ORIGINAL: rumleymusic

Sennheiser HD280Pro, which do double-duty as tracking cans. A bargain at a hundred bucks, no other headphones offer better isolation. But they are not high-fidelity. You cannot make EQ decisions with them.

I use these at work. They are good for tracking as you say, but they have a massive high end boost that makes them unusable for checking a mix.

AKG240's are a reliable industry standard and I have used a pair happily for many years, but my favorites now are the Yamaha RH10MS. The isolation is just as good as the Sennheiser and the audio is very smooth and trustworthy. It even has the S-Logic technology which causes the audio to be projected on the ears at an angle, mimicing the position of speakers (for the most part). Best part, you can find them at fullcompass for around $100. Great deal.

Edit: the description on these say "surround headphones", but that is a little white lie for marketing's sake, these are stereo with a sense of forward direction.

I haven't tried the Yamaha RH10MS, 20/20 respone, natual sound! I spotted them at Amazon for $99 smackeroos, that's a really good deal :)

I don't get a whole lot of volume output from my setup so I'm wondering if the Yamaha RH10MS has plenty of output volume?

I don't get a whole lot of volume output from my setup so I'm wondering if the Yamaha RH10MS has plenty of output volume?

I takes low powered outputs very well. Especially since it is a closed back design with very good isolation.

I used to have several Sony 7506's which I used for a while. However, to me, they sound a little brittle and harsh. The K 240 seems to have a fairly flat response, and I have no trouble wearing them for long listening sessions when I can't use my nearfields due to disturbing others.

If I could only pick one it would be the AKG240. But I've found it's not a bad idea to check mixes with a few different models as they all tend to color the sound one way or another.

Im a fan of Audio-Technica M40fs's.

Just a little tidbit; I was talking with BOB KATZ a couple of months ago, and when I told him my reference monitors weren't that great (and I was broke!), he stated:

". . . you can get a set of Sennheiser HD600 headphones while you're waiting for the lottery and they will help you retain perspective on what you are doing."

That's good enough for me!!

I've used the AT's mostly because of good reviews and of course price, but I'll be saving for some of those. Also, I finished my last album on phones due to my living situation. As I was just checking overall mix levels, etc., and not really panning it was not a problem, in fact IT HELPED!

I would recommend using BOTH monitors AND phones to everyone, as long as you have decent ones of each.

I use Audio Technica ATH_M30 Headphones for checking my mix. I love 'em!!!

Don't worry too much about the headphones you check mixes with. Use as many different sources as you can. Not only do you sound vain listening to yourself repeatedly, but the more you do it the better your ears become trained to what your monitors might be missing, if anything.

Senheiser HD 280 - cheap and good for the low end and reasonably flat in the mid range

+1

I did a headphone shootout a while back (for tracking, not mixing) and these were my faves.

I would say this: use headphones just as microscope tool for particular job in the process.

I still have my Sennheiser HD 250 Linear in 100% perfect condition (around 20 years old, I replaced the cushions once and the cabel maybe twice).
I mostly used them about 15-20 years ago for my home mixing. Downside was only that my mixes showed later too much of basses... but for everything else, they were best what I came across those years.

I also bought Audio Technica ATH-M50 1-2 years ago - after reading so many great reviews and testimonials online.

But none of them is perfect.
I will give you example:

When I bought ATH-M50, I did some test with them, listening to the movie War of the Worlds (from Spielberg) just because you can find there very busy audio material with full of frequencies of all bands. There is a scene in the movie where whole factory explodes when that space craft crashes on it.
Using Sennheiser HD 250 Linear - it's hard to believe, but I could count every glass particle crashing around - the highs are so much detailed, transparented, you can focus on tiniest detail of one particular noise or tone, even if audio material is so complex and busy.
Then I checked the same sequence (and few minutes around that) with ATH-M50 - it's hard to believe, but there was aditional almost full octave in sub low bass, which on HD 250 was just not there, althought HD 250 are supposed to offer 10 Hz - 25 kHz, with 0 dB fall comparing with 1 kHz in whole specter.
But - ATH-M50 didn't even closely offer that sound of glass particles as HD 250 did. ATH-M50 just smashes everything above mid-low into dull noise, without transparency and any attention to the details in highs.

