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Suggestions for headphones in a home-studio production (electronic/IDM)

BlueWizard

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Hi, there!

I'm planning to build a home-studio until the end of the year and have been researching, buying and learning about pro-grade software for some months.
Then I move to hardware section. But after reading so many inconsistent opinions around the web, I went in choice overload and got analysis paralysis for some weeks.

After a while I found this forum and here I got enough technical information to give me some relief and hope.

I am still trying to read as many threads as I can, but I guess it would not hurt to ask some personal opinions to speed me up.

So...
Looking for a headphone around $200-$300 for sound design, mixing and mastering IDM music (i.e. Aphex Twin, Autechre, Boards of Canada, etc.).
If you could point out some DAC/AMP (~$150) for pairing with your suggestion, I would appreciate so much!

Thanks in advance and have a great weekend!
 
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BlueWizard

BlueWizard

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For listening I use a modded HD555 + PA2V2 amp (both purchased circa 2010, when I first dived in the headphones world), but unfortunately they got a lot of wiring problems with time and heavy use.
 

Dogen

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Sony MDR-V6 or MDR-7506 (around $100), use them for audio production (creating, mixing, editing, etc).
Buy a second headphone for audio enjoyment.

Yes, these headphones are quite often used in mixing, and are a safe choice.
 
OP
BlueWizard

BlueWizard

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Sony MDR-V6 or MDR-7506 (around $100), use them for audio production (creating, mixing, editing, etc).
Buy a second headphone for audio enjoyment.

Yes, these headphones are quite often used in mixing, and are a safe choice.

Thanks, dudes!

How similar MDR-7506 and MDR-7510 are?

Aphex Twin actually praises MDR-7510 as one of the best headphones in a Syro interview:
"With the phoney 7510's, they do translate extremely well, they're not the best pair of headphones for listening to music but to write/mix on, I've never heard anything as good as those yet, and I've heard a lot of em, not all but a lot"
But then researching about it last week a lot of people write that they are not as flat response as someone would hope?

Do I need an AMP for the MDR-7506 (V6 is not available in my country)?
The sources of sound are a MacBook Pro 2016 and an iPad Pro 2017.
 
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Dogen

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The two headphones are virtually identical. They work well straight out of a MacBook, in my experience. Though you may get somewhat better results with an amp. They are easy to drIve.

Flatness is a complicated issue with headphones. Look at the frequency response of many headphones and you’ll see very few are flat, and it’s debatable we really want flat. Others have more knowledge than I on this subject. But you’ll be using phones that have a long history in the recording studio.

Good luck with your Music! There are few things more rewarding than recording and mixing your own music.
 

Dogen

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By the way, my comments are about the MDR-7506 or V6. I’ve no experience with the 7510.
 

Blumlein 88

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I use some MDR 7510's and like them. I do some recording, and have used them for monitoring while recording. I find them comfortable and good sounding. They'll take plenty of power if you need to push them. I wish they were more isolating vs outside noise. I dislike the coiled cord.

I've only briefly used 7506's, but find them slightly bright sounding vs the 7510. The 7510's have the drivers away from your ear and angle from the front which seems better to me.

Rather than buy a DAC/Amp, I would save that money toward your recording interface which will have ADC/DAC and phone amp. The MDR's aren't terribly hard to drive anyway.

I also have some Beyer DT880's and prefer the 7510's.

If you wanted to spend the extra, I'd suggest considering these:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FA4XS8...colid=YZ61BTNRR8RL&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it
NAD Viso HP50 for $229. Paul Barton of PSB designed them.
 

JohnYang1997

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er4sr/er4s is the only earphone/headphones that's capable of doing that. Forget all other options. Actually still some options. Etymotic hf5 + resistor adapter of 70-100ohm. PtoS from etymotic should do the job. It also works for er3se. But basically same option but cheaper.
 
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JohnYang1997

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Some headphones / earphones that's somewhat close but not exactly are dt880pro(has to be pro), hd600(not good enough in the bass and less capable than dt880pro)
er2se, er3se, mk5 from etymotic.
 

