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  3. OT: Headphones

  • OT: Headphones

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    I find it bloody impossible to use the search facility on this forum so forgive me raising a much asked question.

    What would people reccomend for the best all purpose headphones - primarily listening to classical music - they mustn't leak any sound as my Hi-Fi is unfortunately in the same room as the rest of my family.

    DTK
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    @"PaulR said:

    Re: Good headphones for Mixing? Look in the search facility under this heading.


    No not mixing - listening.

    I've tried the search facility and failed miserably.

    Anyone else any recommendations?

    DTK
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    Hello DaveTubaKing,

    I prefer the AKG K270 Studio 75 ohms ( made in Austria).
    They are transparent to my ears .

    Also the AKG K240 600 ohms are not bad either.
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    Hi Dave, I can recommend Beyerdynamic DT250's. They have excellent sound quality and comfort.....great for classical music. I also have the DT770 pro's which are bigger, possibly more closed, and seem to me to have a wider sound. I personally prefer the 250's out of the two, but of course it's subjective. I don't think you can go wrong with Beyerdynamic.

    Regards, Andy
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    I just got a pair of the Etymotic in-ear phones for Christmas. Wow! They sound great with my iPod, in my receiver, at the studio...anything I plug them into basically. In-ears take a little getting used to. But once you do, they're so comfortable and inconspicuous it's worth the effort.

    They aren't cheap (it was WAY too generous a gift)...but I love them.

    Another advantage...if the family is in the same room, push these babies into your ears and you get over 30db of of external noise reduction. My wife speaks to me sometimes when I'm listening to them, and unless I see her lips moving I don't even know she's talking. (I always take them out then, of course. I'm no dummy.)

    I'm flying to Australia on a project in a few weeks, and I'm looking forward to drowning out the drone of 20 hours on an airplane!

    Fred Story
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    The best headphones considered by mastering Engineers to be the best are the SONY-MDR-V6. You can still find them in some places, and can order them directly from Sony as well. There has never been anythign actually even close. They are the De Facto standard.

    Evan Evans
  • DietzD
    VSL Team
    DietzD
    I know about quite different "standards" - Staxx, for example, or AKG with their K1000.

    These are _not_ what Dave is looking for, BTW, as they are no closed designs.

    /Dietz
    /Dietz - Vienna Symphonic Library
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    @evanevans said:

    The best headphones considered by mastering Engineers to be the best are the SONY-MDR-V6. You can still find them in some places, and can order them directly from Sony as well. There has never been anythign actually even close. They are the De Facto standard.

    Evan Evans


    Thanks for such an emphatc recommendation Evan

    The guys at this site aren't so keen on you choice though http://www.headphone.com/layout.php?topicID=2&subTopicID=19

    This site seems to be darn good for headphone advice.

    The Beyerdynamic DT250s are looking like agood bet!

    DTK
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    That's a great website! I was glad to see that my Ety's fared well, too.

    Fred Story
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    @DaveTubaKing said:

    The guys at this site aren't so keen on you choice though http://www.headphone.com/layout.php?topicID=2&subTopicID=19DTK
    Anyway, you can take my word for what it's worth. They are the best. Give me a couple other websites and reviews by some others on the MDR-V6, and then I'll cry uncle.

    I was an LA based mastering engineer for 6 years, offered top mastering position at Motown Records. I know what I'm hearing. My review favors the V6. I'd like to hear about the others some more though.

    [;)]

    Evan Evans
  • JBacalJ
    JBacalJ
    Does anyone have any first-hand experience with the Sennheiser HD650's? The site mentioned above calls them "the world's best headphone." Can anyone confirm this?

    --Jay
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    JBcal, I have Sennheiser 570HD and I'd say they are the worlds best headphones unchallanged [;)] They do leak sound though at the sides, but considering the unrivaled comfort (I can wear them for hours and hours and forget they're up there on my head hehe) So I guess any model higher than 570 is even better
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    I have the 580's, heard the 600's and looked at the 650's... the 650 is their recent top product, actually I heard the difference between the 3 is rather... minor. All 3 are not in a closed design. I experienced that with the comparison to the 600's, too. Be aware, Sennheiser headphones are only as good as the amp is. And they need their own headphone amp for proper handling. However not all of those are a good choice for it again.

