Best home studio monitor headphones around 150$?

[Perox]

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the shures weigh about 315 grams where as the M50 are 285 grams.
For the record a headphone for me isn't especially heavy until it hits about 450 grams.
Just for comparison sakes DT770 are 270 grams.
While the shures are the heaviest, it isn't by that much.

Thanks, I also heard that the Shures look ugly on the head. I occasionally want to take them out and in the car and I don't want to look like a complete idiot.

 

[Tangster]

Quote:

Thanks, I also heard that the Shures look ugly on the head. I occasionally want to take them out and in the car and I don't want to look like a complete idiot.

I wouldn't wear the Shure SRH840 in public. They look ridiculous on the head(but very smart on a stand). Not sure what the 440s look like on the head.

 

[asdfghjkzxcvbnm]

no they look alright

 

[davidsh]

The SRH880 is not a neutral phone... Have a look, compared to the dt-880

If you are a bit serious about this, go get the beyers. They are somewhat neutral, probably also way more comfortable, and the build is superb. I think they should be very good for monitoring, but ofc I dunno how serious you are about it.
 
For the record I have the HE-500 which is 502 gram, and I find it fairly comfortable as long as I don't look down reading a book or something

 

[CirrusPilot]

Most studios I've seen use either the KRS or a version of the MDR V6 or 7506. Either one is incredibly durable and doesn't cost much (for head-fi that is). I wouldn't even consider the M-50 for monitoring if I were you. It is not neutral at all. 
 
The problem with the above suggestions is that they are either too expensive (the DT880 is about $100 above your original budget), or they aren't true monitoring headphones (the DT770s I had were no where near neutral enough for studio use if that is what you are truly looking for).
 
There is no need to spend much unless you are going to be using the headphones mainly for pleasure listening. Most studios wouldn't spend over $150 on a pair of monitoring headphones. KNS's and MDRs will give you the most "neutral" bang for your buck, and will work best when you are mixing for a wide variety of outputs (expensive stereo speaker systems to cheap apple buds). 
 
Don't let people on here convince you to spend more than you want to, because it is wholly unnecessary! It is way to easy to break your budget on headphones. 

 

[Perox]

Quote:

Most studios I've seen use either the KRS or a version of the MDR V6 or 7506. Either one is incredibly durable and doesn't cost much (for head-fi that is). I wouldn't even consider the M-50 for monitoring if I were you. It is not neutral at all. 
 
The problem with the above suggestions is that they are either too expensive (the DT880 is about $100 above your original budget), or they aren't true monitoring headphones (the DT770s I had were no where near neutral enough for studio use if that is what you are truly looking for).
 
There is no need to spend much unless you are going to be using the headphones mainly for pleasure listening. Most studios wouldn't spend over $150 on a pair of monitoring headphones. KNS's and MDRs will give you the most "neutral" bang for your buck, and will work best when you are mixing for a wide variety of outputs (expensive stereo speaker systems to cheap apple buds). 
 
Don't let people on here convince you to spend more than you want to, because it is wholly unnecessary! It is way to easy to break your budget on headphones. 

I won't be using them mainly for listening. I need monitoring headphones so I need a flat response. As for the KRK's, you mean the KNS8400 ? Heard some good things about them, but not the their the best in the price range. The MDR-7506 look...bad. Really bad. I mean I know that the look is the least impotant aspect of monitoring headphones but I don't wanna buy a piece of gear that I'll hate, and only like it's sound. Even the Shures look better than this.

 

[davidsh]

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I won't be using them mainly for listening. I need monitoring headphones so I need a flat response. As for the KRK's, you mean the KNS8400 ? Heard some good things about them, but not the their the best in the price range. The MDR-7506 look...bad. Really bad. I mean I know that the look is the least impotant aspect of monitoring headphones but I don't wanna buy a piece of gear that I'll hate, and only like it's sound. Even the Shures look better than this.

When you have found a headphone that you are interested in, you could look up a frequency response chart.
Heres a big database: http://www.headphone.com/learning-center/build-a-graph.php
 
Ofc it is not all about freq response, but I guess it is very important for studio monitoring.

 

[Perox]

Really confused right now
 
(how do I embed this?)
http://graphs.headphone.com/graphCompare.php?graphType=0&graphID[]=2941&graphID[]=913&graphID[]=2901&graphID[]=2961
 
The AKGs seem to be te least flat, the have lowered bass and highs.
The Shures are similiar to the AKG except that the bass and low-mids are not lowered but emphasized.
The KRKs have the most emphasized bass, especially the sub-bass, but least lowered highs.
The Audio-Technicas look the flattest out of them to me. They have more bass than the AKGs but less than the Shures and KRKs, but still the closest to zero. But the highs are hard to tell.
Well, atleast they're the same at 1kHz
 
What do you guys think?

 

[davidsh]

I don't know much about studio monitoring, but the dt880 is the most neutral...

 

[Perox]

Quote:

I don't know much about studio monitoring, but the dt880 is the most neutral...

And it's also 230€ (300$).

 

[davidsh]

You could get the dt-150/250. I don't know much about them, but they are designed solely for studio purpose (I think)

 

[CirrusPilot]

You really have to be honest with yourself. Are you going for looks/what's cool, or are you REALLY trying to do professional monitoring? The KNS 8400s are at the top of their class in that price range for monitoring. Not for overall pleasure listening. KRS makes very high quality professional gear, not gear for people who want to enjoy tunes on an iPod. Further, there is a reason most studios use Sonys MDR series.

I wouldn't even consider the AT M50s for monitoring if that's a model you are interested in.

 

[davidsh]

Why are those phones used in the studio when they aren't that neutral?

 

[CirrusPilot]

They are neutral enough and quite durable. Actual studio monitor speakers are not perfectly neutral either if you ever listen to them. A lot of studios want to also want to be able to mix the music so that it will sound acceptable on a wide range of devices from apple earbuds to a $50k stereo system. A lot of folks who listen to headphones for a hobby have no problem spending tons of money on seemingly perfectly neutral cans, but I wouldn't put a pair of $300 headphones in a studio where they are going to get tossed around, banged up, and used heavily. 
 
The reason they are so popular in studios and for home monitoring is that they are insanely durable, very repairable, cheap, and quite accurate for their price. 

 

[nicholars]

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You just can't go wrong with the M50s: they've been the standard for years and have yet to be dethroned. Highly regarded everywhere and used by pros everywhere. You're not gonna hate 'em. Chances are you'll have the same reaction as everyone else.
 
Also they're so well-built and have great durability. You won't be back here for another 3 years at least.

 
I think you can though really because the M50's are actually not that good value for money since they have become so hyped up so has the price, IMO they don't even sound that good especially for £130... They have boomy bass with little texture, metallic spitty treble, hollow sounding midrange, not much soundstage, very closed sounding etc. Overall really not that great IMO. Can get better for less money.