Budget Headphones at $150?

T

thegabeooi

New member
Hi guys, I'm now three months old in a SAE Institute (I won't mention where), but I've been looking for a flat response headphones at a budget price of around $150. Does anyone know of such beloved treasure existing out there?
 
No such thing as a perfectly flat response in any listening conditions. Transducers of any kind always introduce humps in the curve somehwere. In your price range however Audio Technica have the ATHM40 "flat curve" headphones, but in my opinion they suffer from having closed backs. Makes the stage a bit small. But they still sound good. A slightly pricier pair of Sennheiser 518 or 558 cans are also an option. They are definitely a tiny bit bass heavy and the 518s tend to muddy up if you push too much low end through them, but the open back design makes them sound really big.
 
For $150 I always herd the audio technica atmh50 where the best flat response headphones, in fact I WOULD have got those but instead I got the 280 pros ONLY because I needed ISOlaTiON for my vocals.
 
ICEN said:
For $150 I always herd the audio technica atmh50 where the best flat response headphones, in fact I WOULD have got those but instead I got the 280 pros ONLY because I needed ISOlaTiON for my vocals.
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My brother has some of those M50s as a second pair of headphones for his studio.
The $100 Sony MDR-7506 is flatter.
In fact, the MDR-7506 is the second flattest headphone pair out there, beat only by the AKG K702 open-back headphones.

Don't take my word for it though, check out a frequency response chart comparing the M50 to the 7506:
http://graphs.headphone.com/graphCompare.php?graphType=0&graphID[]=2361&graphID[]=2941&scale=30

If you look at the red line, you notice how exaggerated the bass is in the M50. Both (and most) headphones lose major accuracy in the 10k+ "air" band and shouldn't be used to judge the amount of "air" in a mix.

Now a chart throwing in the K702s -- the flattest headphone out there:
http://graphs.headphone.com/graphCo...]=2361&graphID[]=2941&graphID[]=2621&scale=30

-Ki
Salem Beats
 
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Pretty much anything as long as you use a reference source. If it's for mastering/mixing, just import a song you like and try to match the frequencies. Expensive gear helps, but it's not better than actually KNOWING what you have.
 
audio technica ATH-M50 I was in the same spot you where in about 6 months ago got a pair of these and honestly fell in love with them they are really well made and the sound is pretty flat
 
ATH M-50's. (priced at 150 ish on amazon and you can find a local guitar center to see if they have it cause they're price matching.)
 
I'm shocked no on has mentioned the Senheiser HD 280 Pro. Best bang for your buck. Most people I suggest these cans to are impressed and they have a surprising bass response.
 
Ya, but compared to others in the price range, like the ATH-M50, which i think is a bit boxier bass above 100hz.

graphCompare.png
 
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You'll see that's why I generally recommend the Sony MDR-7506:

mdr7506.png

You'll see that on its chart, the bass response is extremely close to 100% flat from 50Hz on up.

The roll-off from 40Hz down isn't quite as important, as I generally start to shelf things off around that range, and steep-slope highpass around 20-25Hz.

;)

-Ki
Salem Beats
 
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