Accurate Monitoring Headphone Recommendations?

[Etienne Rambert]

Hi. You've been helpful recommending stuff.

 

Phil mentioned Cubase 5.0. I bought it & install it today. I just ordered the RNLA from Mercenary.

Now I need an accurate set of monitoring headphones to bring back with me to Asia.

 

Decent gear is too expensive over there and I don't have good monitors.

I thought the best thing to do would be buy an accurate set of headphone

monitors.

 

Here is my little bedroom studio in old Sigh...gone., Vietnam.

 

 

It ain't pro-audio. But I hope I can get some decent sounds out of it.

[Phil O'Keefe]

Are you looking for headphones to track with, or primarily for critical listening?

 

If you want to track with them, then ideally, you'd want a closed back design. The Sennheiser 280's are pretty good for that. I also like Sonys and Fostex cans. The Fostex T-20's I use are semi-open, but don't bleed too badly, so I can track with them too if I have to. But those are primarily my "listening" cans. For cases where you need great isolation and click bleed is an issue, nothing tops the Extreme Isolation headphones IMO.

 

For critical listening, nothing I've heard tops Grados. They're not super comfortable to wear for long periods of time, but they sound great. They're open backed though, so their isolation is non-existant, and they're therefore unsuitable for tracking with open microphones in close proximity.

[Etienne Rambert]

Only for tracking. I'll look around for some Sennheisers.

I'd prefer closed.

 

Thanks.

[VSpaceBoy]

I use the 280's for all my tracking and they work great. Sound good too.

 

Just don't get caught trying to mix with them. You'll mess up your mixes if you do.

[Etienne Rambert]

I could not find Sennheiser 2200's. I did buy a set of SONY MDR-900HD's.

Kind of expensive. I bought them in Fry's San Jose for $250.

 

Has anyone ever monitored with these? Do you know how they treat bass?

I've read user reviews, but not from studio engineers. The tricky thing is

making sure I don't overstate the bass or understate it.

 

By-the-way, I'm assuming they are pretty accurate because they are uncomfortable

and music doesn't sound very good when I listen through them.

 

Those are probably good signs.