug 23, 2016 at 3:00 PM Post #5 of 14
  The HP50 didn't feel like a headphone I could comfortably toss around, at least to me. The isolation is only so-so for a closed headphone, probably one of the worst choice in that regard. Also if you appeared on stage with those you would probably get some funny looks. Not to talk down them, they could be great for home listening...
 
If you didn't have any problems with your Shure or ATH you could stick to them, especially if you can't audition the headphones before you buy them.
 
With that said the Beyerdynamic DT770 or the Sennheiser HD25 may be something to look at. The DT770 has huge earcups (an acutally "over-ear" headphone) but I could easily listen to only one of the earcups by using my shoulder. I didn't hear the HD25 but I heard the Sennheiser Amperior which is said to sound similar (and definitely looks similar) to the HD25. Both the DT770 and Amperior has good isolation and to me, both of them appeared to be built for rough usage. Sound wise, both of them has more than neutral bass but the DT770 sounded more balanced to me overall.
 
I've just checked amazon and they are selling the HP50 for 250$ so they definitely should be on your price range even if you buy it new by the way.

 
I would have recommended the HP50 too, if it weren't for the reasons VNandor listed above; their build quality does not inspire too much confidence for rough usage. The HD25-II is an excellent choice if you're willing to go the on-ear route; they're one of the most popular DJ headphones of all time, and for good reason, as I'm sure you already know. If you're not willing to buy on-ears, then the next recommendation I would give is the Beyerdynamic Custom One Pro Plus. It has rock-solid German-made build quality and sound sliders that adjust the amount of bass, with more bass giving better isolation. They are definitely on the large side, though, and I wouldn't call them an upgrade to the ATH-M50X.
 
Aug 24, 2016 at 10:48 PM Post #6 of 14
It sounds like a no-go on the HP50 for DJ use. The HD25 is always an option, though from what I've heard it seriously lacks soundstage, and though that's not the most important thing to me by far, it does make home listening a lot more fun. From all the reviews I can find, the Focal Spirit Pro sounds like what I want, but is it worth the extra $100+ over the SRH840?
 
Aug 24, 2016 at 11:19 PM Post #7 of 14
I've demo-ed the Focal Spirit Pro before; pretty darn neutral like most reviews say, but the earcups and earpads are seriously small, almost on-ears. Also, there's the well-known issue of their headbands cracking. Another on-ear option is the Beyerdynamic DT1350, which is Beyer's response to the HD25-II.
 
Aug 25, 2016 at 1:11 AM Post #8 of 14
I have no issues with my Focal Spirits, they are my favorite headphone at the moment. I mustn't have a big head. They compare favourably in SQ to things that cost in the order of 5times their price. I don't throw my headphones around either so I have no issues with cracking. Really, if you're going to throw them around use the hard case that comes with the Ones... Or, don't be so careless with expensive things! I've never managed to crack the screen on my phone, or my headphones before, or yet.
 
All I can say is try them on your ears... The Focal Spirit Ones have slightly larger cups, but have more receeded highs. You can use a parametric EQ and a V shaped EQ to fix that later issue. They are all pretty damn neutral, the Professional has more clarity in the highs, the One has more bass reflex and receeded highs, but you can EQ it out on the highs using a V or U shaped EQ until it makes your ears bleed from the clarity of your highs. That's good and bad, a sound booth guy would tell you not to use a V shaped EQ for that very reason but meh... whatever. Apparently if you lift your highs above 12000hz or whatever too much it can be a bit tiring and it is, but if it works? I'm happy to put up with them like that if clarity is an absolute objective, they have a copious amount of headroom for EQing. Raising the lows, dropping the mids and raising the highs seems to work.
 
