Double Bass Listen to THIS! What about headphones?

[Jason Sypher]

What are you listening with these days?

I love all of these for different reasons:

Audeze LCD-X - Clarity and soundstage, detail retrieval and pure joy

Apple AirPod Pro 2 - convenience, soundstage, practice, phone calls

Audeze Maxwell - General listening, walking the streets, subway, gaming with Oled Switch

Ulitimate Ears Pro 7 - stage monitors, also walking about with a Qudelix 5K portable DAC

 

[Michal Herman]

AKG K52 - general listening from computer
Huawei 4i - small bluetooth headphones, to listen using phone on the go. Active noice cancelling becomes handy sometimes.
Shure SE215 - in-ear on-stage monitors, for practive on EUB and bass guitar without disturbing the neighbours

 

[Chris Fitzgerald]

Sony 7506 for over ears. Jabra Elite active 65t for earbuds. Both are old friends and faithful servants.

 

[Jmilitsc]

I can’t let go of my 90’s era Sony 7505’s, keep crazy glueing them together. They are great for mixing/critical listening - flat(ish) freq range. Just recently been in the market to replace them given how old these are - looking at the Beyerdynamic DT880pro’s for that. It stinks that there are so few shops to sample headphones anymore, but given the reading those seem to be pretty flat/true sounding. For mixing I wouldn’t want the elevated low end that so many products seem to have these days.

AirPod 2’s for casual listening.

 

[Leigh_D]

I can’t let go of my 90’s era Sony 7505’s, keep crazy glueing them together. They are great for mixing/critical listening - flat(ish) freq range. Just recently been in the market to replace them given how old these are - looking at the Beyerdynamic DT880pro’s for that. It stinks that there are so few shops to sample headphones anymore, but given the reading those seem to be pretty flat/true sounding. For mixing I wouldn’t want the elevated low end that so many products seem to have these days.

AirPod 2’s for casual listening.

I'm very happy with my DT880 Pros. I use them for mixing and for practicing.

**Leigh

 

[JBarz]

I’ve got a pair of Grado 225i that I did all the DIY mods to (detachable cable, vent hole mod, etc.) and they came out glorious - like sitting down right next to the bass player in the mix. I try to use them for most everything, but they’re open back. Sometimes my old Denon closed back or my cheap IEMS are more appropriate. Loved those air pods, but gave them to my wife because I prefer normal cans and a BTR5 Bluetooth adapter when I “‘need” to go wirelesss

 

[Jmilitsc]

I'm very happy with my DT880 Pros. I use them for mixing and for practicing.

**Leigh

Thx!

 

[Jim Dombrowski]

I’m a fan of HiFiMan headphones.

HE-400S driven by a Schiit Lyr tube amp, and HE-560 in the main system driven by a pair of glorious sounding 2A3 tube amp.

 

[TroyK]

I'm someone who vastly prefers speakers in a good room, but since that doesn't follow me around very well, I do have a pair of AKG K245s that I like better than anything else I've used in the past. They are semi-open backed which makes the sound stage a little broader and makes me a little bit less claustrophobic, I think.
I got them on sale during the pandemic for about $60.

I also have a pair of Bose noise cancelling jobbies that were given to me by an employer. I loath noise cancellation and hate that whenever I turn them on, they default to "extreme" until I go into the app and turn it off, but because the AKGs bleed a little bit, I use the Bose for some types of travel and if I need to be on a conference call or something. They are a good device, just not what I prefer.

 

[Jason Sypher]

I'm someone who vastly prefers speakers in a good room, but since that doesn't follow me around very well, I do have a pair of AKG K245s that I like better than anything else I've used in the past. They are semi-open backed which makes the sound stage a little broader and makes me a little bit less claustrophobic, I think.
I got them on sale during the pandemic for about $60.

I also have a pair of Bose noise cancelling jobbies that were given to me by an employer. I loath noise cancellation and hate that whenever I turn them on, they default to "extreme" until I go into the app and turn it off, but because the AKGs bleed a little bit, I use the Bose for some types of travel and if I need to be on a conference call or something. They are a good device, just not what I prefer.

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I had some Bose noise cancelling as well and didn’t like them at all. Only used them for sleeping in planes. Then I bought the AirPod Pros and was blown away by how much better they were.

 

[crd]

I love my Beyerdynamic 1990's. Sturdy. Easy to mix and work with. We go everywhere together.

 

[Ketbass]

I’ll have to look into the AirPod Pros again. A few years back I bought them for my kid; tried them out and hated the fit. I use the Bose noise canceling ear buds and they fit perfectly. I personally like noise canceling as I don’t have to have them up as loud and still get a clear sound. But if you have tinnitus they can be difficult to be in. Never liked anything over my ears. But to each their own.

