Looking for Mixing/Mastering Headphones on a Budget

[obesechess]

Hi everyone,

Long-time lurker, first-time poster here.

I've been a studio/recording musician and songwriter for a long time but haven't done any of my own work that required mixing or mastering (all I've had to worry about in the past is getting a noise-free DI track that someone else can mess with).

I've started doing more of my own solo work, mostly electronic music which is going to require at least a basic amount of mixing and EQing.

I do not currently have a treated room with acceptable monitors, nor is such a thing currently in the budget. I will eventually do this, but right now my computer is equipped with two ancient KRK Rokit 5s, my desk is shoved in a corner next to a large floor-length sliding door in a loud, busy, urban area, I just got laid off, and I'm not looking to buy too much more equipment or completely rearrange my entire apartment at this time. I realize that a properly treated room with good monitors is key and cheaper than many people think, I just can't justify that expense right now but want to remain productive and creative while I have all this time on my hands.

As such, I am looking for a pair of headphones that I can use for fairly basic mixing work, just EQing samples and instruments so they don't step on each others' toes too much.

My understanding is that the standard, at least at a price point accessible to a "bedroom producer" (under $250 or so), is the Sony MDR-7506. However, a number of reviews portray these as being extremely bright, almost shrill, suggesting to me that they may be subject to the same limitations as the Yamaha NS10, where - paraphrasing - if it sounds good on those, it sounds good on everything. They also get pretty poor scores here on ASR, at least from Amir's tests, and his results match my experience with other Sony headphones (lots of variation from ear to ear and from pair to pair, lots of low-end distortion, and a pronounced midrange hump).

My research has lead me to the AKG K371 as an alternative, due to the fact that, if I remember correctly, it is designed around the Harman Curve and is supposed to therefore sound more "accurate" to the way people will actually hear the music, rather than a "flat" or "neutral" sound profile. The Beyerdynamic DT-770 also seems very well-regarded.

In asking this question on Reddit, I was directed towards the Sennheiser HD6XX (or HD600/650) and the HifiMan Ananda Nano. As far as these options go, I cannot sort out the difference between the HD6XX, HD600, and HD650, and they seem to have fairly poor bass response, so I'd need some guidance there. Conversely, the HifiMan Anandas seem like they would require an outboard DAC and/or headphone amp to drive properly, which is additional expense I cannot currently justify, especially with them being right at the maximum end of the budget (currently $260 on sale).

Lots of info there, hopefully not too much extraneous detail.

So, in short: if you had a maximum budget of roughly $250 to spend on headphones that you would use for BASIC mixing work, which would you choose? I lean towards the AKG K371 as I have had good luck with AKG/Harman products in the past and they can be had for just under $100 open box/refurbished, but I defer to the experts.

Thank you!

 

[Joe Smith]

I even like the K361 model, a little cheaper than the 371, very similar curve. Earpads will last 3 or so years, but there are inexpensive aftermarket ones that fit perfectly.

 

[listener650]

I would not recommend using a closed headphone for this, as they're much more sensitive to coupling effects (width/size of the head, extension of the headband arms, presence of glasses or strong cheekbones, all of these things can add potential for variability, causing the frequency response to change slightly every time you put on the headphone) than open headphones are.

At that price, I would likely end up going for a Sennheiser HD 550, going into it with the intent to equalize the headphone for:

- linear 20 Hz bass extension
- slight correction of midrange (reducing 1 kHz by around a dB)
- correction of treble peaks around 5 kHz & 10 kHz
- filling in a treble dip around 8 kHz

IMO un-equalized headphones simply aren't emulating the perceived sound of calibrated speakers well enough to recommend any headphone for mixing without first EQing it to fix its idiosyncrasies.

Measurement of the HD 550 at my ear-canal entrance point, with a preference boundary/center target arrived at via blind MoA/MUSHRA testing with three different replicator headphones, shown below. Effects of a few filters shown in teal, though I wouldn't mimic them exactly (the latter 3 filters are going to be quite personal; while they might end up helping I encourage playing around with it yourself).

 

[john61ct]

TBH I think good EQ can be just as important as the phones themselves.

Incredible value in IEMs these days, to the point with a good DAC+HPamp with DSP, downloadable EQ profiles, you could personally test many well recommended phones that really don't cost much at all.

This unit just got my attention

ARC ON·EAR "interface" DAC/amp/DSP from IK Multimedia

Targeted at music creators, maybe sound engineers? Dunno if serious kit... Canned frequency response calibration for 50+ headphones, especially modern IEMs https://www.forbes.com/sites/marksparrow/2026/07/05/ik-multimedia-releases-major-update-to-arc-on-ear-headphone-interface Cool or what...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[obesechess]

Good thinking, and appreciated for the use case, but I think at the moment I’d rather minimize the amount of outboard gear and other “stuff” I’d buy, including DACs or headphone amps, especially when $180 leaves me $70 in the budget for a pair of headphones.

Cost and simplicity aside, I’m particularly opposed to this part of the “Cons” list in the review: “Registration process: license card must be linked with account to use the control software.”

When IK Multimedia released their ToneX line of amplifier modelers and signal processors for musicians (competing with the Neural Quad Cortex, Line6 Helix, etc), they were very well-regarded and very competitive for the price, but then IK started using a similar process to “brick” pre-owned devices until people paid a reactivation fee and lock new features behind paid subscription tiers. It’s just not something I want to ever have to worry about with something as elementary as headphones. I just want to be able to plug them into my audio interface and listen to music, whether it’s my own or someone else’s.

The HD550s are promising due to also not needing a headphone amp to drive them, though the K371s are cheaper. I hadn’t considered the additional variables introduced by open vs closed-back (or rather, didn’t really know the difference or that there would be variables). That said, they appear to have a street price of $350-$400, well outside the $250 maximum budget.

EDIT: disregard that last sentence, looks like they can be had for $197.50 both refurbished and open box on Amazon and eBay, which makes them much more enticing.

Thanks for the recommendations, all, I appreciate the insight here.