what are the most accurate sounding headphones?

[SteveA]

Originally Posted by MikeBmusic

So you have no music posted online that people would hear on their computer speakers? No chance someone would play one of your songs on a sound system with speakers.

I do about 75% of my mixing with them, due to the same family/noise issues. But when I'm getting close to where I want to be with the mix, I turn on my monitors, and adjust accordingly. My truck is probably the best listening spot for me because I know exactly how good mixes sound in it.

Good points....I LIKE the final Mix movement there....that makes a ton of sense....Can I use that to "pitch" to my wife as for the reason for another musical expense???? I do need monitors, no doubt...My point to my post is sometimes we gotta make do with where we are....Why can't I ever win one of those $5000 Studio giveaways I always enter and never hear who or if anyone wins?

I guess we all need a familiar spot like your truck for us to use as our Barometer...Mine is my kids IPod...I use it for running and the gym...have all my music stacked up with my Library of country, classic rock et al....

[muscmp]

Originally Posted by heavyg

Sony MDR- 7506 industry standard you can't go wrong with these tried and tested cans...

accurate is sort of a vague term, but, i also use the sony 7506 as well as the sennheiser hd280. both are less than $100. the sony is more comfortable, if that matters.

the op didn't ask but since people are volunteering, i record with headphones and mix with monitors. i want the best sound i can possibly get and thus don't worry about whether it will be played back on a $10000 system or via ear buds on an iphone. it should transfer properly.

play music!

[Bob Womack]

In the professional market the goal has usually been to maximize the mix for the largest number of listeners possible. If you were marketing to AM radio and expected to see your largest audience there, you'd emphasize a monitor array that supported that. However, most wise mixers tried to check their mixes on a wide range of playback systems. It is true that as the various media and playback formats have proliferated some have abandoned one format or another. I remember a period in the 1980s when boom boxes became popular and mixers began abandoning the large-format monitors for the small Yamaha NS-10m. You could always tell when an engineer had ONLY used those horrible beasties because there would either be a huge buildup of low frequencies or none at all because:

1) the NS10m was overly bright and shrill and would rip off your head unless you put toilet tissue in front of the tweeter and
2) it had very little response in the low end so you couldn't hear anything low...

It was a double whammy. For a while there the professional products sounded very cool in the studio on the NS-10s and on the radio and horrible everywhere else.

I always suggest that people mix on speakers and check on headphones. The trend... trend, mind you, is toward earbud listening but trends are ALWAYS on the front edge, ie, on the edge of the pack. That means that you can create a crappy product for a crappy playback medium and there will still be a LARGE part of the market that isn't trendy and is still listening on good speakers and will hear your product that is finely-tune for crappiness as, well...

crappy.

Think on. I know I will...


Bob

[alohachris]

Aloha musicianvw,

I'd try out a bunch of headphones before ya buy & use the following criteria:

- accurate
- detailed
- real sound, unhyped & balanced
- semi-enclosed (for all kinds of recording apps)
- very comfortable (for hours of listening)
- very durable (get two pairs, you may need them - most break - w/ replaceable cables)
- not too pricey

I've been using AKG Studio K-240's since '83. They fit the criteria completely for my acoustic recordings. Not the only ones used for sure, the K-240 has been THE industry standard for over three decades.

My second choice would be the Audio Technica MTH-M50 for the same reasons.

I've tried 'em all, including $16K electro-static cans. I stick with tke AKG Studio K-240's. I even buy them used (& clean them well) to save money (under $100).

FWIW, I use Adam A7X monitors. Same criteria.

alohachris

[YamaYairi]

Originally Posted by SteveA

Good points....I LIKE the final Mix movement there....that makes a ton of sense....Can I use that to "pitch" to my wife as for the reason for another musical expense???? I do need monitors, no doubt...My point to my post is sometimes we gotta make do with where we are....Why can't I ever win one of those $5000 Studio giveaways I always enter and never hear who or if anyone wins?

I guess we all need a familiar spot like your truck for us to use as our Barometer...Mine is my kids IPod...I use it for running and the gym...have all my music stacked up with my Library of country, classic rock et al....

