[Sonic Atrocity]

My brother is going to be recording an album soon and he is looking for a pair of headphones that will be good for mixing and mastering. In the future he will be using studio monitors in a treated environment and as such will be making final decisions there. But for the meantime he needs headphones (he lives in an apartment). 
 
He asked me about the Shure 840, Denon D2000 and the Beyerdynamic DT 770. I said that I have heard the 840 is too bass-heavy and that the same applies to the D2000 but as for the Beyer I don't even know. To be honest I have never listened to either of those headphones. 
 
I am assuming he will want a neutral (flat frequency response) pair of headphones that have a realistic (not flashy) sound stage. Would I be correct in that assumption for the sake of his purposes? 
 
What do you guys think? What should he get? What factors could come into play here (impedence, sensitivity, etc)? 
 
FYI his budget is approximately 300 dollars but of course if there is something cheaper that is superior he'd go for that. 

 

[nikp]

SRH840/DT770 will do. The Denons have a relatively fun signature so you can cross it off the list. Check out these headphones too: KRK 8400, Fischer Audio FA-003 / Brainwavz HM5 (Fa-003 clone).

 

[Nightowl217]

I would take a look into the Sony MDR7506, there very good mixing headphones. There pretty neutral, and sound very natural too. Besides that, he could use the extra budget to get a decent headphone amp.

 

[Sonic Atrocity]

Quote:

SRH840/DT770 will do. The Denons have a relatively fun signature so you can cross it off the list. Check out these headphones too: KRK 8400, Fischer Audio FA-003 / Brainwavz HM5 (Fa-003 clone).

I actually own the KRK KNS 8400 and said maybe he wanted to look into them but apparently they are a bit warm from neutral... but I'm not sure if warm enough as to not be reference quality... I love my KRK's by the way. 
 
Personally, I have a bit of an aversion to Fischer Audio. The fact that the Brainwavz, Fischer Audio and the Yoga are all the same headphone concerns me a bit. It seems tacky or something. Also, there are apparently issues with channel balance and the sound stage (as well as the frequency response) changes a fair bit depending on the pads used. Furthermore, several people have reported that when they buy the wooden cups from Fischer Audio they don't even fit. Their shipping procedures seem a bit fishy too.