Is there a consensus headphone choice?

[Greg Ferguson]

Would anyone be able to help me analyze this? Im recently becoming more and more sensitive to the eq differences between my listening devices. Im attaching links so y'all can see the frequency responses. Out of all 3, I like the iLoud Micro Monitors the best. They have the smoothest tone; with these I dont notice any highlighted frequencies when Im playing my guitar in isolation. My Shure SE535's sound great when I use them live with my band. I guess theyre able to carry a full mix well and still let my guitar come through for me. When I use them for practicing in isolation or with tracks, I hear something that dulls my tone or my attack. It's like I have to pick harder to work for notes. With my Beyerdynamic DT770's, it's even worse. Idk what it is, but they dull my tone alot and make it very flat to my ears. Can anyone explain why? Im not sure what im looking at with these frequency responses and what they ultimately mean.

iLoud micro monitors:
https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/iloudmm/index.php?p=specs

Shure se535
https://reference-audio-analyzer.pro/en/report/hp/shure-se-535.php#gsc.tab=0

Beyerdynamic DT770
https://reference-audio-analyzer.pro/en/report/hp/beyerdynamic-dt-770-pro-80.php

Remember that it doesn’t matter what you listen through, that when you are auditioning presets and setting your EQ, your volume needs to be 90-100 dB to defeat the Fletcher-Munson effect. In addition, unless you are confident that the speakers or headphones are flat you still need to compensate for their own particular EQ curve. Also, unless you’re wearing headphones your room needs to be treated and the speakers positioned properly.

I have two pair of the SE535 Red, and they are awesome earphones, but I don’t often use them for EQing. They sound amazing when watching movies, as if I’m in a THX auditorium, but I am not quite happy with the compensation curves or IRs when working with the modelers.

My DT770 get a lot more use, either with the compensation curve or IR, depending on which unit I’m working with.

I just got the OLLO S5X, and really like how the presets sound through them without any compensation.

 

[laxu]

DT 990: On the brighter side, not a bad choice if you can power them appropriately.

Sennheiser 650: Very balanced and full, slightly on the darker side.

So far I have decided to use the DT 990 250 ohm for practice and Sennheiser HD 650 for reference. But I will likely be trying other recommended models in the future.

DT 990s being "on the brighter side" is an understatement. They tend to make guitars sound harsh without a good bit of correction. 650 work far better out of the box for guitar playing.

I use the Sennheiser HD 6XX (variant of 650) with my Axe-Fx 3 and for general listening use DT 990s with correction because they are more comfortable to wear all day long. Not that the Sennheisers aren't comfortable, but the DTs are just even nicer.

It's also worth mentioning that worn earpads can have an effect on how headphones sound so if yours are already flat and grimy, get some new earpads.

 

[Jipps0525]

Remember that it doesn’t matter what you listen through, that when you are auditioning presets and setting your EQ, your volume needs to be 90-100 dB to defeat the Fletcher-Munson effect. In addition, unless you are confident that the speakers or headphones are flat you still need to compensate for their own particular EQ curve. Also, unless you’re wearing headphones your room needs to be treated and the speakers positioned properly.

I have two pair of the SE535 Red, and they are awesome earphones, but I don’t often use them for EQing. They sound amazing when watching movies, as if I’m in a THX auditorium, but I am not quite happy with the compensation curves or IRs when working with the modelers.

My DT770 get a lot more use, either with the compensation curve or IR, depending on which unit I’m working with.

I just got the OLLO S5X, and really like how the presets sound through them without any compensation.

That’s my point though. With the iLoud micro monitors, at the volume I play at, I don’t need any compensation. They sound very smooth to me. I want to sell my DT770s and get a new pair of headphones, but I want to understand what I like vs dislike about my current products so I can make a more educated purchase since I’m not able to do any room treatment anytime soon lol. Also, how do you know what dB you’re listening at with headphones?

 

[Steven Persson]

DT 1990 Pro's are nice if you like open-back headphones. It's hard for me to imagine headphones sounding better than these.

