Equation Audio RP-21 opinions?

[John N]

How do these sound? I just picked up a pair of the cheaper RP15 for tracking and was impressed by the big warm sound. Granted there's a little high end detail missing, but overall a rich engaging sound for $50 cans.
I have a pair of ATH-M50 which seem to get great reviews but are almost deceivingly bright, particularly thin in the vocal range - so I'm wondering about EA's RP-21 now as another alternative...
JN

[kodomo]

I have the RP-21. I tried both the 15 and the rp22 too. Well the 21 is better than the 15 both in the low end and the higher end, it sounds more open. The 22 altough is I guess targeted at some other people rather than recording guys, its maybe for dj s or something, the ones I tested were far from sounding natural. The best of the bunch is the rp-21, it sounds like an AKG K240 with an -1 on every aspect of it including the price though.

[jaz49]

The RP-21's seem like a pretty neutral/accurate headphone to me....good bang for the buck. I prefer them to the Sony mdr-v6 and overall to the k240. The K240 has a big broad bump around 180 hz which makes them overly warm. The RP21's are more forward in the mids but a bit lacking in treble however compared to the higher priced akg's I've heard....good bass and midrange though.

[John N]

Anyone have experience in direct comparison between the RP-21's and Beyer DT770 or ATH-M50's?

thanks
john

[jaz49]

Would you be using the RP21's for tracking only? I was mixing some drum tracks and then I listened to the finished mix with the RP21's and the cymbals were pretty recessed...so you are definitely getting less treble than you get with higher end equipment...or iPod type ear buds. I'm a bit of a fanatic about cymbals, though, being a former drummer.

[Bassmankr]

Ended up getting them for my musician tracking phones as they sound like my big moniters (JBL LSR32's) neutral with detailed mids. At tracking musicians want to hear what they actually sound like and make playing adjustments accordingly. If you get headphones that hype/cut anything or even have a greater depth of field than what you will be mixing their stuff on you are doing the musicians a dis-service. Good musicians know how they want to sound. Mixing with headphones (other than a mix check) is another can of worms. Using the RP-21's for tracking phones is a no brainer, they do what they should and can be bought for under a $100 a set (they went up in price a bit at the beginning of this year as I got mine for $80 each last year, so shop around). You can buy neutral tracking phones for more money but I have yet to hear of any phone for less money that does what the RP-21 does.

[jaz49]

Originally Posted by Bassmankr

Ended up getting them for my musician tracking phones as they sound like my big moniters (JBL LSR32's) neutral with detailed mids. At tracking musicians want to hear what they actually sound like and make playing adjustments accordingly. If you get headphones that hype/cut anything or even have a greater depth of field than what you will be mixing their stuff on you are doing the musicians a dis-service. Good musicians know how they want to sound. Mixing with headphones (other than a mix check) is another can of worms. Using the RP-21's for tracking phones is a no brainer, they do what they should and can be bought for under a $100 a set (they went up in price a bit at the beginning of this year as I got mine for $80 each last year, so shop around). You can buy neutral tracking phones for more money but I have yet to hear of any phone for less money that does what the RP-21 does.

Do they really compare that favorably to your monitors...even the treble? That's the only problem I have with the RP-21's...and that's comparing them to higher priced AKG's...but otherwise they seem like very balanced headphones.

[Bassmankr]

Plenty of headphones hype the treble and bass to get that "smiley curve EQ" sound we like, the RP-21's don't. They also don't have that super extended depth of field sound that you hear with some headphones that you don't get with speakers (even very good moniters in a room with good acoustics) which comes from hyping some high frequencies. Maybe you are calling this "treble" in your description. If the musicians are hearing in their headphones what you are hearing in the moniter speakers in the control room then that is the best for tracking. If you have ever used Sony 7506's for tracking you can tell that compared to your control room moniters they hype the high end. So if you compare that Sony to the RP-21 someone could say the the RP-21 has no treble and they would be right, it's just semantics LOL. If you are checking out various phones for tracking, check them against your control room moniters, the closer they sound the better. Thats why I've never understood why you would want to EQ or have EQ adjustments on the headphone amps to the musicians. A volume control I understand because a musician needs to hear themselves to make adjustments, but what goes in sonically has to come back to the musician for the musician's feedback loop to work.

[jaz49]

Bassmankr:

The AKG k240DF headphones I'm referring to were specifically engineered to be as flat/neutral as possible. They are not consumer headphones, but were designed for studio use. They are out of production now, but at the time they were made they cost quite a bit more than the regular K240's, which were also designed for studio use. I've heard both and the DF's are far superior IMO. I know a guy who has his own mastering studio and he claims the k240DF's are close to ruler flat...and he's heard a whole lot of different high end headphones and speakers. The rp-21's definitely have a rolled off treble compared to the DF's. My speakers lie somewhere in between...probably closer to the k240DF's. I just recently got them, so I haven't done a whole lot of comparing yet.