The One is a little cheaper now, the Professional is a better headphone out of the box, but both of them in terms purely of SQ are more than capable. The One requires a bit more tweaking, it's not muddy, if anything the one is a little bit boomy on certain tracks which are highly layered, like for instance CeeLo Green, Bright Lights Bigger City, but I don't know if you listen to that, I don't find it a well mixed track but its good for testing boominess. A properly master track that should be boomy on bad speakers such as Michael Jackson - Billy Jean plays perfectly well, it's neither boomy or flubbery and the intro has a tricky bass section. The bass never takes over the entire stage, the stage is there on the One it's just without tweaking its like the stage is still behind the screen and you're not quite there. The one has a hard case so you can't break them, but you could get the same case for the Professionals.
 
At the end of the day it's your ears and you might not see any of these issues with them on your head, try them first. The good thing about these out of everything really is that they're 32ohm drivers, and so you don't need any dedicated nuance to get them to sound good, which is why they've become my dedicated iPhone headphones I walk out the door with when I don't want to bother with an amp. They reach 70db with just a quarter of the volume on my iPhone which is more than a little dangerous as you're tempted to go further, but that's the loosing battle, you can't have 100db on years like you can have 100db on the floor in a moderately sized room with some book ends, you'll end up going deaf.
 
One of the hard things I've had to learn is just to turn down and expect to get clarity when I'm turned down, I compared these to Sennheiser Momentum 2.0s and they have a flatter listening stage at lower volumes, comparatively the Senns tempt me to turn up to what would otherwise be volumes that lead to ear damage over extended periods of time to get a flat sound.
 
At the end of the day these sound about the same as an Ultrasonne Edition 8, and how much are you willing to pay? Pretty good substitute for about 1/5th the price. For comparative sake https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/609492-REG/Ultrasone_EDITION_8_RUTHENIUM_Edition_8_Closed_Back_Stereo.html and compare fairly well with the Sennheiser HD 800s again above the same budget. I tried a fair few headphones before settling on these, I couldn't justify HD800s for the same job. They were better, but not 5times better.
 

 
Aug 25, 2016 at 12:08 PM Post #9 of 14
Just my .02.....

I was a club DJ for too many years.....I can mix with a cheap pair of pretty much anything closed back,as long as you can hear the beat,you can beatmix the next track in.

These will take a severe beating over the years...nature of the business.

If I were you,I'd buy the cheapest closed back headphone I could find for work and spend your big $ on a different pair of better headphones for home listening.
 
Aug 25, 2016 at 3:51 PM Post #10 of 14
If I was planning on spending $500 on DJ cans, you'd be totally right. But reality is that if I got myself two sets I'd probably spend more than $300.

After further reading, though, the headband cracking issue with the FSPs is probably a deal breaker for something that gets tossed in a bag and lugged around. Back to the drawing board...
 
Aug 25, 2016 at 3:54 PM Post #11 of 14
If I was planning on spending $500 on DJ cans, you'd be totally right. But reality is that if I got myself two sets I'd probably spend more than $300.

 

unless youre not opposed to buying used,then yes.

If you look at my signature the only pair of headphones I own that I didnt buy used are my Grado Magnums...everything else I got here from other members second hand....all are great headphones.
 
Aug 25, 2016 at 3:57 PM Post #13 of 14
  I'm not opposed to buying used, but the reality is that I'll probably just end up with nicer headphones rather than more money in my pocket. 


haha,well only you can provide yourself with restraint and self control.
 
Aug 26, 2016 at 1:57 AM Post #14 of 14
If I was planning on spending $500 on DJ cans, you'd be totally right. But reality is that if I got myself two sets I'd probably spend more than $300.

After further reading, though, the headband cracking issue with the FSPs is probably a deal breaker for something that gets tossed in a bag and lugged around. Back to the drawing board...


Just buy a pair of Sennheiser HD20s for mixing and then leave the rest of it for at home. You don't need sound accuracy to beat match at all, in fact with auto cue now you don't need headphones just a decent amount of taste.
 
The headband issue is a total non-issue. Having cans that sound roughly the same as something that costs 5 times the price. I'll take that and have fun. I see the complaint about the headband fail and I think most people who complain are objectively speaking, wankers!
 

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