…you live in the KRK world.
I know mixing with headphones is a plan c thing, but anyone with experience with true, natural and flat headphones that will do an “ok” job!?
I have the common golden AKGs and what not but I feel I need something more monitor:ish.
Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance!
Found an article too
Audeze LCD-X or MM-500 are pretty much the gold standard when it comes to this sort of thing. IDK if you’re prepared to spend $1000 and up on headphones, but the way I figured in my case was I would spend that much on monitoring if I had the space and I wasn’t moving every few years.
Nice! But hey I could get a Syntakt for that amount. The Swedish price was even more nuts.
No behringer clones? 
On a serious note, yeah I guess you have to look for the high end stuff. One issue I find with the AKGs is that it get so hot around the ears too, very isolated and becomes wet. I have the k240s.
Yeah, wasn’t sure what your budget might be…
The Audeze get hot by default too. When my original pads wore out (after like 7 years) I replaced them with suede pads, that helps. Here’s a set from the same company that would fit K240s
My go-to recommendation for cheaper studio-quality headphones is Beyerdynamic. I can’t speak to their quality myself, but I’ve worked with multiple people who deliver great music and they swear by those headphones. And I think most of their headphones even come with suede pads by default.
Cheapest of all is learning how your headphones translate and just using what you have (unless there’s a serious comfort/sound issue). Believe it or not I did some of my early mastering work on a pair of Sennheiser HD 280 pros, which are far from something like an Audeze or a Beyerdynamic.
Andrew Scheps use Sony mdr-7506. Haven’t tried them myself but I’m sure they are ok and nothing special. He makes some interesting points about mixing on headphones. Basically listen to music on the same headphones you mix on. And you probably need to check the mix on speakers afterwards because it does sound different in an acoustic space. But according to him the adjustments you have to make (like too much or too little reverb) can be heard on pretty much any speakers.
Thanks, very informative and great product, link. 
related to the models you shared i have naive headphone question: Frequency response: 10Hz - 50kHz
how does a headphone driver shift air to the realm of sub 40Hz, or is it more a pseudo thing?
Don’t rely on technical information from headphones. The frequency responses given by the manufacturers are pretty much useless because headphones don’t work like loudspeakers in this area. They actually won’t sound good if they have a flat frequency response.
It’s most important to know how the sound of your headphones will translate to a speaker. Then it really doesn’t matter which one you take. But in my opinion, it’s best to take a (more or less) neutral headphone like the Sennheiser HD600 or 650. They will lack a bit of deep bass (below 60 Hz which is already subwoofer region) but that’s about it. It’s more than good enough for kicks and snares for example. If you can’t hear the bass on the HD600 properly, you won’t hear it on 95% of the gear your audience uses.
This site has measurements of many headphones which actually are very helpful: Sennheiser HD650 Review (Headphone) | Audio Science Review (ASR) Forum
SonarWorks SoundID will also really help. You can “flatten” the response of your headphone and boost the bass a bit by adding a manual curve. Really helps a lot.
So maybe in stead of forking out a lot of cash for new headphones, use the trial of SoundID and see if it helps 
Holy crap, are you guys mixing tracks for dogs?
Even in my youth my hearing topped out sub-20kHz. As an old git it’s now well below 12kHz.
…actually, how do others deal with this loss of top end. I’ve no idea how my mixes sound to younger folk (notwithstanding they would probably hate my music anyway!). Is the only option to have my music mastered by someone else?
I’d say compared to speakers, it’s definitely different. There’s no way you’re getting the full size waves hitting your body, but you can still hear what’s going on down there. One of the things I noticed when I got my LCDs was that different genres have different attack/release times on their subs, because I could hear not just that there was something down there, but I could hear that the sub actually had a rhythm to it in stuff like house, that it wasn’t necessarily just a sustained not ducking the kick. As for the highs over 20k, I think that’s more just showing off because you’re going to run into a band limited signal somewhere that will cut off way before 50k. I think that’s more a number to impress the audiophiles (which are probably most of Audeze’s customer base) than anything.
Absolutely not. I’ve protected my hearing and I’m only 30 so I can still hear up to around 19k, but I know for a fact there are top end pro mix and mastering engineers out there who can barely hear anything over 10k and they do great work. I think the reality is that from 10 to 20k is only one of 10 audible octaves, which means only about 10% of musical information lives up there.
Since not mentioned. I switched from Beyers and found Audeze a tiny bit out of my budget. Got myself a Ollo headphone a year ago and i am quite happy with them. Take this in the equation too:
Yes, I got it last year and it definitely helps. I think the headphone version is pretty cheap although I got the full version in the black Friday sale for half price or something. I’m using it with Sennheiser HD650’s which I would also recommend
I’ve got a pair en route now after my DT1990’s developed a bad driver after 6 months.
High hopes for Ollo!
my setup is in my bedroom now and i usually only get time to work on stuff at night while my partner is asleep so i ended up getting a few pairs to a/b with, my main ones are sennheiser hd650 but i also have a pair of aiaiai tma-2’s that ive had forever from when i was actively djing and i know really well, recently got a pair of galaxy buds and apple earpods since thats what a lot of ppl use, i think its good to have as many references as possible. still cant wait until i can have studio space again to get some proper monitors tho.
I went from those same AKG’s to the Hifiman HE400SE’s and haven’t looked back once.
they aren’t perfect but they’re the flattest and most neutral pair of cans i’ve ever witnessed under $200 (~$150 new, $80 B stock)
plus they have really solid lowend extension without much rolloff, and there are grill replacement mods that completely eliminate the rolloff altogether (doesn’t start stock until around ~35hz anyways so it’s much better than the AKG’s which roll-off sharply after 100hz)
I’m surprised these haven’t been mentioned yet. I ended up ordering a pair and am waiting for them to arrive.
https://www.neumann.com/en-en/products/headphones/ndh-30-black-edition/
I’ve spent quite a bit of time researching headphones as I travel a fair bit. HD-650 are my personal fav without additional correction software. Sonarworks have reviews of headphones on their site btw, they which are quite good.
I use these two setups for mixing:
HD650+ Sonarworks +Canopener vst appox cost £450
Or
Slate VSX + add on studios appox cost £350
Pros to HD650 setup + vsts: The HD650 are an high quality pair of headphones with or without correction and will last years. Sound ID can be used with other headphones (for example a closed back reference pair like the M50x).
Pros to Slate VSX: There is some weird magic going on with these headphones/software. They emulations are really good. The quality of the actual headphones themself don’t match the price point, but I guess you are paying for the software as well but they aren’t worth it if you use the headphones without a computer.
I was wondering why VSX wasn’t mentioned, but glad you did and couldn’t agree more.
VSX headphone alone actually hurt my ears, so there’s some strange frequency boosts that are resolved with the software. I’ve had two pairs, with the same weird boosts (the 2nd pair/new and improved ones issued free after the dreaded first run of non-reinforced bands broke).
I love the the new system wide option.