 

[Keith Rawlings]

I have a Plantronics Voyager 4200 over the ear headset that I love. It’s a wonderful little headset that has a long battery life.

Anybody have any recommendations on custom fit in-ear headphones/earbuds? I have an enormously large right ear canal due to 6 ear surgeries throughout my life and nothing stays in my right ear. I’ve bought the biggest foam ear tips you can buy and they just aren’t large enough. I can literally put my thumb in my ear so it makes fitting ear buds next to impossible.

 

[Jason Sypher]

I have a Plantronics Voyager 4200 over the ear headset that I love. It’s a wonderful little headset that has a long battery life.

Anybody have any recommendations on custom fit in-ear headphones/earbuds? I have an enormously large right ear canal due to 6 ear surgeries throughout my life and nothing stays in my right ear. I’ve bought the biggest foam ear tips you can buy and they just aren’t large enough. I can literally put my thumb in my ear so it makes fitting ear buds next to impossible.

You have to go in and be fitted for a custom IEM. There are a number of brands that will do this for you when you buy them.

 

[Keith Rawlings]

You have to go in and be fitted for a custom IEM. There are a number of brands that will do this for you when you buy them.

I’ll look into this. I tried years ago (early 2000s) and there weren’t any companies able to do this. A couple of years ago I contacted Eargasm to get some of those custom ear plugs that reduce the bad frequencies and they said they didn’t have anything that could accommodate my giant ear canal.

 

[Jason Sypher]

I’ll look into this. I tried years ago (early 2000s) and there weren’t any companies able to do this. A couple of years ago I contacted Eargasm to get some of those custom ear plugs that reduce the bad frequencies and they said they didn’t have anything that could accommodate my giant ear canal.

Now they use molds to create the plastic shell that will perfectly fit your ear.

 

[neddyrow]

Wired - Beyerdynamic DT 990 - I'm on my second set of ear cushions
Bluetooth - Apple Airpods Max (home) & Worktunes connect (work) - both great noise cancellation. I also own a pair of Audio Technica Bluetooth headphones for my bluetooth turntable
In-ears - Westone Audio Pro X30 - 3 drivers

 

[garrett2]

Sennheiser 800s and Airpod Pro 2.

Both excellent in their ways, although I don't enjoy listening to headphones that much.

 

[TroyK]

I'm enjoying googling the cans you guys all use. It's a world I haven't explored too much. My next purchase along these lines is a decent, DAC to put between my AKGs and my phone or iPad.

I'm surprised that hasn't come up. I know some of you are plugging into a proper headphone stage or a mixing board, but I assume there is a lot of portable device listening too.

 

[the_Ryan]

I don’t have anything too fancy in my listening setup. When I’m on the go or playing along with recordings I have a pair of second gen AirPods Pro (after my beloved first gens finally gave up the ghost last year), although I do keep a pair of Apple dirtybuds and a pair of KZ in-ear monitors in my backpack as backup or for use in airports when I’m waiting to board and want to conserve my AirPods’ battery life for the plane. For casual at home listening, I have two pairs of headphones: a pair of Sennheiser HD280s and a pair of Grado SR60s. The 280s are pretty fugly and bulky but they sound good; they were literally everywhere at my school when I did some recording sessions for other students and they were the first pair of headphones I heard that really showed me what I’d been missing after years of using “cheap” earbuds (not grocery store cheap, but definitely not hi-fi, and I think this was well before Chinese brands like KZ and KBEars started making really good earbuds at a fairly low cost). I bought the Grados semi-recently (six-ish months ago?) and I really love the way they sound: they’re tuned to have a lot of high end, and while you’d think they would sound shrill and harsh they actually sound really clear and detailed. Plus, because they’re open-back they feel really “wide” when listening to music, which I really like. However, there’s no chance I’d be bringing them to a public space cafe or library (although I don’t really have work to do in those places anymore, but still) because of dat bleed, but they’re great for at home listening.

I don’t have an external DAC or an amplifier, my wired headphones are low-powered enough that I can just plug them right into my phone or computer without much trouble.

I know that I could fall down a real rabbit hole with headphones and other audiophile gear to try to chase perfect, but I’m pretty content with my setup: I still enjoy convenience and usually want to go from silence to listening to music as fast as possible, and I’m okay with having headphones that do that and still sound pretty good over a much more fiddly setup. Granted, I haven’t tried many wired headphones over $250-ish, but with the ones I have tried I haven’t felt like those gains were significant enough to warrant a more involved setup. But again, that’s just me and I know that there are many people (probably here) who really value getting the “best” sound possible and that’s totally cool too.