[humpty]

Hi guys, I'm sorry if this has been discussed many times but I have searched and read lots but not come to a conclusion. Many of the opinions on here seem to be based on gaming/movies/pleasure listening but I am looking for some headphones for music production, mixing in particular. 

I know that you shouldn't mix on headphone but my circumstances don't allow me to get monitors so I'm looking for some decent headphones. I can only really afford about $100 so I'm tearing my hair out trying to decide. Bascially I want the headphones that are going to translate the best to all stereo systems...the holy grail for headphones I would imagine. I make dubstep/dub/reggae/electronica so good, accurate bass would be good, and I don't plan to record anything so leakage is not a problem. 

I understand that open backed are the way to go for a truer sound but that said, I am getting seriously tempted by the M50s. At the moment it seems to be between those and the AD700. Both seem to be roughly the same price and the AD700 could be cheaper for me to get hold of with postage costs to my country (Office Depot in the USA stock the AD700 so I am investigating getting them shipped to my country, maybe avoiding postage costs). 

Now this is the tricky bit. I keep hearing very different things about both headphones. Some say that the AD700s lack bass and some say that the M50s have too much bass. The comments about the AD700 remind me of comments about real studio monitors when hifi consumers hear them and expect big booming bass when tight accurate bass is what you actually need. Is this the case? Are they more just neutral rather than lacking in bass? 

As the pair I buy will be my main mixing tool I quite wary about buying closed backs but I have heard so many good things about the M50s. But again, I don't think if this is from a mixing point of view. The comments about the accurate and strong bass end both excites and scares me...having good bass presence would be excellent but not if it is unrealistic and untransferable to other systems. The lesser soundstage in place of tight bass would actually suit me i think as most of my productions are electronic rather than real instruments. That said, good pan/reverb positioning is quite important. 

I know I am probably asking the impossible but this is such a hard decision and I cannot try them anywhere in my country so I really have no idea which would be best - detail and openness with the AD700s or better/tighter bass with the M50s. I'm worried about getting either in case the bass is too light/heavy depending on which model I buy. 

Also, if anyone has better recommendations then please feel free to mention them. I really hope you knowledgable people can help! 

 

[tommyf]

I think you could find some AKG K240 around 100...they're well balanced and they are MADE for studio...you might find the bass a bit boomy at first, just give them about 100/150 hours of burn-in and it's gonna get tighter. I really enjoy mine

 

[lejaz]

I know a reggae producer who swears by the Equation RP21. I'd prefer the k240M if you can find one used on ebay, but only by a small margin. You'd need a set up with a decent amp for those...though not the Equations. You can drive those even with an iPod.

 

[tommyf]

isn't the 240m 600 ohms? my 240 mkii are 55 and they don't sound that bad straight from my laptop. a small amp improves a lot, though..

 

[humpty]

Are the k240m the same as the MKII? 

The K240 is another name that keeps popping up. Are the regular K240 good? The Equations look interesting...closed back though?

An amp isn't really an option, I would be plugging straight in to my laptop. 

 

[tommyf]

the regular 240 is an 80s headphone, with very high impedance (600 ohms). right now AKG you can find k240 studio and k240 mkii. they sound pretty much the same, but the mkii is newer and probably better balanced

 

[lejaz]

Have compared the k240S(newer version) with an old k240DF(600ohms) and the DF is better in most areas. I'd probably go with the Equation over the newer model k240's, if I had to choose between them. the shure 440 is another good option FWIR.

 

[tommyf]

If you wanna go for the 240DF (if you can find one) make sure your source is powerful enough, cause they really need A LOT of power