Looking for a headphone to produce and mix electronic dance music, 300-800 Euro budget

[Tulipe]

Hello,
after a move I have to rely a bit more on headphones for producing and mixing (not mastering) my bassheavy progressive house music. I have a set of kh120 and a decent sub, but am a bedroom producer again, so room treatment and listening times is very limited. I don't have to much other requirements and also don't know if they should be open or closed - was working with open HP until now but if there are advantages in mixing bass (I know, I know...but you got to work with what youhave) with closed I dont mind trying this. My budget would extend to 800 Euro, but only if it is really worth the difference - 500 Euro max would be preferred. And I would prefer not to eq the headphones, but if there is a bang for buck which needs some tuning that would be ok as well.

They dont have to be good looking or comfy or easy on the ears, building quality is not to important as well as I am not planning to travel with them. I am absolutly overwhelmed by the choices and would be very happy if you guys could recommend what you think would suit best for my requirements.
Thank you!!

 

[DVDdoug]

I have a handful of collected quotes/excerpts, mostly advising against mixing/mastering on headphones, but for you I'll just share the exception...

This is from a mixing engineer, published in Recording Magazine:

Can I mix on headphones?

No. But in all seriousness, headphones can be a secret weapon and it really doesn’t matter what they sound like…

Over time, after constantly listening back to my work from different studios on those headphones I really started to learn them. They became sort of a compass. Wherever I went… It became a pattern for me to reference these headphones to see if what I was hearing was “right”…

I learned them, I knew them, I trusted them. It didn’t matter whether or not I loved them…

So, can you mix on headphones? Probably. I just think you really need to put some time into learning them first…

 

[Tulipe]

Hehe, yes thanks for the quote. I know it isn't an optimal solution, but I am glad that some people say you can do mix at least to some degree. And as usual I know it is most important to know the tools (miss my old room which I knew inside out with my speakers), but when I have to buy some new headphones I want to buy something decent which fits my needs (i.e. "proper" subbass to the degree it is possible on headphones). Curious what you guys might recommend

 

[Mr Swing King]

I wouldn’t mix over headphones, perhaps with the exception of the new Genelec system, but here are some relatively realistic sounding closedback headphones:

AKG K371
Sennheiser HD620S
Fiio FT1
Sony MDR-M1
Austrian Audio HI-X60
Focal Azurys

The “best” will very much be up to your tastebuds and how X headphone conforms to the general shape of your head. The price of any of these has nothing to do with the actual sound quality…although the cheapest one, K371, does suffer a bit from a less than stellar build quality. The sound is awesome though.
I own the 620 myself and think it is a brilliant closedback.

 

[Tulipe]

Thank you, will try these. Luckily I just saw there is a local hifi shop which has a pretty big headphone testing area. If thereafter more recommendations I take these happily . also interested in open hp if they have good enough bass.

 

[andymcbain]

For bass heavy electronic music I’m very happy with the Slate VSX headphone / plugin combo. I’ve mixed and produced stuff on those and it’s translated well to large PA systems.

 

[Tulipe]

Wow this is interesting. Will chek these out as well!

 

[anaveragebear]

Hey, I also mix and produce on headphones. It's really easy to get ear fatigue and also to create productions and mixes that don't translate well to speakers. It's especially easy to overcompress things and mismanage spacial effects like reverbs, delays, and stereo width. I've found that you need to play your stuff on a lot of systems, listen at lower volumes than you think necessary, take lots of breaks, and also invest in some analysis tools and reference tracks that you consult throughout the process.

 

[MdeVelde]

I've recently auditioned several closed headphones and I wouldn't mix on any of them, also not after EQ correction.
What I would mix on though is the 7Hz Zero:2 in-ear. It's already fantastic without EQ but you can further EQ it based on measurements online (I would pick 5128 measurements and experiment with your target curve preference)
Harman: https://graph.hangout.audio/iem/5128/?share=Harman_IE_2019_(B&K_5128)_Target,Zero2_S1
LMG 0.6: https://graph.hangout.audio/iem/5128/?share=LMG_0.6_Target,Zero2_S1

In my opinion it beats any headphone (closed and open) I've even heard.
Make sure you give it a decent DAC/AMP though (like for instance the recently tested JCally dongle which is cheap as well).

The Truthear Zero:Red in-ear seems like a great option as well btw.