What Headphones Do You Use With Your DAW?

[D-Fusion]

phillips X2HR here

I have gone thru 2 different Beyerdynamics DT770 and hate the build for the price they are asking for it.
They sound great but the quality is bad and both got the famous and dreaded Distorted bass in the right Can after a short while.

Love the new Phillips and the sound is very open,clear and precise.

[revvy]

HD-25

Same same.

[tonedef71]

Audeze LCD-X.
Really changed my mixing process for the better.
My mixes come out so ridiculously good on other speakers, headphones and monitoring setups.

Nice! Sounds like an effective pair of headphones.

Unfortunately for me, that price-point does not gel with my budget and the closed-back nature makes them unsuitable for my style of bedroom producing.

[THE INTRANCER]

Audeze LCD-X.
$1,199.00

Christ

[BONES]

My thought, precisely.

Vote #2 for Slate VSX

Don't you worry that the DSP is affecting the way you hear things? I'd rather a pair of headphones without any DSP at all.

What's the best headphones for use with my DAW, does this mean sound designing, composing, tracking, editing, mixing, mastering? Not an easy question at all.

Yes it is. Why on Earth would you need more than one pair? That's deliberately making your life harder than it needs to be.

I have AKG K712's as my main headphones - sound great and super comfortable...

Why did you choose these over the K702's? They are almost half the price but seem to house the same hardware. I couldn't see any reason to stump up the extra, although I bought them online, so I didn't get to listen to any of them.

So yeah, I've been using a pair of AKG K702s lately and I am quite happy with them. Open backs definitely give you a more natural sound that translates more readily to speakers. But I don't use headphones much, I prefer doing everything through my speaker set-up. I mostly only use them when mastering, just to confirm I've got things right.

Value for money is hard to quantify but, for under US$200, I'd say they are probably hard to beat.

[CrystalWizard]

My thought, precisely.

Vote #2 for Slate VSX

Don't you worry that the DSP is affecting the way you hear things? I'd rather a pair of headphones without any DSP at all.

Same here.

What's the best headphones for use with my DAW, does this mean sound designing, composing, tracking, editing, mixing, mastering? Not an easy question at all.

Yes it is. Why on Earth would you need more than one pair? That's deliberately making your life harder than it needs to be.

Ok, fair enough, two sets (or three), one great set for all except tracking-a set of closed back for tracking. And a set that are more flattering for general listening (Grado 325 in my case).

I have AKG K712's as my main headphones - sound great and super comfortable...

Why did you choose these over the K702's? They are almost half the price but seem to house the same hardware. I couldn't see any reason to stump up the extra, although I bought them online, so I didn't get to listen to any of them.

So yeah, I've been using a pair of AKG K702s lately and I am quite happy with them. Open backs definitely give you a more natural sound that translates more readily to speakers. But I don't use headphones much, I prefer doing everything through my speaker set-up. I mostly only use them when mastering, just to confirm I've got things right.

Value for money is hard to quantify but, for under US$200, I'd say they are probably hard to beat.

I'm interested to know this, too. I'm considering either the K702 or K712 but i'm in the same situation-can't test them, but, can't tell much difference in specs. I use them most for editing and restoration, but lately (and hopefully temporarily) i've had to use headphones for everything.

[Uncle E]

Vote #2 for Slate VSX

Don't you worry that the DSP is affecting the way you hear things?

Valid concern. The DSP helps with effects and stereo field adjustments. Personally, with regular headphones, I always put in too much reverb and am too timid with panning.

So yeah, I've been using a pair of AKG K702s lately and I am quite happy with them. Open backs definitely give you a more natural sound that translates more readily to speakers. But I don't use headphones much, I prefer doing everything through my speaker set-up. I mostly only use them when mastering, just to confirm I've got things right.

Value for money is hard to quantify but, for under US$200, I'd say they are probably hard to beat.

K702's are excellent. I'm confused about the cheap K701's on Amazon. Counterfeits?

[Jac459]

Vote #2 for Slate VSX

Don't you worry that the DSP is affecting the way you hear things?

Valid concern. The DSP helps with effects and stereo field adjustments. Personally, with regular headphones, I always put in too much reverb and am too timid with panning.

