Best/Most Recommended headphones for monitoring?

[lblstudio]

ATH-M50s!

[Cantankerous]

Thanks for the recommendation. Anything else?

[Bob Vinsick]

ATH-M50's -They are really that good.

[Cantankerous]

So far that is 2 for the M50's. Since I really enjoyed my ATH-M40fs headphones for the past few years I am sure these will be just as good. I am going to call around tomorrow to get the best price locally. Looking into picking up an audiofire8 to go along with the new headphones.

[nativeaudio]

Best Headphones for Monitoring?
Best Monitoring Headphones
Monitoring through headphones?

[John Willett]

For monitoring while mixing - I have only ever heard of three headphones regularly recommended. The Sennheiser HD 650 and HD 600 and the AKG 701.

All these are open headphones.

[tsvisser]

I use Senn HD-650 with a Grace front end, but also have a set of Senn HMD25-XQ (HD25 + a boom mic set) for use when I need a little bit of isolation on location.

[AntillesSound]

Ultrasone Hifi-550's....talk about hearing incredible depth and accuracy.
I mixed a whole record on a pair late last year and it actually came out really well.

[Jake Gilla]

Beyer Dynamic DT770 PRO

Love them, been through so many headphones, I'm happy to finally a great sounding and comfortable pair.

I'll admit that the ATH-M50's may be a little more accurate, but we're talking about headphones here, and I'll take the comfort of the Beyers any day.

[vernier]

K240 ..industry standard since the 70's.
'

[the.blode]

I'd recommend a pair of Grado RS-1; they're what I'd buy if I had the money

[peeder]

I have most of the mentioned cans and I would humbly suggest

DO NOT RELY ON HEADPHONES

For the sake of your hearing...stop it! Get anything...Yamaha HS50s...whatever...just stop listening to everything through cans while you can still listen at all!

[Patrick Norton]

GRADO RS1

No contest. Not RS1i. RS1. I'm sure the RS1i's are good too, but I went for the older model. I believe it has a slightly wider frequency range and different impedance.

One note, they are open-backed headphones, so you cannot track with them. But if you are mixing, you probably do want to be using open-backed headphones.

I had this same question a couple years ago and did quite a bit of research, including comparing several different models/brands in person. The Grados by far reproduce the most detail, and are pretty flat in their frequency response. I actually mixed my own album almost entirely on these headphones in my apartment. Of course, I tested my mixes on a few different sets of studio monitors and cheaper headphones, but I really didn't have to change anything. Seems like if I get my mixes sounding great with these headphones, it almost always sounds perfect on the monitors. Bass is always one thing you'll have to watch out for, though, when mixing with headphones. And sure, it's not best to mix on headphones, but sometimes you have to, and you should definitely always check your mixes on headphones, earbuds, car stereos, ipod docks, laptop speakers, etc... BTW, I have a second pair of headphones that I use A LOT that I recently saw at Urban Outfitters for $30. No joke, they sound great. Whatever you do, just watch your volume level.

[O.F.F.]

Since these headphone threads come up quite regularly I looked into the principles of can design.
It seems the actual shape of ones outer ears has a large influence on the sound of the 'phones. As such there seems to be no way around comparing 'phones for yourself since what works for one may not work at all for somebody else.
I'd pick a few reliable brand names like AKG, Beyer, Sennheiser and A-T and find a friendly shop where you can try them for yourself with music you know well.