Jump to content

What are the best headphones in your opinion?


Recommended Posts

I use Audio Technica ATH-M50x, they’re comfy. They translate quite good to Genelecs. How they translate to other listening devices I don’t know fully yet. :) I’m sure with experience one can learn how they skew the levels. 

I notice that I often tend to lowcut stuff a lot more than necessary in general on headphones. Not sure if these are to blame for that though. Probably just a side-effect in general, from long headphones sessions.  And a bad habit of raising the volume higher and higher. I usually sit at night, so I can’t make lot’s of noise then either on monitors.

As a plus they are really nice for general music listening as well, on the phone and computer. I can only really compare these with some AKG and Beyerdynamic I before them. In comparison I think these are better suited for electronic music overall.

I just wish one could buy new ears as well. :D Mine are quite bad now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

m50x and other cheaper "mixing" headphones like dt-770 and srh440 arent really that great for mixing and mastering..

they all have really strong freq curves with emphasis on both bass and treble. Which will make your mixing quite a pain.

they are decent for referencing after youve learned their curve, but mixing on them is not really a good option.

But, you could look into Sonarworks which you put on the master fader that will "neutralize" the freq response with its own corrective EQ based on headphone profiles. m50x has its own profile for example. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, astralprojection said:

m50x and other cheaper "mixing" headphones like dt-770 and srh440 arent really that great for mixing and mastering..

they all have really strong EQ curves with emphasis on both bass and treble. Which will make your mixing quite a pain.

they are decent for referencing after youve learned their curve, but mixing on them is not really a good option.

But, you could look into Sonarworks which you put on the master fader that will "neutralize" the eq curves with its own corrective EQ based on headphone profiles. m50x has its own profile for example. 

also i strongly recommend buying at least a 5" monitor pair, since mixes get lost real easy in headphones and even more so on cheaper ones..

 

Of course, but his price range was around 100 euros. For entry level that's the type of quality that's expected. In the end the headphones can only do so much for the mix. The monitors are definitely the key aspect, but has he pointed out, unfortunately he can't use monitors due to residential area/neighbours. From my experience atleast trying out some low to mid price-range of headphones. I could never get used to AKG, and Beyerdynamic, but others love those. So in the end, it's very much a personal preference. I'm not particularly good at mixing in headphones anyways. :P And I don't thing some more expensive headphones would solve it for me either. It's just incredibly difficult to get the mixes to translate well from headphones to speakers.

Anyways I wish the OP best of luch in finding a good pair of headphones, I'm sure you'll try out a couple of different brands. The Sonarworks software seems really cool I tried the demo. I love how much different emulations they have of different target audio experiences. Iphone speakers, Macbooks, car speakers etc. :D Anyone compared to see how well these curves translate to the real world counterparts? My demo expired so I only tested it briefly.

What headphones would you recommend in general for Psy/Goa? If the price isn't limited to 100 euros? I would like to upgrade, not sure to which model though. I'm noticing more and more the skewed aspect of the curve of these headphones as you mention. Particularly when adjusting the leads/mid/top in relation to the low-end. It's almost as if the curve gets tilted while adjusting those in relation to one another. Could be placebo as well. :) 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes I saw his pricerange. Just wanted to make sure he doesnt have too much of a high hope with those kind of headphones.

There are in fact better ones in that same price area, by brands that are not as famous as say AT or beyer but offers a more flat freq response. Id go on Thomann, sort by price; then check out the ratings and reviews! (and preferably google their freq response - not that an image of the freq response will tell you how they sound but can give you a hint what to expect)

Also headphones in general will ofc not be as good as a pair of speakers but headphones can also be very valuable and they Can be doable. After many tries with many headphones I ended up with the SRH940 which to me sounds the closest to monitors (at a fairly decent price) and theyre pretty easy to listen to, with tight sub (some say sub light but i say its perfect) and slight increase around 12k thats pretty easy to get used to) but ofc thats a bit above his price range. Maybe save up a bit, would be an even better option!

edit: I would absolutely scour the 2nd hand market first! You can find gems there. I found my srh940 there for around 100 eur.

also an open pair if youve not had that before can be a great option but theyre usually more expensive and dont offer better mixing, just a more impressive sound. i had the akg 712 but dont miss it one bit..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks! Will check out those you mention. In general a problem I've encountered when researching which headphones could be good for Goa Trance, is that most tests of headphones are by people who make either pop/acoustic music or some other genre with very different sound preferences. For example this Swedish test of headphones, while somewhat informative is a bit biased and they don't really explain what genres they produce/mix/master:

https://play.acast.com/s/musikproddpodden/-86detstorahorlurstestet-?utm_source=listen+later&utm_medium=email

Anyone know any comparisons which is geared specifically atleast towards the Psy-side of the spectrum? Another thing which is problematic and that they talk about in the Swedish test, is how differently a lot of headphones behave on different volumes. This inconsistency can make it difficult to properly assess how applied distortion effects are really coloring/distorting the sound, among other things.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...