Headphones for Mixing and Mastering

rospianoden said
Sonelibrary said

Interesting… i am not sure that the AKG K712 Pro are good enough anymore. So much more people here are mentioning the DT 770 Pro and M50m quite often.

I’ve read a lot of reviews about the AKG K712 Pro and they had been tested with high recommendation in the conclusion? Aren’t they as good as they are promoted in these tests? Yes the DT 770 Pro sound more pleasant to the ears, but I am searching for an neutral sound to analyze and get a good mix?

Just a small suggestion. Go to musical store to listen, listen and listen every headphones that has been recommended here, try to focus on your personal feeling and opinion because who is gonna work in this headphones....? you!!!.... so... you need to catch an inspiration and ecstasy from it sound. If you feel cool and excited so it is your headphones. IMHO.

Yeah, you’re right. And yes, the Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro I’ve listend to were really pleasant to my ears. As I said, more HiFi. Though, the AKG K712 sound was more natural. Yes, a bit more boring, but natural without letting the material sound to nice.

Stockwaves said





http://graphs.headphone.com/graphCompare.php?graphType=0&graphID[]=2941&graphID[]=713&graphID[]=4163&scale=30

Very nice infos… I love statistics and diagrams with curves. Great source for comparing different headphones.

Stockwaves said





http://graphs.headphone.com/graphCompare.php?graphType=0&graphID[]=2941&graphID[]=713&graphID[]=4163&scale=30

Hey this is nice, but what exactly it means?

In areas where the graph is bellow and above what does it means?

I use 3 different pairs.

Beyerdynamic DT 770 (250 Ohm version) because they are closed and therefor good for recording.

Senheisser HD650 they are open and sound the closest to listening to speakers that I could find.

Beyerdynamic DT770 (32 Ohm version) I use these when I work on the road because they are closed and therefore don’t bother people around you plus the low Ohm makes it possible to run them straight of the laptop without amp.

Headphones for mixing and mastering is probably not the best idea in the world. But if you’re going to get say something like Sennheiser HD600s then I would recommend getting some kind of headphone amp or an SPL Mini Phonitor to go with them.

Thanks for all your answers. That helps me a lot on my further investigations.

Hi Sonelibrary,

You have some reviews on the web, like https://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan10/articles/studioheadphones.htm

You also have this, but in French…http://fr.audiofanzine.com/casque-studio/beyerdynamic/DT-770-Pro/editorial/tests/comparatif-6-casques-a-150.html and http://fr.audiofanzine.com/casque-studio/akg/K-702/editorial/tests/conclusion-gen-rale-du-comparatif-casques.html

TheWhiteElephant said

Headphones for mixing and mastering is probably not the best idea in the world…

This is my opinion… You can read the reason in the links above.

i’m trying both m40x and m50x before buy on local store but my ear feels right with m40x and less expensive, but i’m stil figure it out how to use this headphone properly,especially in low frequency i can’t feel the low end shake like i used to when using other phone also the sound staging are bit small but the mid and high range are top notch.

I have a DT770 Pro Beyerdynamics but it is better to mix with your monitors!

Headphones are a good option to control some details of the mix, especially when your room has a bad acoustic.

ClawsMusic said

Headphones are a good option to control some details of the mix, especially when your room has a bad acoustic.

And thats exactly why I’m searching for good headphones. My room is really very poor and especially bass of some tones is hard to mix. It’s just for having a second source to estimate.

Pandocrator said
Stockwaves said





http://graphs.headphone.com/graphCompare.php?graphType=0&graphID[]=2941&graphID[]=713&graphID[]=4163&scale=30

Hey this is nice, but what exactly it means?

In areas where the graph is bellow and above what does it means?

The frequency response is basically a measurement of how much of the input signal (the music) is actually heard through the speakers (the headphones), for a given frequency. If the headphones were “perfect”, there would be a straight line on the graph, but nothing in the real world is “perfect”. Headphone engineers need to account for all kinds of resonance, interference, muffling, distance to the ear etc depending on materials used, membrane size and whatnot.



If a graph for one brand of headphones is above another brand in the graph at a given frequency, that simply means more of that frequency is put through to your ears. Some headphones are more bass heavy, others attenuate mids or highs. Some models may subjectively “sound good” but not necessarily objectively represent the source signal. The frequency response is a kind of “reality check”.

That being said, if you are used to the sound of your headphones and a/b test against tracks you know are properly mixed, you may do OK even with a biased response curve. In some cases you may even want to check your mix against headphones or speakers that are commonly used, or popular among your listeners - these may or may not have flat response curves after all :wink:

Read some reviews… Now I’m going to get hd600 cause it would be great soulmate for m50 that i owned

JohnRosso said

Read some reviews… Now I’m going to get hd600 cause it would be great soulmate for m50 that i owned

I’ve decided for the AKG K712 Pro.Though, the Sennheiser HD600 was also on my list. Unfortunately I was not able to test them personally since no shop nearby had them available.