[moth]

I have DAW at my home and I am doing electronic music for several years now. The music is about non commercial electronica, something like Aphex Twin, Autechre and generaly, Warp label kind of music. I am working in low noise appartment.

So, I need to find headphones in the price range of 130$-200$ that will be used for composition, monitoring and to less extent vocal recording.

Currently, I have best opinion for AKG K 271 but I have doubts toward AKG K 240M since, according to the press, they dont colorize the sound to big extent. I generaly use a lot of spatial effects in my music so I dont know if AKG 271 is the right choice since they are closed-back. The good thing is they are light (240g) which is important since I do my music a lot, and that I can record vocals without noise (I have no ventilators on my computer), and of course replacable cable since I already did some bad things to my other headphones.

I also found Beyer Dynamic DT-990 Pro to be my next candidate.

I appriciate every help you can give me. Of course, I expect to hear other propositions if you have them.

I will use them with high quality sound card like EMU 1820 or Lynx 2 and my plan is to buy active monitors in the near future (in the price range of 500-800 Euros). I dont have headphones amp and I will probably plug them in audio card audio interface.


Thanks

 

[E.B.M.Head]

I think any AKG isn't a good choice for your type of music. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that AKG Headphones are crap, the opposite is the case. They are doing a great job for voice, pop and classical reproduction, but with their recessed bass and trebble they are not ideal for modern electronical stuff. Here are the frequency reponse curves of the K 271S and the DT 990 (The DT 880 is included as a relative flat headphone):

To me the DT 990 would be the winner for composing and monitoring as it has a very speaker or even club like soundsignature. But it's an open headphone and does leak a lot, so you can't use it for singing. The K 271 beats it here no doubt:

I would say K 271S or K 240S do a good job for this purpose if you want to hear mainly your singing and if it doesnt bother you that the music sounds different to that what you composed. If you want the same soundsignature, then DT 770 Pro or DT 770 M might be the closest possible choice.
I think you will definitely need two cans.

 

[JeffL]

For studio work, you'll find the DT770s have a pretty good reputation. For any type of monitoring, you'll definetly want closed cans to make sure you can hear all the details of the recording.

The 770s have a ginormous sound stage, and are recommended cans for gaming and movies. You won't be disappointed with these if you like to use reverb and other spatial effects in your mixes.

If you really want an open can, the DT990s are like the 770s but without as much bass.

Just make sure, if you go with the DT770s, to go with the 80 Ohm pro version, not the 250 Ohm version. The 600 Ohm version is good too, but they need a very powerful amp.

 

[catscratch]

DT770's are an option, but you do have to understand that they're not even remotely balanced. They have a very overpowering bass, a sharp treble, and recessed mids. This is a sound signature that will make electronica more, well, energizing to listen to, but it's not IMO ideal for monitoring. There, you'll want headphones that are significantly more neutral.

I would suggest the Audio-Technical ATH-A900. It's in the price range, is very easy to drive, and sounds very good. It also has a slightly recessed midrange, but is much more balanced overall than the DT770. It should also be much less fatiguing in the long run.

 

[JeffL]

Uh, have you ever heard the DT770/80s?

Anyway

What is to say you can mix with a neutral can, and not a colored one? It's not like the DT770s sound any different than most club systems I've heard anyway, which are by far anything from neutral, yet these are massive systems that get used day and night by DJs constantly spinning their stuff.

If you like the sound of a specific headphone, and then you monitor with a bass shy can, your instinct is to crank the bass, do whatever to get it to sound right, which screws the mix up for everyone.

The A900s are by far anything but neutral cans, either, and besides, go and ask any decent studio what headphones they use, and you'll find the DT770s are up their on the lists of cans they use.

 

[moth]

I think that DT770 are great with that soundstage and isolation and comfort, but what about so loud bass. I dont know whether they mask mids a lot or no. Some help here would be appriciated. Just to mention, I generealy dont like strong bass, I am not drum&bass fun, far from that. I mainly use sub bass line or doesnt have bass at all (for instance in ambiental works) or it is some not-so-punchy line like in dub compositions.

I saw on headphonesreviews.org that somebody mention that DT990 PRO doesnt have that "insane amount of bass" like DT770.

So, I guess that will have to be DT880 ? According to the same source, they are neutral and excelent for electronic music.

