Headphones for Mixing?

Love my AKG K1000. Warmly recommend!
/H

I've had the 600's for a few years now.  I think it's the open back that bothers me.  I hear that they are supposed to be better for bass response, but it feels like the room interferes for me for mixing purposes.  maybe it's just my ears tricking me.

Please explain.. You mean the room acoustics come in play? Excuse me for a very basic question, but you always turn down the speakers when listening in the cans, right?

Oh, of course, but with open back headphones, it feels like you're still in the room.  When I listen in cans, I want to get lost in the sound, and that doesn't happen for me with open backs.

I have 280's now.

I've got 5 pairs of the HD 280's for tracking. They are awesome for tracking and bleed. I don't like them for mixing.

I just got the AKG Q701 set in today. I'm not sure that I can put the 280's on ever again. The top on these phones is smooth, yet brilliant. The detail is immaculate and the 280's just sound harsh and cluttered now. Soundstage is wide and deep. Reverb tails sound great. You can really hear the room. Haven't mixed on these yet obviously, but man alive, instantly feels like a great buy.

The AKG's are open back, so not good for tracking and they don't have tons of juice, but man they sound good so far.

Hey jcoutou, for my listening pleasure I use the headphone out of my Peachtree Audio integrated amp. Peachtree is the best bang for the buck in all hi-Fi. The headphone out competes favorably with stand alone headphone amps that cost more than the entire amp, and you still get an incredible sounding integrated great amp that happens to reclock digital files too. I happen to prefer Cirrus Logic chips to Burr Brown every time, even when I'm unaware of what brand is being used.

I was never a big headphone fan, but use them when needed. Headphones are truly hit and miss. The middle of a company's line might sound really good, so you'd expect the top of the line to be great, and it sucks. I've tried many of the big names' high end, and was unfailingly disappointed.

When I needed cans for recording I went to the B&H superstore here in Manhattan. In some ways, they're unbeatable. The actually have a vocal mic room, with around 30-40 of the top brands, and three or four high end preamps, and you can audition them. They also happen to have a nice rack with around 50 different pairs of headphones, and they're actually working properly. Try that at Sam Ash or Guitar Center and see what happens, ugh..

I tried 10 different brands, some were being raved about at the site that won't name names, including the old standby industry standard AKG 140 and 240, then tried the not very expensive ( $110?) Sony Professional MDR 7506, and it just killed them, much more natural, not bloated at all, but not thin. I imagine you might want a bit more oomph in the low end, but I couldn't find anything better, including brands 3-4 X more expensive.

Let me know how it goes.

* funny, I'm not a big Sony fan at all, but I was given a set of their earbuds a few years back that sell for around $180. My friend had these $600 clear ultra high end earbuds custom made to fit his ear and was grinning when he spoke of it and asked me to try them. I listened for a couple of minutes, and felt bad for my friend, but I had to do it, so I handed him my Sony earbuds, he hit play, and his face dropped like a guy whose house just floated away in a storm.

jcoutou, at least you have a few good recommendations now, and know where to start looking. Let us know what you settle on.

As for track mixing, I sometimes try to get certain things in place with headphones, but they're fatiguing. Where I find headphones quite useful is when developing a comp for vocal or guitar. You can really hear the subtleties and get it right the first time. In fact, i prefer comping with cans on, unless I can put my monitors up really loud, which I can't always do in my apartment.

Also, this is pretty awesome. www.sonicsense.com/resourcecenter/app/audio?load=category&key=headphones.html

I played around with it for a few minutes and the HD280's have the signature sound that I'm used to hearing. I didn't check out everything, but checked out some Sennheisers, Beyers, AKG, Beats (haha), and Sony here. The Sennheiser HD650's seemed truest to the source material IMO. HD800's sounded nice. AKG K701 and K712 sounded good. Beyers sounded how I remember them. The Sony and Beats both sounded like trash to me along with the HD380's (which I originally bought and were back ordered). Anyway, cool stuff. Have a listen.

Well, if i had to choose from the models available today, i guess i would probably go for a HD600 or something very similar.