Headphone mixing - question about tonality

[JohnD71651]

Hi!I have to mix over headphones because of neighbors and general lack of money and use KRK KNS 8400 for that. Now I've checked some mixes with my girlfriends Beyer DT770 Pro for the first time and to my surprise they sounded very different. Other than expected, they seem to have less bass and in comparison to the KRKs much finer separation in the stereo panorama, they sound sort of less compact. Now I'm wondering whether they have too much high end and not enough low end on real monitors.

Here is an example:

https://soundcloud.com/darkmoon-13/chee ... i-fi-theme

It's a bit special because it doesn't contain any real bass but I also never planned to add one Anyway, I'd be interested how this cheesy 80s instrumental sounds over good monitors (I chose this mix because it is... expandable). Is it too harsh?

[Raz_klinghoffer]

Don't ever judge a song's low end on headphones
Headphones doesn't produce low end, always take your mixes out to monitors, even if it's only for tweaking the low end

The DT770 are bright , and always sound open, so you basically described the headphones
Try adding more low mid to the bass, I think that's what's missing on headphones, but honestly it's hard to tell

[Nightpolymath]

Hi!I have to mix over headphones because of neighbors and general lack of money and use KRK KNS 8400 for that. Now I've checked some mixes with my girlfriends Beyer DT770 Pro for the first time and to my surprise they sounded very different. Other than expected, they seem to have less bass and in comparison to the KRKs much finer separation in the stereo panorama, they sound sort of less compact. Now I'm wondering whether they have too much high end and not enough low end on real monitors.

Are the DT770 Pros the high impedance version? The DT770 Pro, while great headphones, are a bitch to drive due to the high impedance (250 Ohms). Anything that high will normally require good amping (read: not cheap, but good amping). In contrast, your KRK KNS 8400 are low impedance phones that are probably more versatile in terms of usage for different power sources. Compared to the DT990, the DT770s are also meant to provide a pretty flat frequency response. I liken it to the AKG 701s, notoriously inefficient to drive, but really superb with the right amp, providing good low end that is both tight and well defined.