High End Headphones With Accurate Bass Response

[brandondrury]

Alright I hate headphones. I probably where headphones about 3 minutes per year and that's just to check level and stuff when getting a headphone mix for a singer.

With that said, I'm thinking that the best solution for me in terms of getting the low end right in my room is to everything I can without investing the time, effort, and money into construction in a room that I hope to be out of within the next 12 months.

So, I'm thinking that maybe I could find some headphones with VERY accurate low end. If I can get the low end right on these, I should be good. As the low end is really my main problem area.

Any thoughts?

Brandon

[Andrew07]

What frequency range are you having problems with?

[brandondrury]

Well, I'm looking for headphones with flat response from 200Hz or so down but I'm not worried about anything under 40 or so. I'm mostly concerned with the 80-120Hz region give or take.

Brandon

[richiebee]

Unless they have accurate response throughout, you're wasting your time and I'm not sure headphones that have an accurate response throughout exist.

You might find Sennheiser HD280's work. They're closed design which usually means bass heavy, but these sound well balanced to my ears. I prefer open design and use Sennheiser HD580's most of the time, but I don't mind using 280's if I have to. The 580's would probably be a little high end heavy for you. I love them though and they have a pretty good bottom end.

If you can audition Sennheisers, I'd recommend listening to the HD280, HD580 and HD600.

Rich

[brandondrury]

Unless they have accurate response throughout, you're wasting your time and I'm not sure headphones that have an accurate response throughout exist.

I did some research on this, and no headphone has a frequency response that is flat as a high end studio monitor in an anechoic room. However, the frequency responses of of the low end of headphones seam to be much smoother than that of very high end studios.

I've got several recommendations thus far. (Some were VERY expensive) but I've got some $200 recommendations from some high end guys.

I'll keep you posted.

Brandon

[richiebee]

My point about being accurate throughout the range was because if they're not, you'll have nothing accurate to gauge the low end against.

What other recommendations did you get? I'm interested. I've heard some good things from Sony and Audio Technica... do other good "high end budget" brands exist?

[brandondrury]

My point about being accurate throughout the range was because if they're not, you'll have nothing accurate to gauge the low end against.

Sure. Right now I don't have any accurate to guage the low end anyway. I had a 20dB dip centered at about 90Hz. All the headphones I've looked at are much better than this in the low end.

What other recommendations did you get? I'm interested. I've heard some good things from Sony and Audio Technica... do other good "high end budget" brands exist?

Here are the recommendations I've gotten thus far.
Grados RS-1
Grados RS-2
Sennheisers 650
Ultrasone Proline 550
AKG K501s
Beyerdynamic DT250

I never really thought that $800 headphones existed, but it turns out that there are people who do pay that for headphones.

Brandon

[AfaraWayland]

I use the RS-1s for exactly this reason.

My room is not accurate enough for me to rely solely upon it.

I use my monitors to check balances and panning, but rely on the Grado's for critical EQing and overall mix perspective/evaluation.

The RS-1's are the cream of Grado's crop.

My father has the Senn 650's, having heard them, they sound nice too.

I guess the only way to tell accurracy is to be really familiar with the material you are referencing. ; )

[brandondrury]

You actually own the RS-1s? Wow!

I guess the fact that I consider headphones to be vomit bag 2000, the notion of paying $700 or whatever for them sounds insane.

That's like paying $50 to get pissed on...sort of.

Of course, now that I think about it, if I actually liked using headphones, I would have probably bought $3,000 models.

Maybe you are not so crazy.

Brandon

[AfaraWayland]

I got a special deal through a class I took in college. I cant remember what price they were exactly, but less than normal dealer retail.