[EFN]

Uncolored presentation and surgical precision is the hallmark of Etymotic ER-4S - that if you don't mind plugging IEM into your ear canals. I think ER-4B would push that even further but it's designed for monitoring unmastered recordings.

 

[nikongod]

no akg k-1000?

no stax "eq'd" (with stax built ed1) lambda pros?

no o2's?

 

[spinali]

AKG K701 seems to have become the standard. Very interesting.

 

[redshifter]

i have access to a number of fine phones, but for monitoring headphones i reach for the sony mdr v6. they are not exactly neutral, but you hear everything, magnified. any flaws are easily heard, and can be corrected before they become big problems down stream.

if you are producing recordings headphones will only take you half way. really the final mixing stages should be through monitor speakers, and that is where neutrality becomes more important. you can mix something that sounds wonderful in your headphones, only to find it is incoherent on speakers. keep in mind some producers also monitor through heavily colored speakers as well, as this is what the recording will typically be played through.

 

[nothing101]

i think the worst case of bad monitors (or bassheads) ive heard is a band called unwritten law. i dont like their music much anyway but their music sounds unnaturally bassy. on anything but my 501s it sounds horribly boomy. i dont know if this was the fault of the equipment or if it was deliberate but i cant stand the way it sounds in more than one way

 

[Shoewreck]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alucard /img/forum/go_quote.gif If you look at the other graphs on this site NONE of them has a curve as flat as the AD700. The AD700 is flatter than both ^_^

Measured flat won't sound flat.

btw, see my sig for another neutral headphone - K240DF. Timbres seem to be reproduced very naturally!
Regretfully, some irregularities on highs makes 'em sound somewhat harsh, and some touch of bass dirth and absence makes bass monitoring nearly impossible. Not too much resolution compared to K501, but still nice.

 

[Carl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shoewreck /img/forum/go_quote.gif Measured flat won't sound flat.

Which leads us to the metaphysical question "what does flat sound like".

 

[eruditass]

1)take two flat boards
2)smack against ears in simultaneous synchronized fasion
3)take mental note
4)ponder the meaning of life


etymotic's research has determined what flat sounds like, duh

 

[MaZa]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Carl /img/forum/go_quote.gif Which leads us to the metaphysical question "what does flat sound like".

Probaply like a headphone that follows accurately the average of normal human ears hearing frequency curve? (which isnt a straight flat line AFAIK)

But then again, what headphone does sound like that?

 

[mirumu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shoewreck /img/forum/go_quote.gif Measured flat won't sound flat.

I don't disagree, but I wonder why this is the case. If the recording microphones were flat and nothing was lost in the recording (I'm talking theoretically here of course), then a flat headphone should sound just as flat as the original source irrespective of our ears. i.e. if the sound goes out with the same response curve that it had coming in then our ears would hear something very close to the original source.

I can only assume that the problem is that either microphones are not remotely flat or that something in the recording/playback pipeline does not treat all frequencies equally so by the time the signal hits the headphone it has been in effect EQ'd by passing through the system.

 

[mirumu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaZa /img/forum/go_quote.gif Probaply like a headphone that follows accurately the average of normal human ears hearing frequency curve? (which isnt a straight flat line AFAIK)

That wouldn't sound flat at all I expect. It would exaggerate the frequency response of our ears even further.

 

[MaZa]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mirumu /img/forum/go_quote.gif That wouldn't sound flat at all I expect. It would exaggerate the frequency response of our ears even further.

Good point.

 

[Carl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DoomzDayz /img/forum/go_quote.gif etymotic's research has determined what flat sounds like, duh

Hardly. They may have roughly mapped out the frequency effects of "typical" human ear canals and made IEMs voiced to approximate that, but issues such as head related transfer functions, soundfield effects, and the complex phase and harmonic spectra relationships between our inner and outer ear are barely understood by anybody. So unless our musical experiences consist soley of listening to binaural recordings of harmonicless test-tones through technically perfect amplification, I feel I can safely say that no one knows what flat sounds like.


Quote:

Originally Posted by mirumu /img/forum/go_quote.gif I don't disagree, but I wonder why this is the case. If the recording microphones were flat and nothing was lost in the recording (I'm talking theoretically here of course), then a flat headphone should sound just as flat as the original source irrespective of our ears. i.e. if the sound goes out with the same response curve that it had coming in then our ears would hear something very close to the original source. I can only assume that the problem is that either microphones are not remotely flat or that something in the recording/playback pipeline does not treat all frequencies equally so by the time the signal hits the headphone it has been in effect EQ'd by passing through the system.

The FR effect of our pinna and ear canals is of the order of +/- 30dB at varying frequencies (not to mention harmonic distortion in excess of 60%!). The "neutral" FR curve for IEMs, supra-aural, and circum-aural headphones are very much different.

And even that is assuming that you're listening to a binaural recording made to tight tollerances in an anechoic chamber without any equalization (ie. diffuse field, free field) being applied to the microphone. In other words, dream world stuff.

 

[Wmcmanus]

From my experience, I'd have to agree that there is no one 'perfect' pair of headphones for this purpose.

My guess is that the closest you will come is with the Stax 4070. I've got a pair now, but unfortunately they're not where I'm at and thus I haven't had a chance to give them a listen yet. Carl is the man if you want to follow up with someone on this recommendation. See here:

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showth...ight=stax+4070

And here:

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showth...ight=stax+4070

Or just send him a PM. They're not cheap, about $1,250 from pricejapan.com and more than that from other sources. Plus you would need to get a dedicated electrostat amp to go with them. But from what Carl has been saying (and he has a ton of headphone experience), they're #1 as far as "pure" monitors go.

For dynamic headphones, my first choice would be the Ultimate Ears 10-Pro (or similar, such as Westone ES-2 or Sensaphonics 2X-S), followed by the Grado HP-1000. The only problem with the Grados is the lack of isolation. They're otherwise 'perfect' for the job in terms of neutrality and that sort of thing, at least IMO.

 

[Wmcmanus]

Oh shoot! Look who posted right as I was typing my response! What say you about the 4070, Carl?