New headphone: what to buy

Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 10:15 am

I'd like to buy some new headphones. I'll be using them to mix and record my own stuff. That will probably make it a closed model.

Then the guy in the store says to me that mixing is preferably done with a half open model because they sound better. Is that true?

I used to have and like a Sennheiser HD250. That one is all worn down.

I have listened to a couple of headphones today.
Beyer DT770 Pro (closed): I found the lows too much of a singular blob.
Beyer 990 Pro (half open): better, but not suitable for selfrecording.
AKG K240 closed: better but are they better than e.g. Sennheiser HD280 or HD25? Are all mentioned even professional headphones?

Do I need a closed or a half open model? Both? Which way to go when I liked my old HD250 so much?

Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 8:55 pm

DONT use headphones to mix. They're fine for reference use, and to hear some things up close so that you can spot problems that some speakers don't reveal.

Headphones are really a personal choice, and you'll probably get a different answer from everyone you ask. My own choice is the Sony MDR-7506, but that's just me....others may howl, but I only use them for reference, level check, etc. As always, YMMV.

Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 10:00 pm

I have and use the Sony's myself, very good set of headphones. But for tracking I have some cheap headphones that do good. More -Me phones for the people that don't take care of the them. And I also have some extreme-isolation headphone that work well on the cheap side.

Peace............Scoobie

Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 11:07 pm

I liked the sound of my HD280's, liked the sound of my K240's. Went on tour, got molded for IEM's (went with the Sensaphonics 2X-S, haven't looked back. I'll edit and mix with them anyday. As long as I do a couple reference mixes to make sure everything is Jive Turkey (my college hall admin used to say that!) I'll print it.

Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 3:22 pm

OK I get that. Perhaps then two different headphones. The cheap Sennheisers seem to be OK for recording, but I also could use my IEM molds.

I'll be giving the Sony MDR7506 a listen too and compare to the K240.

Thank you.

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