Best Studio Headphones - pls. advise

[Emusic]

Thanks to everyone for the inputs. This has become a resource thread for studio headsets now.
Actually; I ended up with a pair of AKG K 271 Studio. The local guru told me they had more neutral sound than the Sony MDR-7506 and I must agree. The 7506 gave a tad "on the house" by adding some more color to the mix than the K271's. The K271 has a detachable cord (great for me as I tend to break them every now and then) and it has a smart mute when its not on your ears.
Im actally gonna buy a pair of MDR-7506 as well at a later stage, as I need a dedicated pair for voice recording/playback, and the MDR-7506 is more closed than the K271.

 

[taymat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by modi Industry standards for monitoring headphones in many Australian recording studios are either Sony MDR-7506 or Beyerdynamic DT-770pro (250 ohm version). The funny thing is that both these cans have big bass and fairly harsh highs. Not exactly what you would call perfectly balanced and neutral headphones.

Unless the objective is mini system-esque sound.

What I'm saying is maybe these phones are chosen more by the studios because they have overblown bass and harsh highs like many mini systems IMO.

 

[erikzen]

Quote:

Originally Posted by taymat What I'm saying is maybe these phones are chosen more by the studios because they have overblown bass and harsh highs like many mini systems IMO.

Or maybe the equipment is being bought by people who don't actually use it. I doubt many recording engineers are also the purchasing agent, except in small studios.

 

[Gundam]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SilentServices The NS10 are not crap at all... they are really good and precise nearfield monitors... Not funny for music listening, but they are not made for this purpose anyway... BTW imo Dynaudio and B&W are not better company overall...

Even as studio monitors NS10's are rubbish! Spikey treble, overblown bass, harsh midrange (like, as Taymat says, many mini-systems).

Yamaha may be a 'better' company overall, yes. They make pianos, bikes and amps and so on... but speakers? The only decent speaker that Yamaha made/make are the legendary NS1000M's. Now there's a true monitor...

As for speakers, both B & W and Dynaudio build far better speakers for studio and domestic environments, IMHO (I have both brands doing the biz in my home... and wouldn't trade em in for any Yammy's... except the NS1000's).

Anyhow, the AKG K271's are a great choice for monitoring. Nice and transparent without sounding too 'in your face'... Smooth midrange detail too...

 

[Geek]

If you are using a decent amp the K271S is my choice for pretty close to neutral recording phones, simply because it's so much better than the other stuff out there for under $200. Everything else I've heard is more colored. You can get good phones that dont require a dedicated headphone amp, but they won't produce a neutral sound. You can also find better phones but I'm not sure if you are willing to dish out the cash required to make them perform at an optimum (neutral sounding) level.

I assume by neutral you mean accurate which means simply lacking coloration. There really isn't any truly perfectly accurate equipment, but you can make a pretty nice recording with those K271 phones and a good amp. I also suggest to try out the HD650 if you have a really really good amp.

Cheers,
Geek

 

[Mike Scarpitti]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Takashi My recommendation is Sony MDR-CD900ST. It's the best studio monitor headphone (IMO) which is very flat, detailed and forwarded. No sound stage, though. Another choise could be AudioTechnica ATH-W1000, it's mostly flat, detailed and has decent sound stage. Both are made in Japan, so you shouldn't worry about the size of your head. If availability is an issue, you should also look into HD25 or k271studio.

I agree with this suggestion, but a pair of Stax electrostatics is even better, but far more expensive.

 

[Emusic]

Thanks. I'm also about to buy studio monitors. I have been testing Fostex PM-1 for some time now, and have put up a thread in the speaker forum.
Here is a link to that thread.

 

[Dave1]

The reason you see a pair of NS-10s on every serious console is that they have become an absolute standard in nearfield monitoring and a de facto small mix monitor. One reason is because they are very critical and tend to show minute mix flaws.

They are not supposed to sound good, but they are built to be revealing. Most producers will start a mix on the mains and then start checking the NS-10s for another look at the mix.

The basic rule is that if you can get the mix sounding good on the NS-10s, you will have a great mix when you flip to the mains.

 

[Emusic]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Geek If you are using a decent amp the K271S is my choice for pretty close to neutral recording phones

Decent Amp? Not sure what you mean. I have them plugged into the phones outlet on my Mackie 1202. In a case where I need several phone outputs i use a separate phones amp with 4 outlets (cheap model). I cannot hear any difference on the 271's wichever of tha 2 options I use.

 

[visara]

It's amazing to me how people keep on repeating the phrase "industry standard" in this thread, forgetting that there is basically no industry standard in headphones for mixing and mastering purposes. If a pair is a studio standard for recording purposes, it means *nothing* when considering their suitability for actualy music production and mixing work. All pro studios do their mixdown primarily on studio monitors.

So when the guy is asking for headphones that give a reliable sound so that eqing and other mixdown processing translates well to speakers, let's just forget about the industry standard hype, ok?

 

[erikzen]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emusic Decent Amp? Not sure what you mean.

Stick around. Read the boards. You'll soon understand.

 

[erikzen]

Quote:

Originally Posted by visara If a pair is a studio standard for recording purposes, it means *nothing* when considering their suitability for actualy music production and mixing work. All pro studios do their mixdown primarily on studio monitors.

Although I'm no pro engineer or expert, I do have a good friend who has worked at many studios and we spent many a late hour together when he would sneak my band into his studios just so he could get away from sweetening yet another radio or TV spot. Headphones are used for recording because the help isolate sound. You don't want to use a monitor to hear yourself or your bandmates because you don't want the mic to pick up what's coming out of the monitors. You want each track to be completley isolated and clean. During mixdown you do generally use monitors since headphones really give you an artificial sound compared to how live music actually sounds.

On a side note, I onced asked my engineer friend and some of his co-workers about headphone burn-in. They looked at me like I had two heads. Headphones for them were just tools to make sure you can hear sound. They aren't made for listening to music. That's what speakers are for. So burn in, even if it did occur, didn't matter to them.

The reason I am interested in this thread is threefold: I can't afford to buy decent monitors, I have no place to put them on my desk and I have to deal with ambient noise. I'm primarily looking for crackles and pops when I convert LPs to CDs and headphones pick those anomolies up better than my cheap computer speakers.

 

[Emusic]

Quote:

Originally Posted by erikzen Stick around. Read the boards. You'll soon understand.

Lol; too busy making music. point is I'm norwegian. Was trying to find out what you meant as my K271's sounds great already and I dont think I have a decent amp.
Your answer didnt make me any brighter; anyways - good day

 

[erikzen]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emusic Your answer didnt make me any brighter; anyways - good day

Sorry I've been known in certain circles to be pretty much of a wise ass, although I try to behave myself around here. Sorry for taking your quote out of context.

You'll find that one of the main topics of discussion around here is headphone amps. Many of today's modern speaker amp either do not have headphone jacks or have an output impedence that is not good for driving headphones - or it's just plain bad. Likewise, portable equipment sometimes has headphone jacks that do not adequately drive high impedence, low sensitivity headphones. To get the ultimate performance out of better headphones a dedicated headphone amp is recommended by many.

I suggest you skip the amp discussion altogether and continue making music.

Otherwise...

Welcome to Head-Fi. Sorry about your wallet.