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Hi, I'm looking at getting a set of headphones. I've always been a fan of sound isolating ear-buds but I've had probably 5 pairs fail/wear out on me, so I decided if I'm going to dish out some money for yet another listening device I might as well get a nice set of headphones that won't wear out within a year if I use them daily. Also I recently bout a Zoom R24 and am going to be doing lots of recording so, I need some headphones that are versatile,"something that will sound amazing with my ipod, zoom, and my computer." I have to stay under $100 dollars, and after spending days on end doing research I still can't decide/find what I want in that price range. I want accurate sound reproduction so what I hear while im mixing is what it will sound like when played threw other devices, and I do want good bass, but not "boomy." I have friends with sets of $40 skull candies and what not and the bass is overly present but is sketchy in my mind, "very muddy." On some songs its okay but on any normal song everything sounds so muddy as they'r trying to boost the bass and it ruins it. I just want good solid punchy bass, with accurate sound reproduction on the full spectrum. What would you guys recommend/what do you all use?
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The best headphones cover the entire ear like a cup.
Earbuds are a joke. There are no ear buds with a diaphragm area large enough to actually reproduce accurate bass.
There are no good headphones for $100. There are only "acceptable" headphones for $100.
The type of headphone to avoid is one that presses pads or foam against the ear or ear lobes.
This can become very painful, as that it can reduce blood circulation...
If you only have $100, a good place to start is Sennheiser (HD280 PRO for example)
BUT reviews in audio are pretty much worthless. It's your own ears that should be the judge.
Good headphones (Like STAX electrostatic) are easily $800-$3000. -
my son and daughter love the Sony MDR-V6 for isolated listening, and many people swear by their US made Grado SR60i's which are open ear.
I always thought Siegfried Linkwitz's approach to equalizing ear buds to become reference audio quality would be a fun project.
Reference earphones
he's got a simple circuit which makes $50 Sony earbuds (MDR-EX71SL) pretty close to ruler flat and fancier circuits for ER-4S Etymotic'sComment
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Unless you intend to mix for phones and not speakers, headphones in recording really are best used for timing and pitch information during recording but not fidelity or balance. Headphones listening in Bin-aural recording however is a spectacular experience, not even good mics or phones are needed.
Flat response is not a major requirement of close ear monitoring, radical changes to SPL at various frequencies with slight movements of the phones, changes to the enclosed air volume under the ear cup, or even breathing so find something that is comfortable, and not having too much ear pressure. Our ear-brain combination are not used to tiny enclosed acoustic spaces so any phones will not sound like a naturally occurring sonic experience, but it can be pleasant. Just not very realistic. Since it not going to trick the brain into thinking it is real, just try some for comfort and lack if irritating characteristics. For you, they will be perfect satisfying those criteria. If it sounds good, to you, it is. Everyone's comfort level and head shape is different so try phones on, try lots. What is comfortable for one person is likely not comfortable to the next person, which is why asking for personal recommendations is not as effective as just going to a well stocked store and wearing as many as you can.Comment
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good points! listening comfort is one of the most important variables for cans!
One persons ear nirvana can be another's torture implement..Comment
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Thanks, for the replies everybody... Unfortunately i don't have a way to try anything other than what my friends have(which isn't much) so i'm kind of stumbling around in the dark. i needed something to hold me over while i was deciding what to get for headphones so when i saw some cheap little $5 RCA sound isolating ear buds at my local dollar store a grabbed a pair just so i'd have something for my iPod for now. They were probably some of the worst sounding ear buds i've used yet. I tried making them better with those stupid eq presents you get with ios and they absolutely nothing but then, i went on the app store and got a 10 band eq for .99 cents. I can't believe i didn't do that earlier... It has been such a great tool and i was actually able to get those buds sounding pretty decent considering what they are. It'll be great to see how well that eq app works with something of higher sound quality.Comment
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Back on the original topic though of headphones i'm still sort of at loss for what to try. i don't really want to be buying and sending back multiple sets of headphones, one after another until i get something i like so i guess i'll just keep researching and see if i can come to a decision sooner or later. I was talking to my father about all of this and he pointed something out to me that i'd never been real informed on. I was telling him what kind of ranges these headphones have, and he started telling about how pointless it is to think you need headphones with even 20hz to 20khz. I didn't understand why so he hooked up a signal generate to a speaker and showed me what 20hz to 20khz sounds like... 1st off i physically can't hear anything past about 16khz and anyway i don't know what kind of music is actually up in that range. it seams like most stuff was around 1khz. and as for the low spectrum there was no "musical bass" way down at like 10 to 20hz mostly just the air moving off the speaker cone. After this little lesson he gave me i can't see why anyone would pay hundreds more for headphones that have ranges that are supposedly like 5hz to 50khz. It's amazing how much you don't realize you don't know until you start learning...Comment
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I have some (currently broken on one side) etymotic ER-6 (if mem. serves) which I like in the way that they are sort of like earplugs and shut out much of the background noise just by the design and consequently help me "hear better" (or primarily just hear the source), and also allow me to keep at lower volumes (I don't want to further damage my hearing--I have some tinnitis). (As an aside, the isolation from environmental noise could present a higher risk if there is traffic, muggers, etc. FWIW to my ears, the "sponge" ends had higher isolation, while the transparent "double mushroom" ends have a bit less, so since I want to be able to at least hear a little bit of environmental noise I use those.) Also have a pair of Fostex T50RP which seem to be helpful for "critical listening" (judging the sound of gear and sound clips).