If you are on a budget you can get really nice, accurate speakers on the used market. Some suggestions:
Dynaco A25 (these are what I use)
Celestion 3
ADS smaller models will fit nicely on your mixing desk.
I have a pair of B&W speakers that are wonderful, can't remember the model.
Pretty much any KEF speaker
If you have room for a larger speaker:
AR3A
AR2ax
KLH6
KLH14
Advent Legacy (These are amazing sounding speakers you can pick up dirt cheap.)
Any of the above speakers can be purchased for a reasonable price, some for under $100, and all are better than what most people have in their stereo systems.

[musicianvw]

i asked this question cause i was using a pair of sennheiser hd 555 then i got another pair and it just seems like a huge change in sound well the sennheisers have extra bass and i just want a pair of head phones that have the true sound of the guitar i am recording. not just to make it sound great then when i put it on a cd and play it it doesn't.

[SteveA]

Okay..It's official....I have GAS for a better set of headphones....

Guess I will make my choice my Christmas request

[Bowie]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

It was a double whammy. For a while there the professional products sounded very cool in the studio on the NS-10s and on the radio and horrible everywhere else.

Some of the best sounding records of all time were recorded on NS10s. While those speakers are miserable in many aspects, you simply can't say they ruined the music.


In regard to monitors vs cans, I'm a firm believer in mixing through monitors because room reflections are a real world factor that must be accounted for. Cans are excellent for hearing subtleties lost in speaker monitoring. Trying to mix in cans alone typically produces a myriad of problems.

[Feste]

Interesting thread... Great input all around

[Bob Womack]

Originally Posted by Bowie

Some of the best sounding records of all time were recorded on NS10s. While those speakers are miserable in many aspects, you simply can't say they ruined the music.

I was speaking to a little more nuanced issue, if you will: Actually, most professionally recorded music was recorded using the large soffit-mounted monitors and then mixed using the NS-10ms. That difference made all the difference in the world. The original recordings would be balanced well and then the mix was built on the NS-10Ms. With a good engineer/producer team that knew what they were doing that worked great. However, if you did both recording and mixing on restricted bandwidth speakers you could easily find yourself with huge imbalance issues. I handled a lot of score music that was recorded and mixed in small studios or at home with only NS-10Ms and discovered this the hard way. It's kind of eerie: in the large monitor period you can actually hear the influence of the monitors and the control room design in these recordings. A song from a Westlake (hard front soft back) sounds completely different from one from in a Live End/Dead End (anechoic front diffuse back) room.

In regard to monitors vs cans, I'm a firm believer in mixing through monitors because room reflections are a real world factor that must be accounted for. Cans are excellent for hearing subtleties lost in speaker monitoring. Trying to mix in cans alone typically produces a myriad of problems.

True, true

Bob

[MikeBmusic]

Originally Posted by musicianvw

i asked this question cause i was using a pair of sennheiser hd 555 then i got another pair and it just seems like a huge change in sound well the sennheisers have extra bass and i just want a pair of head phones that have the true sound of the guitar i am recording. not just to make it sound great then when i put it on a cd and play it it doesn't.

Hopefully you read through all the posts on this thread - mixing, just using headphones is not the best way to get the sound you want through speakers. Choose headphones based on the sound you like when tracking, but mix using the suggestions given so that 'playing a CD' sounds good no matter what system its played on.

[rick-slo]

Originally Posted by Bowie

In regard to monitors vs cans, I'm a firm believer in mixing through monitors because room reflections are a real world factor that must be accounted for. Cans are excellent for hearing subtleties lost in speaker monitoring. Trying to mix in cans alone typically produces a myriad of problems.

You have at set of room reflections in the monitoring studio and then a different set of room reflections in the listeners home - while listening on different speakers. Nothing is ideal.

[Bowie]

Originally Posted by rick-slo

You have at set of room reflections in the monitoring studio and then a different set of room reflections in the listeners home - while listening on different speakers. Nothing is ideal.

Of course, but what else do you suggest? For lack of living in an ideal world, we have to do what works best. Mixing in a reasonably treated and arranged room has worked well enough for decades and I don't know anyone who has figured out anything better.

[rick-slo]

Originally Posted by Bowie

Of course, but what else do you suggest? For lack of living in an ideal world, we have to do what works best. Mixing in a reasonably treated and arranged room has worked well enough for decades and I don't know anyone who has figured out anything better.

I think headphones are reasonable if you are just doing solo guitar. Recording a group of instruments and putting them in their own space and frequency ranges is more problematical.

[KenW]

I bought a pair of Sennheiser HD 360's specifically for mic placement,my son wore them all through tracking. I hate listening to music with them.