JohnYang1997

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Sony 7506 is never used for mixing. It's only used for recording monitoring. It's very far from accurate reproduction. If you learn the headphones then yes you can do that. But it's no difference from mixing on multimedia speakers and learn how to use them.You can't trust 7506 for equalization or dynamic management at all.
 

gvl

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Dogen

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Obviously, opinions differ... the important thing in my mind is to do your main mixing on the flattest loudspeakers you can find, and whatever headphones you get, learn how they sound relative to your speakers. That way you’re more confident about how a change made with headphones will sound on the speakers, and vice versa.

The search for the perfectly accurate headphone continues! It seems a lot harder to get consensus than with speakers.
 

TungstenC

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They are not very flat sounding, I imagine this makes them not a very good choice for music production.
The 650 is a bit lean in the low to sub-bass region, but it's treble linearity and distortion makes up for it IMO.
(linearity issues can be fixed with EQ but non-linear distortions can't?) *I could be wrong here

...still you just wont get that physical punch you would normally get on speakers unless you have a sub strapped to your body...
 

JohnYang1997

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Obviously, opinions differ... the important thing in my mind is to do your main mixing on the flattest loudspeakers you can find, and whatever headphones you get, learn how they sound relative to your speakers. That way you’re more confident about how a change made with headphones will sound on the speakers, and vice versa.

The search for the perfectly accurate headphone continues! It seems a lot harder to get consensus than with speakers.
Er4s/er4sr is much flatter than most speakers in a room. Unless you have more than a grand to burn for acoustic treatment (diy does this as well but not very easy, cheap foam bass trap doesn't do anything). Also for a few hundred dollars, you are not getting anything good for mixing. Yamaha hs7 is the minimum I would trust (still not thoroughly).
You can just try to eq a few tracks, you will feel 10 times more confident and faster with er4. You move a few inch in a room will change the response you are hearing, so much more guess work and inconsistency. Surely when done properly and trained in that way, it's fine. But for a few hundred dollar set up and for non-professional studio. I don't see it very valid.
 

JohnYang1997

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The 650 is a bit lean in the low to sub-bass region, but it's treble linearity and distortion makes up for it IMO.
(linearity issues can be fixed with EQ but non-linear distortions can't?) *I could be wrong here

...still you just wont get that physical punch you would normally get on speakers unless you have a sub strapped to your body...
Hd650 has the sennheiser veil which is both frequency response and the foam in front of the driver. The mid to high frequency performance is good( from 1k to 6k). Distortion doesn't really matter, studio monitors often have much higher distortion. Modification is doable with hd650 but only does so much and bass is not good at all. Only relying on hd650 is near impossible.
Hd600 is better in the treble region but still has little bit of the foam sound. However hd600 has excessive 3khz response, which can be troublesome in mixing. Bass is even worse than hd650. Not exceptionally bad but I prefer er4 anyday.
 

JohnYang1997

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Funnily I don't think hp50 is flat either. Even though the designer specifically said the hrtf response is considered, I saw minimal outcome from frequency response measurements. Oppo pm3 is a much better option if closed back is necessity. Aeon closed is good option but requires good amplification and is very expensive.
 

solderdude

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Hd650 has the sennheiser veil which is both frequency response and the foam in front of the driver. The mid to high frequency performance is good( from 1k to 6k). Distortion doesn't really matter, studio monitors often have much higher distortion. Modification is doable with hd650 but only does so much and bass is not good at all. Only relying on hd650 is near impossible.
Hd600 is better in the treble region but still has little bit of the foam sound. However hd600 has excessive 3khz response, which can be troublesome in mixing. Bass is even worse than hd650. Not exceptionally bad but I prefer er4 anyday.

hd600-vs-hd650-new-pads1.png


Where is the excessive 3kHz response of the HD600 compared to the HD650 ? They only slightly differ in midbass boost. The lack thereoff in the HD600 may give the impression it sounds brighter.

I never heard the 'veil' by the way ... perhaps the 'veil' is perceived as such because it lacks the typical treble peaks in the 7 to 11kHz range most other headphones show ?
Removing the front foam doesn't do much for the FR. The foam is acoustically transparant and protects the driver from dust particles getting on the driver.
 
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