    Have a look at a really good headphone site here: http://www.head-fi.org

    I'm talking about Senn's only. However others like Stax need amps too and if you look around every better headphone settings uses a special amp. However I can understand not all people like the tone of the Sennheiser's, if you are used to Beyerdynamic, AKG, Sony or else go look for a similar model from them - to each their own.

    PolarBear

    PS: Evan - I wonder why they discontinued it when it was the top notch product standard... it must have sold a million times.
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    Sounds like the Sennheiser's are getting a good track record. Have to check them out sometime.

    PolarBear,

    They didn't discontinue them. You can still buy them from places including Sony themselves. They've just upgraded them (which was a downgrade actually). Who wants to buy the old product? Every year its a new model number. It's good for business.

    ALSO:

    Found this quote somewhere:

    @Another User said:

    On or around January 19, 2005 04:11 PM Jim Brinton wrote this: #

    I own both the Sony MDR-V6s and Sennheiser 580s.
    I use them both almost interchangably with the only differences being that the Sony offers better isolation and the Sennheiser slightly more transparent highs. And, since the Sony folds, it's more convenient when travelling. But I wouldn't throw either one out of bed. Both are great 'phones.


    Evan Evans
  • JBacalJ
    JBacalJ
    Separate headphone amp?? Why? What happens if I don't use a a special amp? Will the headphones not work at all?


    --Jay
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    Got to add my vote for the Senn 650's. Listened to a couple of my own tracks on a friend's pair and they just blew me away. Ordered my own pair within 5 minutes.
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    I'm very, very happy with a pair of the new Sennheiser 650's with a custom cable from Zu. The cable swap gives you a very noticable improvement in transient response and resolution but it's a bit pricey.

    The only drawback is that the headphones are very sensitive to hum. Which is of course not a drawback if you are able to remove it from your audio stream. But some preamplifiers will display some hum.

    Oh yes, they are partially open. So sorry, they might not meet your needs.
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    I've worked with an AKG 240 during 10 years : very good headphone

    I'm working today with

    Beyer dynamic DT 770 (closed)
    Beyer dynamic DT 770 (semi open)

    Fantastic [[;)]]

    aristote the frenchie
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    I'm sorry Evan, I didn't know about the Sony's, I assumed that from your post, not knowing they have an "upgraded" version as you say. About the high's - the Senn's are already considered to be a bit muffled (which is my experience, too, well, perhaps it's more the MDR-7506 I didn't like so much back then), so, well... Actually this shows once more to me it's down to personal favorites more than anything.

    Jay, the headphones will work (right now here with no amp), however the Sennheiser's are a bit difficult to drive, and they will respond a lot better especially in the low frequency area if a headphone amp is used to drive them because of the high impedance (300 ohms, compare e.g.: Koss Porta Pro 65 ohms, Sony MDR-7506 24 ohms). Headphone amps that are considered to work good with the Senn's top models are the X-Can series from Musical Fidelity and the Rega Ear headphone amp, the Creeks are not the first choice with Senn's. I heard neither yet. Please have a look at head-fi.org for further information. However, I strongly suggest to compare various settings of the headphones yourself and to evaluate which could be your favorite and which design is suiting you better. There are not only minor differences in comfort (for long sessions), weight and other things like seperate replacement parts service.

    Hope this helps,
    PolarBear

    Edit: PS: A word about cabling and Sennheiser's: I'm not the only one that experienced problems with the cables Sennheiser's uses, some tend to get loose sooner or later, resulting in odd crackling because the connectors (in the phones) move around a bit if your moving. However I couldn't justify the need of a $300 cable, because there is no sonical difference. Others may widely disagee, but to me an investment of $300 in a good headphone amp is the far better solution than throwing it outta the window for a little wire IMHO. Besides, I had no trouble with the standard replacement cable I'm using now for years.