Especially when you flatten them out with some EQ. Sounds amazing.

 

[Jipps0525]

Especially when you flatten them out with some EQ. Sounds amazing.

This is where my knowledge runs short and I want to learn a bit more. If you use EQ to flatten a product out, what is allowing it to still sound different from other products? Is there still some sort of native EQ you cant touch?

 

[Steven Persson]

This is where my knowledge runs short and I want to learn a bit more. If you use EQ to flatten a product out, what is allowing it to still sound different from other products? Is there still some sort of native EQ you cant touch?

You can use Sonarworks Sound ID for your computer and load a preset from a drop-down menu tailored to various headphone, among them the Pro 1990. You can also load it in your DAW. It costs 99 dollars or euro. Worth e v e r y penny. I also have the Pro 1990 and once you flatten you'll hear that low sub bass that goes missing without it and also taming the harsh high end these headphones have. Was seriously a "Wow!" for me once I got the Sound ID.

For Axe, there’s a thing called Auto EQ that you either load as an IR in your preset or setup a graphic EQ and manually typing in the values (both alternatives preferably last in the chain). Loading an IR into the IR Block is much more convenient in my opinion. Load both files into the two slots and pan them left and right if you want stereo effects to be in stereo. Preferably you put the IR files last in the User 2 bank so you'll never risk of deleting them if you tinker a lot with 3rd Party IR:s for your tones.

I use this in every preset and the precision in guitar and bass tone sculpting is massively improved.



Read more:
https://github.com/jaakkopasanen/AutoEq

Download headphone IR:s:
https://github.com/jaakkopasanen/AutoEq/blob/master/results/INDEX.md

 

[Greg Ferguson]

how do you know what dB you’re listening at with headphones?

Use a comparison chart to get in the general range. It doesn’t have to be the exact value but try to match the volume because it makes a difference.

 

[toneseeker911]

You can use Sonarworks Sound ID for your computer and load a preset from a drop-down menu tailored to various headphone, among them the Pro 1990. You can also load it in your DAW. It costs 99 dollars or euro. Worth e v e r y penny. I also have the Pro 1990 and once you flatten you'll hear that low sub bass that goes missing without it and also taming the harsh high end these headphones have. Was seriously a "Wow!" for me once I got the Sound ID.

For Axe, there’s a thing called Auto EQ that you either load as an IR in your preset or setup a graphic EQ and manually typing in the values (both alternatives preferably last in the chain). Loading an IR into the IR Block is much more convenient in my opinion. Load both files into the two slots and pan them left and right if you want stereo effects to be in stereo. Preferably you put the IR files last in the User 2 bank so you'll never risk of deleting them if you tinker a lot with 3rd Party IR:s for your tones.

I use this in every preset and the precision in guitar and bass tone sculpting is massively improved.

View attachment 118286

Read more:
https://github.com/jaakkopasanen/AutoEq

Download headphone IR:s:
https://github.com/jaakkopasanen/AutoEq/blob/master/results/INDEX.md

AutoEq default IRs match to the Harmon eq curve, which is not flat. It’s a curve that sounds pleasant with headphones, with boosted bass and high end. It will not translate particularly well to a PA when playing live.

Even after these eq corrections, it does take some trial and error to understand how it translates and what volume you should listen at.

There are two goals for me - accurate reproduction that translates well live and having headphones that sound great for silent playing. For the accurate part, I use a HD650 with sonar works ID correction (which I’ve made into an IR). For the fun playing experience, I use a Hifiman with a Harmon curve IR.

 

[TheTrueZoltan!]

+1 for Sonarworks SoundID Headphone Edition

I bought a Shure SRH840, which already is one of flattest mid-priced headphones one can get, and let SoundID take care of the rest. Works like a charm.

One thing I don‘t understand: Lots of people use and recommend Beyerdynamics headphones like the DT 770 Pro. These are not flat at all! When I look at their profile in SoundID their frequency curve is pretty much the opposite of a guitar speaker IR, which means it makes your guitar sound as if you forgot to load an IR. I had these headphones before I bought the Shure and they sounded absolutely horrible for guitar.

