Alman:

(Dead Link Removed)

One of many posts concerning headphones.

I personally like Beyers & Sony 7506's.

Edit> At home I have a pair of AKG K44's - they're the ones with the 'mud inducing' bumps on 'em. Horrible for reference but great for blasting video game sounds through... And they are good cheap throw away HP's for punk rockers in the studio.

+1

Personally, I find the open back headphones (a la AKG C240S) to provide a more realistic impression of soundstage and frequency.

However, I use the Beyer 770s on location to get a little extra isolation and they work very well. My only quibble with them (which actually proves to be beneficial in some cases) is that they seem a little bass-friendly. In other words, if I hear a bit of rumble through them, in real world listening environments, it's not near as rumbly (even with my carefully calibrated listening system).

However, as I stated, sometimes this is a positive. If I can hear a truck passing by 2 blocks away through these headphones and nothing else, I know I have to cut a little LF. I can't get that low end out of my AKGs.

I just ordered Sennheiser HD 280 (silver ones) from Amazon yesterday. They'll be here by Thursday, I expect. These are closed back ones, since mainly I want/need the isolation and improved quality over my current pair, £10 from a computer shop.
Apparently these are excellent at isolation and don't overpower the bass.

If need be I can let you know how they handle once they get here. Unfortunately I can't use them for our church band (ie real mixing) until the following Tuesday, but hey.

Cheers,

I have heard some good things about most of those models.
Cheers codemonkey, if you could let me know how those HD 280's go for you that would be great.
I will be using them to do vocals and to track stuff when I cant use the monitors. I'll be getting monitors to mix and stuff, not that I know how to do that yet, ha.
Are they all fairly comfortable?
I need to decide between the closed and open thing, that should narrow it down a bit.
Cheers for the link bent.

Another option would be the Audio-Technica ATH-M50. Painfully clear (not harsh at all), good bass extension, without it sounding like too much bass (at least not to me). Quite comfy, even on my Dumbo-style ears. Very good isolation. "Organic" sound, if you wanna go the audiophile route - I very much enjoy them for music reproduction.

The main issue about them ought to be that they're closed-back, so it's supposed that they would be even worse for mixing than open-back phones... BUT - I accidentally (03:00am, sleep depravation) mixed on them for about an hour before I realized that I'm on headphones, not my monitors. Went to bed, as I kinda needed it, and checked the mixdown in the morning, expecting a mixing disaster... Well, it sounded just as bad (or good, whatever) as most my on-the-run mixes done on monitors. Tried them on for mixing since then - I personally would trust them for a quick mix, provided that I can check the mix on a pair of speakers, at a later time (maybe even without checking - it's just that I'm paranoid about mixing on cans after a couple of totally unpleasant headphone mixes some years ago done on some crappy phones)

My two Romanian cents' worth.

Mihai Toma

Cheers for that Mandachuva.
I'll check them out.
I think I'll be looking for closed backs as I will need them for vocals and stuff and I can only afford one pair, for the moment anyway.
Thanks.

I prefer a pretty open headphone for mixing so that bass freqs are not boosted. I have a pair of Beyer DT-880s and love them to death, they're very accurate across the frequency spectrum.

OK
HD 280s are here. They've been on my head less than 10mins in all.
I'm noticing that my computer soundcard is crap, and I mean it. Buzzes as though every ground loop in the world is in my computer. Only noticed there.
They are loud as hell. I've had to turn my computer's master volume from FULL to about 20%.
If they had a volume on the headphones that would at least keep the buzzing down I suppose though I can't hear it when the music plays.
Also they don't fit my head right. I haven't played about much but the bottoms are a little loose on my ears (triangular head?) and the backs aren't tight. Getting them to sit well could take some doing. Consequently, they don't cancel loads of noise (not that I've tested them with airhorns yet) and the bass is noticably lower than my previous headphones (£10, labelled as Dynamode DH-660MV). However, the bass I can hear is tight, doesnt sound like a sub in my ears (think club/dance music) but does sound like a guy playing bass guitar. The stereo separation is a little higher than my last pair. The high end is crisp. I'm hearing new things in the music.
Curiously, it's a 1/8" adapter with a screw-on 1/4". 1/8" is good, yes, but the screw on? Odd. However, these are all in all an improvement. I can always use the soundcard equaliser to improve the bass loss, though I'd prefer to get them on my head right. If I get any breakthroughs I'll let you know.

Edit:
Seems that the buzzing gets lessened when the CPU is busy. Like, scrolling the page, loading programs etc. so I shouldn't have a problem with buzzing when I'm playing Crysis. :lol:

Yeah I reckon it's gonna have to be closed cans for now, and then maybe a pair of open ones further down the line.
Cheers for that codemonkey, let us know how you get on.
Yeah I'd say the buzz is definitely at source alright.
The comfort thing is important when your paying a few quid for them.
If they dont seal around the ears right and noise is seeping out of them then they wont be great for vocals and stuff which I would be using them for.
Dont know if that would be a problem with them or not.

Well after a bit of trial and error I've got them fitting a lot better. They were too tight to begin with and the bottom wasn't closing/tops were pushing into my skull. I'd say they're now easily as good, in fact better, and certainly clearer with more treble detail than my old pair.

The buzzing was fixed by moving from the onboard audio to a £10 soundcard. Maybe the case isn't as electrically clean as the PCI cards...either way the incredible modem noise has gone and there's just a bit of white noise when the cans are connected, plus some more when the volume gets put up (beyond realistic levels).
On the brighter side, I'm hearing plenty of imperfections like high amounts of noise in our recordings. I might actually be able to pin this down now that I can hear it.

On the brighter side, I'm hearing plenty of imperfections like high amounts of noise in our recordings. I might actually be able to pin this down now that I can hear it.

Kudos to you!

Cool codemonkey I'm pleased for you.
I'm definitely considering them.
Nice one.