Just wanted to communicate some details on ordering the DT 1990’s in case others are interested:
I ordered them from Thomann, as it was the best price I could find. With shipping to the US, it was $397
I then decided to go ahead and order the Dekoni pads:
All total this was $475
Although I have yet to receive them, I’m pretty confident these will be great for working on music and should last me a long time. I’ll share my thoughts after I get my ears on them.
Hearing the Nuemann NDH 30’s (although I returned them because of the cord noise) convinced me that it’s well worth investing in great headphones. Although I have monitors I like, I use headphones a lot when composing. Esp since I like to explore distorted / weird sounds and when I’m doing that my wife finds it annoying (and I don’t blame her! ). I’ve been pretty happy with the Sennheiser HD 300 Pro’s, and I’m keeping those as a closed back set for tracking / vocals.
Edit: Still waiting for these as of Thursday Aug 18th. The Dekoni pads arrived, but the headphones will not be here until Monday Aug 22nd. Guess that’s the drawback of ordering from Thomann from the US, as the shipping can be quite slow, (now that we’re spoiled by Amazon)
I haven’t followed this thread much but just wanted to chime in that I’ve owned the ATH-M50x and the DT-770. Yesterday I bought the AKG 371 on sale for $109. In my opinion, the AKG blows away those two in every area soundwise. While the AKG are not uncomfortable, I will say the DT770 are definitely more comfortable and have bigger earpads. Anyways, really surprised how how good the AKGs are, especially at that price point. And they are way louder than the other two. Like, dangerously so - at least with my Focusrite audio interface.
I’m still enjoying the HE400se. The Schiit Magni Heresy gives more loudness, but it is hard to tell if I get more detail or quality.
I don’t have much in the way of objective measures, but I’m using the HE400se at my computer, Sony WH-1000XM4 on the PS4 (via the controller port which is via Bluetooth) and the JBL 306 mk2 monitors with the synths. None of these devices seem out of place among the others. I’m pretty sure the Hifimans have more bass than the Sonys. The JBLs, of course, can vibrate my entire body.
The only thing preventing me from using the Hifiman with synths is the extremely short cable. I’l probably buy a longer cable from Amazon soon.
This evening, a friend who bought the Sundaras when I bought the HE400se sent me a recording of his cello playing, recorded with a low end Tasacam recorder. He noted that it is possible to hear the A/C in the background. I cranked the volume a bit and could just hear the A/C hum.
I don’t find the HE400se taxing to listen to, quite the opposite. I get bored quickly listening to DJ mixes and other YouTube content via the Mac Studio’s internal speakers (limited frequency response but they supposedly can do spatial audio), the speakers in my LG monitors, the Iris 3.5s on my old 5k iMac or the 5k iMac’s speakers. The Hifiman headphones are vastly better than all of the above. Same ballpark as the JBL 306 Mk2 and same universe as the Sony WH-1000XM4.
I don’t have any experience with > $300 headphones, but it does feel like the HE400se can handily defeat anything I’ve tried in the < $300 category. For just over $200 with the Schiit amp these are a steal.
The HE400se compares favorably with the Monoprice HR-5c, which many people seem to think is a copy of the Brainwave HM5. Both are able to deliver across the frequency range. The Hifiman has a little more detail. The difference is small enough that casual listeners won’t care. Critical listeners and people doing sound design will prefer the HE400se. In that case you would want to add the headphone amp to ensure that you can turn the volume way up as needed for detail work.
My guess is that the HR-5c/HM5 share a common set of components with a wide range of 42mm closed back headphones. The Monoprice headphones are built lightly enough (and cheaply enough) that I bought a second set from Amazon since they’ve been discontinued.
My Etymotic ER-6i IEMs also feel like they are in the same universe as the HE400se. Flat and transparent, they were an early high watermark in sound quality among my listening devices. I often wanted to use them with synths, but chickened out out to realistic concerns about ear damage. I feel much better with big open back headphones and experimental music that can include surprise feedback.
I have been jamming and listening to recordings on my Sony Wh1000XM3 for a while now during nighttimes. Noticed that that starts to take its toll on my ears. So I am thinking about open headphones for the majority of the time when I am not singing. What would you suggest?
They don’t have to be ultra high quality. I like the general sound of the Sonys. I guess open ones would be a bit less punchy, which would be okay. But I make electronic music with synths, so bass is important. But it has more of a new wave / atmospheric idm vibe, so no really hard music dominated by deep analog drums or basses either.
Crucially, the should first and foremost be fun for jamming and comfortable to wear for say up to four hours. No professional, crystal clear mastering equipment necessary - I don’t really mix or master my stuff and it should still be enjoyable in this state.
Totally fine if I can hear my surroundings, as long as the music is still good to hear.
Room is rather small but high and rather untreated, if this means anything considering open headphones.
Check out my comments above - I have the XM4s, which I use primarily with my Playstation 4. The ANC helps keep the city noises out and the subtle video game noises in, but like any ANC it can be fatiguing.
I’m very happy with my open back Hifiman HE400se over at the computer and with the synths.
Thanks for the tip. I thought XM4 are just the latest version of my XM3, which are nice, but get grading on my ears. I also don’t like ambient sound on them, since you always have a very unpleasant hiss. Will check out the Hifiman.
I don’t notice any hiss from the XM4s. The ANC is almost entirely transparent. I only notice the fatigue after an hour or so of listening. Even then the fatigue is very mild compared to my older Monoprice ANCs.
If your XM3s hiss, but you like them otherwise then maybe upgrading to XM4s is the way to go. The HE400se are less expensive, comfy, detailed and bassy though.
Another vote for the HEDDphone here. Heard it described as sounding more like a high-end monitoring system in a perfect room and sold my monitors to acquire one as I’ll soon be moving into a space where I won’t be able to use them. It really does sound absolutely incredible, the detail is amazing, not just in the frequencies but in the dynamics too. The only headphones where I’ve felt confident applying EQ and compression knowing that it will sound correct on speakers. Only drawback is it’s so heavy, gets a bit uncomfortable after a couple of hours.
You definitely don’t get hiss from the ambient setting on the XM4’s… I find that’s great for giving you an open-back/less claustro experience with them… may be just on the XM3’s?
For all the money I’ve spent on headphones, I still really like the sound/vibe from working on Senn HD-25’s, especially after I upgraded the earpads.
ANC sounds perfect. The hiss comes in with ambient sound. I never use it though, so it’s not a big deal. I didn’t buy a pair of closed headphones to hear my surroundings .
Yeah the dynamics and transient details are absolutely amazing.
I’m still acclimatising a bit to the overall frequency response - it’s quite difficult to get the balance right across the spectrum simply because they’re so clean and detailed it can be hard to see the wood for the trees. I’m also very used to my Ollo headphones which are on the darker side, and the Heddphones are quite bright. I’m using the Heddphones for pretty much everything, but I still have to reference on the Ollos to get a sense of how they translate.
So any other suggestions? What about the popular semi-professional Beyerdynamics and Sennheiser models a lot of you are using? Would someone with experience say they fit my description of sounding great while being fun with live playing?
This is why I like Sennheiser 6XX. Because they sound great, and aren’t fatiguing when listening for long periods. They are open back, so less deep bass/punchy sounding as you say, but I use sonarworks plugin for mixing, which compensates, and I would recommend for any headphones used for critical listening/mixing because none are perfect out of the gate. But since you are not looking to mix or master, then I think they are stellar headphones and would recommend them for what you describe.
). I’ve been pretty happy with the Sennheiser HD 300 Pro’s, and I’m keeping those as a closed back set for tracking / vocals.
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