Complementary headphones

[adam125]

Hi,

I'm mixing indie rock music with the two guitars, vocal drums and bass sound.

I've had the Sennheisers hd560:s for about 1 year and I like them, just bought the Neumann NDH 20 as a complementary headphone and I feel they are not the right fit. Don't have an amp to them so might that be a reason?

Been thinking about going more simple with the Sony mdr 7506 and returning my Neumanns.

Would anyone here have a solid tip on a headphone that would complement the flaws in my the sennheisers I have at the moment. I want to be able to reach the most neutral sound as possible and I don't have a specific budget. I want my other pair of headphones to give me perspective...

Thanks,

Adam

 

[rob aylestone]

The snag with headphones is that they all have a character - even those that pretend to be truthful.

What are the flaws in your 560s? I'm not sure that many people who mix on two pairs of speakers ever have two good sets - they have a main pair that they use normally and then a 'check' pair - but few would ever listen to the check speakers though choice? Could it be that you have just got two nice pairs of headphones and neither is bad - but you then don't have any standard to mix to? I've listened to both the Sennheisers and the Sony - and tonally they're just different, but both making (I think) music sound different - perhaps too different. If I had to mix on headphones, I'd want something physically comfortable enough to wear for a long time that I could get to know really well, and another pair to check things with. You seem to want something different?

 

[spantini]

No suggestions, just comments. The 560S are open back and the NDH 20's are closed, so there's a sonic difference there - the 560S might seem weaker in comparison. The impedance ratings are similar 120 Ohms / 150 Ohms respectively. I would expect to get a lot more bass response from the NDH 20's closed back design. That could definitely mess with what you're hearing in the mids and highs. The Sony MDR 7506 phones are much lower impedance @ 63 Ohms and are also closed back, which should combine to produce louder audio with increased bass response - no amp required.

 

[Pinky]

... I'm not sure that many people who mix on two pairs of speakers ever have two good sets - they have a main pair that they use normally and then a 'check' pair - but few would ever listen to the check speakers though choice? ... If I had to mix on headphones, I'd want something physically comfortable enough to wear for a long time that I could get to know really well, and another pair to check things with. You seem to want something different?

This is exactly what I do, I have the ATH-M50 for recording and basic mixing, then switch to Sennheiser HD600 for more fine tuned headphone mixing, and finally my studio monitors just to confirm and make small adjustments as necessary. In all honesty, I'm so used to these headphones now after years of use as you indicated I can get about 99% of the way on a mix without needing the studio monitors.

Note that my closed back ATH-M50 are for most things, and the open back HD600 are for the flat response I want for more intricate adjustments. I believe that's the strategy most mixing engineers take with using headphones in the process. It's the same reason to use studio monitors versus a home theater amp/speaker setup, flat and consistent/transparent representation of the audio.