Best Headphones for Mixing

[acYm]

Mixing with headphones is like having sex with condom. Rather use them for reference and mix on monitors. Invest in acoustic treatment.

that's actually a great analogy. agreed.
in headphones, it all sounds the same and you can only guess at what it will sound like "for real".

[perfumer]

My thoughts about things:

1. You don't need correction software, scrap that entirely. It will get you all messed up, send you tinkering, etc.
2. Are you shure your hearing is OK? Not hearing differences between 10 diff plugins should lead you to the doctor. Just in case.
3. Can you find replacement ear pads for your new headphones? Can you clean those that are on it? They tend to get dirty with use - or wear out, and most expensive phones don't have replacement pads, or I haven't seen any. This can become a huge problem later on.
4. Some of the more expensive ones have awkward curves e.g. DT880pro (made for snobs listening to Italian operas on gramophones), which makes them worse for mixing and general use than cheaper ones e.g. ATH M50x. I have both, so speaking from experience.
5. I'd recommend the M50x. Replacement pads are sold separately, and they sound great.

[jochicago]

After doing some research, I think there's a bracket of headphone quality at which they are all roughly on par and you just have to pick one that suits your style best. The likes of HD 650, AKG 702, ATH M50x, DT 990.

None of them are "perfect". They have few db differences here and there, and unique sound profiles. They shine in one area and fall behind in another. I wish I could borrow a broken-in version of each for a couple weeks to determine which one feels more natural to my ears. But short of that, I'll have to pick one and go with it. However I'm pretty positive that any of them will do the job.

I want pristine clarity so I can hear what I'm doing. Across most serious reviews I keep hearing the DT 990 are very clear and good at revealing the nuance in all frequencies. They are accused of overly bright highs, and it is hard to disagree when the curve at rtings.com shows a 10db boost at 9k. So yeah, I can learn to live with it or compensate. While I'm mixing, I can probably put a small 6k shelf on the master + a notch at 9k. But they all have their things. The Audio Technica chart shows an 8db boost at 10k, plus 2 nasty 8db cuts at 6k and 15k.

I guess that's where the software comes in if you want to shape up the sounds. Or just get used to them.

I like the DT 990 for their pro body (tougher materials) with a very comfortable design for extended use. I like that they are known to have tons of clarity, the bass is even and the mids are near perfect (mids are what I care about the most). I also like the current price. The sharp treble is a small issue that I think I can manage.

[jochicago]

Perfumer,

2. I think my hearing is ok. My ears are still being trained, and working with entry-level gear is not helping.

3. The Samson SR850 is a $40 set. They are better than their price, better than listening headphones, but not worth modding or swapping parts. They served me well but at this point they are holding me back. I know the feeling well, a few years ago I had to let go of my favorite guitar because it was stopping me from advancing my skills on a better instrument.

4. I know what you mean about the curves. I wish the DT 990 were more balanced. But Beyerdynamic themselves describe these as designed for mixing and mastering. I guess that's the best curve they could come up with in terms of transparency, at this price point.

[perfumer]

The 880s sound great, until your ears start to hurt from excessive highs. And listening to bass heavy music is impossible. Just sayin'. There IS a difference between models that you cannot compensate with software. The sound stage, for starters - this influences your perception of frequencies.

[enCiphered]

ATH M50x, definitely the best studio headphones for me. Great monitoring, cables are detachable and the price is really more than great. You can buy them at Thomann for 135 Euro and use their 30 day money-back-guarantee, try them out and send them back if you are not satisfied with the results.

[Ph-J]

Headphones Choice
I think I'm settled on Beyerdynamic DT 990 PRO. See this comparison against HD 650:
https://www.rtings.com/headphones/tools ... shold=0.03

Can't speak for the HD650, but I have both the DT990PRO & HD600 and the Sennheiser's frequency response is much flatter.
(I bought the HD600 as an upgrade)

[jochicago]

Can't speak for the HD650, but I have both the DT990PRO & HD600 and the Sennheiser's frequency response is much flatter.
(I bought the HD600 as an upgrade)

How is that move to the HD 600 working out for you?

How do they handle themselves in a mix scenario? If you are making micro eq decisions, can you hear all the detail on both?

