Electronic Music 411 - Headphones reviews from mixer’s perspective

*Updated on 1/19/11*

I get the impression that a lot of people on this site do a big chunk of their work on headphones. I certainly do. Some people think it’s impossible to do stereo placement or EQ with them. Unless you can’t stand having stuff on or in your ears or you literally get nauseated from their use, like one EMer I know, I disagree. But my main purpose for writing this is to share what I’ve learned over the years as I’ve been obsessively seeking out headphone equipment. Here are mini reviews of most of the headphones I’ve owned or listened to, listed in order of increasing quality.

Sennheiser HD600. These were the first real headphones I ever had. By that, I mean they were nicer than what one could get at Best Buy. And I did mix on them for several years. But doing so was ultimately frustrating. My mixes tracked better than they did using crappy headphones, but there were always little surprises when I’d play them on nice speakers. The last straw was when I tried using them to mix the first track, “Cooksonia”, on my album “Lycopods”. I was determined to get each little note in its own spot in the stereo field. But the HD600s couldn’t articulate placement with the precision required. Trying to EQ with them was even worse. Small tweaks just got absorbed, making them impossible to hear. To top that off, they’re too slow and sloppy sounding to resolve texture with sufficient detail. I get why some audiophiles love them, but mixing with them is like painting in dim light.

Sony SA5000. These are a huge step up from the HD600. They’re detailed, and have great stereo field imaging. With these I was finally able to get the bell sounds in “Cooksonia” sensibly EQed. They also make for a nice lesson in burn in. During the first 200 to 300 hours of use, these things are piercingly sibilant. After that, they smooth out into something very nice. You’ll never have to worry about making an overly bright mix with these though, as they are on the bright side of neutral. The biggest problem I had with these was the bass. Like the rest of the spectrum, it’s tight and accurate, but there’s not enough of it. Just listening to music with them, it sounds fine. But my mixes started to get WAY too bass heavy. At about 35 Hz, they really start to roll off. So it’s hard to do much of anything in the super sub bass region with these. Also, they come with a crappy stock cable. But if you like their sound, you can get them recabled with two XLR ends instead of the standard quarter inch male end. Supposedly, that improves their performance dramatically. For the money these are terrific headphones. And as an extra bonus, they’re probably the most comfortable I’ve ever worn.

Modded Denon D5000. The stock version of these headphones sounds bad to me. They’re as veiled as the HD600s. Their bass goes deeper than I can hear, but it’s completely out of control. I suppose people who want lots of bass at any cost to the rest of the spectrum would enjoy them. But there’s a guy on Head-Fi.org who figured out a way to mod them into something very nice. One can do the modifications in a single night. Now he has his own little business (Lawtin Audio) where he sells Denons with all sorts of modifications. In any case, after the mods, they become at least as detailed as the SA5000. They’re bass is neutrally balanced, but still goes all the way down. You can feel a 15 Hz test tone rattle your head. They do have a little bump around 7 Khz, which can get old after a while. But it keeps you aware of any sibilance. The only drawback these have is an ever present coloration they impose. I think it’s brought on by the wood resonance chambers behind the drivers. It’s a very pleasant coloration, but hardly helpful during long mixing or listening sessions. But these are great headphones that I can definitely recommend for mixing use.

AKG K1000. These have been discontinued for several years now. But they’re still relatively easy to find used. They’re arguably not even headphones, but more like two little single driver speakers that sit outside of your head, held in place by pads that rest on your temple. The detail, precision, and sense of depth these things convey take them into a league beyond any of the previously mentioned headphones. A nice effect of their design is that the perceived sound surrounds your head rather than sits inside of it. They have one serious flaw though. Bass rolls off hard below 50 Hz. So sub bass is invisible with them. It simply isn’t possible to mix bass on these. But the rest of the spectrum is clear enough to compensate. They do also run a bright, making mixes a bit dark, but not problematically so. You really need a speaker amp to power these, which can get expensive, especially considering they’ll already set you back a grand.

Sennheiser HD800. For 1400 bucks, this 2009 model from Sennheiser better be great. And they are. I found them every bit as resolving as the K1000s, but more neutral, and without the bass roll off. They give outstanding performance across the entire audible spectrum. In the two hours I spent with them, I could find no flaw. I’ve seen some people claim they have a treble spike. But I didn’t hear it. Until I got the JH-13s, these were the best headphones I’d ever heard.

Jerry Harvey Audio JH-13 Pro. These 2009 inner ear monitors might be the holy grail of headphones. Before them, even the best earbuds were limited by a nasty high frequency roll off. None of them could get much over 16 Khz, which really bugged me. They weren’t able to perform at the level of great full sized headphones. But Jerry Harvey got around this by engineering the 13s with six drivers in each ear piece, making them surprisingly flat from 10Hz to 20 Khz. To order them, you go to an audiologist and get molds made of your ears. You send the molds to JH Audio. You wait two to four weeks. They bill you $1100. And then you get them in the mail. It’s worth the trouble, as these things outperform the HD800s and K1000s in almost every meaningful way. They’re super efficient, so big and expensive amps aren’t necessary. Their small size makes them extremely portable. I take them with me to the studio, to work, and even to bed for a pre sleep listen. It seems kind of crazy to be mixing on earbuds, but their performance justifies it. I suppose the in-head soundstage can get old after a while, but that’s an issue of presentation, not performance.

Audeze LCD-2. I first listened to these new planar magnetic headphones expecting them to, at best, perform at a JH-13 level. Surprisingly, they’re a clear step up in every way but portability. I can peer deeper into a mix than with any other headphone I’ve heard. The clarity with which they separate complex passages is remarkable. And this is true across the frequency spectrum. I expect that one would have to fork out serious cash on a top end Stax system to do better than these. They’re efficient for full sized headphones too. At $950, they’re a full $450 cheaper than the less good HD800s. So they represent a new bar for value as well.

What are your thoughts on headphones people? Is there a model you love working with?