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Your favorite headphones

#41
Closed Back: Great for practicing anytime anywhere, no sound leaking but some find fatiguing for prolonged use, tend o be bass heavy :) also less sound stage. examples: Sennheiser HD-25, Sony MDR-7609, Beyerdynamic DT770, Audiotechnica ATH-M50x.

Open Back: Better sound stage more neutral frequency response, not so good in isolation or sound leak, less fatigue on ears. Examples: Beyerdynamic DT880 (Half/open), DT990, Sennheiser HD589, HD600, HD650.

My experience i own 3 headphones and 1 iem (Sennheiser HD-25, Senn HD 6xx, Sony MDR 7609, TFX Galaxy 2) and i love them all, but i tend to always use the Sennheiser HD-25 :)

I've also tried the Audiotechnica ATH-M50x and the Beyerdynamic DT770/990 and they were not to my liking.
 
#42
seilerbird said:
I am lucky. At 70 years old my high frequency hearing is shot. All headphones sound the same to me so I get by with $20 headphones.
Click to expand...

In my eighties with fairly severe hearing problems, and I've found the opposite to be true as I just made an interesting and awakening discovery... I'd been using inexpensive (around $20-25) ATH M2x phones for several years but have been noticing lately how some words on TV, although I hear them, lose clear definition and I can lose their meaning...
But now (based on recommendations I read here at TB) I just bought AKG K240 Studio headphones (about $55-60) to use with my newly purchased Bam-200 bass amp, and I decided as a test to try them with my TV.
Well, I was surprised; I had watched on TV the James Baldwin documentary "I Am Not Your Negro" with the cheaper phones and had been annoyed at loosing some of Baldwin's words (he often speaks quickly and low). But when I watched it again with the K240 phones as a test, all his words came thru clearly!
So while I've always been one to like a bargain, sometimes you really do get better quality by spending a bit more!
Greywoulf
 
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#43
JRA said:
AKG K240 "studio" headphones


they are cheap. they are "reference" headphones. they are an industry standard for decades!


20-20k hz without (with minimal) coloration or 'fake bumps' in the frequency range.

good luck with your headphone search/decision! :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

They are very comfortable to wear as well. I have been using them for many many years. JRA is bang on.
 
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#45
For budget open back headphones, the Samson SR850's have served me well and punch above their price point for less than $50. For budget IEM's the CCA C10's are REALLY good for about $30. I love practicing bass and occasionally referencing stereo field and low end through my Audio Technica ATH-M50x's. I snagged the Bluetooth version for $20 more, but always have them hardwired for anything practice or mixing related. The Schiit Magni Heresy has added clarity and power while lowering noise and hiss regardless of what I'm listening through. I look forward to getting some higher impedance cans in the $200-$300 range now that the Schiit provides me with adequate power.
 
#46
I’ve been using the Sony MDR7506 for the past couple years when practicing the scales and etudes that drove my wife to distraction. The Sony is light, comfortable and works quite well but it doesn’t block out ambient noise quite well enough. e.g. I have to pause 30 seconds while the Final Jeopardy jingle is playing in the other room or my practice gets scrozzled. Given the way I use it I see little value in buying something else.
 
#47
ofajen said:
Closed back phones will often have skewed response in the upper midrange due to interference caused by reflection of the polarity reversed back wave off the outer shell and back to the ear.
Click to expand...
That’s a stretch. e.g. G3 (G in the third octave, twelfth fret G string on a 4-string bass) is 195.998 Hz with a wavelength of 1.736 meter. A headphone cup is typically a few cm deep. What phase interference there is inside the cup at audio wavelengths is negligible.
 
