Hello, good people of Zynthian-Land!
I’m looking for a decent set of headphones under 100 USD. I’m planning to use it with my laptop and my Zynthian. Any recommendations?
Thanks!
Why don’t you chose the right AND the left headphones at the same time ? I guess it’s important that they should be from the same model, your mix would benefit from that…
Ok I should stop kidding… (but kidding is life, you know ?)
If you intend to wear them for long periods of time, it seems really important that your headphones should be as light and as comfortable as possible.
Also, there are headphones that I would call “open” and these let you ear the surrounding world noises… and those that I would call “closed” and using them, you don’t hear anything else than the music… The préférence will vary with people…
Also, some of them will be so silent externally that your husband or wife or grandmother won’t hear anything… some are more noisy externally, and your surrounding can be disturbed by the music you are listening to…
I’m not sure it’s important, when making music, that your headphones should be bluetooth… this adds a short delay, or call it latency, so that you would not be able to play in real time… any change you make, any note you play, would be delayed… and that’s not compatible with a good performance…
But when you’re simply listening to the tracks, then why not ?
And last thing, last but sure not least… Some have a removable jack cord (usually these are the bluetooth models, but maybe also some non- bluetooth ones) and I think it’s a great improvement because then you can still buy a new cord when the jack is dead… also because you can have 2 cords, a long and a short, and anytime you can chose the one you need at that specific moment…
And of course, sound profile will be important… for enjoying music, you might prefer a good bass booster, but for your mix, it’s better to have a flat response : this way you can judge more accurately if the balance is correct or even excellent…
I’m truly satisfied with my “listen wireless” by Focal… My son chosed them and offered them to me 2 years ago, so I didn’t go compare them and I can’t really tell… he did, and selected this model… but I think he chosed well…
And he offered both ears at the same time !!! Eh eh…
Have a nice day…
Thierry
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@opus.quatre has listed many of the features you should consider. If you respond with your answers to those then someone here may be able to offer some advise. Comfort is really important. My AKG K81DJ clamp my head like a vice and I can’t wear them longer than a few minutes. My Sennheiser HMD 410 are light and comfortable which I used to wear all day. They have a natural sound and are open which allows the mix to sit within the acoustic space. I have some Taotronics TT-BH060 Bluetooth cans with optional wired connection. These are comfortable for a couple of hours but have poor equalisation unless noise cancelling is enabled which isn’t good for mixing (either mode). My son has their next model up (…80 I think) which are much improved. As for the Panasonics - I think the speakers in my 1940’s HMV valve radio sound better!!!
Watch out for cheap cans from reputable manufacturers. I highly rate Sennheiser but they make some that break within weeks (3 replacements before giving up) and as mentioned, the AKG should reside in @wyleu’s torture chamber.
Try to avoid too much colouration of the sound. You don’t want the monitoring boosting or cutting the signal as you will end up with productions that sound very different than intended.
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I am a big fan of Beyerdynamic. I am using the DT770PRO which is a little bit more than $100.
The DT770 comes in different versions: my 250 Ohm version has more bass, sounds fantastic but is not ideal for mixing. For mixing I would prefer the 32 Ohms version.
Regards, Holger
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@opus.quatre When the English-speaking musician says “pair” of headphones, he doesn’t really mean “pair”… 
Unless, of course, he’s trying to build a head-mounted surround-sound system. 
English is weird.
But back to headphone specs…
Here’s what I’m looking for:
- Wired, not wireless.
- Decent noise cancellation. It doesn’t need to be perfect.
- Comfy, obviously.
@riban Thanks for the tip on Sennheiser. I’ll be careful. I want these headphones to last a while.
@C0d3man Beyerdynamic? Hmm. I’ll look them up.
Well… People from Venus use sets which have 3 headphones… We rarely import them on Earth as they would be useless…
But factly I was kidding on your “right” headphones, as opposite to “left”…
Yes, English is weird, because people can say they have left the right thing…
And even when thie thing has no laterality…
But sure French is not wiser or smarter…
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Yeah, I knew you were kidding, but no! Please don’t stop!
I totally recommend these:
AKG K 240 MKII https://www.musicstore.de/de_DE/EUR/AKG-K-240-MKII-Studio-Kopfhoerer-halboffen/art-REC0005852-000
They cost about 60-70€ are comfortable to wear and give you a very well balanced sound. They do not sweeten any frequency too much which can be annoying if you use them for monitoring only, but help you if you consider the mastering process.
They are half-open which is not everyones cup of tea (as described above), but the better you make your mix sound through these beforehand the less mastering you will have to do. Since i have them they really taught me to equalize everything “right” from the start.
The inly thing bugging me is that my ears start to sweat a lot after 1.5 hours… but i guess earsweat is something manageable.
Cheers
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Sennheiser HD-25.
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Audibly perfect, closed monitor headphones for $99: Audio-Technica ATH-M40x.
Don’t trust me (or anyone else), judge for yourself. Let me know if you can close your eyes and detect when they come in: I can’t.
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