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.

 

[obesechess]

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).

View attachment 543712

Found a set of these open-box for $195, easy choice at that price. Haven't had a chance to play with them and set them up yet, but they were the clear winner once I added them into my search. Thanks for the rec!

By the way, which EQ program is this?

 

[listener650]

Found a set of these open-box for $195, easy choice at that price. Haven't had a chance to play with them and set them up yet, but they were the clear winner once I added them into my search. Thanks for the rec!

By the way, which EQ program is this?

Cool, I hope it works out for ya. That program is REW—more of a measurement visualization software than an EQ program, really.

 

[Soria Moria]

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:

What do you prefer about the 550 compared to for example the 560 S? I had the 560 S and was one of my all-time favourites, and at least where I live it's significantly cheaper than the 550. They seem to measure very similarly too. Is it more comfortable or something?

 

[listener650]

Below is my HD 560S vs. my HD 550, again measured & Diffuse Field compensated at my ear canal entrance point. I assume it's obvious from looking why I like the 560S considerably less (enough so that I would say I just do not like how this headphone sounds), but just to make it even more obvious; too bright/sharp in the low treble and too lean-tilted in the midrange such that it sounds very strained, dry, and papery to me.

HD 550 is also less clampy, and therefore more comfortable on my head than HD 560S. I've also seen some recent data from Sean Olive that indicates 560S QC is... not the best, with most units having significant channel imbalance through the midrange, while I've also seen that HD 560S can have listener-specific channel imbalance through the midrange when placed on human heads (result of a test done this past weekend in CanJam London with a few friends).

EDIT: Apologies, meant to reply to you @Soria Moria but forgot to hit Reply.

 

[obesechess]

Cool, I hope it works out for ya. That program is REW—more of a measurement visualization software than an EQ program, really.

Got it - so, would I be correct in the assumption that if I were using a system-level EQ, the parameters you've posted would be a good starting point to get a fairly neutral/natural sound for the purposes of mixing? Thanks again!

 

[obesechess]

As an aside, this is a great example of why I love forums and will always prefer them to any of the alternatives (though I am biased due to being old enough to have grown up with forums).

Asked this question on Reddit, got tons of answers that were way outside of the listed price range or would require additional outboard gear, lots of people telling me what headphones they like to listen to music on, just a whole bunch of noise.

Ask ASR, someone immediately recommends a good set of previously-unknown-to-me headphones for the job with a bunch of data, which then allows me to further research these headphones and determine that they're probably exactly what I am looking for, and then everyone gets to have an interesting discussion about those headphones.

 

[listener650]

Got it - so, would I be correct in the assumption that if I were using a system-level EQ, the parameters you've posted would be a good starting point to get a fairly neutral/natural sound for the purposes of mixing? Thanks again!

It should get you closer, but to be clear this is an EQ to my preference and my anatomy. You may prefer eg. a less downsloped midrange, in which case the ~1000 Hz filter may not be appropriate. You may have anatomy that produces different results than the 5/10 kHz emphases and thus, don't need to adjust those bands either.

My advice: start with what I sent but disable all bands and enable them one at a time, seeing if the difference it makes with music you're familiar with is a positive change or not.

 

[listener650]

As an aside, this is a great example of why I love forums and will always prefer them to any of the alternatives (though I am biased due to being old enough to have grown up with forums).

Asked this question on Reddit, got tons of answers that were way outside of the listed price range or would require additional outboard gear, lots of people telling me what headphones they like to listen to music on, just a whole bunch of noise.

Ask ASR, someone immediately recommends a good set of previously-unknown-to-me headphones for the job with a bunch of data, which then allows me to further research these headphones and determine that they're probably exactly what I am looking for, and then everyone gets to have an interesting discussion about those headphones.

I would caution you from making generalizations about spaces & one being better than the other. I'm active on Reddit and ASR, and I contribute similarly frequently to both; you just got lucky this time that I was looking at ASR instead of Discord or Reddit LOL

Protip: If you have questions about audio on Reddit, oratory1990's subreddit is easily the best source of information on that site.

 

[myHRTF]

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?

Not sure if this was mentioned already: in your use case, the headphones are worn for extended periods, sometimes for several hours. Consequently, comfort is even more important than sound since sound doesn't matter anymore if you feel pain after short time. I have access to many headphone models and some of them cause pain (in the pinna) after only 15 minutes although these are well designed high-quality headphones. But this is highly individual, others are very happy with those models.
On the other hand there are headphone models that I can wear for hours without any problems.

Ambient temperature is another important factor to consider: some headphone models cause your ears to perspire quickly and this tends to feel very uncomfortable. But again, this is highly individual and depends a lot on the season and your location.

Hence, I strongly recommend that you wear the headphone model of choice for extended periods before buying, preferably on a hot day.

For mixing and mastering on headphones I consider some sort of speaker virtualization / acoustic simulation essential, otherwise results tend to sound too wet (too much reverberation) and/or too dull (lack of energy at high frequencies). But that is a completely new topic and can be retrofitted at any time.

 

[solderdude]

Then there is the 2022 change in the HD560S with a few dB difference in the treble.

Below a plot showing the average of 8x <2022 drivers (4 headphones) versus the average of 10x >2022 drivers (5 headphones).

Note that this is an average and all of them differ individually (also between L and R) and are a pain to measure as shifting them in position, even on a FP affects the FR.

I have no idea how the production spread/tolerance is for HD550.

HD550 is more comfortable and has more 'air'.
Below the > 2022 HD560S (average) vs (L+R average) of one HD550.

Slightly better bass extension and 'warmth' and upper treble is a bit different.

This + comfort (clamping force) makes me prefer the HD550 over the HD560S (owned 9 of those all filter modified and then sold)
Agree with the assessment of @listener650

A single ply of a 3-ply sheet of toilet paper (made black with a felt marker) below the mesh got rid of the peaking in the treble (only 1 channel shown).

Of course you can't see the driver anymore but when one wears it you can't see it anyway.

All not measured on industry standard fixtures to my own target (horizontal line)

 

[obesechess]

I would caution you from making generalizations about spaces & one being better than the other. I'm active on Reddit and ASR, and I contribute similarly frequently to both; you just got lucky this time that I was looking at ASR instead of Discord or Reddit LOL

Protip: If you have questions about audio on Reddit, oratory1990's subreddit is easily the best source of information on that site.

ha! Fair enough, I just generally have much better luck asking questions on dedicated forums than on Reddit, but I'm aware that there's cross-pollination between user bases.

And yes, I stumbled onto oratory1990's subreddit in my research but was rapidly overwhelmed and kept asking myself "okay, but who or what is an 'oratory1990?'" Baby steps!

 

[john61ct]

It's a question of degree, every sub has its idiots some you need to filter out more noise

Participating over time, you learn who to follow and who to ignore