Additionally, the headphone amplifier also seems to have an effect on sound quality as well as impedance (mismatches could cause anomalies and peakiness/shrillness and so on).Comment
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Interesting. Earbuds, like anything else, come in a range of qualities. They may not have a diaphragm large enough to reproduce low notes - IN FREE AIR, but they are pretty close to the size of the eardrums that will have to receive the sound. Your ear canal is not 15" across.
personally I hate listening on phones. The sound seems inside my head, and I don;t like that turning my head has no effect on the sound. Plus, phones block out the ambient sounds. No, I am not in favor of interfering sounds, but I also don;t like the efect of my head under a pillow. When I was a DJ (on the radio, not the dance bar type) I did what a lot of guys did, I wore the phones over one ear, and parked the other side behind my ear on my skull. I could hear my voice and cues in one ear, but still had the sound of the room to make talking seem normal. Full cover phones many times makes people sing/talk too loud (can they hear me?) or very soft (white people singing in church).
WHen mixing, I use them so I can hear specific channels or sub mixes or other special circumstances. They won;t sound like speakers though. I mainly use my phones to test the headphone circuit of a mixer or other device. Plus when checking out a mixer, I can put the L-R on the shop speakers, and use the phones to step through the AUX sends. Or other similar approaches.
The phones I use are old AKG K-141. They sound good enough and are not tiring to wear. A number of people have commented they liked them, and to date no one has hated them.
Problem with any of us recommending a model is that you may not like them as well as we do. It is liike recommending an imported beer or a selection on a restaurant menu. Tastes vary.Education is what you're left with after you have forgotten what you have learned.Comment
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Very true...Comment
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I few months ago I started getting some old "treasures" on reel tape digitized. My old Audio Technica phones were in poor shape, and someone suggested the Sony MDR 7506. I found a set on the bay for around $50 shipped, (from China). I have really liked them for what I was doing, (monitoring, not mixing), and can wear them for quite a while. (They sound full range, but I know my hearing isn't.)Comment
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Ya, i think these are what i'm considering at the moment.
Amazon.com: Shure SRH240 Professional Quality Headphones (Black): Electronics
http://www.amazon.com/Numark-RED-WAV...7726323&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Shure-SRH440-P...7725347&sr=8-1
I'm having a hard time choosing. I have a feeling the shure440s will probably be the best overall quality and probably the most accurate sound reproduction. I do like the way the shure240s look though, but they don't have nearly as good of reviews as the 440s. The numarks look alright and the pads are leather which i kind of like and dislike, though im afraid these will have too much bass/be not as clear as the shures plus now they went up in price and they'r probably not as good of a deal as the shures anymore, so i just don't know. It's probably more between the Shure240s and the Shure440s. I wish the 440s looked like the 240s and now that i went on shures site to look over the specs again i see they discontinued them, though you can still buy them. Erg... Decisions.Comment
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FYI the MDR 7506 are identical to the MDR-V6 I mentioned earlier!Originally posted by Bill Moore View Post
some reviews here
http://www.headphonereviews.org/headphones.phpComment
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I love my Sennheiser HD-580 headphones, which I bought used and have had for years. Although this particular model appears no longer to be in production, they sound great and have held up better than any other headphones I've ever had.Comment
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i just ordered a pair of shure srh440's from amazon and they should be here by friday... I've got my fingers crossed. I sure hope these turn out to be something worthwhile.Comment
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