Choosing mixing headphones

As a new Audio Engineering student I wanted to have a set of headphones that would be suitable for music production whilst on campus. On campus there are times, especially in computer labs, where speakers are not appropriate and headphones are required.

The majority of headphones currently available on the market have various frequencies boosted or emphasised to make the sound appealing to what the general public desire. In a studio environment you are looking for a flat or basically neutral sound in which no frequencies are boosted. The concept is commonly called a reference headphone whereas, the Hi-Fi headphone are not designed to be precise and accurate so much as they are designed to make music sound really pleasant to the ears.

http://www.head-fi.org/t/503481/what-are-reference-grade-headphones

I started looking for headphones online, choosing well known brands and searching for keywords such as ‘headphones for mixing’. The usual mainstream brands such as Beyerdynamic, Shure, AKG and Sennheiser all had several models matching the criteria.

Next I selected some of the mainstream studio headphones and searched for reviews. For the record, reviews are incredibly subjective to each individual reviewer. You have to remember to use them only as a guide and to create a shortlist for your own audition and review.

Price plays a major part of selection as over the last few years the range of headphones has had an incredible surge in products that are, in some case astronomically priced. For example you can purchase entry level headphones for $55 or the Focal Utopia headphones for $5500. I decided to set myself a price range of $200-$1000.

The range of 15 was quickly narrowed down to:

AKG K712 $719

Beyerdynamic DT770 $349

Beyerdynamic DT880 $379

Beyerdynamic DT990 $399

Beyerdynamic DT1770 $899

Focal Listen $399

Shure SRH1540 $699

Sennheiser HD600 $399

Sennheiser HD650 $430

I found that most of the headphones, whilst intended for studio use emphasised the bass or treble or both. The AKGs were great but I found the treble too bright and forward to be useful to me. Additionally, these headphones are physically huge. The Shure were a disappointment after the reviews I had read. I didn’t get a chance to try the SRH1840 which had rave reviews as nobody had any in stock.

The Beyerdynamic DT770/DT880 both were reasonable with a little boosted bass but as with most of the headphones, lacked the transparency and detail I was seeking. The Sennheisers both emphasised bass but the HD600 were the better of the two and would rate third place overall. The Beyerdynamic DT 1770 were great but weren’t any better than the DT990 and double the price albeit a 'closed design'.

I was looking for the Focal Spirit Professional which is intended for studio use. Once again no stock available in the state. I came across the Focal Listen which is a mobile headphone but a newly released model. I was amazed at the sound of these headphones on first listen. I was hearing detail I hadn’t heard with any of the other headphones. I heard things such as the sound of the bow being dragged across the strings in one song and the saliva in the mouth of a vocalist. I hadn’t heard that kind of detail in even the $1000 headphones I had tried...stunning! Additionally, the frequency response was surprisingly neutral. I wasn’t expecting that for mobile headphones, these typically have boosted low and high frequencies.

Lastly I tried the Beyerdynamic DT990 after a recommendation from a friend. I was very impressed with the sound of these headphones. Whilst the bass was still slightly emphasised it was easy to forgive because of the detail and transparency.

So I came down to the final two which were the Focal Listen and Beyerdynamic DT990. In my opinion they were both extremely close in transparency and detail but the DT990 had slightly boosted bass and open back design. I found listening to open back designs in all but a silent environment extremely distracting as you could hear everyone and everything around you amongst the music you were trying to listen to.

The Focal Listen, where the bass was fairly flat but still had depth are a closed design and offer quite good isolation from surroundings. These headphones with their closed design, neutral sound and excellent transparency were my final choice. Short of spending well over $1000, these in my opinion; offer resolution, detail and neutral sound which could be useful for mixing and mastering.