About ATH-M50, there is often said that they offer "clean highs". I would say: yes, clean of noise and details. :)

About HD 250 - Sennheiser made also model HD 250 II later, it never directly compared mine against those.
But what I did, I compared once HD 250 II against HD 580 and I think also HD 590 (which I wanted to buy) and I was just dissapointed how limited these latest sounded against HD 250 II.
There was also HD 600 model and it was the only one (open model) which could compare to HD 250 II (which is closed model).
I never tried HD 650, but I guess it can sound only better than HD 600.

I also never tried HD 280 PRO (there is also new model HD 380 lately!). So I wonder how HD 280 PRO sounds against HD 250 II. The fact is that Sennheiser discontinued HD 250 II and that HD 280 PRO is a kind of model which replaced them.

So, which headphones to use for mixing - in my case I would say:

I use HD 250 for sound programming, testing synths, working on panning, layering sounds in same freq band, checking distortion, checking for mistakes (for instance using 2 reverbs around compression), etc..
And I would use ATH-M50 to work on energy level of basses, sub basses, but I wouldn't use them for anything above mid or even low mid.

As I said, I would recommend using headphones only as a microscope for particular job.
But althought HD 250 can show much more details than average monitors, I wouldn't count on them as a judge for overall sound picture.
ATH-M50 sounds closer to the sound of average monitors (or HiFi speakers) than HD 250, but I wouldn't use them to listen to the movies, because they just can't come close to HD 250 when it's about hearing air moving, breathing, walking and all that noise in the movies which set you just in the middle of the scene.

OK, this was pretty long "confession", but I hope I stressed also some useful hints for someone with doubts when and how to use headphones in mixing (or even mastering).

Zoki

With a vast majority of people using some type of headphones or plugs as their primary way of listening to music you better believe it's a damn good idea to make sure you music translates well there.   That's not to say that you shouldn't be mixing at some point on monitors.  I can get pretty much anything I'm working on mixed about 85% on my Grado RS-1's and at that point I put it up on my JBL 4328's and finish it up...switch back to a couple sets of phones and earbuds to make sure everything is lined up and then print the final.

Anubis


Sony MDR V600. It's also about the shape of the earcup and position of the driver.

It's good to hear someone else mention these. I wore out a pair of V600's and now I use the HD 280 Pro's, but I gotta say that the v600's are WAY more comfortable.  The 280's are a little tight on my head. Both have great sound though. I'd love to try out the AKG 240's ....
 
Vernon

I recently got a pair of ATH-M50s....great value for money...got a lot of good reviews from some "famous" engineers...and I'm giving it a good review too!

Can I throw KRK KNS 8400 headphones on the pile ??

Just got them today....very detailed and balanced.  I have been using HD 280s for a while. I mostly bought them for the high degree of isolation.  I have also used  MDR 7502 before and did not like them.

I wish I had used the ATH-M50's or other mentioned here, but these are the only ones I can compare to.

KRKs are very, very comfortable and well constructed.  I am  looking forward to trying a long session to see how they feel.  The cord is separate from the ear phone piece which is cool so you do not have throw them out if the cord breaks.  

Loving them.  Took a month to get a pair, a lot of places are out of stock.

Later, back to checking mixes.

bitflipper

The Audio-Technica ATHM-50 offers a nice balance of comfort, accuracy and reasonable price.

Certainly comfortable enough.  I took my M50s with me on a flight from the UK to Australia and wore them for most of the journey.

I am also using the yamaha's for overall editing and checking the mixes, as well as the AKG K271. I have also a pair of Behringer HPS5000 but they suck. I was very satisfied till the moment that my colleague bought the Beyerdynamic DT990 pro. These are the best affordable mixing headphones i have ever listened in my life! So comfortable to wear and so perfect to work with!