naomi_beats
New member
Why not get the Marshall "Monitor" headphones - because they look and act like headphones...but they're called Monitor's
Salem I could not see the article you mentioned about 7506's.
Do you really recommend those for mixing?
I have had my pair for a good 8 years and they are terribly bright to use for mixing.
Well, under ideal circumstances with a good budget and a spacious room,
I wouldn't recommend mixing on headphones at all.
For more money, I recommend the AKG K702,
especially since the price dropped so drastically when they moved manufacturing from Austria to China.
For around $100 or so, though, the Sony MDR 7506 (LINK) and the Sennheiser HD-280 Pro (LINK) are definitely my top 2 picks.
I lean towards the Sonys because the build quality is just so good, they're on par with Shure microphones for durability.
The Senn 280s aren't nearly as bright as the 7506 (which is fairly characteristic of the entire brand in general),
so you might want to check them out if you're in the market for inexpensive headphones.
As usual, I like backing up what I say with measurable data when possible.
Here's a graph comparing the tonality of these 2 sets of headphones:
Each non-numbered vertical line on the chart represents 1/10th of the distance between numbered lines.
Hence, the first 10 lines represent 10Hz each, the next 10 lines represent 100Hz each, and the next 10 lines after that represent 1KHz each.
You see with the Sonys that they're light on bass at under 50Hz, but the bass that they reproduce at 50-150Hz is flat-line accurate.
As you and others have said, they're "brighter" than other headphones at the often-painful area of 3KHz-5KHz, but this is a good thing - they're keeping true to what they're fed!
Also:
On my headphone bus in my mixes, I also have a "neutralizing" EQ that I use, which is a carefully constructed inverse of the above chart.
Looks like this (it might not look accurate at first glance because the decibel scale is different):
-Ki
Salem Beats (+Reviews)
But what else was lost when shipping went to china? They were literally cut right in half for price. Its scary.
Also that neutralizing EQ idea is really interesting, in theory. But I don't think it would actually be an accurate way of getting your headphones to flat line. There are too many other variables affecting dB spikes in frequency. Especially in 'cheaper' closed cans like the Sonys. Any EQ neutralizing you do is just gonna be ruined by resonance inside the cans won't it. Might as well just get used to how your cans sound naturally. Unless there is never a time you DONT use the neutralizing EQ, but that would just seem like useless extra work using it every time.
Salem do you mind me asking where you got that graph? I'm going to be doing stuff in my dorm and it would probably be good to know what I'm working with.