[John N]

Originally Posted by Bassmankr

Plenty of headphones hype the treble and bass to get that "smiley curve EQ" sound we like, the RP-21's don't. They also don't have that super extended depth of field sound that you hear with some headphones that you don't get with speakers (even very good moniters in a room with good acoustics) which comes from hyping some high frequencies. Maybe you are calling this "treble" in your description. If the musicians are hearing in their headphones what you are hearing in the moniter speakers in the control room then that is the best for tracking. If you have ever used Sony 7506's for tracking you can tell that compared to your control room moniters they hype the high end. So if you compare that Sony to the RP-21 someone could say the the RP-21 has no treble and they would be right, it's just semantics LOL. If you are checking out various phones for tracking, check them against your control room moniters, the closer they sound the better. Thats why I've never understood why you would want to EQ or have EQ adjustments on the headphone amps to the musicians. A volume control I understand because a musician needs to hear themselves to make adjustments, but what goes in sonically has to come back to the musician for the musician's feedback loop to work.

That's a good point and one of the reasons I'm not that happy with the ATH-M50's: they have a lot more upper mids and treble than my Event ASB8 monitors and the difference is jarring. A lot of us low enders probably use our headphones as another way of checking mixes. That kind of 'detail' is revealing but very unrealistic, especially on voices - they sound 'disembodied' like they're just floating in the upper registers of the mix.
They do not sound like that on the Events.

I've had a couple of pairs of AKG over the last few years and I've gotten rid of them because they were too hard to drive or too tame sounding.
Another thing about my pair of M50's is that they actually make little but sharp creaking sounds that get picked up when recording a singer!

[stevens119]

I would rather use RP-21's than any other headphones. I take them with me everywhere I go. I would prefer not to listen to anything else. I have had the beyer 770's. the Sony 7506's and the 7509's, the AKG 240's not to mention some senheisers and others in the past. I also own a pair of Equation RP-15's. They are not as good. The bass is a little too much for me...but it's tolerable for short listening periods, and they do sound great for how much they cost $50. Very good for a second set. As far as mixing goes, the RP-21's are pretty accurate, with the small exception of being a little hyped in the 200hz range. But you learn your headphones and compensate accordingly. You can hear bass in them...imagine that....you can actually get your bass correct in heaphones. Sounds crazy right? They also are pretty tight on your ears, you will get no heaphone bleed whatsoever, no matter how loud you have them. The drivers in the headphones are larger than in alot of heaphones, making them less tinny and bright than nearly all the headphones I mentioned. It's fun to do a headphone shootout with other headphones because the equations will blow them all away. They sound powerful, and they are just plain fun to listen to. You can listen to them longer because they are not boosted in frequencies that bug you. You will think you can just keep turning them up, even though you know you shouldn't and it's probably not good for your ears. I use them when I can't use my speakers, Mackie hr824's. Basically I couldn't live without them. Best $100 I've ever spent on anything. Ever.

[jaz49]

Originally Posted by stevens119

I would rather use RP-21's than any other headphones. I take them with me everywhere I go. I would prefer not to listen to anything else. I have had the beyer 770's. the Sony 7506's and the 7509's, the AKG 240's not to mention some senheisers and others in the past. I also own a pair of Equation RP-15's. They are not as good. The bass is a little too much for me...but it's tolerable for short listening periods, and they do sound great for how much they cost $50. Very good for a second set. As far as mixing goes, the RP-21's are pretty accurate, with the small exception of being a little hyped in the 200hz range. But you learn your headphones and compensate accordingly. You can hear bass in them...imagine that....you can actually get your bass correct in heaphones. Sounds crazy right? They also are pretty tight on your ears, you will get no heaphone bleed whatsoever, no matter how loud you have them. The drivers in the headphones are larger than in alot of heaphones, making them less tinny and bright than nearly all the headphones I mentioned. It's fun to do a headphone shootout with other headphones because the equations will blow them all away. They sound powerful, and they are just plain fun to listen to. You can listen to them longer because they are not boosted in frequencies that bug you. You will think you can just keep turning them up, even though you know you shouldn't and it's probably not good for your ears. Basically I couldn't live without them. Best $100 I've ever spent. Ever.

That's a hell of an endorsement! I felt pretty much the same until I tried the k240DF's. I now use both. The RP-21's have better bass. BTW, I also have Events...I just got the ALP 5's, and I love them so far. But true, for under $100, the RP21's are a great deal. I read a quote by Malcolm Toft, I think it was. He called the RP-21's the first headphones he could trust. Coming from a guy with his credentials, that's also a hell of an endorsement.

[stevens119]

I'm sure my post sounds quite biased. I have been using the headphones since July of last year. After I started using these headphones, I couldn't use anything else. I have had to, when I haven't had mine with me, and I wished the whole time I was using them. I am just like everybody else who has ordered all kinds of gear, and sometimes you like the stuff and sometimes you wasted your money on something that is not exactly as good as you hoped. These headphones are not disappointing. Like so much other crap I have bought in the past. My only gripe about them at all, is they are a little tight on your ears. That's all. They eventually loosen up a little after about a month. But as far as sound goes...if you don't have the money to buy some ridiculous Grado's....these things will get you by....smiling the whole time.

[bobsbarricades]

thanks for the info on here guys. THey're not too expensive so I'm gonna go ahead and pick em up. Tell you what they sound like to my sony MDR-CD900ST's.

[omtayslick]

I love the RP-21's, and agree with all of the raving positive comments posted above. Well worth the money. They sound so good that I feel I get a better performance tracking with these, because they sound that much better than my other phones.