Bass-heavy headphones

[binarymilton]

come to think of it, if anyone can suggest any songs (preferably acoustic-guitar-based with male vocal) that are mixed over-brightly, but otherwise well-mixed, that'd be cool too...

[kevinkumetz]

Although I don't mix on headphones, I recently purchase EX-20 Extreme Isolation headphones for the drummer to mainly use. I wanted to listen to a mix late at night with these and notice their relatively dark and hold up a lot in the low end. I think they should fall into the $ range you mentioned.

[CJ Mastering]

I'm trying to train myself, but my ears just seem to love mud.

It might help you in the short, run using bass heavy non accurate headphones to mix, but it will hurt you in the long run.

Training your ears can take years. It something that isn't going to happen overnight or in a month.
I think what your doing will be counter productive and harmful for you and your ears in the long run.
Cj

[Llitsor]

Beyerdynamic DT150's. Much like the DT100's. But with added low end extension. Not expensive either thumbsup

[Phrygian]

The Sony MDRV700 DJ Headphones have a ton of bass. I actually wish I still had a pair for the odd listening.

[binarymilton]

Originally Posted by CJ Mastering

It might help you in the short, run using bass heavy non accurate headphones to mix, but it will hurt you in the long run.

Training your ears can take years. It something that isn't going to happen overnight or in a month.
I think what your doing will be counter productive and harmful for you and your ears in the long run.
Cj

yeah, I know this. but I'm talking about using about rough mixes, not final mixes: my A5s give me a pretty transparent (I think!) sound, and are set-up as best as I can given my apartment.

I'm not talking about jettisoning anything I already have - just having another tool that I know is biased in a certain direction.

[glenn Taylor]

I had this pair of sennheiser phones . Think the model was HD-25. About $100. They were a little bass heavy,but good. Would always give to the bass player.
GT.

[JSt0rm]

audio technica makes a bass tuned ath-???? I forget the exact model number. I liked them a lot.

[AfterViewer]

I had an inexpensive pair of Akai Megabass headphones a couple of years ago that cost less than $25. They were way too bass for anything I needed them for so I let them go. They would probably be great for the mixing you are doing to steer you towards a brighter high end.

[Mark D.]

Audio Technic ATH-M50. Less boominess than the Beyerdynamic closed models, not as much high-end hype as the Beats by Dr. Dre, but similar, if not as hyped bass. Comfortable, even on large heads and good isolation. Like all headphones, give it 2-3 days of continual pink or white noise or very busy full range mixes. Set the level for as loud as you'd comfortably listen to them so you don't damage them, put a rubber band around the earcups to hold them together to keep the volume down. This helps. The result is smooth and natural. I don't mix on headphones, but if I had to, I'd pick these over others in their price range.

[donsolo]

yeah, I'm in the camp that says get transparent ones and listen to 100 records, it's going to improve your sound overall. Time to retrain your ears to not like lo fi, grab those steely dan records.

[gt_jumper]

Im not too in touch with High end head phones but the bass is insane full and tight in the Shure SRH840 i just bought. Its not muddy but VERY fat bassy sounding.

[dhollmusik]

As back-up to whichever one you're gonna get, I can recommend the Philips SBC HP 250. It's very bass-heavy and quite muddy. Not so treble-friendly. I use it also for mixing and listening to heavy dance music.

They're so cheap...like €20 new. Surprisingly good tho', and with a huuuuuuuge long cord with its own volume control...ideal for grabbing a beer while still listening!

[sadix]

i really want to dissuade you from using wonky headphones - its more about learning the headphones - get a super accurate pair where you can actually hear everything - give it a yr, youll learn how to make a mix muddy or balanced

[theblue1]

Originally Posted by CJ Mastering

It might help you in the short, run using bass heavy non accurate headphones to mix, but it will hurt you in the long run.

Training your ears can take years. It something that isn't going to happen overnight or in a month.
I think what your doing will be counter productive and harmful for you and your ears in the long run.
Cj

This is my thinking, too.

I think learning to mix on as accurate a system/monitoring environment as possible will only help you in the long run. Why? Because otherwise you will be tied to mixing on bass-heavy monitoring systems -- and it's a lot easier to find a monitoring situation that is relatively accurate than it is to find one that will mimic the experience of mixing on your particular bassy phones.

There's also some thinking I've been exposed to that suggests that having a loud bass can actually distort pitch perception. (I haven't seen the actual science behind the thinking but I have to say that the notion does help to explain some experience I've had and backing off on that aspect appears to be somewhat helpful to me.)

[M.I.N.D Records]

Beat by Dre.

[binarymilton]

Hi

Thanks for all the responses.

I did a bit of homework and tested out various pairs of headphones the other day. Results of which can be found elsewhere on gearslutz.

In the end I concluded the headphones that would best answer my original post would be the ATM50s. Compared to my Beyerdynamics (DT770s) the AT50s seemed a bit boomy and muddy. I know there are a lot of ATM50 fans out there, so apologies if I'm dissing your buddy, but they just didn't have the clarity, tightness or spaciousness of my Beyers.

And so, therefore, they would be a good bass/low-mid comparison pair of headphones for my own particular set of ears. Though I think I'd only want to use them for short periods of time, just as an extra reference.

I'm also going to experiment, today, with adjusting my Adams A5 monitors too. It's often said they don't have much bottom end, which I certainly agree with. On the back, you can tweak the volume of the tweeter, and up the volume of frequencies below 250 Hz.

