Best headphones for mixing Metal & Rock music?
Feb 28, 2013 at 2:18 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 4

silence2-38554

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Alright, I've been on a sort of quest to find my ideal headphone the past few months, so far I have been largely unsuccessful.  Currently, I own the following cans & associated issues:
 
AKG K550 - Too difficult to get a good seal over my tall-ish ears & the sound varies too much if the seal is not perfect.  Too bass-light for the primary genre I work with.
 
AKG Q701 - Horribly uncomfortable headband after an hour or so of use, same awkward fit as the K550, though the sound varies less.  Too bass light as well.
 
AKG K240 - Same fit issues as the other AKG's, though the sound signature is almost opposite that of the Q701.  Sort of muffled sounding to me.
 
Sony MDR-7506 - These are actually my favorite cans of the bunch & I picked them up for $40 at a pawn shop.  The fit still isn't ideal, but far more comfortable than all the others.
 
Right now I am SERIOUSLY considering Sennheisers.  The studio I am interning at has some HD280's that fit fantastic.  I do not find them to be "skull crushers" either.  I have also tried 380's & enjoyed them very much as well.  Those fit even better than the 280's.  I used to have a set of 558 & 598's.  I honestly probably should have kept the 558's, the 598's were too bass light for me.  I am also strongly considering the Amperior.  I love that all the components are modular, durable & are a step up from the HD25's, which tons of people use for mixing.  I am not, however, a big fan of the on-ear design.
 
I have also previously owned the Beyerdynamic DT-770 & found that my mixes would end up with a very upfront midrange, which I was not liking at all.  I would be open to trying the DT880, as I at least know they would be comfortable.
 
German Maestro & Grado cans seem to be mentioned a lot when metal & rock mixing come up, though I'm not sure what models would be suitable.  
 
I would really like to end up with one nice set of closed back cans & one open back set.  
 
Thanks for reading, I appreciate any suggestions!
 
Mar 3, 2013 at 2:02 AM Post #4 of 4
I picked up a set of Shure SRH840's & absolutely love their sound. As much as I love their sound, I hate everything about the headband. It's too heavy, uncomfortable and too wide (looks super goofy). I was debating back & forth between these & the Sennheiser HD380's. After listening to the Shure's for a couple days, I demo'd the 380's tonight & was not impressed with their sound at all. Decent soundstage....I guess, but the bass seemed very "one note", very low & boomy. Not articulate at all. The comfort was fantastic, but that's all. I think for now I will keep the Shure's, as they sound exactly like what I've been looking for & I can modify them to fit better. After a bit I will probably also pick up a set of DT880 250 ohm cans, so that I can have an open & closed reference (hopefully I get along better with the beyers than I did the Q701)...
 

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