Headphone Recommendations?

Don’t open it ! I asked Sennheiser.

I see a pair of Sennheiser HD 600 offered locally for $175 locally. Where do the land in the can wars? I’m sure they’ve been mentioned in ths thread but I’m having a hard time keeping track of the concensus…

Had a bit of trouble in the studio when it comes to monitoring what I’m playing whilst I’ve got a guitarist, bassist and drummer in the same studio space. One for selecting a patch, and previewing it, (planning on using the OT cue functionality for this), second for monitoring any tweaks to the tone.

I was thinking about grabbing at set of etymonic IEMs for monitoring my synth being fed into the octatrack, so I can tweak the my synth/octatrack fx and have an accurate idea of what it sounds like. It can be easy to mishear when the room is so god damn loud. I often panic that I’m causing an abohrent rumble, or screamy feedback… Taking the hands off the keys helps identify if it’s me, but then there’s a random gap in the jam because I’ve stopped playing the synth.

Any experience with a set of etys in the studio? I was planning on one ear in, bit like a DJ monitoring solution. I do have DT770s but I don’t feel their isolation would be strong enough for our, let’s say “enthusiastic”, bassist. I do use hearing protection at the moment, alpine filters which stop the ringing ears after jamming but do have a bit of a tone suck to them. I’d likely be rolling with one ear filter, one headphone.

If there’s a better suggestion, I’m all ears (pun intended).

Edit: I guess this is more about isolation than “mix down” quality headphones, although if the etys are good at that, that’d be a bonus :).

Thats a good price for a decent pair of headphones. But the 600s and 650s and 6xxs need a headphone amp or imo they sound pretty terrible…

1 Like

German Computermagazine c’t has tested 9 Programs that improve the sound of headphones so you can use them for monitoring, including Soundarworks SoundID Reference, Morphit, Canopener, Redline Monitor, Waves NX, DearVR Mix, Auto EQ freeware and others. They also explain, how to integrate the Software systemwide in Windows and macOS. Its behind a paywall and in german, but some might want to read this: https://heise.de/-7310251. They recommend DearVR or Morphit together with Redline Monitor. But it depends, what Headphones you have.

1 Like

not true for all of them, the HD 660S has a lower impedance and doesnt need an extra amp. DearVR Mix has a very good equalisation curve and monitor simulation for them. Very good for mix decisions without being in a studio with calibrated room acoustics.

I decided to test out the built-in headphone amp on my 14" M1 MacBook Pro, and wow, this thing sounds really good. It puts out more juice than a lot of headphone amps in audio interfaces I have used. Very surprising.

Here is some info from Apple on the DAC:

The 3.5 mm headphone jack on Mac laptops introduced in 2021 or later and Mac Studio features DC load detection and adaptive voltage output. Your Mac can detect the impedance of the connected device and will adapt its output for low- and high-impedance headphones, as well as for line-level audio devices.

When you connect headphones with an impedance of less than 150 ohms, the headphone jack provides up to 1.25 volts RMS. For headphones with an impedance of 150 to 1k ohms, the headphone jack delivers 3 volts RMS. This may remove the need for an external headphone amplifier.

With impedance detection, adaptive voltage output, and a built-in digital-to-analog converter that supports sample rates of up to 96 kHz, you can enjoy high-fidelity, full-resolution audio directly from the headphone jack on your Mac.

For reference, I am using my Sennheiser 6XX, which are 300 ohm, and need some juice to open them up.

4 Likes

I have a Midiman MiXim 10 mixer which has a headphone amp but I cannot find any specifics on it, online. Does anyone know if this would be sufficient for most headphones that require an amp?

If I have to watch another influencer advertising aiaiai wireless headphones I might lose it. I’m pretty sure Federico (OoraMusic) is not using them when he has a pair of LCD-5s I’ve seen him wearing in a bunch of videos.

9 Likes

First off, I don’t know of any headphones* that “require” an amp. Maybe they’re too quiet for where/how someone’s working and they need to boost their levels beyond the standard jack on their synth or phone or whatever? Or some enjoy the coloration (i.e. distortion) some amps add to the sound. But they’ll work without it.

Second, I’ve never seen a headphone amp of any design (especially on a mixer) that hasn’t provided enough juice to blow out even my hardest to drive cans.

So I think you should be fine.


*Well, maybe Stax. But none discussed here.

1 Like

Why does this video make my skin crawl so much and feel contempt towards YouTube and human beings?
Man, this is like everything that disturbs me about the modern world of social media and ‘content creators’… and, I fully believe it’s my issue. :upside_down_face:

2 Likes

Did you have an unfortunate encounter with a smurf wearing headphones as a child?

1 Like

Abso-fkn-lutely… it annoys the shit out of me that all these content creators/influencers are dressing themselves up as artists when they are basically working as marketing/sales people for anyone with the ‘free goods’ or $$$.

The Oora guy for example… let’s take the AIAIAI money or product, make a video and tell everyone who watches me how great they are, then go back to using the high-end Audeze headphones that fit the YouTube aesthetic that I need to present to viewers to get more AIAIAIA’s to send me free shit or money.

I’ve got no issue with it in principal, it’s just sales and marketing content, it just annoys me to think there must be a lot of people out there being taken in by it and buying stuff that’s not right for them.

Anyway, stick to the well established headphone makers who make their own components… you can’t go wrong with good Beyers or Sennheisers IMO.

4 Likes

Maybe… :grinning:
I feel like I should have this conversation lying down on a sofa, maybe not on a forum. :sunglasses:

1 Like

Ha ha I was just laying on a sofa watching that using all my mental energy to figure out what SNL character he reminds me of the most.

It’s a shame Oora bought into that actually as I get the impression he is very much a musician first. Bit of a sell out moment. I’m more forgiving of people that spend their time promoting gear. It blurs lines with Oora.

It can be tempting - I had a company reach out to me recently willing to give me a piece of gear for free in exchange for making 5 minutes of content with it - but it feels wrong to promote something I haven’t chosen to use and I aint no sales guy. I’m barely even a musician :joy: If it were something I actually wanted that’s a different story - I’m all over that.

4 Likes

Me neither — though I think it’s also bad marketing. At this point I don’t know or care how AIAIAI sounds or their latency or whatever. I’ll never buy them because their “MIDI Chord Pack” level of blanket marketing has made me see them as desperate.

2 Likes

Yes, and this is why forums are still really important because you’re (generally) getting peoples’ impartial and honest recommendations based on personal experience.

This thread is testament to it… people wanting to know and people wanting to share… unfortunately, we have lurkers (companies) who see the value of this and want to infiltrate it, and make it grey.

I’m the same as what you described… I have zero-problem recommending things I believe in.
Saying this, I’m sure there’s a price, if AIAIAIAIAIAI offered me £20k now to make a video about their headphones, obvs I’d be tempted. (I hope they’re reading this now…) :smile:

1 Like