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#48
OK, now I need some different opinions re headphones? I greatly like the sound I get from my AKG K240, but I'm finding at times I really need more sound isolation in order to block out the noise of TV, radio, etc, coming from other parts of the house. So far I'm thinking of either the closed back AKG K275 or the ATH M40x or M50x. (And I also need the large over-the-ear pad types so as to go over inserted hearing aids.)
Any one here have experience with those two cans, and/or opinions re good clean sound (like the AKG K240's) and also good ambient sound isolation? I'm trying to keep the cost under $150...
Thanks,
Greywoulf
 
#52
fokof said:
Shure SRH940 after decades on 7506
Click to expand...
For a $300 supposedly premium set of headphones, these SRH940 Shure's have garnished amazingly contradictory reviews from Amazon buyers. For as many positive reviews that say they're the best sounding in the world there are just about as many negative reviews that say they are made out of cheap, crunchy, easily breakable plastic garbage(??). I've rarely seen such evenly opposed strong opinions on one product in Amazon... (-And sometimes both opinions are expressed by the same person!!)
Greywoulf
 
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#54
For general purposes where I'm not so concerned about portability/bulk, I really like the Beyerdynamic DT770s I picked up several years ago.

I think my old Sony MD-7506s are probably better for mixing/reference for me (although I also spent a lot more hours using them in this capacity than anything else) but the high mids can get fatiguing on the ears after a couple hours of use & they have developed a bad case of foam rot.

The DT770s seem a bit more pleasing for casual listening (not that the 7506s are bad in that role...) while still working pretty well as a reference headphone for me.

I've got a few sets of Austrian made AKG 270s from the mid 90s too, but I can't stand them. The old AKG 240s were much less punishing to use for extended periods of time even if they were less detailed.
 
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#56
This thread has inspired me to burrow into boxes in the closet for my Koss Pro-4A (Pro-4AA?) phones, bought in the early 1970s. If I find them I’ll report back. They were comfortable and I was always happy with the sound and the level of isolation they have. By recent standards they’re heavy but I’m a pilot and my aircraft phones are heavier, still, with incredibly good (and necessary) sound attenuation. I’m no headbanger so I’m OK with the weight. They’re still being made; around $70.
 
#57
fokof said:
I don't rely on internet opinion when I buy stuff , in this case , I used my ears.

Have them for 4/5 years now , use them everyday , still haven't broke.....
Click to expand...
No negative opinions were expressed on Amazon about what good sounds their ears heard, only on the cheesy, undependable quality of the materials used (now?). So if you have your Shure's in good condition and undamaged for 5 years it's quite possible the manufacturers have changed since then, as so much stuff is now farmed out to China for cheap labor that didn't usta be. And in much of my experience then often the quality control suffers...
 
#58
They're not at all cheap, but as far as studio headphones go (ones that the engineer would use, not what you'd give to the musicians), my Focal Spirit Pro headphones are my absolute favorite! They've been discontinued, I think the current Focal model would be the Listen.

I use them only about 5% of the time when mixing, but they make my mixes way better. I'll get stuff to where I think it's good on my monitors alone, then put the headphones on and find several small and sometimes a few big things that need to change. Then I switch back to the speakers and usually find everything sounds better and almost never undo any adjustments I've made.
 
#59
crlujan said:
Audio Technica ATH-M40x

Audio-Technica ATH-M40x Closed-back Studio Monitoring Headphones
Click to expand...

I have the ATH-40x and the ATH-50’s.
Both are great but the 40’s are a little more comfortable if you’re doing long sessions. Both are flat and transparent but I swear you can feel the bass when monitoring a session! The x version has easily replaced cables just in case you exceed the cable length which happens frequently! I recently replaced the ATH-50’s ear cups and headband and they’re brand new again! Highly recommend you review either or both!
 
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#60
I like my AKG k240 Studio headphones a lot, but there's also a little uncomfortable pressure on my ears' edges. (Possibly because of my hearing aids...) So I'm looking for different, larger, possibly softer, replacement pads. I see Brainwavz has lots of larger, memory foam type pads, but none of them seem to be rated for the AKG k240... So if a particular set of Brainwavz is rated OK for the AKG k271, would they then also be OK for the k240??
Also can someone perhaps recommend larger earpads suitable for the AKG K240 other than Brainwavz?
Thanks,
Greywoulf
 

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