 

[catscratch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JeffL Uh, have you ever heard the DT770/80s? Anyway

Yes I have. That's why I would recommend the A900 over them for monitoring purposes. It's not the most neutral can out there, but it is far more neutral than the DT770. You claim that not having enough bass will cause you to overemphasize bass in the mix, well having too much bass will cause you to do the opposite, so the argument is void. You're right that once you're used to a headphone and it's particular sound you can infer the neutral sound by mentally deleting the colorations, but having a can that's more neutral to begin with will make this much easier.

 

[Svperstar]

I listen to mostly Warp and artists that sound like Warp, Aphex, Autechre, Plaid, Squarepusher, Kid 606, Uziq, Boards of Canada........I think you get the drift.

I love my Sennheiser 595s, everything sounds very clear, The MSRP for these is 249.99, but a quick net search or ebay search will get you a price around $180.

 

[Banfi T.]

I think this situation is very different from the usual headphone search scenarios. Any not calculated coloration could result to a disaster. For example you take the AKG with the recessed highs and you balance it on the mixer so you feel the end result is perfect. Then someone tries to hear your record with a DT990 Pro and can't bear its too birght sound. The opposite is also true, if you use the Dt990Pro and the "user" has the AKG.

In this situation the most neutral phone is needed and you have to get familiar with its sound signature because there is no perfect phone.

Of course this question is more general also. Have you heard about radio play friendly records? The first three Tori Amos record was absolutely superb for example. Great piano play, overwhelming dynamics, you could feel that there is a Bösendorfer Grand Imperial. Then, from the forth album they were recorded to be radio friendly. No real dynamics ('cause usual radios do not have a very good S/N ratio and they are mostly used in noisy enviroments. No point to have realy silent part), an equalized high and bass frequency range (to make it sound loud.) All this is for marketing. On the other hand on a good system they sound like crap. I was at a high-end show, where two Tori Amos records were demonstrated, one earlier and one recent. It was very sad to hear the way down. Lets walk this path...

 

[JeffL]

So what is neutral anyway? What does it sound like?

How do you know, without looking at the frequency response graphs, that the A900s are more neutral than the DT770s?

Mix with the cans that sound best to you, not the most neutral cans.

And anyway, don't confuse DT770/80 with DT770/250. They are completely different creatures.

 

[mverscho]

moth:

Just an idea; since you have a decent sound card, why not use audio test tones (from NCH Tone Generator or similar) to determine equalization (best to use cut rather than boost) to set your existing phones for a *percieved* even response with
a software-based equalizer (such as Foobar). Try graphing your personal response relative to a baseline tone (say, 1000Hz) for each ear.

Because K271s have bass rolloff, you may never get them to sound right without boost; thus the requirement for a new set of cans with the missing frequencies built-in?

Cheers

 

[upangel180]

I'll second the recommendation for 595's that someone made above. While some say they lack in bass impact, what's there is tight and deep (especially with a decent sound card). They are fairly neutral, and have a great soundstage. They are great for ambient music/monitoring, since they focus on clean and detailed mids.

 

[moth]

cmon people, you make me nervous.

I definitely dont know what to do now.
I thought that DT 880 was perfect choice because somebody mentiond that they acctualy make you analyze sound and thats great for electronic music production.

I dont know anybody listening WARP label releases on cheep hi-fi. So, lets be real, the more complex music is, it has less funs and they are very much interested in sound quality in general. So, at this stage, I want it to be the best it can in mentioned way.

Nobody answered my question about DT880

 

[fewtch]

If you want neutrality, look for headphones that many people refer to as "boring." The Senn HD580/600/650 family is certainly up there, although a certain region of lower to mid treble is recessed (at least on the 580/600).

 

[adhoc]

Quote:

Originally Posted by moth cmon people, you make me nervous. I definitely dont know what to do now. I thought that DT 880 was perfect choice because somebody mentiond that they acctualy make you analyze sound and thats great for electronic music production. I dont know anybody listening WARP label releases on cheep hi-fi. So, lets be real, the more complex music is, it has less funs and they are very much interested in sound quality in general. So, at this stage, I want it to be the best it can in mentioned way. Nobody answered my question about DT880

i have owned the dt880 and i, at one point, used them unamped.

they will not be satisfactorily powered from any plain soundcard out; i'm not even talking about fulfilling their max potential here - i'm just talking about volume alone.

but fwiw, i thoroughly enjoyed them with electronica - certainly far more than any other cans i have owned, and that includes the grados.

they have an incredibly liquid deep end that just swallows you up.