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Old 05-13-2020, 07:02 AM   #1
dxtrinc
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Default Question About Buying Mixing Headphones / Sonarworks 4

OK. I know this has been beaten to death on the interwebs.

Gearslutz has a 145 page thread on this. But I have a question that I haven't seen many answers too.

Basically I have a couple options for monitoring.

The background is that my wife and I are in a job where we move every 3-5 years and the houses we live in aren't our own, so having to continually properly treat a room is expensive and also not really allowed.

Because of this I have been spending time looking into better headphones for mixing.

Option 1:

I can spend around $500. So I'm looking at Sennheiser HD600 or Audio Technica ATH-r70x. I know they are great headphones and either would be a great choice.

Option 2:

Amazon Warehouse has Beyerdynamic DT990 or 880s for around $200. I have heard good things about these phones as well.

In this option I have the ability to buy Sonarworks 4 to help flatten my headphones. I also would have enough to buy a smaller mono monitor like Behringer Behritone c50a for working on midrange and whatnot.

What would better suit mixing? Better headphones? Or lower end phones with reference software and an ok mono monitor?

Any thoughts would be great!

Thanks!
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Old 05-13-2020, 07:40 AM   #2
valy
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Hard to say which would be better. Headphones are a somewhat personal choice (like speakers). I like the HD600s and I've been mixing with them for a few years now. But I also have Sonarworks.

Looking at the Sonarworks graphs for the four headphones you mentioned, you can see how much more drastic the average deviation from flat is for the cheaper headphones. So Sonarworks is much more valuable for them (although still beneficial for the more expensive ones). If it were me, I would probably get either the Sennheisers or Audio-Technicas and just try to pick up Sonarworks during a sale in the future at some point.

Edit: Note that the Sonarworks graph is set to calibration, so what you see is a mirror of what the average deviations actually are on the headphones themselves, i.e., a boost on this graph equals an attentuation when listening to the headphones without Sonarworks.









Last edited by valy; 05-13-2020 at 07:48 AM.
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Old 05-13-2020, 07:41 AM   #3
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Here's something else to consider: What are you going to plug the headphones into? When I first got the HD600s, I had to also purchase a standalone headphone preamp because the interface I was using at the time wasn't powerful enough to drive high-impedance headphones.
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Old 05-13-2020, 08:07 AM   #4
dxtrinc
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Quote:
Originally Posted by valy View Post
Hard to say which would be better. Headphones are a somewhat personal choice (like speakers). I like the HD600s and I've been mixing with them for a few years now. But I also have Sonarworks.

Looking at the Sonarworks graphs for the four headphones you mentioned, you can see how much more drastic the average deviation from flat is for the cheaper headphones. So Sonarworks is much more valuable for them (although still beneficial for the more expensive ones). If it were me, I would probably get either the Sennheisers or Audio-Technicas and just try to pick up Sonarworks during a sale in the future at some point.

Edit: Note that the Sonarworks graph is set to calibration, so what you see is a mirror of what the average deviations actually are on the headphones themselves, i.e., a boost on this graph equals an attentuation when listening to the headphones without Sonarworks.
Awesome! Thanks so much for the insight!

I only have one chance to get this right so I'm trying to do as much research as I can now. But yes maybe its a good call to do both but just over time.
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Old 05-13-2020, 08:10 AM   #5
dxtrinc
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Quote:
Originally Posted by valy View Post
Here's something else to consider: What are you going to plug the headphones into? When I first got the HD600s, I had to also purchase a standalone headphone preamp because the interface I was using at the time wasn't powerful enough to drive high-impedance headphones.
I use the Roland Octacapture and quadcapture. I find they have a crazy amount of juice in the headphones jacks. I can usually only get to just below half before the phones blow my ears off.
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Old 05-13-2020, 09:37 PM   #6
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Ok then that's not a factor in your decision.
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Old 05-14-2020, 11:28 PM   #7
enroe
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dxtrinc View Post
What would better suit mixing? Better headphones? Or lower end phones with reference software and an ok mono monitor?
This is easy to answer: Better headphones are more important! Why?
Because the frequency response alone does not say everything. Just
as important, for example, is the impulse response, i.e. the fast
reaction of the headphone membrane.

My recommendation: Sennh. HD600 plus a very cheap headphone ($20
or so) to be able to mix very rough (for first mix settings, mids,
etc.).
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Old 05-16-2020, 05:43 AM   #8
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I'm stuck under cans most of the time with small kids and only getting spare time in the evenings

Still using an old pair of seinhauser hd280

Blue cat audio just released re-head.
Only had a quick test so far but it will definitely improve my time under the cans.

https://www.bluecataudio.com/Products/Product_ReHead/


Hopefully in time more presets may appear but I took the time to set up for mine as best I can from reference tracks.

My monitors were sold when I moved back to the UK and was just about to pull the trigger when lockdown kicked in and work ground to a halt
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Old 05-25-2020, 03:47 AM   #9
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It really does not matter what kind of headphones you use, use the ones you like and the ones you will hear a lot of music with.
I use old Sennheiser HD265 linear - closed headphones and in addition some open AKG headphones, because my AKG is more linear in the low end. Sennheiser and AKG are my two brands I use for many years. The sad thing is that the quality of new headphones is getting worse and worse, because the production is mostly in China now.
Eg When Sennheiser released Hd280, they were great headphones, now the quality is really bad and I would not buy them again.

As for Beyerdynamic headphones, my experience is that you need a suitable shape of head, all I can say is
that my head is not suitable for Beyerdynamic.

And if making noise in a mixing room is a problem, you should take closed headphones, even though most will say open headphones are better.

Last edited by Naji; 05-25-2020 at 04:02 AM.
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Old 05-27-2020, 11:20 AM   #10
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I've been demoing Abbey Road Studio 3 and Sonarworks Headphones for the past few weeks. I also dl'd the ReHead plugin when it dropped.

I'm using Samson SR850s and the Sonarworks is the best sounding so far, at least to my ears. AR Studio 3 is a close second.

What I like most is that the sound isn't driving directly into the ear canal. The stereo image is floated out to what sounds like shoulder width.

Whether this is considered good or not by the intelligensci, I don't know, but it certainly allows me to use headphones for longer periods of time.
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