So yeah, I've been using a pair of AKG K702s lately and I am quite happy with them. Open backs definitely give you a more natural sound that translates more readily to speakers. But I don't use headphones much, I prefer doing everything through my speaker set-up. I mostly only use them when mastering, just to confirm I've got things right.

Value for money is hard to quantify but, for under US$200, I'd say they are probably hard to beat.

K702's are excellent. I'm confused about the cheap K701's on Amazon. Counterfeits?

Actually I use both realphones and morphit.
My headphones are not in the realphones database (Focal Elegia).
Both software really helps a lot on the comparative listening, allowing to simulate different environments.
Same than VSX I guess.

[legendCNCD]

VSX doesnt have DSP in them though, its software running as plugin, but I guess this was meant anyway.

I had the same problem back in the day when working with AKG K712Pro's, too much reverb and pannings were not right there where I thought when listening from different sources, bass was ALMOST ok there usually. With VSX there is no problem here. I use VSX's as the final mix/master more than composing, for composing I use the el-cheapo Creative 20€ in-ears. Have few of them, just threw one pair to electronic recycling yesterday because "something was off" -> bass damped on left, skewed image -> trash, new out from package.

VSX is great in comparing the mix in different spaces and you know what? After going round in some of these, fixing whats up or down, the mixes translate like no end. Awesome as hell as my space is concrete shit reflection house... and would need over 2000€ of dampening to make it better, would still not be as good as VSX I bet.

[kenny saunders]

Audeze LCD-X.
Really changed my mixing process for the better.
My mixes come out so ridiculously good on other speakers, headphones and monitoring setups.

Do you use them completely default (ie. no eq like sonarworks/peace eq)?

I'm not using anything with mine while I get used to them, but they seem low on bass out of the box, so that could mean that it would be too easy to eq too much bass into mixes?

[BONES]

Both software really helps a lot on the comparative listening, allowing to simulate different environments.
Same than VSX I guess.

I dunno, assuming that you are unfamiliar with any of those environments, you will end up taking a lot for granted. It's way too close to blind faith for my liking.

Awesome as hell as my space is concrete shit reflection house... and would need over 2000€ of dampening to make it better

Or you could simply rely on nearfield monitoring, like most of us do, and the room wouldn't matter any more.

[Jac459]

Both software really helps a lot on the comparative listening, allowing to simulate different environments.
Same than VSX I guess.

I dunno, assuming that you are unfamiliar with any of those environments, you will end up taking a lot for granted. It's way too close to blind faith for my liking.

Awesome as hell as my space is concrete shit reflection house... and would need over 2000€ of dampening to make it better

Or you could simply rely on nearfield monitoring, like most of us do, and the room wouldn't matter any more.

I dont fully disagree with your blind faith comment but it is not entirely true in the sense that for example I use morphit to change my eq from Elegia to simulate 1000xm5. The simulation is quite convincing and I double check after anyway with my own 1000xm5.
Same for hifi simulation and same for Bluetooth speaker simulation.

Basically this allows to do quick check on the flow. That doesn't prevent you to double check later

[BONES]

Well it kind of does. e.g. When I listen on my Bluetooth speaker, I listen up close, with the speaker in front of me, and I listen from across the deck, 10-15m away. For whatever reason, my Bluetooth speaker is also the one I listen to quietly and loudly. The quiet run through can be quite revealing sometimes.

[legendCNCD]

Both software really helps a lot on the comparative listening, allowing to simulate different environments.
Same than VSX I guess.

I dunno, assuming that you are unfamiliar with any of those environments, you will end up taking a lot for granted. It's way too close to blind faith for my liking.

Awesome as hell as my space is concrete shit reflection house... and would need over 2000€ of dampening to make it better

Or you could simply rely on nearfield monitoring, like most of us do, and the room wouldn't matter any more.

The room will definitely matter there too, I have nearfields and this room is unmixable in any level, I can assure that.

Of course one must learn the rooms in VSX too by listening them a lot, like one would do with speakers in a room, or with headphones.

[legendCNCD]

Quiet listening is a must for a busy mix and I'll do it anyway usually, it'll reveal what pokes out most and what should poke out more. Also here the avantone emulation is great on VSX's.
The thing is with VSX the mixes translate much easier faster and better to any output we listen to when at mixing and mastering stage. Its that simple, works great.