[therabbit]

Originally Posted by glenn Taylor

I had this pair of sennheiser phones . Think the model was HD-25. About $100. They were a little bass heavy,but good. Would always give to the bass player.
GT.

Definately +1 for the HD-25. A lot of Low-End, and it makes anything sound good. I own five of them and use them for my musicians (they love the sound of it).

[Bristol_Jonesey]

Originally Posted by glenn Taylor

I had this pair of sennheiser phones . Think the model was HD-25. About $100. They were a little bass heavy,but good. Would always give to the bass player.
GT.

You're joking!

I find the HD-25's to be really bright, almost shrill - and I've got 2 pairs!!

Much mellower are the HD-480's

[BurnStudios]

I have some Ultrasone HI-FI 550's and the bass on them is so intense its crazy.. When I crank up the volume they feel like they are jumping off my head.

[Mark D.]

I'm surprised you thought the Beyerdynamic 770s has less bass. I found
their bass unusable, and boomy. Maybe our ears are shaped differently?
There's no excess in the Audio Technicas in my opinion. If so, were you
testing out your mixes or 3rd party mixes, by well-known mix engineers?

[Bivouac]

Originally Posted by Mark D.

I'm surprised you thought the Beyerdynamic 770s has less bass. I found
their bass unusable, and boomy. Maybe our ears are shaped differently?
There's no excess in the Audio Technicas in my opinion. If so, were you
testing out your mixes or 3rd party mixes, by well-known mix engineers?

You're right, the DT-770's are pretty bass heavy, but it's not in an exaggerated way, like a pair of Best Buy consumer models. They just suffer from a closed-back design, just like other great but closed-back designs. The low end is really pleasing, and I imagine it would by easy to get carried away.

I still love mine for tracking, but I'd never attempt to do any mixing on them.

[Eric Pederson]

Originally Posted by donsolo

yeah, I'm in the camp that says get transparent ones and listen to 100 records, it's going to improve your sound overall. Time to retrain your ears to not like lo fi, grab those steely dan records.

I think this is perhaps the correct answer (if something so subjective can be correct)

I say first of, if you are just recording your own stuff and you want that lo-fi sound, embrace it! You cant fight your own sensabilities, and it almost seems wrong to tell you that "this is the correct sound to get from a mix"... The best sounding mix is the one that translates exactly what you have in your brain to your speakers..

However if you are open to listening to lots of records and re-training those sensabilities, go for it..

Such a hard question man, I feel bad for ya having to fight your own ears buddy.

Good luck and let us know what you do.

[binarymilton]

Well I feel kind of "happy", though that's not quite the right word, with the fact that the ATM50s are cited by many as pretty accurate, transparent cans, yet seemed to me to be boomier than my DT770s.

So, if I were to buy them and late-night mix on them, I wouldn't be doing anything different to plenty of other people on this forum, on a pair of cans that I consider coloured that other people don't. There are worse things - I mean, if all our ears were that suggestible to different cans/speaker systems, we'd all be totally screwed by all the noises we hear every day

I didn't buy them though. You'll all be pleased to hear I want to try out a pair of Sennheiser 600s first, just to see what all the fuss is about. (There's a scheme in the UK called 'Take It Away', which gives you 0% interest in certain music stores, making sinking £200 on a pair of cans less painful.)

Also, I had a bit of a mixing breakthrough yesterday, simply by compressing my vocals and acoustic guitar differently, and more aggressively, using much lower thresholds paired with lower ratios. I'd previously only ever used high thresholds and high ratios, essentially using compressors as not much more than limiters. Suddenly the tone of everything sounded a lot more even and controlled, a lot more "pro" and even when I cut or boosted at the extremes, they sounded like mix decisions rather than mistakes. The rough mixes I did yesterday still need a lot more work, but they were light years ahead of anything I've done before: they compare well with pro recordings on my Adam A5, my hi-fi and iPod.

[binarymilton]

Originally Posted by Mark D.

I'm surprised you thought the Beyerdynamic 770s has less bass. I found
their bass unusable, and boomy. Maybe our ears are shaped differently?
There's no excess in the Audio Technicas in my opinion. If so, were you
testing out your mixes or 3rd party mixes, by well-known mix engineers?

I compared DT770s, DT990s and ATM50s in a store. It was the store's CD - some nu-soul type music, male vocal. It sounded immaculately well-produced.

DT990s and DT770s both had a wider sound-stage, sounded generally airier, cleaner, crisper, and the bass sounded more defined and precise (the 990s clearly being, as you'd expect, the better of the two).

ATM50s, in comparison to both had a much narrower sound-stage, sounded muddier and slightly 'boxier'.

'Course, for all I know the ATM50s could have been the most accurate representation of the actual music I was listening to.... but all I can say is what I heard then and there...

[Mark D.]

Yeah, I guess it is different for different ears. The 990s are open, I
believe, hence part of their appeal. The Sennheiser 600s (I've tried
them) are nice. the 650s are even better and have better low end.
They don't cost that much than the 600s. Worth giving a try also.

[bloodyh]

The DT770 M's have a beautiful isolation and are very much boosting the lows/low mids!

[Funkalized]

Definately DT770 pro!

Despite the heavy bass response, i found them very pleasant to work with..