 

[Steven Persson]

+1 for Sonarworks SoundID Headphone Edition

I bought a Shure SRH840, which already is one of flattest mid-priced headphones one can get, and let SoundID take care of the rest. Works like a charm.

One thing I don‘t understood: Lots of people use and recommend Beyerdynamics headphones like the DT 770 Pro. These are not flat at all! When I look at their profile in SoundID their frequency curve is pretty much the opposite of a guitar speaker IR, which means it makes your guitar sound as if you forgot to load an IR. I had these headphones before I bought the Shure and they sounded absolutely horrible for guitar.

Remember that Sound ID does not correct what you hear from the guitar if you have your headphones plugged directly into the Axe. Sound ID only handles what comes through your computer system.

AutoEQ IR:s in a IR Block will help balancing your guitar sound.

 

[macfly]

Based on comments from @Sashman and @strabes in this thread, I bought a used set of Ollo S4X and they are amazing! I think I'll probably check out Blue if those are Cliff's rec, too! Can someone point me to a page where I can read about them? Which model, etc.?

 

[macfly]

Are one of these the Blue

Think Cliff has recommended Blue headphones in the past, I have them and they are stellar. I know when I played through Metallica's rig they used them as well.

Are one of these the Blue headphones you are referring to?

 

[Andrew Male]

Are one of these the Blue headphones you are referring to?

Yup the Mix-Fi, they used to be known as the Mo-fi.

 

[Dirty145]

After reading through the thread, I pulled the trigger on the OLLO S5x headphones. Definitely an adjustment going from my QSC 10.2 at 95 db and then listening through headphones. My patches seem a lot “gainier” listening through the phones. Here is my frequency response measurements from OLLO. What do you think?

 

[∞Fractals]

After reading through the thread, I pulled the trigger on the OLLO S5x headphones. Definitely an adjustment going from my QSC 10.2 at 95 db and then listening through headphones. My patches seem a lot “gainier” listening through the phones. Here is my frequency response measurements from OLLO. What do you think?

I noticed something similar… Although I guess I would just call it definition of the various gain structure/distortion/clipping details.

What I notice with the Ollo audio S5x on gain structure re: guitar, is that you’re hearing it correctly/accurately … If I go to the Daw, it’s the same and I found myself lately dialing back a little bit to get a more pleasing tone … depending of course … but I think the cans are showing me detail I need and want.



(FWIW- you might want to obscure/blur the order number in the lower left of your photo in red)

 

[Greg Ferguson]

FWIW- you might want to obscure/blur the order number in the lower left of your photo in red

Or crop the photo to display only the chart.

 

[Dirty145]

Or crop the photo to display only the chart.

Done. Thanks

 

[jamesmarshall]

Are one of these the Blue

Are one of these the Blue headphones you are referring to?

Either one are great, the difference is the Mix-FI has an amp built in and the Ella do not. They sound very similar to each other but if don't need a separate amp I would go for the Ella if you can.

I have the Mo-Fi which are the older Mix-fi headphones and they are very good headphones. They are a little boosted in the lows, but nowhere near other headphones in the same class.

 

[Greg Ferguson]

Either one are great, the difference is the Mix-FI has an amp built in and the Ella do not. They sound very similar to each other but if don't need a separate amp I would go for the Ella if you can.

I have the Mo-Fi which are the older Mix-fi headphones and they are very good headphones. They are a little boosted in the lows, but nowhere near other headphones in the same class.

I got tired of the weight and switched to the OLLO S5X.

 

[∞Fractals]

I got tired of the weight and switched to the OLLO S5X.

For me right now is that between those S5x headphones and a pair of Yamaha HS8s … things are very crisp.

I really like crisp.

But I’m not sure fully what that’s doing as it translates yet.

And I lose detail the whole way down the chain to something like SoundCloud (Logic> Apple Music MP4≈MP3 > SoundCloud)

I’m working on it