sub $500 recommendation for bass/transient focused headphones?

[dem615]

im moving back home with my parents, probably will end up selling my 8 inch monitors. i was looking at smaller monitors but thinking maybe a good pair of headphones is a better fit. I produce music, and try my best to mix/master my own stuff. I’m mainly into dance music with subby basses and tight drums and intricate rhythms. i really can’t do a pair of headphones lacking in “thump” I need to really feel the dynamics of the tracks. I tried the beyer dt770s a while back and they were super underwhelming to me. maybe I got a dud, but they were just not that great.

 

[staticV3]

A $20 Zero:2 IEM has more thump than most $500 headphones.

Something to think about.

 

[markanini]

im moving back home with my parents, probably will end up selling my 8 inch monitors. i was looking at smaller monitors but thinking maybe a good pair of headphones is a better fit. I produce music, and try my best to mix/master my own stuff. I’m mainly into dance music with subby basses and tight drums and intricate rhythms. i really can’t do a pair of headphones lacking in “thump” I need to really feel the dynamics of the tracks. I tried the beyer dt770s a while back and they were super underwhelming to me. maybe I got a dud, but they were just not that great.

DT770 were underwhelming compared to what? My friend has the DT770 in his studio and they sound fine among the closed backs I've tried. Maybe compared to a real speaker setup they are underwhelming, but so are most headphones. A general issue with closed backs is that they will sound different from person to person due to coupling variability, so don't be surprised if you find different impressions for the same headphone. In my experience Shure SRH440 had the most visceral bass, AKG K371 best details. If you can try to demo them and other closed backs on the market in person that's best, because recommendations can't give you what hands on experience will. I would demo Focal Azurys and DCA Aeon 2 Noire given the chance.

 

[Dunring]

The Artti T10 has the best bass I've heard in IEMs. For headphones 250 ohm DT770 has lots of authoritative bass when called for, but they have to have enough power. Equalizing headphones that have low bass distortion really opens up the field of choices too.

 

[thon]

I produce music, and try my best to mix/master my own stuff. I’m mainly into dance music with subby basses and tight drums and intricate rhythms. i really can’t do a pair of headphones lacking in “thump” I need to really feel the dynamics of the tracks.

2 suggestions to check out.

open back, over ear: Avantone Pro Planar the II.
Easy to EQ.
Very controlled, bold bass, even when heavily EQed.

Avantone Pro Planar

back to measurements home Published: Nov-11-2023 NO SMOOTHING is applied to the shown plots. Most measurement sites have some smoothing applied which ‘irons flat’ sharp peaks and ‘wiggles’. I do no…

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Together with a good hardware based crossfeed these possibly sound as close to speakers as it gets (if that‘s a desired target) For a final mix I probably wouldn‘t use these to judge the top end of the spectrum. But they are certainly great to get into the flow while mixing.
Strange design but me personally I can wear them for hours.

IEM for quality bass lovers (clean, transparent bass and very present subbass). Dynamic and rich sounding. Less high mids than most current IEMs: Earsonics Elements.