Obviously the 600 are great cans. However, rtings.com accuses them of being weak in the bass and overly present in the mids. There's a 12db drop in the curve between 200hz back to 20hz. That's significant. The drop on the DT 990s is about 7db for the same range. But I'm looking at cold charts online. What's your experience in practice?

[Synthman2000]

I don't mix in headphones. But I was doing some precision listening to kick and bass line relationship with a snare and hi hat and adjusting by ear (as would be imaginable ), very detailed precise adjustments of timing/velocities and other parameters yesterday evening and found my DT990 were quite good at that. The bottom end on the DT990 is sounding a bit more "wonderful" than reality. They have a deep, punchy low end on them which is not that accurate but sounds really nice. Whatever headphones you go for probably go for the 250 Ohm versions as they are fairly easy to drive.

Yes 990 are clear, plenty of top end details. They do provide clarity, you will get that. And yes they are VERY comfortable, velvety, adjustable, don't clamp too hard and are strong. When you take them from the box you can feel quality product in your hands. Most semi open designs feel better for longer, sealed back are not great and can tire ears quite quicky and feel oppressive to wear.

In addition the sound of a set of headphones can vary quite a lot depending on the headphone amplifier output driving them. HP output on many low cost/mid sound cards can leave much to be desired. You will also want to be double checking your pan/balance positions and mono compatibility on speakers as it is much more difficult to judge in headphones. You may wish to emply software correction crossfeed which many feel makes the stereo image a little more like a set of speakers in a room.

You can mix on headphones and many people do successfully but you must really take time to listen to some well known and confirmed high quality reference material and learn them well.

And watch out for the volumes with ALL headphones, keep them on the safe side it is very, very easy to keep cranking them, (feels good maaaaaaan ) especially when you have a really low distortion headphone amp.

[Cinebient]

I always liked the AKG-702 (and some Shure models) until i bought the Beyerdynamic DT-990 Pro (250 Ohm in my case) which i like much more and seems more stable in a longer term too. They are very comfortabe to wear over hours for me and ears also do not get tired here. They also work really good even without audio interface or headphone amp even on smartphones if you like to use them on different devices with and without proper audio interface etc.
Never used more expensive ones so i don‘t know if they are worth the price.
But you also should see if you could try some models since no headphone will make you happy which doesn‘t fit well with your head, ear size and at the end your personal likings.
As usual we only can recommend from our personal experience and needs and so far the Beyerdynamic are the best i used for almost everything.
I prefer open headphones so if you might need/prefer semi-open or closed ones they are not the right of course.

[smd12]

I mix with the HD-600 and I like them.

[HcDoom]

Those who mix with headphones only and claim its enough...pls, let me hear some of your songs/tracks/mixes.

[smd12]

Those who mix with headphones only and claim its enough...pls, let me hear some of your songs/tracks/mixes.

https://soundcloud.com/the_synthetic_awakening

https://archive.org/details/thesyntheticawakening

https://archive.org/details/vacant-twelve

[HcDoom]

Sorry, but that sounds like typical headphone mix. Overblown lows, muddy mids and weird highs. People, mix on monitors and use headphones for reference only. If headphones were enough, than no studio would invest in mid or high range monitors.

[jochicago]

> Those who mix with headphones only and claim its enough...pls, let me hear some of your songs/tracks/mixes.

https://www.recordingrevolution.com/the ... -a-laptop/

Scheps is pretty comfortable in his $100 Sonys. I don't think he'll say which songs were mixed on a laptop wearing those headphones, probably to avoid the wave of reactionary comments, but he does have an anecdote about one of those songs, completely mixed "on the go", getting through the mastering engineer at Abbey Road without a single touch up (so it probably was some of Adele's stuff):

"when the A&R guy walked in the room 30 minutes after mastering began the engineer said “I mean you paid for another hour so we can run it through some gear if you want but I’ve already done a flat transfer of the mix because it’s done – there was nothing to change."

Like him I'm also a pragmatist. I don't care if he mixes using Garageband with the earbuds that came with his iPhone. If a pro mastering engineer thinks it's solid, it's solid. But the point is that for some people even entry level studio headphones are enough if you get the right swing of things. Monitors completely optional (if you have the right touch for it).