Two years ago I went to a store with many headphones and did a shootout between several. I ended up with Denon AHD2000s, which I’m VERY happy with and find to translate well to my monitors and provide a good check for low end.
Anyway, here’s what I wrote after trying very many headphones in a controlled environment.
I’ve had my Senn HD280 pros for like 5 years and I like them, but they are falling apart a bit, and I never loved how the low end sounded on them, so I started considering a headphones upgrade. I use my studio headphones mostly for sound design and compositionand as a check when mixing/mastering (my room is untreated) and for practicing my live sets (can’t get loud enough on the monitors to get “in the zone”).
I did some research last night on headphone.com and soundonsound and made a little list. Then, after work today, I went to B&H to try out some cans (that’s what they call headphones in the “industry”). I loaded some .wavs of songs I know well onto my phone, and I was able to plug that into the headphone amps they have set up and just compare compare compare. Here’s some notes.
General: More expensive headphones are A LOT better sounding than less expensive ones. Not just more pleasing (although that’s part of it) but switching from a $1k pair to a $100 pair you notice all the artifacts in the cheaper pair. I can’t think of much else I’ve experienced with such a linear price:performance ratio. Also, modern closed-back headphones are no shittier sounding in the aggregate than open-back ones. Someone figured out how to engineer good sounding closed back headphones, and I thank them.
Senn HD800: These sound fucking amazing and are super comfortable. They better for $1500. Tons of detail, everything flat, a terrific headphones experience. I can’t think of any reason anyone should ever buy headphones for $1500, though.
Beyer DT770: Sound great, plenty of low end, slight fizz on the top, clear, no perceptible distortion. No isolation and lots of bleed, so not really for me, but a decent pair of headphones.
Audio Technica ATH M50: Good presence in whole frequency spectrum, some weirdness in the low mids (boxines? I’m not sure what that means) that makes bassy instruments sound slightly less bassy, also less than comfortable.
Sony MDR-7509HD: Mostly ok, but something is weird in the bass area. It’s like sounds <150Hz (dub bass, 808 kicks etc.) somehow seem to have a shorter decay? Maybe it’s a “lack of detail” in the low end that makes tails disappear? Weird. DNW.
AKG K240: Pretty flat, but fizzy on top. Not much isolation. Pass.
Senn HD25: Least comfortable headphones ever, and they don’t sound very good either. Somehow less detailed than the HD280Pro.
Denon AH D7000: Whoa fuck. As pleasing and detailed as the Senn HD800, but with slightly less “hype” in the low end. Perfect headphones atmo, but $1k.
Senn HD280 Pro: My old friend. You are out-classed in this field. Where is your low end? I always knew that wasn’t your strong suit, but you’re just embarrassing yourself next to some of these guys. Best in your price range, though.
Some super fancy Grados with wood on them for $1k that I didn’t note the model number of because I never actually considered them:Everything sounds so good and pleasing (not flat, but nice in all the right ways), except some fizz at the very high end. Completely ridiculous looking, though with the wood on them.
Ok, I’m not going to by headphones for $1k, so the Denons and Senns I loved are out. I could be happy with the AKG or Audio-Technica ones, BUT one pair I wasn’t able to try was the Denon AH D2000. Looking at info on headphone.com these should be almost as good as the more expensive Denon models, but they are only $225. Even though I didn’t try them, I think these are the right ones. I’m going to sleep on it, and then prob order them in the morning.