So I went to my local music store yesterday to talk to a sales guy about mixing on cans.  He demoed the Sennheiser HD800 to me along with ATH 50 (I believe).  Well the Sennheiser is quite an amazing piece of gear.  Did not sound hyped or scooped to me.  Clarity, detail, space, etc.  Wonderful experience.
 
Question for me was whether one could mix on it.  He claimed that I could sell my monitors, acoustic foam and never worry about treating my room if I mixed on these cans.  They were as good if not better than your average crappy home studio mixing environment.  Also much cheaper than treating a room.
 
Does anyone agree?

COMB FILTERING.
 
THIS ISSUE IS NOT GOING TO GO AWAY.
 

The HD800s are very, very good. There are, however, IMO, less-expensive alternatives that will work just as well for you. ATH-M50 would top that list for price/performance value and translatable mixes. Also consider AKG K-701, Beyerdynamic DT880 and Shure SRH940, all of which are way less-expensive than the HD800s.

I went the AKG Q701 route. Could not resist the sale. Very handy for mixing when monitors are not an option.

don't mix on cans alone.
 

Are you sure about that Bat?
 
Yeah I agree mostly that cans are not the preferred way to mix. At least not if it's the only way you listen to the mix.
 
I also understand that many of us hobbyist music producers don't have treated rooms, and for one reason or another, must keep the volume down so others in the house can do homework or watch TV in another room. Some don't have the money to buy speakers.
 
So..... I do, on occasion, track and mix primarily in my cheap $30 Yamaha cans. The last song I recorded was done 95% in the cans. I do however, play the mix through the studio monitors to check it. Normally, it is the other way around..... 95% done on speakers and checked in cans and ear buds on my mp3 player.
 
BUT... if all you have is a pair of stereo headphones, by all means use them. Just understand the shortcomings of mixing that way..... because as Bat points out, there are things you will miss in the cans that you will be able to hear in the speakers.....

The mix in cans debate has been around for a long time. I agree with Bat, don't mix in cans esp. alone. If you've heard Bat's tunes you can't argue. On the other hand the "my room sucks, I live in an apartment, I can only work on my stuff a 2 a.m." camp certainly has validity. My opinion and situation is that I do what I can when I have to with cans and a VRM Box, I always finish up in my somewhat treated room using ARC and my Dynaudio BM5A's. I find I get much more hands on time this way. Just my $.02.
 
Rocky

bluzdog
The mix in cans debate has been around for a long time. I agree with Bat, don't mix in cans esp. alone. If you've heard Bat's tunes you can't argue. On the other hand the "my room sucks, I live in an apartment, I can only work on my stuff a 2 a.m." camp certainly has validity. My opinion and situation is that I do what I can when I have to with cans and a VRM Box, I always finish up in my somewhat treated room using ARC and my Dynaudio BM5A's. I find I get much more hands on time this way. Just my $.02.
 
Rocky

Do you have a link to your music?  I have ARC and BM5A's as well.  My mixes stink.  Partly because of my lack of skill and practice.  Mixing is not my forte.  Also is your room treated?

I don't have a link for anything recent. My room is treated but I'm fixin' to tear it apart and down size or maybe even upsize if we move to a bigger house. I'm kind of in limbo right now so to speak.
 
Rocky

 
 
There are a few other issues too with mixing on headphones. You will tend to hear the reverbs sooner and louder because the speaker system is right on your eardrum! You may hold back on them a bit thinking you have them right only to find that things are a little dry on speakers. One possible solution is to return all your reverb returns to a master reverb return buss and leave it set at unity say. Then when on speakers you might find you have to nudge that buss which has all your reverbs on it up 2 db or so maybe.
 
Stereo imaging becomes a little more pronounced on headphones too. Like things panned hard to one side really sound that way in your phones. There are systems (hardware/software) that introduce precise amounts of crosstalk to remedy this. We also have speaker modeling devices that can simulate speakers in a room on your headphones. I have not worked with this technology yet. I know there are some forum members here that do use this setup and I welcome their input as to how effective they are. If you can switch your mix into mono before the headphone out, comb filtering issues (from within the DAW that is not outside obviously) will still be revealed and can be sorted.
 
There are some great sounding headphones around. Listen to the advice here regarding makes and models. These forum members will cut to the chase and at least you know where to start listening from. Don't listen too much to the salesman either. Do not sell your speakers, it is silly advice.
 
I have got an old pair of Sennheiser eh150's and they sound like my monitors up loud! Sometimes I rip them off in the middle of the night thinking I must have my monitors on because the sound is so good but only to find that my speakers are in fact powered off and silent!
 
I know I rant on about a single mono Auratone type speaker down low. Yes it is also good for this scenario too. Because you won't disturb anybody with this either. If you are down to 75 dB SPL or quieter your neighbours won’t hear it. I have worked this way at all hours with no complaints. It stops the noise issue and you are still on a speaker and getting a more accurate speaker mix too. While you are sitting directly in front of a speaker like this (8 or so inches away) i.e. close to it and looking directly at it and it is soft in level, your room acoustics do not come into play. You can rule them out too.
 
You still need some quick checks up loud on your main speakers though for bass and reverb levels.