This is a good thread however studio headphones would have to have two categories, recording/tracking and monitoring.
Yeah, I thought about that. On the other hand, if you're in a place quiet enough to use open headphones, why not use near-field monitors?
For someone that wants one to do both the best is probably the German Maestro because it is moderately accurate for monitoring, will stand up to the tests of different people coming in and using them to track, and the isolation is easily the best out of the bunch. The yamaha and sony will do very well in translating to the near field monitors.
I thought about including other criteria than sound -- i.e. comfort, isolation, durability, price -- but finally decided to downplay (not ignore) those factors, in order to simplify the comparison process. Ideally, I'd be rich, buy all of them, then make a table giving each of them a grade for each criteria, like |joker| does for IEMs and average_joe for CIEMs.
So, if I understand correctly, you place the Sony and Yamaha above the German Maestro, sound-wise, but would give the German Maestro precedence because of other criteria (durability, isolation). Correct? How would you rate them for long-term comfort, while we're at it?
In all honestly headphones that have weak/flat bass don't translate to the monitors in the low end that well. The sony has the mid bass texures and upper bass resolution. It has good sub bass but above 35hz is where it is most relative to near field monitors ...they don't extend as low as headphones so I will give it to the sony for bass monitoring and the yamaha for all around accuracy.
The don't extend as low as headphones? The Sony headphones don't? I'm ... confused.
The latest Audez'e LCD-XC should be on this list, since it's probably one of the best headphones on the planet right now, regardless if sealed or closed-back: http://www.audeze.com/products/headphones/lcd-xc
Yup. Sorry. I meant to check reviews to find out if those were neutrals; I have now, and apparently they are. I've added them to the list.
Natural meaning that it sounds very realistic, with the mids being a little forward, but not too much. They're also VERY comfortable(rivals the DT880) and they're durable.
All right, then.
I added them.
If you want the best of the best hd800's or lcd-3's. Electrostatics are actually more preferable (detail mainly) but off the beaten path. The hd600's and srh1840's are great if you are on a budget. I know the 1840's have terrible graphs but to my ears they are a more comfortable version of the hd600's. HD650's are dark and have more bass than ideal, HD700's were not my cup of tea period, lcd-2's have treble rolloff and it and the he-500 are not the best in detail and weight. Just my 2 cents.
None of those would work as monitoring headphones, though, due to their open nature. But I added a "mixing/mastering only" section to my first post.
